Network Marketing Business – What I Do Differently

I’m an internet network marketer. That’s the best “official” term I have for what I do because I don’t conduct my network marketing business in the traditional way.

I was “taught” the same thing that everyone is taught when they start out. Build a list of 100 people and call them. The thing is, you don’t know what to tell them. You’ve just started and you barely understand what you’re doing yourself. How do you explain that to someone else?

Eventually they stop answering the phone, so you build a list of the next 100 people. And so it goes until you end up a lonely hermit.

How They Build a Successful Network Marketing Business

So that’s what they tell you to do, but that isn’t what the successful people do. They may build lists of people, but they aren’t calling to recruit them into network marketing. They first build a relationship with them, they get to know them and feel them out to see if they might be open to starting a network marketing business. If they are open, great, sign them up. If not, if the time isn’t right for them, you just work on keeping up the relationship.

Doing it the right way, it could take weeks, months, even years before they turn the prospect into a new distributor. The point is to keep in touch with them until the time is right for them.

What I Don’t Like About Traditional Network Marketing

Traditional network marketers spend a lot of time away from home. They call it a home-based business. What most miss is that it is home-BASED. That means that your home is your base, your headquarters. It doesn’t mean that you actually do most of your work there.

The successful old-schoolers spend a lot of time meeting with people at coffee shops and attending events at hotels.

When I started my network marketing business I liked the idea of spending more time with my family. I want to actually work at home.

There Is More Than One Way

There is always more than one right way to do anything, including network marketing. Take a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for example. Here’s how I make mine.

  • Lay out 2 slices of bread
  • Spread peanut butter on the 2nd slice
  • Wipe off the knife on the 1st slice
  • Spread jelly on top of the peanut butter on the 2nd slice
  • Wipe off the knife on the 1st slice
  • Close the sandwich

I’ve always made my sandwich this way. I end up with a tasty sandwich and a mostly clean knife that isn’t going to leave a mess wherever I lay it down.

My wife spreads peanut butter on one slice and jelly on the other. Her knife isn’t as clean as mine when she’s done, but the goal is the sandwich. You can’t tell our sandwiches apart. The goal is accomplished both ways.

Internet Network Marketing

Likewise, there is more than one way to build a network marketing business. They choose to do it offline, face-to-face. I choose to build mine online. I’m an internet network marketer.

Back when I started most of my upline didn’t know what to do with me. What they didn’t realize, and still largely don’t, is that the process online is still the same. There are just some really nice benefits to doing it online that you don’t get offline.

OFFLINE MLM ONLINE MLM
Find people to talk to Attract people to talk to
Do new live presentations all the time Record one presentation and re-use it repeatedly
Invite people to 1-on-1 meeting at a coffee shop Invite people to a 1-on-1 meeting over Skype
Rent a hotel meeting room and get a lot of people to show up at the same time Record a webinar and re-use it over a period of time. Maybe a live Q&A afterward

The Process Is The Same

The process is the same online as it is offline. Find interested people. Educate them about network marketing, the benefits of your product and the benefits of your company. Hopefully they will join you when you are done. The difference is that you get to do it all online without having to leave home if you don’t want to.

There are many ways to build a business online. I use a website and blog, like this one, as the core of my business and support it with Facebook and Twitter. Others I have talked to don’t have a website at all and just use social media –  Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. There is more than one way.

I said before that there were some nice benefits to building your network marketing business online. Working at home is only one of them. You also have a much larger reach with the Internet. I can just as easily recruit someone in Canada, Europe or South America as I can someone from my own town, all without expensive plane tickets and hotel rooms.

I also pointed out in the chart above that you can record your presentations and webinars once and re-use them over and over. You don’t have to repeat your message over and over from one event to the next. You don’t have to deal with scheduling conflicts with your prospects. Your presentation is always available so that your prospects can view it at their convenience. You just have to be sure to follow up to make sure that they did what they said they would do.

Focus On Retail

Everything I just talked about is usually applied to recruiting. It also applies to attracting retail customers to buy your product.

That’s the other thing that I do differently. I focus mostly on retail sales. I’ve very rarely heard other network marketers talk about actually selling their product, which I find very odd. I’m often on the top 5 and top 10 retailers lists for my company.

Most of the money that a company makes comes from selling their product. Some companies pay a bonus when you sign someone up but they have to be careful not to be labeled a pyramid or ponzi scheme. Most companies only pay you on the sales volume that you and your team generate. It’s essentially commissioned reselling. You get your retail profit plus a commission on your own sales and a commission on your downline sales.

When you first start out in network marketing, the easiest thing to do is introduce someone to a product. They can hold, feel it, see it. It’s real. That is much easier than trying to recruit someone onto you team on your first day.

The first thing someone will ask you about your network marketing business is how much money you make. On day one your only likely answer is “no.” On the other hand, when you talk about a product, the first thing they will probably ask you is if you use it yourself. You can easily say yes to that. Then they will ask you what you think of it and you can share your experience so far.

When Do You Recruit

I didn’t shift my attention to recruiting until it made sense with the compensation plan. When I needed to develop a downline to move up to the next rank I started looking for people. By then I had experience with my company and I was making money. It’s a whole lot easier to recruit people when you already have some success and income.

You can always recruit people earlier. If you run into someone who is gung-ho to join your team and build a business, then by all means sign them up. That will definitely help you out later on down the line when you need a team in place. I just don’t make it a priority until it makes sense to.

When I do recruit a new person to my team, I strongly encourage them to build a thriving retail business, then recruit people and teach them to build a thriving retail business, and so on.

Stand Out. Do It Differently

I enjoy my business much more online. It gives me a global reach from the comfort of my own home. I also enjoy the money I make from online retail sales, much more than I could make just from recruiting.

So, are you ready to get started?

On the next page I will talk about my vision for my business and my team, and how I am accomplishing it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge