The 1 Quality that All Successful Network Marketers Possess
It’s easy to put in the effort to build your home-based business when everything is going great. But it’s another to keep pushing onwards when the results just aren’t there.
Welcome to Day 26 of the “30 Tips in 30 Days” Holiday Blogging Special. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts in this series, click on the Busienss and Marketing Tips category tab on the right sidebar.
On Christmas Eve, our family attended a Catholic mass at a church in New York City, in a rather rundown area of upper Harlem. This was not our usual church, but we were visiting a friend who was the new pastor at this church, and were eager to support him and renew our friendship.
Not knowing what to expect, we finally found a parking space and approached the front door.
From the outside, this place looked like a tiny hole-in-the-wall, really rundown. Slowly we opened the door….
And what we saw astounded us. We stood at the back of a magnificently large church, with rows and rows of pews leading up to a stunning alter decorated to the max for Christmas. Beautiful poinsettias, Christmas wreaths, candle displays, and a wonderfully hand-crafted large Nativity scene.
Those of you who know me personally understand that I am not easily shocked, but this place was breathtaking.
But as wonderful as the place looked, there was a sadness because, with this grand church so large it could easily hold 700-800 people, there were only 12 people (including us) attending the mass. To make it worse, everyone was spread out, mostly towards the back, making this magnificent Church look even emptier than it already was.
As the Mass started, I was anticipating a “quickie”. With this few people in attendance, I figured the priest would move quickly through the mass ritual, give a half-hearted superficial homily, and be done with it. I figured 30 minutes at the most.
But I was wrong. This mass, small as it was, was celebrated as if it was Cardinal Egan performing midnight mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The priest gave it his all, performing each prayer and ritual with a painstaking attention to detail.
And his homily was strong, a wonderful Christmas message of hope, faith, and charity. The organist, an older woman with a beautiful voice, sung every song as if she was singing to a church full of parishioners. The people collecting the offering performed their ritual with great detail and a smile for everyone they met. It was truly a remarkable experience.
As I was leaving and remembering the event, I started thinking how dedicated these loyal followers of Christ were to the success of their church. It didn’t matter to them how many people attended the mass. What mattered was that they put out their very best effort to give the people who attended the very best experience.
It’s the same with your home business. It’s easy to work hard and long when the results are pouring in… when sales are up, leads are flowing, and your are working under a positive cash flow.
It’s another thing to maintain this level of dedication and work ethic when things aren’t going so well in your business. When you put days in to planning and executing your PPC campaigns, writing articles, providing great content in your blog, or researching possible sites for banner ads — yet see no results.
These are the times when working even harder is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL.
I’ve heard people say that LONGEVITY is a key to success in online marketing. And part of that success involves working through the down periods until you start to see the fruits of your labor.
It’s very easy to quit — tempting, even — and most people WILL QUIT.
But for those who don’t, for those that work through the hard times, when nothing seems to be working even though you’re doing the right things, the benefits are worth waiting form. We’ve all been there. We’ve all felt the tug at our sleeve to give it up, to cut our losses, to go back to the “safe” life that we’ve known for many years.
If you are going to succeed in this industry, you MUST ignore these impulses to quit when times are tough. You must keep pushing on, like the priest at this mass of 12 people, as if the positive results are just around the corner.
It’s the ONE QUALITY that all successful network marketers share.
It will not surprise me if I were to return to this same Mass next year, and be greeted by a standing room only congregation of avid followers. For when you keep pushing, working through the tough times, its only a matter of time until prosperous times abound.
Why is the MLM Failure Rate so High?
Welcome to Day 8 of the “30 Tips in 30 Days Holiday Blog Special”.
Today’s post is about MLM and Network Marketing failure. Why?
Because at many points along the road to success in this industry, I can guarantee you one thing:
You will feel like quitting!
And it order for you to avoid becoming another MLM statistic, we need to arm you with some knowledge about why people quit. In tomorrow’s post, we will discuss what to do when you feel the urge to quit.
Here is the ugly truth in MLM:
Over 95% of MLM business ventures FAIL!
Why? Well, I had my own ideas but I decided to ask people in the industry what they thought the main reasons were for the high attrition rate. You can see all the results in my Squidoo lens.
