HOW TO SUCCEED IN NETWORK MARKETING WITHOUT PERSONAL SELLING

So you have started your career in network marketing or intend to but are not sure you have what it takes to succeed because of the prospect of personal selling involved? The good news is you can definitely succeed; however, the challenge is you need to look for the right business opportunity and to change your mindset. The way forward in network marketing is slowly evolving from the traditional MLM model. Here are a few ways of succeeding in your business without personal selling.

Find a company that does not preach the need for a warm market

Traditional MLM companies that ask you to write an exhaustive list of your friends, relatives and work colleagues and try to recruit them into your business should be avoided, especially if you are concerned this may lead to strained relationships and a great deal of embarrassment.

New network marketing companies are springing up which abhor this practice and instead teach you how to generate leads with little or no cost. Some of these systems do all the sales work for you. For example, for a small monthly fee, one company uses call centre operators who call applicants on your behalf to answer any questions they may have about the business. These companies base their unique selling point on the time freed up for members to focus on marketing their business rather than trying to sell the opportunity.

Find a system designed to make leads come to you

New network marketing companies moving away from traditional MLM design their entire system around reducing or eliminating the need to call leads. With effective auto-responder strategy, leads are prompted at pre-determined intervals about the opportunity using effectively designed email messages. In a nutshell, you will not fail in this type of opportunity solely by not calling your leads.

The only people this type of system requires you to call are those who have already joined your team to mentor and coach them. This is the key to their strategy, i.e. retaining existing team members is more profitable than recruiting new ones.

Learn the art of providing a service or opportunity instead of trying to close a sale

Ok, you are with a traditional MLM or ‘new Age’ network marketing company or are planning on joining one? In recruiting new team members you need to learn the art of providing a service or opportunity instead of trying to close a sale. This is very important because when you joined a network marketing company you did not do so to enrich your sponsor but to be successful yourself. You must develop the mindset that you are offering a service that would help your prospect achieve their goals, this will influence the level of confidence you have in communicating the opportunity. Bear in mind and convince yourself that if one prospect doesn’t join you another will. That is one of the secrets to recruiting success. For example, a plumber markets his business and if you call him to book an appointment he knows if you don’t want his services someone else does and this is true. You need to develop that mindset. If you did not believe you were offering an opportunity to someone else then you are most probably with the wrong opportunity for you. Get out now.

If you are looking at taking the plunge into network marketing or have recently started, I hope you have gained some insight into how you can overcome the weakness you may have in personal selling. You do not need to run the risk of alienating friends and family to succeed in this industry. Be patient and choose the right opportunity for you. Develop the mindset that empowers you to believe you are trying to help yourself and others and ensure you take the necessary action to back your claims in terms of offering coaching, mentoring and support.

MARKETING GUIDELINES FOR NETWORK MARKETING BUSINESS

Here are some marketing guidelines, which are especially useful to new starters in network marketing business online. New online marketers must ensure their marketing efforts are targeted and effective to be successful in the industry. This comes with effective budgetary planning and control and the use of marketing management information to direct marketing efforts.

Budget effectively

• Plan your budget over a period of say six months

• Depending on your funds available set your lead generation targets based on your budget and not the other way round initially

• In the first few months, plough back as close to 100% of your profits as possible – remember you are building a business

• As your business grows and you start to make excellent profits, reverse the strategy – now you can tailor your marketing budget based on the number of leads you wish to generate

Measure marketing efforts

• Identify the different marketing strategies you have adopted, e.g. pay-per-click (PPC), videos, social networking sites

• Measure conversion rates from leads to team member

• New starters should stay away from PPC initially as much as possible due to the high costs involved – unless you have a high budget, e.g. $1k a month or more

Increase your conversions

• By trying different marketing strategies, the aim is to choose the most effective ones over a given period

• For example, if PPC generates the most leads for you, as your marketing budget grows and you become successful you may want to focus entirely on PPC

• By measuring marketing efforts you also know which of these strategies results in high conversions – you will need to focus your marketing on this too. You will need to look at this in conjunction with number of leads as well. For example if PPC leads is 200 per month with 10% conversion, which article marketing is 4 leads a month with 25% conversion, PPC is more attractive, especially to someone with a decent marketing budget as the number of team members gained are 20 and 1 respectively.

