What are the top characteristics of network marketing success?
If you’re in a network marketing, mlm, direct sales, or have a home based business; these are the top traits and characteristics you must develop if you plan to build an empire.
I struggled for a long time in my first network marketing venture before I figured it out and started getting some traction and success.
I hope you benefit by making sure you’re developing these qualities as you go.
Wherever you’re at right now in your business, cultivating these habits and characteristics will take you and your team to the next level.
You don’t need them all to make a few hundred dollars a month.
However, if you want to build a network marketing dynasty, you must master these character traits and strategies as quickly as possible.
These are the foundation on which your network marketing organization will stand or crumble.
Network Marketing Success
1) Mindset Domination
This is hands down the most important attribute of network marketing success.
In fact, it’s the most important characteristic for success in any endeavor.
Wherever you are right now in life… whatever you have or don’t have, whatever you’ve achieved or not achieved, your current reality is a product of your mindset.
Yes, I know some things are out of your control.
But if your first thought after reading the statement above was to go straight to that thing that you have no control over, then it just proves my point.
Your mindset is your greatest strength or greatest weakness.
You must learn to dominate your mind, your thoughts, your beliefs, and your emotions.
These elements make up the foundation of what I am referring to as your mindset.
If your mindset dominates you, it will keep you from achieving the highest levels of network marketing success.
This is because the mind’s primary purpose is for survival and protection.
The mind controls sleep, breathing, anxiety, adrenaline release in times of danger, and the list goes on.
It can be detrimental to you taking action though .
This is because your mind can send a signal of fear or anxiety when there is really nothing to fear.
The best way for me to explain the power of the mind is by describing an experience I had recently at a convention.
Actually, it was more of an expo, with different vendors showcasing their latest and greatest products.
I was early and because of that, I was one of the first people to a demonstration of new virtual reality technology.
I’ve heard of this interesting new technology, who hasn’t?
Luckily I was able to have a conversation with the person setting up (let’s call him Abdul) and the next thing I know, I was putting on a virtual reality headset and drawing a crowd.
The goggles went on and I was transported to a virtual dimension.
The world was not realistic, it was an obviously fake world (apart from the fact I knew I had on a headset).
If you have kids who have ever played mindcraft, it looked similar to a world created in that game.
Similar to the picture I posted here.
Basically, it was a pixelated video game world.
I could still hear Abdul talking to me but I could look all around, up and down, and see nothing but this world that I was in.
There was nothing moving.
No people, birds, animals, clouds, etc.
So I’m looking at a brick wall 2 inches from my face when I first put the headset on.
Abdul says “turn around, I put you on a ledge”.
I turn around and there I was, 3 stories up standing on a ledge looking down.
Then Abdul says “This is where it gets interesting. I want you to step off the ledge.”
Now you know and Abdul knew and I knew and the people watching me know that the world and the ledge was fake.
My conscious mind knew this as well.
My conscious mind knew that I was standing in an expo hall and if I stepped forward I would just be taking a step like any other step.
However, a part of my mind had been hijacked and deceived.
I didn’t step forward immediately and I heard Abdul and a spectator urging me on “go ahead, step forward”.
At this point I said “well, I’ve been bungee jumping and skydiving, so this is a walk in the park”.
Then I stepped forward…
I kid you not when I say I had a physical reaction to nothing.
My stomach literally dropped for a split second just as it would if you took a roller coaster straight down.
Not only did my stomach drop, but I almost tripped because my mind (and foot) expected nothing to be there when I stepped.
There was a powerful physical response triggered by my mind to something that didn’t even exist.
And I KNEW it wasn’t real.
I laughed and removed the headset.
Abdul looked at me and said “you know the most interesting part?
I only took away one of your senses.
I could have taken away my voice linking you to this world and replaced it with sounds I could have created air flow to simulate wind, which would have made it seem even more real”.
At that, I thanked him and walked away.
But as I did, I started thinking about the absolute power of the subconscious mind.
I couldn’t stop thinking about it and it’s implications for the rest of the day.
How often are we deceived by our subconscious mind and our conscious mind doesn’t pick up on it?
I knew the danger was fake, that’s why I was able to step off the ledge.
Yet, it still triggered a physical response from my body.
It also got me thinking, how many times do you suppose we are duped by our mind in our everyday life?
Tricked into believing danger is real when it doesn’t really exist at all… except in our mind?
That’s why you absolutely must dominate your mindset and not let it control you.
This is particularly true in network marketing because the biggest reason people don’t succeed is they don’t take consistent action.
The biggest reason they don’t take action is because of a fear that exists only in their mind.
