The Question to Answer for a Profitable Network Marketing Business

Perhaps you’re already involved in a network marketing company, or you’re looking to get involved in one. What I’d like to do in this article is get back to the very basics of how one builds a profitable network marketing business. These principles work regardless of which business you’re in.

The very basics can be boiled down to a single sentence:

You must know your target market, and you must know WHAT to sell to them.

How you do this is actually quite simple.

Who Is Your Target Prospect?

Most network marketers assume that they should sell to people who want to buy their company’s products. What you get when you do this is a bunch of customers that you must cater to, rather than a number of business builders who you can leverage to build your income.

If you want to build a business, rather than just sell products, then you must find business builders. That is, you want people who are looking to build a business in network marketing, or people who are already building businesses in network marketing. These are the people who will work to grow their downlines.

What Is Your Target Prospect Asking Themselves?

OK, so now that you know who your target market is, you have to know how to talk to them. The best way to know that, is to know what they are asking themselves when they look at your opportunity.

For one, they will be concerned with the products. Are the products good? Are they sellable? There’s no point in going into business with a company that sells a product no one wants.

They will also be wondering about the compensation plan. How does it work? In other words, what do they have to do to make money? And, of course, how much money can they make? This is fairly straight-forward to explain. Sign up five, who sign up five, who sign up five, and you’re making six figures a year. Hey, the numbers don’t lie when you draw your circles and add them all up.

Unfortunately, this is where most network marketers stop. But your target market is still asking themselves some questions. Some very important questions that you need to answer.

The Most Important Questions You Must Answer…

Your prospect is wondering, who am I about to go into business with? This is no different than a venture capitalist getting ready to pump money into a start-up. They want to know the person who is going to be in charge before they invest.

Your target prospect wants to know about your leadership. They want to be assured that you know what you are doing. They want to know how you became, or plan to become, successful with this company. In network marketing, this really comes down to one thing: do you have a proven system for building the business that they can also follow?

You see, whenever someone hears about the cable guy who joined a network marketing company and was able to quit his job in six months, they ask themselves, “How did he do that? If only I could meet him and he could teach me to do exactly what he did, then surely I could be successful, too!”

They also think, “If I could be sponsored under one of the top income earners in this company, then they could teach me exactly what they did when they first got started. If I did it too, then surely I could make a lot of money, also!”

Your prospect wants a successful system that they can duplicate.

Now, all the previous questions about the products, the compensation plan, and your leadership come down to answering one fundamental question that your prospect is asking herself: If I join this business, will I really be able to make money?

If your prospect knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that they could make money, then they would sign up immediately.

So, What Exactly Do You Need To Sell?

Let’s answer this by looking at network marketing companies and determining what you can, and what you can’t, control.

First, all successful network marketing companies have good, sellable products. They would have gone out of business if they didn’t. Second, they all have good compensation plans. This is obvious from the fact that they all promote their top income earners. You see the six and seven figure income earners on their websites and in their newsletters. You meet them at the company’s events and listen to them tell their story at conferences. Yes, the compensation plan obviously works.

This is the easy stuff. Tell your prospect about the product. Tell them about the compensation plan. Draw your circles and show them the testimonials. And, if your prospect has been looking at other companies to join, then they’ve heard the same pitch before, just with a different product and a slightly different compensation plan.

So, what will distinguish you? What will make prospects want to sign up with YOU?

Remember the ultimate question that your prospect is trying to answer?

Can I Really Make Money In This Business?

The deciding factor will be your leadership and your plan for building your business. Your prospect wants to be assured that you are knowledgeable enough to teach them how to make money in the business. They want to be assured that you have a system that has worked for you, and that they can duplicate so that it works for them, too.

This is what separates your opportunity from everyone else’s. It’s your leadership and your system that will convince them to join you.

And that is what you must sell to your prospect.

But I Don’t Have A System Yet!

Listen, selling leadership and systems is what all top earners in network marketing do. And they all started out at square one. So that should dispel the myth that they are able to sponsor people just because they are so successful. Yes, prior success does make it easier, but you don’t have to be making six figures in order to be a leader or have a system.

Today, with Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, blogging and other social sites, it is easier than ever to position yourself as leader. And a leader is nothing more than someone who can help others achieve their goals in network marketing. Forget about where you are. You don’t have to be in the Executive Club, or a Diamond, or an L4, or whatever other title honors your company wants to bestow. You just have to be a leader. You have to learn a system, and share it.

Read that last sentence again…

You Have To LEARN A System, And SHARE It

In other words, it doesn’t have to be YOUR system! After all, your prospect isn’t going to use their OWN system, they’re going to use whatever system YOU give them. So, it stands to reason that YOU can use someone ELSE’s system, too.

If you are already successful with a system, then pointing out your successes (tastefully, of course) will certainly help. But it is not necessary. After all, those with successes didn’t start with success. They learned. Then they shared what they learned with those who hadn’t yet learned. They experienced, and shared those experiences. They built a system off of what they did that worked, and discarded what didn’t work. And they shared this knowledge with their downlines and with their prospects.

A leader is not something you ARE, its something you DO.

And that’s the basic key to building a six figure income through network marketing.

###

One of the best ways to be a leader is to share what you learn with others. They will come to see you as a source of valuable information, saving them the time to search it out themselves. So, if you found this article useful, please tweet about it and send it to your friends!

Why did you join your network marketing business? Were you sold a dream? That’s because the person who signed you up made you believe that there was system that would generate an income for you! Did you sign up with a leader? Are YOU a leader? What are your thoughts?

More Posts Like This One

• The Anti-Hype Network Marketer (6)
• Are You Ready For Your Business To “Go Viral”? (8)
• Getting Ready for 2010 (6)
• Dealing with Obstacles Before They Become Problems (3)
• Why Your Prospect Doesn’t REALLY Want Money (8)
• The Myth of Free Leads Using Social Media (9)