“So, tell me… what do you do for living?”

How would you answer if a stranger asked you that question?

What you say will mark the first impression this stranger has of you and your network marketing business. Are you a professional with a confident clear answer? Or are you a hobbyist who basically apologizes for what you do? Would you answer with a hesitating “well, in my spare time… ?”

Your first impression is very important to your network marketing career and how fast your home based business will grow. You must act like the CEO of your business the day you start.

Here is an exercise that may help: Imagine being a CEO of a million dollar corporation… really think about it. Picture your big corner office, your big bank account, your pride in your company. Visualize how that makes you feel OK, now answer that stranger’s question: “what do you do for a living?”

In order to succeed in the MLM industry; you must believe in the industry first. Unfortunately, there is an industry stigma that all MLM businesses are sketchy. It’s only sketchy if the MLM company does not actually sell a product or a service. In that case, it’s not only sketchy but illegal!

Just like most of those who start a MLM business, I doubted the industry before I launched new career. I was afraid that people would think it was not professional, wouldn’t take me seriously and expect me to fail. Well, quite the opposite occurred.

After opening my mind and learning the ends and outs of my company’s business model, I fell in love with this profession. I can’t image why anyone would want a “real” job when this opportunity is available anytime. If you find the right company, with the right products and a step-by-step business plan, then all you need is consistent effort and time. Consistent effort on the correct activity, I should emphasize.

Network marketing, MLM, direct sales, referral marketing, party planning, etc are all businesses under the same umbrella. All legitimate companies are registered with the DSA – Direct Selling Association. The business models are essentially the same strategy: sell products to clients and sponsor other sales people to sell products to clients.

Most people are afraid to get started with a home based business because they do not want to pester their friends and family. I agree! When I have new consultants join my team, I don’t want them pestering their friends and family either – they represent MY company too.

Friends and family are great people to help you practice your new trade. Perfect your presentations and gather product testimonials from friends and family. Never pressure them to buy anything. It will be their referrals who launch you into income producing activity. If you pressure your friends and family, why in the world would they give you any referrals? Almost every person who is a part of my personal MLM business, I did not know before I started. You can effectively network in your day-to-day life with a little extra effort on your part to be more inquisitive, friendly, helpful and professional.

So, before you answer the question, “What do you do for a living?” learn what network marketing really means: building meaningful relationships with people you find by networking. Simply put: love and believe in what you do for a living and it will show in your poise, confidence and smile.

Successful fundraising can be accomplished online. If you are one of the direct sellers that has your business online only, you will want to be able to offer fundraising as an option to your business plan. So how do you go about finding potential clients?

First and foremost, networking is going to be the main way of getting the information out there. Adding a sales page just for your fundraising options that you offer will be important to the salability of your program. While networking, you will not have the ability to fully explain your program, but you will want to send them somewhere professional to get the information.

Write a sales page as clear as possible without confusion. If you know your program can be confusing, make sure to highlight the important specifics and then have the potential client contact you for more information. Do not try and explain the entire program. You want to sell the Product and the idea of your program. Don’t kill the deal with too many confusing details.

You can highlight the important factors such as the amount of money that can be made by the customer. Show them the quality of the product, uniqueness of the product and don’t forget to explain why they should choose you and your products. If you have some testimonials, make sure to use them. Testimonials sell.

Make sure you are targeting the correct market for potential clients. Do some research to find the correct venue to place ads. If you are trying to market only to work at home moms also trying to market their own products, you may be wasting your time. But certainly add it to your social media pages. You never know who you may run into there.

Do not forget your offline friends, family and customers. You can direct them to your sales pages online and gather information there. Having a contact form would be a great idea as well as a sign up sheet for future contact on specialty programs you may have.

You can also cross promote with someone else you know to help get the word out. Don’t forget to use testimonials as well! Posting flyers, mentioning it at parties and adding information when you make your deliveries all help spread the word.

Enjoy developing your custom fundraising program. Take some time to make it unique and individual to the customer. Don’t forget to ask for the business. It can certainly boost your sales!