Network Marketing Success
Principle #2 – Put God First
Proverbs 3:6 says “In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
If you’re building a network marketing business (or any business you’re passionate about), it’s easy to get sidetracked by being so focused on what you’re doing that you forget to stop and smell the roses (as they say).
I want to take a moment to encourage you to keep the right priorities.
Those priorities should be in the following order.
1) God
2) Family
3) Business
If you mess up the order, you’re setting yourself up for issues.
Rather than success, you’ll have regret.
Your joy will be stolen, you won’t be fulfilled, and you’ll constantly feel unbalanced.
If you keep priorities straight, you’re more apt to have fun.
You’ll be grateful that you’re in the greatest profession in the world.
A profession where you can touch countless lives, help people, build a highly profitable empire, and do it all for so little risk (a few hundred a month in most cases).
If you want to dive deeper into this topic, check out our article by the same name: Put God First- Denzel Washington.
3) A Compelling Vision
Where there is no vision, the people perish. – Proverbs 29:18
If you want massive network marketing success, you must develop and latch on to a compelling vision.
Sometimes vision is referred to as your ‘why’, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.
I’m talking about a vision of what you want in life.
A vision of who you want to become.
This can be an income level or rank, but it’s more specific than that.
You are building a dream life and it can absolutely be done inside of network marketing.
But it starts with asking good questions.
What does your dream life and business look like?
What do you want your organization to look like?
What type of people do you have on your team?
Who do you want to be?
How large is your organization?
What countries do your teams operate in?
Do you even have a plan?
Do you travel much or sit on a beach?
How do you duplicate?
How do you build community within your team?
How do you help create success?
Most importantly, who are you?
How do you show up?
If you plan to build a team of 10,000 or more, you better be a leader who can lead 10,000 or more.
If you don’t get a vision of who you’re committed to becoming, you will likely not achieve what you want.
Your success will be stifled.
Too many people inside of network marketing want the success and accolades, but they don’t want to be “that guy”.
The network marketing guy.
I embrace that guy.
I want to be bolder, my vision is to be a person who has zero fear.
Zero care what people think about me and my choices, and total time freedom.
I want to be the guy that can push somebody to excel beyond what even they thought possible.
That’s true leadership.
I want to be the guy that helps others dream bigger and achieve more.
I want to change lives spiritually, physically, emotionally, and financially.
I don’t know of any mlm top leaders who are afraid of being labeled as the network marketing guy.
They embrace it and embrace the duty of that position- to help others who want it, regardless of what those who don’t want it have to say.
You can’t control what others think.
If you’re going to impact the world in a big way, you better get a big vision of who you’re becoming and a clear vision of where you’re going with your business.
Helen Keller said it best when she was asked “what could be worse than being blind?”
To this she responded “If I woke up one day, put my feet on the floor, and realized that I had no vision”.
4) A Burning Desire for Success
All successful multi-level marketers have a deep seeded desire to live the best life they can possibly live.
Most of the time, it’s not even about the money.
Money is transient.
It comes, it goes.
The highest earners in network marketing do have a very intense, burning desire for success.
Sometimes they will describe that as wealth, but most of the time it’s something other than wealth.
That burning desire may be for recognition, respect, or even to help people.
Sometimes the desire is for something that has nothing to do with the network marketing industry.
For example, I know someone who built a 7 figure business and funded their own christian school.
Imagine how much good a person in the non-profit world could do if money and government regulations were not an issue.
They could shift their energy from raising money (or using the money specifically as it was earmarked) to doing the work they’re passionate about.
You may say that non-profits have more than enough to get by.
That may be the case in large national organizations but there are many non-profits that are running on a shoestring budget.
These small organizations have a founder who is probably in the thick of raising money, trying to do good, but the money just isn’t coming in.
Typically, an intense burning desire has to do with something other than the person who has that desire. Something outside of themselves.
A cause you feel extremely passionate about.
An issue you feel called or compelled to make better.
No one can give you a burning desire.
You have to find it within.
Some people seem born with a desire to just achieve.
It’s part of their DNA. Others have to cultivate that desire.
Kevin Trudeau, from my understanding, is currently serving time in prison for criminal contempt.
While I don’t condone funneling your burning desire into illegal activity, he definitely has the authority to speak on what a burning desire is and how to develop it.
It’s less than 5 min. and worth a watch.
5) Extreme Mental Toughness and Teflon Resiliency
Toughness of the mind can only be produced by the ups and downs of life.
If you look at the lives of some of the most uber successful people, they often developed their mental toughness navigating their rough lives.
Take Oprah for example.
