WHAT IS NETWORK MARKETINGP
Six Myths of Network Marketing
THE TRUTH ABOUT SOME COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS—AND HOW TO
ANSWER THEM
BY RICHARD BLISS BROOKE
The future of network marketing is really something to wake up for True, building a sales organization of on- fire volunteers is a bit of a challenge here in North America. Americans are skeptical—and with good reason. They are also somewhat overfed when it comes to financial opportunities. It takes a powerful opportunity and a compelling presentation to get their attention. And when you do, nobody is more dynamic and influential and ambitious. The biggest challenge is erasing people’s beliefs, biases, and misconceptions and replacing them with what those of us who have made it work believe to be true.
Here are six of the most pervasive myths and misconceptions about our business, which I intend to debunk—hopefully forever if you will help spread the word.
Myth
1: The ground floor is the best time to join a network
marketing company.
The truth is, it is usually the worst lime. Probably B~ percent of new companies go out of business during their first three to five years—and network marketing companies are no different. How can you know if your “sure-bet” new company is one of the 8~ percent? Of course, you can’t. There is no indication of this possibility in a company promotional material. Everyone in on the beginning hopes and fully intends for it to succeed. Nor is there usually any warning when things start getting dicey ... there’s no official notice from the company that “things are not looking all that well.” Everybody hangs on until it is too late—and then it’s all over.
In addition, no company starts out with its best foot forward. It takes years to develop competent, experienced staff and reliable procedures and services. Nothing will stop your progress faster in your beginning than a company that undermines your credibility and efforts with its incompetence.
The best time to join a network marketing company is after they have demonstrated their commitment and ability to stay in business, to grow ethically, and to honor their distributors and customers. And preferably before they are so well-known that everyone you know has either already given them a try or already decided whether or not they will. This is usually after four years and before fourteen years.
Myth 2: Network marketers succeed by being in the right place
at the right time. Luck and hype are the biggest factors.
Network marketing is a business; it is not a hobby, a game, a scheme, a deal, or something with which to dabble. People who treat it as such do not succeed. People who treat it as a career, a profession, and a business have a decent opportunity to make it pay off very well.
As with any new career, profession, or business, you had better learn what you are doing, practice, invest in your education and tools, and apply yourself diligently to succeed. All of this takes time, effort, and money. It is not unusual for a network marketer to have invested hundreds of hours arid thousands of dollars before profits and residual income start to flow. Par from being rare, this is actually the norm.
Myth 3: Network marketing is an opportunity for somebody who
is not doing well financially to make some money-maybe even make a lot of
money.
Unfortunately, people like me have perpetuated this myth with our rags-to-riches stories. And although our stories are true, and there are enough of us to create the myth, it is still a myth.
The same skills it
takes to succeed in any marketing business are required here. You must have
confidence, you must be assertive, and you must be somewhat dynamic in your
ability to express yourself. You must have enough resources to propel yourself
through the challenges-resources like working capital, contacts, credibility
with those contacts, time, discipline, and a positive, crystal-clear vision of
where you intend to go with it whether or
not it is easy.
The truth is that people who are struggling financially are doing so for a number of reasons: low self-esteem and/or a lack of the basic skills and preparations that allow one to succeed in anything. Network marketing is a powerful and dynamic economic model; but it is not so powerful that it will overcome most people’s lack of readiness. Ergo, most people give up before they succeed.
Those people who tend to succeed in this business are most often those who are successful in whatever they do. Certainly, they are apt to do better financially in network marketing, due to the economic dynamics of the business; but the idea that people who were failures everywhere else will suddenly become successes here, while romantic, is not terribly realistic.
Myth 4: If network marketing really worked, soon everyone would be involved and the market would he saturated.
This is mathematically possible, but not demographically demonstrable. History has proven that network marketing works-and saturation is not even remotely an issue. The largest network marketing company in the world has been “drawing circles” and recruiting sales reps for 40 years. You are probably not a distributor with them, nor am I, nor are 239 million Americans. Yet three million people worldwide and more than one million Americans are-which makes for some very, very wealthy Amway distributors.
Myth
5: you have to use your friends and family to make money.
The truth is, you do not and should not. Actually, there are two components to this myth: there’s the question of your friends and family . and then there’s that emotionally loaded term “use.” Let’s take the second first.
In a legitimate networking business, one and only one thing is “used”: a product and/or service that offers value. The engine that drives the business machine is the purchase and use of goods and services. You don’t use anyone-you offer them wares that you personally use, and they like them, they use them, too.
What about your friends and family? They should become part of your business only Wit serves them to do so. It serves them if they see opportunity for themselves just as you did; then they are not being used-they are being served. If you do not believe your opportunity can serve them, do not offer it to them-and ask yourself whether it even serves you.
An opportunity that truly inspires you will most likely inspire them as well. Do them and yourself a favor, and offer it to them. If they say no, respect and honor their viewpoint and do not make a nuisance of yourself.
Myth 6: Network marketing doesn’t work for most people all
the "Big guys" make all the money off the "little guys."
This is actually two myths in one; let’s debunk both.
First, network marketing does work. In-disputable industry statistics tell that story; and it has worked for too many companies and too many individuals, for too many decades, for the “lucky-guy/fluke” theory to hold any water. What doesn’t “work” (often enough that you need to exercise discretion and due diligence when choosing an opportunity) is a particular company, product or sponsor. You must decide for yourself whether you “work’ or your chosen company “works” and its products “work.”
Concerning the “big guys / little guys” issue, this myth is usually perpetuated by people who define “fairness” as, “everyone gets the same benefits regardless of their contributions and efforts.”
In network marketing, it’s a simple equation: the people who have attracted, trained, and motivated the most sales people earn the most money.
If you sell $500
worth of product yourself each month, and you have also built
an organization of 500 people who each sell $500 worth
of product each month, then you will earn a great deal more-500 times
more!-than the person who simply sells $500 per
month. That’s fairness, North American style. NML
This article is adapted from Rags to
Riches? by Richard Bliss Brooke,
available from Upline5’. You may
contact Mt Brooke at 888-665-8484, or rid,ardb~oxyfreshww.comn.
Network marketing is a powerful and dynamic economic model;
but it is not so powerful
that it will overcome most
people’s lack of readiness. Those people who tend to succeed in this business
are most often those who are successful in whatever they do.
28 NETWORK MARKETING LIFESTYLES JAN ANY 2001