I joined a new network marketing company this week. Didn't abandon the other ones, just added another. The new company is one that has completely captured my interest. The concept behind it is truly compelling, and once I heard the details, I simply couldn't pass it up.
The funny thing was, I had seen information on this company several times before. And until someone I personally knew started telling me about it, I had nothing more than a mild curiosity. I was aware of the concept, and some of the people behind it. In fact I had seen quite a lot of material on it. And my attitude was, "ho, hum."
Once someone I knew told me about it, though, I started getting interested. I got to checking into it and signed up within two days. The next day I was contacting the people I knew and telling them about it.
That made me stop and think.
I consider myself a fairly logical and objective person. Why, then, did I not become interested in this opportunity until it was presented to me by someone I knew?
I guess because I'm human. And it's human nature to pay more attention to the messenger than to the message, at least in the beginning. As you can imagine, I see details many, many network marketing opportunities. After a while they all seem to merge into a single blur. And that's the way it is for most people, I think. People who are involved in network marketing and people who aren't.
In fact, that's one big reason why network marketing works. And why it is an increasingly important way to do business.
I know that I am overwhelmed by information. You probably feel the same way. Every day, I'm assaulted by telephone, email, television, radio, books, magazines, audio tapes, video tapes, letters, junk mail, catalogs, billboards and much much more. The noisy clamor increases each day. All this information can be liberating. It can also be paralyzing. Which claims do I believe? Everyone has an expert and everyone has a concept and everyone has a breakthrough product or business plan.
This problem is getting exponentially worse as time goes on. The cost of communications bandwidth is plummeting. Computing power is skyrocketing. The result is that every day we're faced with more and more information. We try to keep up with it all, but after a while, many people just throw their hands up and block most of it out. What else can you do to cope?
It is ironic. As more and more information is out there, our reaction is to let less and less of it come through. When you hear about 15 new network marketing companies every week, you're simply not as open to hearing about another one.
Unless the person doing the telling is someone you know. Someone who has credibility with you. Then, at least you listen with an open mind.
Think about it. Doesn't the opinion of a friend or relative carry vastly more weight with you than the pronouncement of some "expert" or "guru"?
As I've said many times before, network marketing is not mass marketing. Mass marketing depends on getting a simple, consistent message in front of large numbers of people, over and over again. Network marketing is people-to-people marketing. One person recommending a product or service to another person, based on personal experience.
Many people try to work network marketing like it is mass marketing. They run ads, hand out flyers, post messages online, send out mailings, put a message on their "home page", try to get free publicity. And this will all work to some degree. Because it is mass marketing and mass marketing does in fact work.
Network marketing works better, though. Especially when promoting a network marketing opportunity. Because network marketing is easily duplicated. Tell a friend about your company, or maybe just call her up and 3-way her into your company's opportunity call. If she joins you, she'll easily be able to do the same thing.
When you recruit you've got to remember that the people you sponsor will more than likely turn around and try to recruit people the way they were recruited. If you write a "killer" sales letter and buy a mailing list and send out 5,000 copies to "hot MLM prospects" then the people you sponsor will attempt to do the same thing. But they may not be able to write a sales letter as well as you did. They may not know where to buy a quality mailing list. They may not be able to afford to send out as many pieces as you. So while you may have some success, your downline will not. And you are not doing network marketing. You are doing old fashioned, linear mass marketing. Your efforts will not be easily duplicated and you will never build a residual income that will allow you to enjoy the lifestyle that comes from having dependable "mailbox money."
True network marketing involves talking to the people you know. That is where you will be the most effective. I think many people are reluctant to go this route because they don't think that the people they know represent a big enough market. And that is almost certainly true. You're never going to make a lot of money just selling products to the people you personally know.
If however, you make sure your marketing efforts are easily duplicated, then the people you know will market to the people they know, and the people they know will market to the people they know, and so on. And this represents an enormous market, a virtually unlimited market. A market that is penetrated one person at a time, in a very personal manner.
With so many products, so many business opportunities, so many things clamoring for their attention, people have a tendency to build barriers against new ideas and concepts. Network marketing is a truly effective way to get through those barriers, if it is done right. As time goes on, and as the world becomes more complex, the role of network marketing becomes more and more important in exposing people to new and useful products, services and concepts.
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