She was raised in a poor neighborhood by a single teen mom.
She was raped at 9 years old by her 19 year old cousin.
But it didn’t stop there.
She was also sexually abused by her mom’s boyfriend, a friend of the family, a cousin, and her uncle.
So at 13 years old she ran away.
She was pregnant by 14 and lost her son shortly after being born.
Then she went on to create massive success.
Would she have been successful without those hard times in her life?
Maybe. But I don’t believe she would be as successful as she is.
During all those moments she learned through experience that she could either give up and let life win, or she could dominate her thoughts and develop Teflon resiliency.
For network marketing success, you must develop extreme mental toughness.
People will say no, not text you back, avoid your calls, make appointments and not show, etc.
This happens even if you’re building your business right and professionally.
If it’s happening to you, accept it and move on.
It will happen. Don’t dwell on it.
You may ask why?
Jim Rohn says this is a senseless question but I’ll entertain it a little here.
One of the reasons why people do those things is because if you’re doing your job right, there’s a little part of a person who doesn’t want to say no.
So they avoid making a decision.
They want to take action but they haven’t developed the toughness to go for it.
So they don’t say no, but deep down inside they wish they would.
They want the dream, they just don’t believe they can do it.
Develop mental toughness or fail.
It’s that simple.
Without it you won’t last very long and certainly won’t hit top ranks and pay levels inside of the network marketing industry.
Network Marketing Success Tip #6
Fearlessness of a Honey Badger
Honey badgers are built to take a beating and keep on tickin’.
The harsh environment they live in coupled with predators all around them, force them to be tough to survive.
The honey badger has a thick skin (resiliency).
It’s hide is extremely thick and protects it against biting, clawing, and stinging.
We already covered this, but you need a thick skin for success in network marketing.
More interesting to me though is the honey badgers tirelessness.
They will continue to fight for hours.
It’s probably what makes them so fearless.
If you’re going to build a legacy in network marketing, then develop fearless courage.
The people you are the most afraid to approach about your product or business are probably the successful people around you who could build it super fast if they chose to.
You need these people on your team.
Maybe you struggle with fear in general when talking to anybody.
If that’s the case you need to review the first section again about dominating your mind.
The best way to overcome fear in anything though is to kill it.
How do you kill it?
By taking consistent action.
Take action every day, get more “no’s” under your belt and do it consistently.
Soon the fear with subside and if it doesn’t go away completely, it will at least be manageable.
That’s the only way.
If you’re reading this and thinking you need to watch more videos to “get motivated” or read more articles to get “educated”, then you are fooling yourself already.
Sometimes the truth hurts.
But if one person reading this stops and takes an honest assessment at where they’re at, then makes some changes to move foward… then this article will be worth it.
The cycle of never-ending learning and no action is a sign that fear is kicking your butt and holding you back.
7) Commitment That Borders On Obsession
The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs.
The chicken is involved; the pig is committed. – Martina Navratilova
Network marketing leaders are 100% engaged and committed. They aren’t just interested in building a business, like you would be interested in a hobby.
They are committed.
What separates leaders from those who just try (and don’t succeed) is that they are committed to the point of obsession.
At some point, they drew a line in the sand and said to themselves “this is it, I won’t back down, I won’t give up, I will do it until I’ve done it, I will climb to the top no matter what.”
Ask yourself this question: Are you just involved in your company or are you committed?
Are you obsessed?
People who are simply involved are fans of all the fluffy stuff.
They like to be around positive people, they like the motivation and self-improvement they get from meetings and corporate events, but they aren’t committed, not really.
Don’t get me wrong, the motivational stuff is great.
Sometimes I like the fluffy stuff myself, but I know it’s to be treated as a desert and not the main course.
Those who are committed are going after it and they get at least some results, even if they’re new and not very skillful yet.
This is because they’re putting numbers up on the board talking to people.
Committed people aren’t worried about what those around them think. They’ve made a commitment regardless of what those around them choose to do.
It must be pig-like commitment too.
The quote at the beginning of this section said the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.
The pig has totally given everything, including his life, to achieve his goal.
If you want network marketing success, you have to move from interested to committed.
You must be borderline obsessed if you want to reach the upper levels of any network marketing business model.
Grant Cardone has a great book called Be Obsessed or Be Average in which he describes the importance of being obsessed with your goals.
If you don’t struggle to stop thinking your network marketing business, then you probably aren’t as obsessed as you need to be.
8) Consistency, Consistency, Consistency
(Military Like Discipline)
Consistency is is your best friend or your worst enemy.
It’s what separates successful from unsuccessful network marketers.