As a new starter the key is to cut your coat according to your size. If you have a large marketing budget, it would help your business grow quicker. Even with little or no marketing budget, you can succeed in the industry with a lot of effort and a targeted marketing strategy. The key however is, whether the budget is large or small, it should be properly managed and not used recklessly. Use business profits, as much as possible to plough back into the marketing budget.

MAINTAINING YOUR LIFESTYLE IN THE CREDIT CRUNCH

Increasingly, people are looking at ways of beating the credit crunch as more jobs are lost and consumer confidence is low. Surely, there must be other ways of beating the credit crunch apart from the usual money saving ideas.

The credit crunch tips all seem to focus on ways of saving money. From dumping the car in favour of a bicycle, to shopping at discount stores, these tips although useful, indirectly advocate a change in our lifestyle. It’s all about being market savvy, opening savings accounts and making do with less for most commentators. This is mainly because it is more difficult for people to obtain credit from banks to supplement their income and maintain their lifestyle.

Beating the credit crunch should not mean changing or downsizing our lifestyle. We can still maintain or even improve our lifestyle during the credit crunch by earning more. Let’s face it, we complain that our jobs take a lot of our time but we still find enough time to watch TV, use the Internet and generally do nothing. Why not use time more productively instead by starting a home based business as a means of supplementing your income?

By starting your home based business, you could make enough money to buy that new car or go on that holiday you probably couldn’t by just focusing on saving and cutting back. Secondly, it will conquer your dependency on credit as you would not require loans or credit cards for your expenditure. If you become very successful in your home based business you could even replace it full time with your current job, enabling you to have more time for yourself, your close friends and family.

Saving and cutting back tips are not ways to beat the credit crunch. Instead they are ways of raising the white flag and accepting that the current economic crisis has impacted on our lifestyle adversely. This period is a fantastic time to start a home based business, especially internet-based, for example network marketing.

More people are losing their jobs and are evaluating what they want to do next. The lure of having more time and financial independence is appealing to these people, so recruiting them is easier than in times of buoyant economies. Therefore, now is a good time to start your business.

It is very important that in the current global financial crisis, people pay a great deal of attention to their finances. Money saving ideas are usually ways of adjusting to the credit crunch but they are not ways of beating it. Beating the credit crunch means finding ways of maintaining or improving our lifestyle prior to the crunch and this can be achieved by supplementing our incomes to cover the shortfall due to banks tightening their lending criteria.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU WANT TO START YOUR INTERNET BUSINESS BUT HAVE NO MONEY?

Right, so you have found what you believe to be the right internet business opportunity but you don’t have the start-up capital and enough money to stay afloat until you start making a profit.

You need to be really sure about this because several options are open to you to get that start-up capital. Here are three of these options, bearing in mind the costs of repayment and timeliness.

Save Up for the opportunity

This is the least risky way of obtaining start-up and working capital. You will have pressure to succeed but not as much as you would if you had to repay a creditor. The downside to this option is that it may take you a while to save up. Would the delay make the opportunity less attractive in terms of profit potential? Would the market be saturated before you enrol? You need to do thorough research to establish this.

Loan from friends and family

This is a quick way to get funds required to start your business. However, it is important that you are totally honest in letting them know what the money is for.

If they know it is for you to start a network marketing business, they may not want to lend you the money due to the low success rate in the industry as a whole. On the other hand, they may lend you with the expectation that the risk exists you may not pay them any time soon. Thirdly, they may opt to give you the money instead, with a caveat to repay only if you re successful.

Their decision may be influenced by how much you require. Bear in mind that there is a significant risk of alienating your friends and family if you do not manage your finances appropriately causing you to default on your repayment or failing in the business.

Loans from banks

This is another option especially after you’ve exhausted the avenues above and maxed out your credit card. Depending on your creditworthiness, you may be able to get a personal loan from your bank.

