Top 10 Ways to Fail Miserably at Network Marketing

Network Marketing (also known as Multi-level Marketing or MLM) or looking for a opportunity to get involved in it then this article can serve as your guide to the pitfalls that will inevitably doom you to failure. Pitfalls like:

1. Plan on getting rich quick.

Tommy Newberry once said that anything you do towards a goal that’s designed to be achieved within a week is a mistake and that anything you do planning 20 years ahead isn’t. Network Marketing was never designed to be dabbled in and if you’re telling yourself – or you’re being told by someone else – that it’s an easy way to never have to work again you’re buying into a bill of goods that will leave you disheartened and disillusioned because then you….

2. Don’t treat it like a business.

The most vocal complaints that I hear about Network Marketing is from the people that not only didn’t succeed at it but never even really tried. Network Marketing is incredibly powerful and has some real heavy hitters advocating it as an amazing business model, but if you’re approaching it like it ISN’T a business – and ignoring the development of all of the skills, talents, abilities and knowledge that running a successful business demands AND the amount of time and energy that will need to go into it - failure is not only a likely outcome – it’s a sure bet.

3. Do it for the money.  

If the biggest selling point for the multi-level marketing business you’re in – or thinking about joining – is the pay structure, then you’re probably not going to have the staying power you need to make it successful. I assert that people are pretty typically already making the amount of money they’re committed to and if it was really about money for you – you’d already have it. And if you’re only doing it for the money, how is that really an improvement over the job you already have?

4. Work with a Network Marketing company you’re not a raving fan of.  

Part of the beauty of Multi-Level Marketing is that your upline has a vested interest in your success. If you’re not a raving fan of the company it’s going to get in the way of asking for the support and coaching you need from them to have it turn out.

We also live in a world where people are constantly trying to sell us something and most people’s radar is turned up pretty high for listening for a sales pitch. If you’re not naturally and authentically impressed by the company you’re associated with most people have well enough honed instincts to pick up on it.

And the same goes for….

5. Market products you’re not a raving fan of.  

If you don’t have bragging rights to the benefits of using the very same products you’re selling then you’re doomed to a mediocre career in MLM and you will…

6. Be hypocritical.  

If the products haven’t done for you what you say they can do at best it’s hypocritical to try and persuade people that it will work for them and at worst it's out and out lying.

7. Talk about the business, not the solutions or benefits it provides the people you’re talking to.  

As the saying goes, if you want to sell seats on the Concord don’t try to sell seats on the Concord, sell people on Paris. People aren’t interested in buying seats on the Concord and you’ll bore them if you try to. What’s important to them and how can your product or business provide it for them?

8. Don’t create value for people.

One of the things I love about the Network Marketing company I’m involved with is that when I meet with people I know that I’m going to walk away from the conversation a winner, and so are they – whether I make a dime as a result or not! I am truly there so that these people are served, and with a background as an educator education is one of the ways that I can use that conversation to serve them.

Win/win is a prerequisite for me or I just don’t want to even play.

If the process isn’t fun for you, you won’t ever be able to enjoy the result nearly as much as you think you will.

9. Be deceptive.

Have you ever had a friend invite you over for dinner and then surprise you with a ‘presentation’? How do you think you would feel if they did? Unfortunately it’s not an uncommon tactic for a few overzealous network marketers.

I can only imagine that it would only be used if you were still back at number 1 – planning on getting rich quick – and completely available to making your friends and family road kill on the way. I don’t know about you, but that’s not included in my definition of success.

10. Hound people.  

Making sure that everyone in your Rolodex is afraid to answer the phone when they see your name on the caller ID is not paving the way to your success. And even if it was, who would be left to enjoy it with?