My Network Marketing Nightmare With a Happy Ending

Well it was looking bad for me, I just got off the phone with my manager at work when an friend from my golf club approached me about a "business opportunity". "Owe crap" I said to myself, not this the dreaded "do you keep your business options open"? Or the, "are you looking for a winning opportunity"? I’m sure you’ve heard them all just like I had. My first experience with network marketing was in my early twenties when my brother got into a mlm company that was selling legal coverage.

He asked me if I’d like to give it a shot and I did, really half ass though, and I, of course, was more interested in drinking beer and all the things that are most important to a young man, all but making a few extra buck selling legal coverage. So I never had held any opinions about network marketing until I was introduced to the first real big company that started it all in the 80’s. I was asked to go to a meeting to listen to one of the big wig. I went to the meeting and I swear I thought I was in an addiction meeting or some kind of cult group.

Everyone was so excited and they were yelling out there goals and dreams and thronging up there hands with smiles ear to ear. The only thing was that not once did the big wig really talk about the company or the products or do any real marketing training. He was there to sell an idea, that you could go out and get all your friends and family signed up in no time and why wouldn’t they want to buy from them self’s? In no time at all you’d be driving that big car and your kids would want for nothing. This of course was a pipe dream, and with out marketing and action real training it would remain just an idea. My friend dropped out after 4 months and never looked back. So that was my expectation when my friend told me he had a "business opportunity" for me.

The problem was that I had just got off the phone with my manager who had just told me to start looking because the company was making some cut backs due to the downturn in sale and that I, more than likely, would have another 2 weeks, at most, before I got laid off. To say that I needed "opportunity" was an understatement, so I was open to listening to what he had to say. I set up a time to go over to his home and herd how he had been marketing full time and what kind of money he was bringing in. I was impressed but was quite sure that I didn’t want to be one of those people that told everyone that they knew and then some all about their "business opportunity". I took my time and looking into what he had and joined.

The first month was ok and after I had gone through all my contacts I hit a big brick wall. I started searching for a new company and more information on what others were doing. Wow, I spoke to some really strange folks along the way! One guy told me that God had come to him in a dream and showed him a vision of this product that he was supposed to go out and "share" with everyone he knew. He said that it was his new mission in life to spread the word about the healing power of his product and rattled off a slew of testimonials of folks that were healed by just taking his product and that if I prayed about it God would show me that it was the right direction to go in. I also met a guy that told me that all I had to do was to make ridicules videos and put them on the internet and people would just start calling me.

I ran into a few corporate product information calls that sounded more like a revival than a product and opportunity call. It seems that no matter where I looked I was finding people and companies using every sales tactic in the book but told there distributors that this wasn’t selling it was sharing because the product was so good it would sell itself or other untruths. So as I waited through the muck of unprofessional professionals networkers to say that the more people I talked to the more confused I got is an understatement. This, I think, is the biggest problem with network marketing, the marketers to everything under the sun except market!

So what does all this mean to you? It means that when you go out and look for the right home based business for you you’ll want to keep a few things in mind. No one will build your business for you except for you and maybe a few others you bring in. Network Marketing is sales, don’t let anyone tell you any different. Sharing is when you give something away that you have and expect nothing in return. You’ll have to believe in your product or service but belief alone isn’t going to cut the mustered. In network marketing you are your product as your prospect will first evaluate if they can work with you then they will look at your company.

You’ll have to be in it for the long haul it takes time to build a business. It is uncommon that you’ll make a bunch of money right out of the gate. If your going to really make money in network marketing you’ll need training and a marketing system outside of your "warn market" or your friends and family. These are just a few of the hard lessons that I had to learn before I really started to make money that would pay bills. It is much more affective to talk to folks that are looking for what you have to offer and not you going out trying to find that person who will is open to what you have.

Finding the right company can be very easy if you use this formula. How easy does the company make it to sign-up. Can you sign up in 10 min or less? Does the company have an office you can go to or an address you can look up? Can you call their Corporate office and speak to a real person? DO they have a dedicated line for distributors to help resolve problem or fix mistakes? It the product or service something you will use yourself? Is the product priced competently or is it way more that it’s competitors, if so why? Is the comp plan fair? This can be a tricky one but basically do you get paid right away or do you have to sign up a bunch of people first to qualify? Don’t get me wrong there are good programs that make you qualify first to start getting paid but they are few and far between.

You should make money when you make money for the company. It is something that you would feel comfortable telling your closest friends about without thinking that you’d lost your mind? This is the most important one to answer, does the product or service solve a problem that a large group of people are looking to solve? If you product doesn’t solve a problem that lots of people are looking to solve than you have a dud. Weight loss is a great example, how many people are trying to lose weight (problem)? How many people buy product to solve their weight issue (solution)?

Now that you have the basics go out and find a good network marketing or home based business to join and market. I highly recommend that you do some training before you get involved with a company as getting education in on-line marketing will help you get started on the right foot and will allow you to find the right business for you by knowing all the tricks and falsehoods that some of the unscrupulous marketers and companies will through at you to appeal to your big drams and goals. They will play on your emotions to get you in the door. Going through the right training will help you know what to do how to do it and who to pass what you know on to those you bring into your business. Network marketing training is a great investment in yourself before you invest in a business.