It separates those that make lots of money and those who pay for a ticket every month just to be on the train… but never arrive at their destination.
If you’re not consistent, you’ll never build momentum.
When I talk about consistency I’m talking about prospecting.
I’m not talking about going to meetings, learning stuff from blogs like this one, reading books, checking on your customers, and spending hours a day watching YouTube videos that show you what to do if you ever take action.
All those things are important, but they aren’t the most important.
Prospecting is where the growth is.
Prospecting is where the money is.
Prospecting is where the momentum is.
You should be prospecting every day.
The higher the number you prospect, the faster you go.
If you can only talk to 2 people a day, then fine, talk to two people a day but do it every… single… day… without fail.
Your prospecting activity should have the consistency of a soldier.
The military is famous for teaching people how to have self discipline.
Your self discipline when it comes to prospecting should be as consistent as a marine’s daily ritual.
When I don’t hit my numbers before midnight, I jump on Facebook and prospect random people.
I don’t expect any of them are going to bite but some do.
I do it for me. I do it to keep me accountable to me.
Just like working out or eating poorly, once you take a day off it’s too easy for that day to become two days, then three.
Pretty soon you’re at a week or a month.
Prospecting should be a daily habit.
Your skills will grow over time, but the daily habit gives you experience.
It also gives your boldness and fearless muscle a workout.
I could go on and on about this, but if you’re not prospecting every day and hitting predetermined activity numbers, then you don’t want it bad enough.
For more on how to prospect, check out our ultimate guide on the topic.
9) Unfaltering Confidence
Successful network marketers have confidence that can’t be shaken.
Confidence in themselves, confidence in their company, confidence in their products, confidence in their compensation plan, and confidence in the industry.
If you’re lacking confidence you need to do everything you can to get your confidence up.
Work on yourself, do research (like you are right now) on the network marketing industry and understand your company’s compensation plan and products inside and out.
Eric Worre likes to say “we have a better way” and he’s absolutely right.
If you haven’t seen this video and only watch one on this page, it should be this one.
If you don’t believe network marketing is a better way, you need to work on your belief.
One of the best ways to do this is to get to company events or local meetings if you can’t afford a company event.
Again, more important than events though is consistent action.
If you take consistent action, you will get results (even if you’re bad) and those results (no matter how small) can help you get to the point where you know you’re going to build this, with or without the person in front of you that you’re prospecting.
Once you have that belief, really have it, you’re unstoppable.
On the other side of the coin, without confidence your network marketing success is dead in the water.
Without confidence, you communicate to people only that you’re interested in this network marketing thing.
Your non-verbal and verbal communication sends the message of interest, which is a weak message.
Remember, you want to be communicating commitment and confidence.
With confidence, you’re communicating something different.
With confidence you’re communicating that you are committed to doing this, with or without them.
That’s a different message entirely and it’s received differently.
Take a moment to assess your confidence level.
Be determined to work on it if necessary.
10) Powerful Positioning & Posture
Posture and positioning are related to confidence but they’re different in that they are a reflection of external behavior.
Confidence is something that happens internally, positioning and posture are external.
Let’s discuss them separately.
What is Positioning in Network Marketing?
Positioning is exactly what the word implies.
When you position something in a certain way, it affects how people view that thing.
In this case, that thing is you and your company (but mostly you).
The goal of positioning is to frame you and your company as the answer to your prospects problems or issues.
If you’re positioning is weak instead of powerful, people may hear your message but not believe it.
So it’s extremely important that you position yourself in a powerful way.
This blog is an example (to an extent) of positioning.
You are looking for answers, I’m trying to help by providing valuable content.
This content does a number of things.
One, it positions me as a reliable source of information that you will come back to when you want to learn.
It also allows me to connect with people all over the world.
In addition to that, it allows you to get a taste of my personality and thought processes so if I resonate with you, you may decide you want me as a mentor when you decide to change your life and chase your dreams.
It positions me and my company as an option if you are open to it.
Okay, So What is Posture?
Posture is how you carry yourself and what you communicate to those you’re talking to.
Like positioning, posture is also external.
In fact, if you don’t have confidence, working on posture is the best way to fake confidence.
But fake it ’till you make it is not a strategy I suggest you adopt.
Why?
Because without true confidence, you can only fake it for so long (and some people will see through it).
That being said, posture is super important.
When you have posture you control the energy in the conversation.
If you’re in a conversation and somebody starts being negative, cut the conversation off, take it away from them, and be willing to walk away.
If you say something like “well, this obviously isn’t for you, no problem, have a good day” and begin exiting the conversation (maybe even physically walking away), it catches people off guard.