However, many banks do not do personal loans for business purposes. They may also be unwilling to offer a business loan for what they would undoubtedly consider a risky project. Read their terms and conditions carefully, paying particular attention of term of the loan and interest rates. Also answer all questions as honestly as you can.

Another option is to secure the loan on your home if you have one. You should think carefully about doing this, as you may risk losing your home if you fail to keep up with repayments.

If you have spotted that business opportunity and you are itching to start but do not have the funds, all is not lost. You just need to be very careful you do not overextend yourself, put you and your family at risk, alienate your friends and family or risk losing your home as you chase your dream.

HOW TO BECOME A WEB 2.0 LEADER

Web 2.0 is a recent World Wide Web buzz term that refers to the next or second generation web. There has been growing debate on whether Web 2.0 relates to new Internet technology or whether it is to do with changing behaviour patterns of Internet users. The argument seems to be settling on the latter insinuating that Internet users with little or no technical expertise can create their websites, publish their materials and interact in other ways including the uploading of videos and the sharing of photos and other information among other things.

Increasingly, being a successful leader in online marketing means understanding and mastering Web 2.0 and effectively implementing relevant strategies to gain and maintain competitive advantage. Consequently, the marketing environment has changed over the Internet as savvy entrepreneurs look to online lead generation in favour of traditional multi-level marketing methods of cold calling and utilizing warm markets.

The use of social networking is on the increase with leaders utilising Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to name a few to build their online presence with a view of marketing through these media. Apparently, Facebook has similar traffic to Google presently, so comes as no surprise that entrepreneurs are exploiting the opportunities presented as a result. Social networking is no longer the confines of teenagers willing to massage their egos publishing their status updates or current activities.

The use of videos to promote products is also on the increase with YouTube a particular favourite at the moment. Internet marketers focus on the lifestyle benefits on these videos, aiming to entice prospects to join their programs on the back of their successes. The videos range from a successful leader lounging on the beach somewhere to spending time at home with the family while most people are at work, while his automated system is making money for him in the background.

Web 2.0 leaders who love to write focus on article marketing and blogs, where they post on various topics, directly or indirectly related to their opportunity. The aim here is to develop a loyal following over a period of time that may become customers or recommend their products or services to others when trust has been established. Various sites publish these articles for free including Amazines, EzineArticles and GoArticles. The two most popular blog sites are Blogger and Wordpress.

The key to their success is not just confined to Web 2.0 leaders implementing these lead generation strategies for their own benefit. They teach their team members to do the same thereby leveraging their efforts. As they and their team members attract prospects to their business the potential upfront and residual income increases. More importantly, these leads are targeted which implies that conversion rate to actual customers or team members is most likely to be higher than traditional MLM methods of cold calling and warm market, as these people may not have the remotest interest in the business opportunity.

Web 2.0 leaders currently have competitive advantage in terms of lead generation over the traditional MLM leaders as their strategy is based on effective targeting. By utilising social networking, video marketing, article marketing and blogging, and teaching their downline to do the same, they are giving their businesses every change to grow and meet their objectives.

HOW SUCCESSFUL INTERNET MARKETING ENTREPRENEURS BEHAVE

Successful internet market entrepreneurs do not become so by chance. They demonstrate mindsets, attributes and qualities that are too numerous to mention all. However, they all demonstrate three common behaviours which ensure their continual success and these are discussed below.

Being cool under pressure

There are two ways to behave when things are not going well in your internet marketing business. One way is to give up and tell yourself you were right all along and it was too good to be true and disappear back to the corporate world and all its frustrations. The successful internet marketer does not think like that.

Instead, she is concerned about learning the lessons from her setbacks. She is determined to know why the strategy she employed did not pay off with a view of putting remedial action in place to change around her fortunes for the better. The successful internet marketer is dedicated to using management information to drive her business. For example, by knowing that her marketing expenditure in article marketing is not providing her anticipated number of leads, she may decide to allocate the article marketing budget to something that is delivering results like video marketing for example.

This coolness under pressure comes from good planning, organisation and management of the business. By understanding how her business works and how it is performing, she is able to take action to influence results in her favour.

