To start an mlm business, you need to have a business plan that works, and then follow it to a tee. There are 6 steps to a successful business plan for an MLM business. Read on to find out what they are.

1. Decide on your product, and find your market.

The two are closely related. You may already be using an MLM product that you are excited about. Great, then locate the strongest benefit of your product, and find out who will be looking for those benefits. For example, if you are using a health and wellness product, your market will be people who are likely to have health challenges. If you have not made a product choice yet, do some market research. Look for strong, emergent trends in people’s needs, and for products that can meet these needs. To stay with our example, the large population of aging “baby boomers” represents a strong trend, and they are likely customer for health and wellness products. The best approach is to look for trends that are affecting you, so you can relate to your customers.

2. Decide what mlm company is going to supply your products.

There are several points you want to consider. First, the company needs to offer a valuable product or service that people would want to purchase for the sake of the benefits alone, even if there was no business opportunity attached. If the only way your customer gain a benefit is by selling the business opportunity, run.

Second, your company should have been successful in business for at least 10 years, and be growing steadily. Startups in this industry come and go very quickly. You will be investing a lot of time and money into your business, and you will be in it for the long haul. Third, your company’s compensation plan must allow you to sell your products with a profit. This brings us to the next step.

3. Determine if you can become profitable quickly.

Look at your company’s compensation plan and find out how much profit per customer per month you can make by selling the product. In most cases, your best bet is to sell your product to retail customers on an auto ship, because you will receive the largest commission from these sales. The longer you can keep your customers, the higher you overall return, and the more you can spend on marketing and advertising.

4. Allocate resources to marketing.

This may come as a surprise to you, but it is mandatory that you allocate some resources to learning how to market. The training that your company is offering is aimed at getting hold of your “warm market”, your circle of family and friends. This will work well for your company which has already thousands of distributors, but it is not a viable option for you. You need to learn how to gain access to large numbers of prospective customers.

5. Gather testimonials, build you personal story and craft a compelling message to your market.

Testimonials and your personal story are powerful ways to communicate with your potential customers. Gathering these testimonials does not cost you any money, and not much time. Listen to other distributors in you company, ask them for testimonials from their customers. Stay on top of company news on the benefits of your product. As you are collecting these items, begin to write a message to your potential clients, that delivers a compelling benefit statement. As you are engaging in this first step of building your marketing campaign, you will also build confidence and leadership. These are the qualities that will make your customers want to buy from you.

6. Learn telephone skills to talk to prospective customers

The telephone is one of the least expensive and most effective ways to contact large numbers of people. Although the internet has become a major source of information, the phone still gives you a great way of making personal contact. MLM is a people business, and your customers are looking for that personal touch and leadership that you can convey over the phone. The phone continues to be the secret weapon of most successful MLM leaders. And, contrary to what is often heard, it is not difficult to master.

Putting it all together.

As you can see, starting an MLM business is about treating it as a business from day one. And that means to plan for coming into profit quickly, and to allocate resources for marketing.

For more detailed information on MLM marketing and free training opportunities, visit me at my blog.

Technorati Tags: Business, Marketing, Network, Simple, start, Steps, success

SuccessRightNow.biz If you are an mlm network marketing fan, please watch this video. While I have a rich past in the mlm industry, there are three reasons why I chose top tier direct sales as my next challenge. First, I can be paid direct for most sales in the better top tier companies. Second, the small profit margins on mlm products require large amounts of traffic and big organizations to be profit sustaining. And third, the relationship requirement for downline growth is overwhelming when growing large organizations. Check it out…

Technorati Tags: direct, Marketing, Network, Sales.wmv, Tier

Generating good leads is the key to building a large team for your network marketing franchise. A high dropout rate has always been a huge problem in MLM with many new members quitting within their first year in the business, and most never having recruited a single person during that time. It\’s no wonder that the reality for most network marketers is to end up spending more money on the company\’s products/services than the profit ever made in the business, if any.