People are so used to network marketers taking a weak posture that they almost don’t know what to do when you have strong posture.
An example of a weak posture would be trying to prove to someone that your products are good or network marketing is not a pyramid scheme.
Better to walk away.
You should be sorting, not selling.
Plus, if you master the art of posture, it will snap some people out of their current state of mind because it’s not what they’re used to, nor is it what they expect.
Like confidence, posture communicates commitment rather than interest.
This can trigger fear in the other person, a fear that they will miss out on something unless they immediately change what they are saying & thinking.
It also positions you as somebody who doesn’t need them.
By default, it then positions them as somebody that may need you.
Remember, successful network marketers are sorting through people looking for those who are ready to go, not convincing people to change their beliefs.
Once you start trying to convince, you start losing people and if you’re trying to convince those closest to you, you risk damaging the relationship.
11) Laser Focus & Intensity
So you want to go fast?
Laser focus and intensity is the key.
This intensity has to be focused on activity that builds your network marketing organization.
How many new people are you talking each and every day?
How many people are you following up with?
Are you just casually hoping you talk to somebody or do you make sure it happens before your head hits the pillow?
Does your level of activity make you think your success is inevitable or impossible?
News Flash: Even the best networkers in the industry don’t necessarily want (or like to) prospect.
But successful network marketers understand that how they feel has nothing to do with network marketing success.
If you have a job, I bet you get up every day and do things you don’t want to do.
Tasks you might even hate.
But you do it for a your paycheck.
What if you started viewing your prospecting as a task that must be done regardless of how you feel?
You’d get it done, you’d be making more money, and you’d have a thriving organization.
Just as an experiment, I dare you to make a commitment to be laser focused with your daily activity and go at it with an intensity you’ve never had before for 30 days.
Just 30 days.
See what happens.
Tony Robbins says that “The path to success is to take massive, determined action”.
It’s worth a try, right?
12) Coachability & Teachability
I used to be uncoachable, I admit.
Strange but true.
I thought there was some secret sauce nobody was telling me about.
If I could just learn it and add to my recipe for prospecting, it would turn me into a recruiting machine.
I later realized there is a secret sauce, it’s called work.
True story time.
I’m ashamed of this but I’ll share it anyway.
In my first company, I approached a high level leader after a meeting.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been in that position of desperation, but I was young and wanted to know what to do.
So I hung around later, a little insecure, and waited for my opening to talk to this leader who I assumed was using some magic words or phrases.
In my mind, he was larger than life.
I told him I wanted to really build this business and all that good stuff.
I don’t even really remember what all I said or how long I talked.
When I was done talking he simply asked me “How many people did you talk to this week”?
Well, that wasn’t what I wanted to hear and I didn’t have a good answer.
Actually, I knew my answer. It was 1. But I knew I couldn’t say 1, so I hemmed and hawed and acted like I wasn’t sure.
In retrospect, he probably knew what was up and assumed the answer was zero.
Regardless, he told me to talk to 10 people the upcoming week and then call him.
Knowing what I know now, he was probably going to ask me questions on my approach, then coach me on how to improve.
Or, he was going to see how serious I was…. talk is cheap.
But alas! I didn’t talk to my ten people, so I never called him.
If you want to be coachable and teachable, you have to see your network marketing career as a learning process.
Your upline has a vested interest in you doing well, especially if you’re in a binary.
But you can’t be coached on nothing.
How successful would a football team be if they never practiced and were never coached on how to improve?
How would they be if they just sat around on “practice” days and discussed theory all the time but never practiced?
The answer is… not good.
Not good at all.
The other thing to keep in mind about being teachable is not to reinvent the wheel, or at least don’t advertise what you’re doing until you have results.
Your upline will tell you what is working for other people in the company, what they are doing, etc.
If you’ve found a good trainer outside your company who resonates with you and you know you can get results using their methodology, it’s okay to try it.
This is your business after all.
But don’t advertise that you’re trying something outside the box until you’ve tested it and proven it so well that people are asking you what you are doing because of your results.
Blogging and putting out valuable content is my out of the box method.
Nobody is doing this in my company that I know of.
I’m not telling them they should be, I’m just doing it because I see the scalability of it and it makes sense to me.
I know that steady leads mean I can work with who I want, when I want, and ramp up enrollment anytime I want.
It also means I can build a leg in our binary faster than the people I put in.
This leaves them in a wonderful position of focusing on building only one leg.
It sets everyone I enroll up for massive success.
That’s my strategy.
I want to help people create the life of their dreams.
I can do this by setting them up for success.