Never resting on their laurels

The successful internet market entrepreneur celebrates his successes hard but not for too long. He is always thinking ahead as to how to replicate or better his current success. He learns from his successes as much as he learns from his failures. From every success, he looks at what he could have done better to have performed even better.

They always love a challenge and would see the challenge of performing better exciting. They are so competitive that they compete with themselves. They look at success the same way they look at failure. They build on their strengths and look to eliminate their weaknesses.

Pushing the Boat Out

Traditionally, we’ve been conditioned to believe that in business, we need to start small and grow the business gradually. Not the internet marketing entrepreneur. They go for the jugular once they see an opportunity. If for example, there are three entry levels into a business opportunity, they will go for the highest level entry, which although may cost the most will yield the highest in commission payments. They do not believe they should enter at the least level and see whether the business opportunity is for them or not.

The reason they go in big is because they have self belief. They believe an opportunity is as profitable or as good as the entrepreneur. They are conditioned for success and will therefore do all it takes. They are convinced that as long as the opportunity works for one person, it can work for them.

These three behaviour patterns are consistent to successful internet market entrepreneurs. Failure is not an option in their eyes as they have belief in their ability and will do whatever it takes to succeed. It is no coincidence that successful entrepreneurs are consistently successful in different ventures they undertake. It’s all to do with the mindset.

BUSINESS ONLINE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Increasingly, more people own or are growing their businesses online with varying degrees of success. It is important for internet entrepreneurs to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of doing business online as this knowledge will empower them to make the right decisions and implement the correct strategies if they do go ahead and start a business on the internet. Below are the main advantages and disadvantages of running an online business.

Advantages

Start-up costs are relatively cheaper than bricks and mortar businesses. Some business-in-a-box programs cost as little as $400, some even cheaper. If you are setting up your own website with your business plan you may only need to pay for a domain name and web hosting which would cost you less than $100. Even for the most expensive opportunities, they are still way cheaper than other businesses. The top scale start up costs for internet business could be $20k, which might seem expensive but when compared with businesses like the MacDonald’s franchise which cost over a quarter of a million dollars, then it puts things into better perspective.

Operational costs and administrative expenses are also relatively lower than other businesses with little or no staff required. Many internet entrepreneurs work from home which means that expenses like lighting and heating and office expenses which would normally be incurred in an office block, are saved.

Running a business online gives great flexibility. This is because the business can be run from anywhere. An entrepreneur could be on the beach on holiday with her family and still be running her business normally. This flexibility helps the entrepreneur does as she pleases with her time. She may decide to work between 12 midnight and 6 am if that is her most productive hours.

Online businesses can reap the rewards of free and cheap advertising, through videos, article marketing and social marketing. Even with more expensive advertising options like pay per click, due to the number of Internet users, to potential to grow your business is very high especially if you can effectively drive traffic to your website.

Disadvantages

Competition is high as increasingly people are becoming switched on to the advantages of running an online business and also more technology savvy and are growing their businesses. The number of people starting a business online is increasing at high levels and they are all competing for traffic which makes it harder to break through.

The Internet is a very dynamic marketplace. Consumer tastes vary widely and change frequently. Therefore, by focusing on one business idea or income stream, the entrepreneur risks being left behind by new products and services as consumers chase the next best product or service.

Even when the entrepreneur has a winning business model, competitors can easily copy it and therefore impact negatively on profits.

Getting to grips with technology to sustain competitive advantage can be a limiting factor especially if the entrepreneur depends on himself and hires no staff. This disadvantage can be overcome by either outsourcing or employing staff full time or on contract basis.

It may take time for the business to get off the ground as the entrepreneur builds his online presence and if the business is not run properly cash flow problems may hinder the success of the business. It is important that the marketing and other costs are very carefully budgeted for over a period to take into account the possibility that profits may take a while to materialise.

Running an online business is empowering and can be profitable. A lot of these businesses fail because entrepreneurs are not mindful of the advantages and disadvantages and have not planned accordingly. While it is relatively easier and cheaper to start and grow an online business than a traditional bricks and mortar business, that advantage can also be an advantage as competitors enjoy the same benefits.