The Top 5 Fundamental Skills for Network Marketing

What do you do in network marketing? How do you make money? You can have tons of lunches. You can share the benefits of essential oils with your friends. You can set up a lot of trade show booths but the bottom line is how do you create a professional salary/income? The following are the nuts and bolts to give you a clear picture. Today, we will go over the broad concepts of "What to do." We have a proven system/program for our team members that teaches "How to do it." They are simple to understand. Sometimes, too simple that people complicate things. These are the 5 skills/action steps that you need. Some professionals say their are three steps. Others say 7 or 10. There are really just 3-7 steps (depending how you break at down). I did not include steps like "building confidence" because it did not meet the criteria I set. I think personal development is great (and will help your business immensely), but our top priority and focus is action because it produces results. You can be the most confident person in the room, but without action, there is no income. The criteria1. They are fundamental principals. They are critical to your success. If you miss even one, you will not be able to master network marketing. However, if you master just these FIVE steps (not 10 or 20, just 5), you are on your way to massive success. 2. They produce income and results. It's great to have fun but the numbers don't lie. Your income is a result of whether you effectively implemented these steps or not. 3. The activities are measurable and can be quantified. Numbers are great. You can control how many people you talk to. How many people you followup. It is also predictable. If you talk to ten people and sign up one on average, that means if you talk to hundred, you can sign up ten. You can plan to reach your goals knowing the numbers and the activities you need to get there.

The 5 Skills / Action Steps 

1. Creating Building a candidate list. You can't enroll anyone if you don't have a list. Everyone has a list, whether it's in their phone book, facebook, or a mental list. You can't do any of the following steps if you don't have any one to talk to. This is the first step, without it we can't begin. For some people it's mental. For professionals, it is a physical list that keeps growing. This is the "networking" part of network marketing. In sales, this is a part of "prospecting." If you don't like any of those terms, just think of it as "Meeting people and making friends." The average American knows 600 people. Check out facebook, wedding, or party. Include friends a friends, you have a network of thousands. Write down a list. Chances are you probably can write down 10-25 people that you know well enough to trust them. There are many ways to write a list which we will cover. Know that a good number to start with is 100 people or more. If you start with a number like 20, you will run out of people to talk to quick and your business may stall as fast as it started. --Write your friends and family (warm market). People joke that if you talk to friends and family, you will be part of the NFL (No Friends Left) Club, but the fact of the matter is, if you contact respectfully and professionally, you may get a referral or even a new enrollment. You won't believe how many people sign up with a company that don't know that their own cousin, sibling, parent, or child is in that same company because they falsely believed that they should exclude their warm market. -- Use a Memory Jogger List. Google Search Memory Jogger List. These are a set of questions designed to think of people you may have forgotten to put on your lists. -- Contacts from Contacts. Ask for referrals. -- Get out there and make friends. Network. (These are a list of things to do, we will cover tips that may help you with this step) 2. Contacting Inviting. Talking to people can be the simplest task, it can also be the most challenging. What do you say? How do you bring it up? Some people are natural sharers and have parties at homes. If you were like me when I first started, you would need a little encouragement. Contacting people may be uncomfortable at first but it should leave you feeling good in the end. Chances are that these oils have had a profound effect on you, you want to share the benefits. These benefits can be life changing. Answer the question, "What's in it for them?" If you can provide a solution and solve their problems, you are doing a huge favor and being a great friend. There are a lot of people that I can't even imagine where they will be without knowing about oils. Contacting can be a fun part of the business. Suddenly, it's not work when you love doing what you are doing. 3. Presentation. Offering the solution. Have you ever shared the benefits of the essential oils with a friend and they didn't sign up? Chances are they loved the oils, but they did not see the value of starting an account. It's not their fault. They weren't presented the information they needed to make an educated decision on whether they wanted to start an account. The presentation gives a clear overall view on what it you have to offer. You are not selling a lemon or a peppermint oil. You are offering people a chance to change their life through using natural alternatives that are preventative and non toxic which in turn, creates health and wellness. With a better health, the grandmother can pick up her grandson on the playground. With better health, life is enjoyable. Are they open to creating an income with a network marketing business? Sometimes, the solution they are looking for is more time with their family at home. For others, maybe they feel stuck in a career that they are not passionate about. Or maybe, they do not want to end up like most people at retirement age, still working 40hour weeks at a job or relying on others. 4. Follow Up Professionals agree, "The fortune is in the followup." Most sales are made on the 5th or more contact (more than 4 followups). A select group of people followup more than two times. How many times do you followup with a person? This happens during the contacting face, to after they attend a meeting, to after they sign up. Followup is great for sign ups, referrals, and leading a team. You've probably heard of the Pareto Principle: 80% of the sales are made by 20% of the people. Chances are that 20% are doing a great job at followup, while the other 80% may stop with one or two contacts before giving up. We have people that join our team. They found out about the company through a person years ago, but the person did not contact them again so they missed out on opportunity. On the flip side, we know people who are afraid to followup and falsely believe that following up is a sign of being "pushy," they lost the opportunity to enroll a candidate. Followup shows that you are committed to the person and professional. You believe that you have a solution and are offering a great service in keeping in touch. It can feel great. One tip is to ask permission to followup so it doesn't feel awkward to call or contact them. 5. Leadership Development / Duplication This is the primary difference of a career in network marketing and a career in sales. Although sales (or sharing) is involved in network marketing, as a professional, you are paid primarily on distribution. Your role is to set up distribution. Your income is leveraged because you duplicate your efforts with your team that follows your model. You help them develop a leveraged income. You can sign up 100 people, but without duplication it is limited to those hundred people (which can be a daunting task). In contrast, you can sign up 10 people who will duplicate to thousands, if you master this skill. Leadership is different from management. In network marketing, a lot of people sign up to be their own boss. They did not sign up to be bossed around. Instead, you must help people discover their motivation and inspire them to move forward. Conclusion These are the 5 steps. After reading this, they seem simple and obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people don't execute these steps. They say over 90% of people fail at network marketing. If you look at a typical day, week, or month, chances are that they aren't doing all of these steps (or they aren't doing them consistently and effectively). No magic lead generator or automated email will generate you success (at least long term success in network marketing). Just like any high paying profession, it requires a certain skillset. Fortunately, this profession does not need physical talent or advanced degrees. It is simple enough, that people who are willing and capable to master these 5 skills will generate a great part-time or full-time income. Some of you reading this may think, "Awesome, I just have to figure a way to do these steps and I'm on my way." Others reading this may be thinking, "Just tell me what to do in detail, step by step and I'll do it." We have a step by step system you can follow. It will tell you exactly what to say, and when and how to say it. It will list what you need and give you a sequence. But that's only part of the recipe to success. I must tell you though along the way, you will learn things through experience and develop critical thinking skills that aren't taught. There will be times when we will teach you "How to" think rather than "What to" think. Human behavior and social interaction is so diverse, that it will take lifetimes to learn exactly how to deal with each situation or scenario, but if you learn general concepts in addition to the detailed step-by-step how-to examples, you will do just fine in succeeding and mastering this business. To your success, Holan Nakata