Today I will talk about what I consider to be the top 3 reasons that people fail in Network Marketing.
REASON 1: UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS
By far the biggest reason for people quitting network marketing is, paradoxically, their very high expectations of the kind of success they will have and the time it will take them to achieve it. People come into the industry thinking that it will be an easy way to make a lot of money. They start their business thinking that it will be only a matter of weeks, or months at the most, before they’ll start making the kind of money that will allow them to quit their current job.
The real truth? Unless you have prior networking or sales experience, it will take the normal person months, or even years before they start seeing the kind of results they are expecting. In fact, most successful network marketers failed at the first MLM business they started. And the second. In fact, for many of the top earners out there, there were quite a few failures before they finally learned how to be successful in network marketing.
Who is responsible for these unrealistic expectations? Sadly, most of it originates from all the hype you see out there. You’ve all seen the ads: “Easy Money”, “Make Huge Money Online”, and “Become Rich Online,” to name just a few.
Are these lies? No. There are definitely people out there who are making a lot of money online in network marketing. In fact, there are A LOT of people making big money.
But they are not generally the people who are starting out for the first time.
No, the ads are not lies. But they are misleading. At least in my opinion.
REASON #2: TREATING YOUR BUSINESS LIKE A HOBBY
This is your business. If you don’t treat it like a business, it will fail. It’s pretty much as simple as that.
What do I mean? I mean putting the time, energy, and money into your business that is necessary for you to see success. Let me give you an example.
This is how I treat my business. I have a full time job as a medical professional, and I have a successful network marketing business.
How do I do both?
- I work about 3 hours at night on my business after I come home from my job, at least 4 days a week.
- I work an average of 5-6 hours on my business on the days I am not working (except Sundays).
- I have put every cent I have made to this point BACK INTO MY BUSINESS to make it grow. I invest in myself by paying for additional training to acquire skills I will need to be even more successful.
You see a theme here? TIME and MONEY. That is how you “treat your business like a business”. I’ve never seen a new business thrive when someone spends a couple hours a week on it. And people who take their business profits and buy a big screen TV will soon be looking failure in the face.
There IS a time and a place for such behavior — after you’ve started making Big Money. But until then, put the time and money into your business on a consistent basis and you will see it grow.
Slowly at first, then faster, and even faster until, one day you’ll wake up and realize your are one of those “Network Marketing Success Stories” that you read about.
It can and will happen if you treat your business like a business.
REASON # 3: LACK OF SKILLS
If you are an auto mechanic, you need skills to fix cars. If you are a doctor, you need skills to fix people.
If you are a network marketer, you need to acquire the skills necessary to be successful.
What are these skills? I’m talking about communication skills, marketing skills, and networking skills. Skills like how to talk to a prospect, how to communicate and support your team members, and how to project yourself as a leader.
Not to mention marketing skills. Here, you need skills like copywriting, website design and development, and learning how to promote your business online and offline.
What I am getting at is that people starting a network marketing business often overlook the fact that you need to acquire skills to be successful, just as you would with any other occupation. Yes, network marketing IS AN OCCUPATION, although not in the traditional sense.
People get impatient because they want to run before they can walk. They get uncomfortable because, for most of us, change is uncomfortable.
But it’s imperative that you acquire these skills (or learn how to outsource them) in order to be successful as a network marketer.
There you have it. My 3 top reasons why 95% of people fail at network marketing.
Leave a comment and add some more!
Tomorrow we will arm you with some tools when YOU feel like quitting…. and you will!
Everyone does.
Until next time, be happy!
Bob
Learn how an automated marketing system can cut down your learning curve
Make Money, Not Excuses
“You can make money or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both.”
These words were written recently in a blog by Karl Bessey, co-founder of a Texas-based finanical education and wealth creation company called Wealth Masters International.
I have been in this industry for more than a couple of years now, and I couldn’t agree with this more.
As I have said on this blog before, 97% of all home-based business owners fail. I take this to mean that 97% of all people who start a home-based business do not make enough money, and most probably spend more money than they make.
What that also tells me is that 97% of these people MAKE EXCUSES.