SEO takes time, even in network marketing.
It’s a long term play that I know will pay off in big ways.
It’s not for everyone, so I build and train my local team like everyone else.
If I have somebody come on board through my blog and they want to use the strategy, I’ll teach it to them.
It’s not for everyone though.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses, the key to network marketing success and success in any industry is to work within your strength zone.
13) Professionalism – Tactful Communication
So this picture is the weirdest one I could find.
The purpose of the picture is to remind you that you don’t want to come off as weird if you want people to join you.
Don’t be weird.
Don’t spam.
Don’t nag.
Don’t be desperate.
Again, don’t be weird, don’t be desperate, don’t be weird, don’t be desperate.
Should I say it again? I think I must…
Don’t be weird and don’t be desperate.
That’s it in a nutshell.
I don’t know why, but for some reason when people get into network marketing they throw out all the communication skills they’ve learned and they revert to spammy weirdness.
What Qualifies as Weird?
Many times weird and spammy is communicated to your prospect when you’re talking about income potential.
The numbers themselves make it difficult to try to communicate it reasonably.
For example, my company’s compensation plan has a team commission structure that maxes out team commissions at over $25,000 a week.
Any volume not used is carried over to the next week.
The team commissions are meant to provide reliable and predictable income.
There are multiple ways to get paid on top of those team commissions, which exponentially multiplies the payout you can qualify for… aka unlimited income potential.
To repeat, these other ways to earn make the income potential unlimited.
Just try to communicate to somebody new that it’s possible to make… say… $250,000 per week (a million dollars a month).
Typically, you lose them.
Especially when you take into account that the income is mostly profit.
These numbers are difficult for a prospect because of the mindset they have.
How do you explain that team commissions are meant to max out at $25k a week, while volume is carried to the next week in order for distributors to have a reliable source of revenue that doesn’t fluctuate…
Without sounding spammy, without overloading them with information, and without making them think it’s too good to be true?
You don’t.
The best method is to leave out the big numbers and hype.
Ask how much they would like to make, then show them how to get there.
This allows them to see as far down the road as their belief allows.
One person may say, I’d like to make $500 a week and another may say $5,000.
I’ve yet to meet the person who thinks about it and then says, “you know, I’d really like to make $100,000 a week…. ”
It’s just too far out of the normal person’s range, so they don’t even think of it as a possibility.
Another story.
I was out for dinner with 3 leaders in my first company.
Eating BBQ at a local restaurant.
We wanted to do something nice for our server.
An older lady who had a rough week.
So we decided and agreed we would tip her as much as she would like.
We knew the small thinking mindset and assumed she would only ask for like $100. But we picked a number much, much higher that we would have gone up to.
Before the night ended, we told her we had done well financially and would like to pass it on by giving her a large tip. The caveat was she had to pick it.
As much as she wanted, dream big, and give us a number.
I can’t remember the total number but it was like $50 or something.
She was sooo happy.
But she left ALOT of money on the table.
Why do I share that story?
Because when you’re prospecting people, if you start pitching them on something too far out of their belief of what is possible, you will lose them.
You immediately look like the person pitching something that is too good to be true.
However, if you help the person who wants to make $500 a week see how that is possible, you’re more likely to enroll them and help them get there.
Once they hit $500 per week, they will realize they’re just scratching the surface because they will have started to figure out how this network marketing thing works and how powerful it is.
When they’re ready, they’ll start to go after the level of network marketing success that makes sense to them.
So leave the hype at home and talk to people like a normal professional.
If they’re asking questions and you show them how your compensation works, let them crunch the numbers and come to income conclusions themselves.
You telling them they can make $10,000 a week is far less powerful than them figuring it out themselves.
What Qualifies as Desperate and How Does it Erode Network Marketing Success?
Don’t be desperate.
Some of the typical actions that project desperation include:
– Pitching people who didn’t agree to be pitched
– Flooding people with calls instead of just occasionally dripping communication
– Being too eager to sign them up
– Talking about getting rich
– Sounding spammy (this is easy, everybody needs it, our product is the best thing since sliced bread)
– Talking too much (yes, it’s true)
People smell desperation.
They learn it when they’re in high school or college and trying to find a mate.
The desperate man rarely gets the girl.
The guy who comes off as confident does.
All that dating experience produces a radar-like sense in people that goes off when desperation is in the air.
This plagues amateurs and hurts their network marketing success because it stops them cold in their tracks.
Sometimes people think when they’re making big money it will be an easier or different conversation with prospects than when they’re just starting out.
The conversation may be a little different, but only because your skills will be better.