The challenge then becomes obvious: keep trying to recruit new members to replace the dropouts, if you even had recruits in the first place! You can go online and find tonnes of people claiming to recruit new members everyday, and effortlessly, with their supposed \’\'turnkey systems\’\’.  More often than not this hype turns out to be nothing more than email lists of \’\'hot leads\’\’ that you have to purchase, and then spam.  Wrong approach.  Although the people on those email lists may very well be searching for a franchise opportunity, they\’ve been pitched by everyone long before you decided to get in line and do the same.  Adding a strong web component to your marketing strategies is not only wise but absolutely necessary in the age we are living in, however there is a proper way of doing it.

The typical mlm prospecting approach has always been very narrow and based on making a list of all your family, friends, referrals, co-workers, neighbours, your dentist, mailman, pet etc… You then either demo your stuff at a home meeting (at their place or yours), or invite them to your MLM\’s local training centre where the company\’s top earners can try to sign them up after an elaborate presentation highlighting all the benefits of their business. There is nothing wrong with all that, but the way it is usually done comes off way too pushy and contrived.  The worst part is, your list of contacts usually doesn\’t want to know anything about the business.  Let\’s face it our family and friends are rarely the most enterprising people we know, and shoving a business opportunity down their throats just doesn\’t go over well. 

Very often very little focus is even put on the MLM\’s products/services. After all, it\’s about the new recruit, and growing your downline, right? The way network marketing compensation plans are devised, this is absolutely true, but you still have to move the MLM firm\’s products/services.  If nobody does, there will be no commissions generated to allow any residual income.  Beware of companies that promise commissions just for recruiting others.  This is illegal.  You shouldn\’t earn a profit by selling someone a theoretical business idea.  Rather everyone has to do their small part to move the MLM\’s products/services and if you recruit others to do the same, your compensation will be the commissions that the network marketing business model is structured around.

Pushing the products/services to your \’\'warm list\’\’ is a great way to introduce them to your business and at least have some luck getting your small stable of customers.  If you genuinely believe in what you are promoting (and use the items yourself) they will have a good opinion of what you are doing.  Who knows, maybe some will want to start their own franchises under you, but you have to give them time and space.  Not doing so has caused many a network marketer to be viewed as a scammer and brought dishonour to the whole concept of MLM over the years and ruined it for the many honest entrepreneurs in this line of work.  Taking a softer-sell approach, with a good dose of persistence will yield better results.  Build relationships with people based on the common love of the products/services. Passion about the products/services and its positive effects on others should be your focus, and the relationships between those who support and use the items strong. Your potential recruits should first be able to show they can build relationships rather than just spit out over hyped pitches and attempt to close deals based on their prospects\’ emotional highs at \’\'rah rah\’\’ pep rallies or intrusive home meetings.

That\’s not to say that things will happen overnight using the softer approach.  Network marketing is a tough business, period.  Taking a smoother, more sensible approach will just make it easier.  You won\’t risk alienating your family and friends as much this way and also give them much less reason to criticize you.  You can therefore work much more stress free at building your franchise, slowly and steadily.   It takes the average person a substantial amount of time, energy, and sacrifice to see lasting results, especially if they do not incorporate Internet marketing into their marketing mix.

With the old school network marketing lead generation strategy most recruits drop out because results don\’t come quickly enough. The overwhelming majority of people who just need some extra money, have no real drive or business savvy to build their own business, let alone commit several years of their lives to doing so. MLM isn\’t about selling a product/service yourself to make a little extra money; rather it\’s about you doing that 20% of the time but spending the other 80% finding an army of people who will do that work for you. If you build a solid organization of driven entrepreneurs, you stand to make significant overriding residual income. 