I have heard a lot of excuses in this business, some rather unique. But most center on the theme of NO MONEY, NO TIME, NO SUPPORT. OK, OK, and OK.
So what? You want to know how many of the 3% of people who make money in this industry had NO MONEY when they first started? Probably 95% of them.
You want to know how many of these people had time issues? Most of them.
You want to know how many had little to no support, and had to find their own way? Probably ALL of them.
That’s right, guys. It’s time to lay down the excuses and start making money.
Don’t let ANYTHING get in your way.
I am changing my mindset on this issue of EXCUSES.
Here are my new edicts:
- You have money problems? So does everybody. You will find the money if you really want it.
- You have time issues? Too bad. Stay up later or get up earlier.
- Your sponsor leave the company? So what, it happens all the time. Find the support you need elsewhere.
- Your spouse giving you crap about spending money? Work it out. Make money.
- You have too many expenses? Life getting in the way? That’s life — work it out (Rosemary and I have 2 kids in college, 1 going next year, and 1 more the year after… make it work anyway you can).
I know this may sound hard ass to many, but I’ve found in building my business with Carbon Copy PRO and WMI that it’s the only way you’ll make money.
No Excuses, Make Money. $$$
Great advice from someone who has “made it” in the Direct Sales industry. Karl Bessey is someone I really have come to respect. His story is compelling…. coal miner turned entrepreneur. So when he speaks, I listen.
And on this one, he is right on the money!
To your prosperity,
Bob
October 24, 2008, Cresskill, NJWhat business am I involved in?
Why is the MLM Failure Rate So High?
It’s generally accepted that approximately 97% of all MLM home business owners will spend more money than they make. This results in nothing more than a fairly expensive hobby, and ultimately results in MLM failure.
Why?
I posed this question to several of my colleagues in the home business industry and, to my surprise, there was an overwhelming similarity to their responses.
The NUMBER ONE reason that most experts gave for the high MLM failure rate?
UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. People getting into the business for the wrong reasons, and expecting unrealistic results.
Who is to blame for these unrealistic expectations. I believe the fault lies with both the new business owner and the network marketing industry.
Many people start a home business NOT to build a long term source of income but to make money quickly. They need money to pay bills, to pay off debt, or for some unforeseen emergency.
They read the HYPE on the internet, or get caught up in the excitement of a presentation, and sign on the dotted line.
Next thing they know, they find out they have to spend more money to purchase more products or to get higher into the compensation plan to make the kind of income they need.
They soon find out that there are a whole set of skills they need to be truly successful, including sales, copywriting, and marketing skills that take most people years to acquire.
And they get frustrated.
What they really want is quick money, a lot of money is as little time as possible.
They did not sign up for the long term plan.
But that is what a home business really is. It’s NOT a get rich scheme, it’s a get rich slow scenario.
And we in the Network Marketing and MLM industry are also to blame. Because of the HYPE.
We set people up for their unrealistic expectations based on our “hypey” ads, our misleading sales pages, and our broken promises of full and complete training.
That’s the bad news.
The good news? There ARE companies out there that deliver what they promise in terms of training and support. There ARE companies that cut the learning curve down dramatically with their systems.
But even so, it still is going to take the inexperienced marketer some TIME to acquire the necessary skills to succeed in their home business.
That is why I make sure that all of my prospects UNDERSTAND UP FRONT that they will need to work at their business, to treat it like a business and not like a hobby, and to learn skills they may not have at the moment.
I make sure my prospects understand, REALLY UNDERSTAND our company compensation plan, so that they are not blindsided by any additional funds needed to get their business off the ground.
Do less people sign up with me because of this. UNDOUBTEDLY.
Does it bother me? NOT A BIT.
Why? Because the ones who don’t sign up are the ones who would drop out within 6 months anyway. They are not really looking for a home business. They are looking for extra cash. And most times they don’t really want to work all that hard to get it.
What am I left with? A team of serious entrepreneurs who understand that it takes time to attain success and that sometimes money has to be spent in order to generate more significant earnings later on.
And these people are HARD WORKERS. They are not looking for a free lunch.
They are my kind of people!
To Your Success!
Dr. Bob Clarke
September 30, 2008; Cresskill, NJ
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