Updated: September 5, 2019
Doing network marketing, or simply “networking” as Pinoys call it, has a bad reputation in the country.
This is largely due to the prevalence of pyramid schemes, which are nothing more than “get-rich-quick” scams that prey on people with little financial education.
So, before anything else, you need to understand that network marketing is NOT meant to make you rich overnight. It will NOT make you a millionaire after a few weeks.
Thus, stay away from people who say that it’s easy to become rich in their company. Run away if they tell you that you don’t need to sell, and you just have to recruit people to make money.
Remember, like any other business endeavor, it requires you to pour your blood, sweat, and tears before you can reap the rewards. And you will need to sell products, all legitimate network marketing companies do.
Now that we have separated the fact from fiction, it’s time to learn how to do network marketing the right way. Here are five tips.
1. Always love the product first.
A lot of Filipinos fail in business because they don’t really care about the products they sell.
Once they see a popular product selling well online, greed takes over and compels them to jump aboard. As a result, it’ll be hard for them to come up with a selling strategy that will convince their would-be customers.
That’s why, rather than choosing a network marketing company or listening to your peers, you should look for actual products that you’re genuinely interested in.
This will make it easier for you to learn its advantages, ideate real use cases, and identify any potential drawbacks (if any).
2. Look for a trustworthy company.
The first thing you should look for when picking a networking company is the amount of resources they provide about their core products.
Can you find downloadable e-Books and fact sheets from their site? Do they offer seminars or any other educational activities you can attend?
A company that’s transparent with their compensation plan is also a good thing. Just be sure that they favor hard workers — not those who simply recruit as many people as possible.
After all, a legitimate networking company sustains its business operations through product sales. If a company emphasizes recruitment as all-important, then you’re probably staring at a pyramid scheme.
3. Don’t count on friends and family.
If you’re entering the networking business just because your friends or family said they’ll join you, then you need to rethink your approach.
First of all, there’s a huge possibility that they will not join you, especially if they have no background or interest whatsoever in network marketing.
Secondly, constantly pestering them will only damage your personal relationship.
As a professional network marketer, you should be looking for people who relate to your product and share your vision of financial independence. Keep on selling your product and you might meet them along the way.
4. Focus on your target market’s problems.
When it comes to selling your product, always have a value-oriented angle.
Unless you’re selling a popular brand, always assume that your customers don’t care about the product itself. Rather, they’re only interested in what it can do for them.
As mentioned in countless sales seminars and trainings, you need to sell the solution, not the product.
A good strategy is to listen first to the problem of your potential customers. Once you have fully identified their specific needs, you should then be able to create a pitch that positions your product as the most cost-effective and accessible solution.
5. Follow a strategy religiously.
The most successful marketers don’t just work hard, they also work smart. Every single move they make involved some degree of planning, from qualifying their contacts to giving face-to-face presentations.
If you chose a well-established network marketing company, then they should offer structured training programs that will help members acquire and develop the right skills, including product presentation, prospecting, and marketing.
Make the most out of your membership by leveraging these programs as much as you can. Alternatively, consider investing in books or online courses that cover similar topics.
What is your experience when it comes to networking or multi-level marketing companies? Feel free to share your thoughts, opinions, and recommendations in the comments below.
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Hi Fitz! What can you say about RUAffiliates?
There is only one thing that happened to me after I joined in different Networking companies and that is I always ended up using their products only. I am not good in promoting it to other people and introduce it to other people.
By the way, I am an IMG member but the problem is I am not attending its seminars and trainings though I still continue paying my Kaiser product.
Anyway, thanks for this wonderful and awesome (SWAG) blog post, Sir Fitz! I am looking forward for your second book. 🙂
Make no mistake, there are some legitimate MLMs. Before my first wife passed away, we were looking for a tax deduction. There are a lot of tax write offs for new business in the US. We joined AMWAY and specialized only in their vitamin and food supplement lines. Now, some of the ” sponsors ” pushed you to fill your garage, spare room and closets with soap and other products that you might never sell in a lifetime. A few individuals encouraged you to “be your own best customer.” With the vitamine line, your “warehouse” could be as small as the bathroom ( CR) medicine cabinet if you wanted to make instant delivery to customers. The mark-up on those very high quality vitamin products was much higher than AMWAY’s cleaning and laundry products. We could give substantial discounts and still retail the products with a margin equal to the bulkier cleaning products. No hard selling was needed. My wife, for example. would leave her open box on her desk at the law firm she was with. People would enquire about the product and ask to try a box. Money was handed over and my wife pulled a fresh box out from a desk drawer for her new customer. It was really that simple. We were happy to have a great product that we used and the write-offs for all the new business equipment we purchased. I have no idea if AMWAY still offers vitamins? BTW, I met a woman who had, with her husband, created a large downline with the old fashioned system. The husband passed away but she continued to collect fat checks from the couples previous efforts and never went to meetings or recruited newbies. She continued to work her other business of cyber-security from her comfortable home.