If your team consists of duds who will eventually quit, your efforts will have been in vain.  The goal is to target people who are outgoing, confident, ambitious, passionate, and possess good sales ability.  These are great candidates and will be able to market the mlm products/services just like you do and also sponsor new recruits to each of their own franchises, which are all part of your downline.  Mentor your recruits to duplicate your success and you will have an automated business.  If you select strong leaders to your team this will be fairly simple.  Supplement all traditional network marketing strategies with a multi-pronged web marketing one based on \’\'attraction marketing\’\’.  Get people to be attracted to you, not your business.  Get your name out there using blogs, online classifieds, forums, chat rooms, traffic exchanges, videos, banners, press releases, articles, social networks, pay-per-click, and anything else you can think of.  Always provide valuable content and build relationships.  Avoid hype!  The fact that your prospects will trust and respect you will make them feel the same passion for your business and create a sense of urgency in them to reach out and join your team.  It is time to redefine MLM.  Make it happen!

Gopal  (The Musical Mad Scientist and Entrepreneur)

http://www.boom.thevfusiongroup.biz

Technorati Tags: generation, lead, Targeted

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 20 years, the MLM industry is plagued with accusations of underhanded sales techniques shoddy tactics and dishonest representatives.

As we have said before this is due to the early MLM/Network marketing companies of the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

They darkened the door to MLM, in its very infant years, with underhanded sales techniques evasive answers and downright lack of integrity.
How many times have you presented your opportunity to a potential prospect, only to have them rile back with a look of contempt and uninterested body language. If you are really lucky, you will hear the never-ending statement, with a down leering smirk ‘So what you are trying to flog me is Amway? Right’

Before we have said that Amway is a good network-marketing model, this is still true. Unfortunately, the damage done by their affiliates are still being felt today.
If you have cold prospects, that did not go looking for you in the first place, you cannot expect a better outcome. If the prospects have not sought you out, then they are also going to be totally uniformed about the industry as a whole. These people will simply follow the flow so to speak, and only hear the bad reputation and feeling the MLM/Network business has.
The industry has never really bounced back from the shocking blows it did receive in the formative years.

Do not despair all is by no means lost, if you are new to the mlm business. There are more than ever before a multitude of high demand products and services being offered by reputable companies all over the world. These same companies offer outstanding rewards and benefits to their distributors. Systems have had time to develop and be improved upon, the income stream programs of today are the most powerful models the industry has seen. People now more than ever are making huge incomes.

You only have to watch what the ‘Global Marketers are looking at’ Corporate identities are linking them selves to ‘Network Marketing’ people such as my mentor Sir Richard Branson ‘Virgin’. Celebrities are getting involved and indorsing mlm products; Michael Schumacher for one is promoting the virtues of MLM. The problem we are faced with every day is lack of education; this is also not really the consumers fault.

Look at our market place, the Internet I am referring to hear. It is rife with pyramid frauds, broken promises, down right lies. There are people with a great deal of money perpetuating this problem, on the internet with powerful sales techniques and money to burn, still every day people are being sucker punched into the dead end. These programs are normally easily spotted, but still do a great deal of harm to the Legitimate MLM/Network market industry.

Again I bring up my point that if, pay per email was introduced it would greatly clean the industry. Pay per email brings accountability, how fast would they all disappear if an email cost 0.20c to send. This is a win win situation. The customer wins, because the swamp of spam will stop, they also will be presented with opportunity copy that has come from an accountable source, and they had to pay to send it. No one is going to send out 500,000 emails costing 0.20c each $100,000 cost. Straight away real add copy testing ill be needed on the net. We have spoken much about the need to test copy.
The affiliate wins by consumers being far more open to what you have to offer, because they are not being bombarded with junk mail. We are making huge in rows into markets that have not been subject to the same barrage of ’spam’ that the current market place has.

We are presented with an interesting problem. We have always spoken about ‘Image is everything’ we have a broken image a perception problem. How is this still happening? Network marketing industry as a whole is a working model, billions of dollars every year in product sales, affiliates becoming rich every year and millions of satisfied consumers. So we cannot blame the industry can we? We have to start looking at the people involved in the industry.

It is a sad statement that there are a high percentage of un ethical people involved in network marketing, they tend to congregate around the lesser programs. These are the people that are the rot at the core of our upstanding industry. For they do not care if the program has good products, or a sound residual income program. Their only concern is how to market this opportunity to get the money out of you. We must lose these operators from our radar. We are being hurt from bad operator of past and still being hurt from new scammers.