It’s easier to declare that a marketing tactic doesn’t work than to admit you’ve executed poorly.

In almost all cases, failed marketing tactics have one or all of the following characteristics, they lack an overall strategy, they are executed sporadically, they are done “on the cheap,” and they are boring and indistinguishable from other marketing hitting the prospect’s radar.

1. No strategy

Failed marketing usually involves no clear set goals, definitions, and identification of who you truly want to market to (to the exclusion of all other contacts). Typically a large list is bought (under the mistaken notion that there is safety in numbers), the marketing net is cast wide, due to the large pool of contacts the message is directed at the lowest common denominator and is diluted, and no leads are generated.

The strategy behind your marketing starts with realistic goals and mapping the amount of revenue you wish to generate. Ask yourself these questions: What needs to happen for your marketing to be successful? If you get a qualified opportunity, what is your close rate – 20 percent, 50 percent? What is the average sales price on a close? By knowing these two metrics and what your revenue goals are for the year, you can zero in on the number of leads to generate in order to get the needed opportunities and conversions. Your limited marketing dollars can go further the more you segment and target your list.

Now that you have a clearer idea of what your marketing needs to accomplish, you can focus on defining your ideal prospect and limiting your outreach to those who truly need and value your products and services and are willing and able to pay for them. It is far more productive to market to 100 contacts 10 times than 1,000 contacts once. Also, the more narrow the profile of your list, the more compelling your message will be.

Once you’ve solidified your focus, the selection of which marketing tactics to use is based on your audience (list) and how they prefer to receive and consume information. Your mix may include a social media, developing white papers for your blog and LinkedIn ads. Or, if your audience is not a group that spends a lot of time online, your mix might include speaking at local events, direct mail and webinars. The selection of tactics requires an understanding of your audience and knowing where they go to find information.

2. The one-off

The one-off attempt at marketing is the equivalent of putting money through a shredder. Think about it, how many times have you been motivated to buy based on a one-time receipt of a message from an organization you’ve never heard of before?

Often times the one-off begins with all good intentions – you don’t mean for it to be a one-and-done but other responsibilities of the business get in the way and months go by without follow-up campaigns to the list. Other times, because the one-off didn’t generate any leads, a business owner will come to the conclusion that the tactic didn’t work. But the truth is, all of us need to hear a message several times before it registers any mind share – and we need to hear it, read it, see it, in regular intervals.

To combat falling victim to the one-off, develop the entire plan, including the content, in one sitting and put it on the calendar. When the time comes to launch the next step, review the messaging and refine as needed. You will find that it is much easier to touch up the message than to start again from scratch and face a blank screen.

3. Marketing dollars spread too thin

Sometimes, businesses are marketing frequently, using a variety of tactics but are not achieving optimum results because they are spreading their marketing dollars too thin. They are spending money on direct mail, on Google ad, on pay-per-click, on email, on conference – and because there is no strategy behind the flurry of activity, the results are anemic.

This is remedied by returning to the strategy and based on the preferences of your key audiences, orchestrating your marketing mix to appeal to that audience.

If you are spending money on a variety of tactics, but overall you are not seeing an uptick in prospect interest, you are probably spread too thin. Back up and look at doing three tactics well and then build on that foundation in a controlled and premeditated way.

4. Boring and indistinguishable

If you are truly committed to improving your marketing – pull out some of your old pieces and give them a critical review. How inspiring are the pieces? How crisp and specific is the language? Does it create a clear picture of the business challenges your prospects face? Does it jump off the page?

Another revealing exercise is to compare your images and messaging to that of your competitors. Is it the same dull drone? Is it packaged in such a way that you and your competitor could exchange content and headlines and it would still represent both businesses accurately?

One of the rules of a referral strategy is; no one talks about boring businesses. Most marketing messages are in dire need of resuscitation and makeover. What do you do that delights your customers? What problems have you solved for your customers that have meant the difference between profitability and further reduction? What have you done for the individuals within the company using your products and services that have allowed them to become more effective agents for the business? Your message must tell a story and motivate.

