NetworkMarketingUncut.com

They say the best way to kill 2 hours is to go online for 5 minutes.

I’ve personally validated the comment more times then I can count. Many, many nights have started out promising, with intentions of researching better ways to use online methods to enhance my MLM business (websites, landing pages, PPC, articles, blogs, sales letters, ezines), only to find myself 4 hours later in Instant Message conversations with all of my friends, up to date on all the sports and celebrity gossip, and watching youtube clips of tv shows I’ve seen countless times already. My night ends with nothing accomplished, and the same tasks on my to-do list.

This is the cycle I spent months in, until…

I learned to analyze myself, and find out what I was doing that was wasting time. The biggest thing for me was learning not to get side tracked. The first way I’d get side tracked was from the distractions like Instant Messenger, personal emails, news and sports articles, general stuff like this. Once I dedicated a set time for these types of activities, it was no longer a distraction. The second way was from things I thought were relevant to my business. This include reading about every online lead generating system out there, inquiring about adwords and a million other advertising techniques, designing my website or blog, writing articles, brainstorming, reading, etc. These activities seem like they are relevant, but they are what’s known as administrative activities. It’s not that they aren’t important, it’s just that they have their own time and place. They should not take the bulk of your time.

I’ve heard countless times that 80% of your time should be spent doing what is most important to you in the business. For me and most people, that means talking to prospects to build your business. Think about that, 80% of the time you need to be talking to people you think would be interested in your business. This was a complete contradiction to what I thought before. Before I’d spend a month reading up on and putting together a website that never really worked well, thinking that it would solve the leads and prospect aspect of my business, then more time thinking of something else to do… before I knew it, months had gone by and I was no further along then when I started because I never talked to anyone or talked to the wrong kind of people. Like I’ve said before, if it isn’t producing results, find out what to change and change it.

Now, I keep my administrative stuff to a minimum. I picked the way I want to run my business, and I’m putting it in action. It’s not the most perfect way, and I still read and research, but I do it as quickly and efficiently as possible and only after I’ve “consulted” my prospects for the day. My administrative stuff is more of an after thought, but because I’m smart and efficient about it, it ends up funding the lead prospecting aspect. My advice to you if your going down this road is…

Don’t wait until you have the perfect administrative system in place to start building your downline, do it as you go.

The profits will catch up, and the more substantial money (a downline) will already be in place when it does.

So now when you go online, keep it smart and simple. Don’t sit down and think, maybe I’ll try and build a website today if you’ve never tried before. Have actual steps and set goals, and don’t lose focus. Don’t be afraid to take advice from people who have been there before. Adjust your actions along the way as need be, but always reflect to see if you spending your time the most efficient way possible.

Prospecting 101 Lesson 1 - Everyone is Not a Prospect

Edited by David Gignilliat

If you want to annoy your friends, frustrate your family, lose all of your confidence and fail miserably at your network marketing business, adopt the mantra that “everyone’s a prospect.” If prospecting everyone that gets within three feet of you is only marketing strategy, be prepared to join the 97% of network marketers that quit the industry without making a profit.

The phrase ‘everyone’s a prospect’ has been the lynchpin of MLM lead generation techniques for decades. But is there any truth to it? Ask the millions of aspiring entrepreneurs who have tried and failed. They will tell you, without fail, it’s not for lack of “presentations,” “pitches” or “contacts.” Often, it’s simply because they’re trying to sell to an audience that just doesn’t care. Your company has spent millions on market research and knows exactly how many people you need to talk to get someone interested and how many of them it takes to get a prospect signed up. Your managers will tell you repeatedly that it’s just a numbers game, but the amount of rejection you personally have to endure is both demoralizing and unnecessary.

Does the strategy actually work for anyone? Yes. For these rare Johnny Appleseeds that make it work, they’ll tell you it’s just a matter of putting your head down, trusting the numbers game and staying the course. For most of us, however, this “shotgun” approach will be our first step toward quitting the business. It’s the contradiction of it all that starts to get to each of us. You’re frustrated and desperately want people to sign up for a great opportunity where they “can make money just by talking to people,” … while you can’t seem to make it work simply by talking to people. People tend to sour quickly on the business after an endless loop of no’s and go running in the opposite direction. It’s not the business itself that repels them, it’s the work required to convert these “prospects” into to sales that drives them away.

Ultimately, your customer has to be in a mindset to want to buy something from you. The more expensive your product or service, the more your customer will have to be thinking about it already and better yet, taking steps of their own. Even though your business makes perfect sense to you, everyone else probably doesn’t see it that way. Try convincing someone to move to Australia. Unless they’ve been thinking about it on their own already, it is crazy to suggest it to them without warning. You can give a prospect all the reasons in the world to say “yes,” but if they have no desire to do it, an avalanche of features and benefits will do little to change their mind.

So what should your motto be? “Everyone that asks you about your business or product is a prospect.” And how do you make people ask you about your project? By positioning yourself as someone that can provide others with something they want. Instead of broadcasting your perfect, polished message to thousands of complete strangers who don’t care, you must learn how to get yourself in front of those who truly want to hear what you have to say.

In short, find the people who already want to move to Australia. If you can do this successfully, you just may be able to afford to visit them there someday.

