Wednesday, August 13, 2008

How to Build a Long Lasting MLM Business

Are you like millions of other people who got excited about the possibilities of MLM or Network Marketing but who could not make it work for yourself? Do you wonder how some people have all the luck?

It is luck for some people. Underneath that luck were people who knew how the game was played.

People who really understand what how to make Network Marketing pay off big.

The surprising thing is that it is not difficult, and anyone can do it. First, you have to know how to play the game. You have to understand that what your upline is teaching you has little to do with what made them a success in the first place! And they probably do not have a clue what made them a success at all.

I started to figure it out after reading a short e-book. Click Here! I learned the REAL Success system; took action; and began having the success I expected to have when I was introduced to the industry.

Let me share with you my personal Top Ten List for having a successful MLM career.


10. You must be willing to learn.

You must be willing to learn and willing to put in time learning your business. If you want to become a Doctor or Lawyer, you are expected to spend years in school and pass fairly rigorous tests before you can work in your field.


You can become just as wealthy in MLM for a lot less investment and time. Yet, you need a good coach to show you the techniques that assure long term success in this industry. Many are skills that will position you for success in whatever field you choose to pursue.


I recommend that, before you consider joining a company, you learn the techniques and strategies that you can use with any reputable company to make your career successful.


9. You must be willing to work.

Anyone who tells you that MLM is not work is deceiving you. True, it is not physical work like assembling cars or farming. But you do have daily, weekly, monthly activities that you need to perform to keep your business producing at top levels.


The activities start with keeping your word to yourself and your family and to your prospects. If you make a commitment, you honor it. One of my friends has said that a Commitment is "doing what you say you will do, long after the mood you said it in passes."


Making a commitment to being in business means making a commitment to work that business.


8. You must have a success attitude.

Do your due diligence when you research a business. And then commit to becoming successful with your new business. Take personal responsibility for becoming successful. Visualize success.


Put in your head that you will be a success in the business. Whatever it takes.


7. Do not plan to fail.

Once you decide to join a business, find a coach to teach you the success strategies for your new company. This coach may not be your sponsor who may be as green as you are. Work with your coach to create a 30-60-90 day plan for your business.


Your coach is going to train you on the traditional means for success with that company. 90% of the time that is only part of the story. Adapt your company's strengths, strategies, and stories to good industry marketing techniques.


You need to keep testing your plan and develop a belief in yourself that you have a vehicle that will provide you and your family with long term financial benefits.


6. Never Give Up.

Winston Churchill immortalized this phrase when England was attacked during World War II. Do not expect overnight success with any business. Your first few months in a new business are the "on the job training" component of your education. The real world is never quite like book learning!


Yet many people quit because success does not come instantly. Wouldn't you agree that if this is your first time in MLM, you have more to learn than a person who has spent years in the industry before joining your company?


If you keep following the success steps, you will be successful. So never give up!


5. You must have a real product to sell.

Let me be brutally honest. The big money in MLM comes from building a large sales organization, not in retailing product. But, unless you have a product that you are able to sell outside the network of distributors, you do not have a company that is built to last.


And, if you are not selling the product, how can you expect your sales team to be selling the product?


Ideally, the product should be a consumable product. Residual income is built on customers buying your product on a monthly basis.


And you need marketing plans to find customers that do not involve pestering your friends and family into buying your product. You need to find real customers who have come to you to buy your product to fill some need that they have.


4. You must have a fair compensation plan.

Industry history has shown that companies with the most lucrative compensation plans are the most likely to fail quickly. You need a plan that has stood the test of time. Where you earn enough when you are getting started to reward your initial efforts, and then, as you become a leader in your company, your earnings are commensurate with all of the hard work you have done.


But you also need to run your business like a business. You cannot wait until you become a leader to begin to recover the expenses from marketing your business. You need to find ways to recover costs from your marketing expenses along the way.


The objective in any business is to make a profit, and your company's compensation plan is only going to really kick in when you achieve leadership levels in your company.


3. Choose a company you can be proud of.

Why do people in traditional business want a job with the biggest names in their field? Because those companies have a history of success and because their employees have felt proud about being part of that team. This is still true in today's world, but too many of the traditional companies have lost their way.


There are thousands of MLM companies. Most never reach their second birthday. The company owners often were just not prepared for exponential growth or were under capitalized or were just crooks.


At the same time, the company cannot be so wedded to its past that it cannot innovate as the market changes. The company needs to be willing to take risks to jump their business, and yours, ahead by quantum leaps.


Some people believe that you have to get in on "the ground floor". It is quite true that getting in with a new company can be quite profitable if you already have a team to work with. However, you then have the high risk that the company will fail, and you will need to build all over again.


You need to balance that risk equation for yourself.


2. You must be recognized for your achievements.

Some people will say that money is enough of a recognition. I do not believe them. There are few people on the planet who are unhappy with having their accomplishments acknowledged. How many actors make more money than they will ever spend from blockbuster movies they make, but they still want the recognition of an Oscar. How many agree to take much less money to act in a film that is considered on an "Oscar track"?


There is no difference in our business. If you are achieving, your achievements need to be recognized. If members of your team are achieving, they need to be recognized. Not only does that make them feel better about themselves, but it also binds them tighter with the company and your team. Recognition is a glue that assures your income long term when the inevitable down periods in any business happen.


1. You must have a marketing system for building your sales organization.

Any sales activity is a numbers game. And let us not forget that MLM is sales. You want a constant flow of prospects coming to you asking to join your business. And a simple process that will qualify them to ask to join.


The process should be, as much as possible, self-funding and automatic so that you can devote your limited time to helping the qualified prospects make a decision to join your business and then training and supporting them so that they get their businesses profitable as soon as possible. Click Here for an example of a program that works for me.


Again, most MLM sponsors will suggest pestering your friends and family. That is a great way to lose friends and get un-invited to family reunions! Or you can pester everyone who gets within 3 feet of you. I suspect they will agree to anything just to get away from you. Or you can chase cold-market leads.


You may, in fact, have some luck and find someone at the right time in their life with the right experience who will join your business and make you millions of dollars. That is just luck.


You own a business. You need to take luck out of the plan. And have a process that will find you the prospects that ask you about your business. And maybe with some luck one of those prospects every decade will make you millions of dollars. While the other 5-10 each month that you recruit just earn you hundreds of thousands each month following a simple system.


If you combine all of these together, with impartial training and guidance, you too can build an MLM business that pays you well for the rest of your life.


I recommend that you read this new ebook that reveals why the majority of mlmers fail in their business... Click Here!


This is first step in your educational journey for success in your Network Marketing career.


john.