We are not the first to have an image problem. Industries since the beginning of the industrial revolution industries had been faced with image problems. Right now, we have McDonalds spending millions of dollars trying to change public perception of them. You only have to look at the petroleum companies working hard to change their image, because they want to be at the forefront of their industry as the world’s energy requirements and technologies change.

Let us turn the attention back on what maters us the MLM industry, Amway was plagued with lawsuits in the US brought about by unhappy consumers and affiliates. Amway were accused of many things ranging from operating with intent to deceit, to exploitation of lower affiliate ranks. They were ridiculed on their rigid system and business practises. Most people that joined Amway in the early 1980’s and 1990 has left including me, with a rather unpleasant taste in ones mouth. This did untold damage to our industry. What did Amway do about this? They completely overhauled their organisation. They took to heart what their affiliates were doing, with hard sale tactics, deception, and dishonesty. These tactics are never well received in today’s more educated consumer market. Amway cannot be help accountable completely for what there affiliates were doing while out of their control.

You see it is in most cases the affiliates them selves that are doing and can do the most damage to our industry. How quick is the media to expose yet another fraud fleecing the public of their hard earned? How often do you see the same media exposing how network marketing has changed the lives of countless people? Alternatively, how some of the products are unique in their health benefits. We know we have the best products, services, and residual income business model! When was the last time you saw on mass media how MLM had changed someone’s life?

Perception is a hard thing to change, it can haunt us through school, university and beyond, tarnish what people think of you and you ay be in for a hard road ahead. When this is connected to an industry, it can be fatal. The public is fickle it will change its opinion at the drop of a hat if it does not like what this company, organisation, government. Companies once strong have been brought down by mere public opinion. The larger the company the more subjectable they are to this by their mere public profile.
Large corporations have been implementing more and more consumer relation channels because they know; if you do not listen to your consumer, you will not get the chance to hear from them again. There is even a register of reputation ‘Reputex’ they measure factors including social acceptance, corporate responsibility, business ethics and sustainability. This alone shows the importance of image and public perception.

So what do we do? We are trying to do our bit, partly by returning to promote ‘Network Marketing’ and to create a support home for affiliates. It is our goal to educate as many people on the virtues of ‘Network Marketing’. It is our companies standing to supply a support network for network marketers, where they can learn true ethical marketing values and techniques. Where they are supplied customised advertising copy that has real world testing, free. Where they can contact real support personnel, when they are lost and de-motivated. Where they can build a support network with their fellow counterparts in other lands. Where they can learn to promote MLM business opportunities in a concise ethical manner.

Network marketing is the way forward, there is no doubt in that, every year billions of dollars of products are bought, and affiliates lives are made wealthy exciting and financially free. Our industry offers some of the biggest give a-ways know to man from houses, to cars, to home goods and more. The tools are there to promote your business in an exciting and believable ethical manner. There is no need for cheap tactics in this business; the life changing proof is everywhere. It is up to you the affiliate to stop promoting dodgy products, and using un-necessary sales techniques.

Network marketing is in my opinion easy to build, you are offering people financial freedom, and if you need the tools to help you visit us, we will train you to become a top earning network marketer. We believe in network marketing to such a degree we give every affiliate one free paid member every month until they have built there business to a point where they can teach the next person.

If we as a collective strive to teach the new correct duplication, marketing, business ethics and training. We are destined to reach dizzying heights this business has never yet witnessed. A completely new world is about to be born! Make sure you are there with the forethought to bring about change to this bright new time of Internet Marketing.

Think about this next time you are presenting your opportunity to your prospect, take comfort in the fact that if they are not interested in your plan, after showing them concrete proof of how MLM is changing peoples lives every day. Feel warm at the fact you do have the perfect income opportunity and it is only the ignorance of people, not willing to re-evaluate their pre conceived ideas that ultimately is only going to hold them back.

Market your business with ethics and give your prospects relevent honest information, offer them a solution to their problems, this will make your network grow faster than you can keep up with the welcome letters.