One of the best things a network marketer can learn to do is to leverage his or her time and effort. This applies to many different areas of our home business, from the network marketing company itself, to using other people’s products (with their permission), and lastly by taking people’s advice and expertise as to not start from scratch every time.

Let’s first talk about the network marketing company itself. I’m not too aware of the other companies that are out there, but I’m pretty sure I found a good one. The company I’m in has these perks: you get paid on a downline to infinity (so everyone under you making sales and qualifying prospects makes you money equally), the money is residual (so once you build a downline that pays you say $1500 a week, it will continue to do so for the rest of your life, as long as you stay in the business) and you only need to have about 10-15 costumers a month. Now lets tie this into leverage. For anyone in MLM, the idea of getting paid off of everyone else is somewhat common. No exception with my company. But the fact that some people have to continually earn their checks over and over is a little ridiculous. This fact is so important, because with me, I spend time now building a business that pays me over and over and over again without any more effort on my part. That’s the kind of leverage I’m after, the most effective return on my hour of work.

Setting up a process that repeatedly pays you(residual income) is one example. Another example of leverage is using other people’s efforts whenever you can to your own advantage. A great example of this is the renegade system. You buy the ebook once and have unlimited access to their landing pages and system. This is a huge deal, because they put thousands of hours testing and tweaking something that you can get paid for using without having to do any of the hard work. Eventually you can make even more money by making systems that can help people in the same way you’re being helped, but for anyone starting out, it’s makes a lot of sense to leverage other people’s work to benefit yourself.

And finally, leverage your precious time by reading and taking advice from people who have been there and mastered what you’re learning. Once you get into the whole world of online advertising and business building, you can get lost in the sea of new material. I’ve wasted so many hours trying to figure things out on my own, when I could have spent a little time and sometimes and little money and jumped directly to the end result I was hoping for. Sometimes it comes in the shape of a book from an expert (which I used to learn about blogs), sometimes it’s a video tutorial (how I learned to use an auto-responder). Each of these tools saved me days and days of reading to get me to exactly the end result I was looking for. Then there’s the free support you get when you sign up for a lot of the online tools I’ve mentioned before. I’ve tried godaddy, hostgator, aweber, and countless others and found out that they have amazing support staff that will practically teach you anything you could want to know. Manuals and video tutorials can be ok, but talking to someone that knows exactly what to tell you is even better. So if you’re trying these programs out, don’t waste time trying to guess, have a plan, take advantage of the help and use the most direct route you can to get there.

So after being in my network marketing company for about 2 months, I realized I couldn’t do it anymore, at least not the way they told me to. Frustrated beyond belief, I began searching around online, trying to find something that would save me.

Then I stumbled upon an ebook that changed everything. It seemed a bit expensive, but I’m a bit of an impulse buyer anyway, so I purchased it for $67. Little did I know it was the best investment I could have possibly made. The book did wonders for my shaken faith in MLM. That’s probably the best thing that it could have done at the time, it provides relief and hope. It told of the better, more professional way to run a network marketing business that I was seeking. And when I say it tells you, I mean it gives you the “how-to” to make it happen. It confirmed my suspicion that using a warm market and approaching complete strangers is bad business. It told of a system that allows you to make money on the process of getting leads, instead of paying for them. Best part, as an extra bonus at the end, it tells you that with the purchase of the ebook, you now have access to this system they use! They provide more answers and solutions to running a business online then any other system I’ve seen out there. They really are legitamitly trying to help you. (If you’re curious about the ebook and want to read a free slimmed down version, check this out)

Of course, just purchasing the book does not build a business for you. You still need to do the leg work. But now, you have at your disposal, an endless amount of techniques and resources to aid you. All these techniques were brand new to me, using websites, landing pages, sales letters, articles, ezines, blogs, adwords, PPC, adsense, direct mailing, off-line ads, auto-responders, newsletters, and more. So what I did, and I recommend you doing, is finding out which ones of these you would like to try. You can’t do them all at once when you start. Pick what sounds interesting and doable for you. I’m a bit overambitious, so I tried a few of the things without completely reading up and knowing them as well as I should, I ended up wasting money. But long story short, I have my plan and I’m ready to get moving…

Right now, we are the same. Yep, you and me, dead even. If anything, you’re probably ahead of me by a little. I started my network marketing business back in July, went through the same training as I’m sure most in any MLM go through. I heard the hype and couldn’t wait to tell everyone about my business and products. But my bubble soon burst and I came back down to reality with only a couple of sales and no one sponsored. I now faced the all important question…

Should I quit or stay?

Oh I stayed. When it comes down to it, the money potential is just too good. But I shifted gears. Slowly I learned a more hidden way of running a network marketing business, a more professional way, which eliminated everything I disliked about the business (involving unwilling friends and family, trying to pitch the business to any and every stranger I see, and hotel meetings).

And now almost 4 months after I started, I can finally say I’m ready. I’ve researched enough to know where to put my time and effort. My blog is here for you to follow my progress. I want you to see my steps as I take them, hear about what I think works well and avoid my missteps. By no means am I an expert on anything, but I am serious about having a successful business. Remember, we are the same right now, now on we go…