Any time you spend in taking your marketing message through the boot camp of “so what?” testing (that’s the exercise of reading a piece and seeing if the message has any chance of eliminating a “so what?” response on the part of your audience) is time well spent. Admittedly it’s not easy. But once you have a breakthrough, you will never go back to boring.

Everyone these days has heard of Amway network marketing, and it’s popularity is no detriment to this company’s success. But is a multilevel organization, so beware of the pitfalls before you invest. Your decision to become an entrepreneur with the hopes and dreams of quitting your J-O-B (just over broke) is a good one. But you will want to protect yourself from making the same mistakes that some 98% of new distributors in the MLM industry make. Before you invest a fortune in your business, you’d be smart to consider all the angles first. Your first step in the right direction towards network marketing success would be to design your plan of action.

As an independent business owner with Amway, you will want to learn all the facts before you enter into this venture. Remember, this is a business, and like all businesses, you will need to be prepared to invest both time and money. Don’t listen to others who may have failed in business themselves, as they’ll just pull you down with their suggestions that you are involved in a scam. However, you’re smart to consider every angle before you enthusiastically just thrown your cash at the business. Marching forward with the proper tools to get you started can limit your financial outlay. First, let’s consider the pros and cons:

THINGS THAT YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO:

* You Don’t Have A Higher Authority To Answer To
* Your Sponsor Is (Or Should Be) Willing To Help You
* Your Hours Are Your Own
* Additional Income Streams From Your Downline
* Amway Stands Behind Their Products
* Amway Is A Household Name That Everyone Has Heard Of

CONS:

* Requires A Lot A Marketing And Promoting
* Residual Income Could Take Several Years To Achieve
* Products Are Over-Priced With Added Shipping
* Attendance To Weekly Meetings Is Required
* Requires Direct One-On-One Personal Sales & Recruiting

THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS…

If you want to become successful with Amway network marketing, you will want to follow the following three basic pointers. Although I’m not an Amway distributor, these MLM success keys are valid when marketing any multilevel company.

STEP 1: SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT WHAT YOU DO WITH A POSITIVE ATTITUDE.

This can actually be accomplished without pestering your friends, colleagues or family members. (Actually, having that pestering reputation can send your prospects running – just as I was years ago with my in-laws!) Conversely, a heart-felt attitude with a few words will cause your prospect to become inquisitive can be very effective. You don’t want to open any conversation where you are bombarding a friend or stranger with news about an Amway product. You might ease Amway into a conversation with the suggestion of how excited you are about a certain product. When you are honestly confident about your product, your good feelings become catchy to others. The identical technique of positive mindset is used to recruit others. Your main objective should be to genuinely help and bring value to your downline.

STEP 2: KEEP YOUR DOWNLINE ENERGIZED WITH ENTHUSIASM.

Here’s where you make good use of the internet. The main thing is to make contact persistently with your downline, electronically, by phone or in person. When you provide a continuous supply of knowledge to your recruits, they look forward to learning. The more you educate, the more equipped everyone will be and your relationship with your downline becomes stronger.

STEP 3: USE THE INTERNET FOR LEVERAGE.

We are truly fortunately these days for the power of the internet. Indubitably, our times are heading in the direction where it could be your only choice. I use an online marketing and training system for my network marketing. With the right tools and education, the internet can be your friend. The method I use was the missing link to network marketing success. It’s my opinion that, if everyone starting marketing this way, the statistic of 98% of MLM failure would be much lower. People using this networking system are benefiting with an autopilot system that get leads and sales automatically, whether or not they join their business. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to figure out how to build an Amway network marketing business using the internet. It’s up to you – all you have to do is make the decision to start learning how the real successful Amway distributors make it, and join the network of successful entrepreneurs!

As easy as this sounds, steps one and two come with practice and a commitment to change your mindset. When you click the link below, you’ll be given the opportunity access training for online marketing, absolutely FREE! You will love learning the approach of leading people to your website, with a funded proposal! You can begin with an Amway business plan.