We already established that you can’t really lead with big money because it’s weird and will turn many people off. This is true even if it’s you that makes that big money.
The only exception to this would be close friends.
They will see a transformation and notice the money, so it may turn some of them into believers (I say may because I still wouldn’t count on it).
It seems counter-intuitive, but if you want to recruit more reps, they need to see and feel that you really don’t care what they decide (even if you care tremendously).
Network Marketing Success Tip #14
The War Room Strategy
The war room is a place where the decisions of war take place.
Strategic moves and positioning, much like a game of chess, all have their genesis in the war room.
If you plan to build an empire in network marketing you must strategize with the seriousness of going to war.
Are you just piddling around here?
Or are you planning to dominate your industry and company?
Here are some things to consider:
- Alliances– Who did you go into business with? Is it your best friend Joe who’s never done anything notable with his life (but he’s fun to hang out with) or is it somebody with combat (business) experience. This can make a huge difference.
- Plan of Attack– What’s you marketing strategy? How do you find prospects? What systems do you have in place? Do you have a strategy? Hope is NOT a strategy!
- Training– How do you train your soldiers (new recruits)? Do you just give them a gun and send them out into battle or do you prepare them for the harsh realities of war (business)? If you’re sending them out blind, you’ll suffer ALOT more casualties.
These are the top 3 things to consider when planning your strategy for building a multi-level marketing company.
I may write another article using this analogy and unpack it a little more, but for now, you get the idea.
15) Take Responsibility: Total Self-Reliance
Your results are your results.
They aren’t your uplines fault, your recruits fault, or your company’s fault.
Own those results, even if they suck right now.
It will give you great joy to own them when they don’t suck.
I often say that you must be the leader you wish you could recruit.
My sponsor did meetings for me and helped me every step of the way the first time we built this.
He’s the best. But when I started with him again in my current company, I told him I would call if I needed him.
I’ve called only twice with questions.
I don’t want him to feel he has to hold my hand.
I want to push him to the levels he wants to go to and quite frankly, I want to be his biggest earner and biggest builder (and as of right now, I’m pretty sure I am).
In our company we have a check match program.
Because he is my sponsor, he gets a bonus based on my check.
If I make $2,000 one week, he makes $200 as a bonus (and no, it’s not taken from me).
Because of everything he has taught me, I’ve told him more than once, I want his bonus from me to be ridiculous.
Yes, you need training and help and support.
But at some point in your network marketing career you need to take total responsibility for your business.
It’s not your uplines job to build your business, it’s your job.
While they may help you, be willing to help you, and want to help you, the sooner you see yourself as a leader who doesn’t need their help, the more your prospects and recruits will see you as a leader as well… and the faster you will go.
16) Tenacity (Never Give Up)
By definition, tenacious means that you keep a firm grip or hold on something.
Imagine everyone (including yourself) is walking around carrying a dream in their hands.
Do you have the mental image?
Next, imagine the bully we call life comes up and punches you in the face…. it happens.
Mike Tyson said “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Sometimes wisdom comes from the unlikeliest of places.
You must be resilient to be tenacious, like Oprah or the story of the donkey in the well.
Leaders who reach the pinnacles of network marketing success do so in part because they’re tenacious.
They hold on to their dreams with a powerful grip and don’t let anybody steal it away from them.
Not their best friend.
Not their siblings.
Not their parents.
Not their boss.
Not a rude prospect.
If you’re moving slower than you want – so what?
If you’ve been knocked down – so what?
If it’s harder than you thought it would be – so what?
When you get knocked down, you really have only two choices in this life, get back up and start swinging again or stay down.
If life slows you down and it takes you longer than expected, keep on fighting.
This is the greatest business model in the world.
Tenacity doesn’t mean you ignore reality though.
One of the problems with network marketing is that there are so many things you can do to make yourself feel like you haven’t given up, when in reality, you quit a long time ago (or never started).
If you aren’t having daily conversations with people (either leads you generated through marketing or prospects you went out and made contact with), then you’re not being tenacious.
Tenacity is never giving up on taking action.
Going to a meeting, organizing your home office space, spamming your Facebook profile, and planning out who to call and what to say, is not taking consistent tenacious action… it’s filling time with non profit producing activity.
I’m just saying… think about it.
Network Marketing Success Tip #7
Build Your Capacity for Patience
It’s a catch 22, a quandary, a vicious circle.
It’s a dilemma that will never go away.
What am I talking about?
The great and wonderful stories of changed lives that the multi-level marketing industry parades across the stage.
These stories are both the most inspiring and motivating stories around, as well as the most frustrating and discouraging stories you can hear as a distributor who’s not breaking new ranks.
Why do I say that?
Well, they’re inspiring because you get to see ordinary people achieving extraordinary income and success.
They’re sometimes demotivating because you don’t hear the whole story or if you do, it’s glazed over.
Rare is that speaker who focuses on how difficult it was or the hardships they endured to get there.
Speed is exciting, just ask Ricky Bobby.
People like the stories of those who get involved and crush it.
Sometimes you don’t get to hear the fact that they spent 5-10 years in another company building a team and brought most the leaders with them when they came to your company.
That’s 5 years of work and struggle that’s left out of the story.
Or maybe somebody new to the industry gets involved and goes bananas, blowing through ranks like they were nothing.
What the audience doesn’t get to hear is that they’ve built 4 traditional companies from the ground up and have all that business experience when they join.
Not to mention a contact list that is 50 times the size of the average person and filled with successful entrepreneurs.
To be clear, they still deserve the success.
They’ve put in the time, blood, sweat, and tears to learn the skills.
They just happened to acquire the skills and cut their teeth in a different industry. Then they come in and apply those skills, habits, and relationships to a new venture.
That’s why and how they go so fast.
I say all of this to put things into perspective.
If you’re taking daily action and working on your skills, you will get there.
The key is to stick with it and have enough patience to see it through.
Experience takes time, skill building takes time, correct posture takes time, everything worth doing takes time.
So increase your capacity for patience and enjoy the journey.
Stop being like a whining kid in the back of the car saying “are we there yet” and just enjoy the ride.
If you focus on enjoying the journey, you’ll probably get there faster. But even if you don’t, at least you’ll be able to enjoy yourself along the way.
If you’re not having fun… you’re doing it wrong.
Network Marketing Success
Skill #18 – A Strong Work Ethic
Without a strong work ethic you can’t accomplish anything worth accomplishing in life.
How are you known at your job?
Are you known as the person who gets stuff done or the guy that will only do just enough?
I’ve found that people who do just enough actually think they’re fooling everyone.
Fooling their peers, fooling their superiors, etc.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if this describes you, the only person you’re fooling is yourself.
I learned this early in life on my first real job.
By real job, I mean one that had taxes taken out and I wasn’t paid by my father under the table.
I was a stock boy for the local Winn Dixie store.
One night, I was walking to take a pallet out to the floor to load the isle.
I had isle 10, I remember that distinctly.
I could even tell you what products were on that isle (cereal and breakfast items)
The manager was sitting down eating the new ice cream snickers bars and ask me if I wanted one (he had a whole box open).
So I sat down next to him and we relaxed on an impromptu break.
About that time another stock boy came around the corner.
After seeing what we were doing, he sat down next to us.
At this point the manager looked dead at him and said “what the !#@$ do you think you’re doing?”.
He replied, “taking a break”.
After a brief argument about why I could sit there and he could not, the manager simply said “because I know that no matter what, when it’s time to go, his shelves will be stocked”.
Then he dismissed him.
That stock boy went back to work and I sat there about 10 more minutes eating an ice cream snickers bar and enjoying my new status as a hard worker.
I learned a lesson that day I never forgot.
People are watching, even when you think they aren’t.
This is even more true in network marketing.
People will tell me they’re trying so hard, but if you ask them the same question my mentor asked me… How many people they prospected?… they get squirmy.
I have little patience when somebody says they can’t “get” anybody.
Especially if they are, have been, or plan to be married.
Seriously, if you can get somebody to commit their entire life to you, don’t tell me you can’t get somebody to join you in a business.
Unfortunately, there are many people in the world who get married more than 2 or 3 times!
So if you can’t recruit anybody at all, you aren’t trying hard enough.
Make sure you know what “work” is in this business.
As mentioned earlier, if it’s not profit producing activity, it’s not working.
Getting your contact list in order, organizing your office, strategizing about how you will present something… none of those qualify as work.
Don’t tell yourself you’re working when you aren’t. Period. End of discussion. No excuses.
To have network marketing success, you’ve got to develop a strong work ethic.
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Are you working toward your dreams?
Do you have the courage to initiate change?
Do you have the burning desire to succeed on a massive scale?
If you’re ready to change your life and think you’d be a good fit for our team, take immediate action!
If you bring the courage and desire, we’ll help you learn the rest!
A little bit of money and a whole lot of courage… that’s what we’re looking for.
Lastly, we are firm believers in our Savior Jesus Christ.
If you don’t have a personal relationship with the God of the Universe and would like one, click here.
God Bless,
– Jason & Daniele
