There are many factors in the equation for success in network marketing. The more of these factors that you familiarise yourself with, the greater is your chance of mastering the equation and achieving success. Network marketing is one of the few avenues through which individuals from all “walks of life” can achieve sizeable incomes and a great degree of “freedom of time.”

During my 32-year career, I have been witness to truck drivers, waitresses, plumbers, clerks, factory workers, the young, the elderly, along with accountants, bankers, lawyers, and physicians that have earned five, six and seven figure incomes in this industry. On the other hand, I have seen thousands of individuals waste time, lose their investments, have their dreams extinguished, and live in the frustration of perpetual pursuit without achievement.

Success by Design

You can aimlessly test one program after another, searching for one that will work for you, or pursue success by design. Generally programs do not work for you. You must select a program with the right dynamics and then learn to work the program. Learning how to be a true networker should be your goal. Articulating effective marketing strategy and learning to effectively communicate the benefits of your program are paramount to maximum success. Understanding the equation for success is vital to the preparation process for achieving maximum success.

One of the most important steps in your journey is selecting the right program. Success at the company level does not always equal success at the distributor level. There are very successful companies that have very high distributor attrition (drop-out) rates. Many companies “waste” thousands of distributors in the process of developing a product user base. Often there are flaws in the strategy of the company leaders that directly affect the distributors’ success.

5 Crucial Factors

You can reduce this risk by carefully examining the dynamics of the program that you are considering. It is not necessary to be in the “best program.” There are thousands of distributors in dozens of companies earning exceptional incomes. What is important, is to choose the program that has dynamics that will best work for you. There are five basic factors that you should examine:-

1. paradigm of company leaders

2. product philosophy

3. compensation strategy

4. marketing strategy at the company level

5. the support that is available to you from your upline and from the company

The security of the program goes beyond the financial realm. Although the financial condition of the company is important, real security is more complex. Having adequate funding available does not tell you how much the founder is willing to lose or risk. Don’t hesitate to ask the right people the “hard” questions. Talk to the company leaders, industrial leaders, competitors, and editors of networking magazines. You will be surprised how many people will be willing to chat with you.

1. Paradigm of Company Leaders

The paradigm or thinking patterns of the company leaders is very important. Experience in business as well as in marketing is useful. How do they think? What is their focus? How do they handle market challenges? What is their background? What is their marketing philosophy and strategy? Will the company’s strategies compliment your success as a distributor? Are they egotistical or arrogant when put on the spot? What is their perspective of the company’s responsibilities to the distributor? What are their projections and what are these projections based on? You can find industrial leaders who know these founders.

What are the company leaders’ attitudes toward service? Call the company a few times and check out their customer service. A poor customer service department can damage your business. You can’t just automatically believe claims of quality service; you have to check it out. Take time to gain an understanding of the industry in order to avoid wasted time and money. Network marketing is a serious business with the potential to change your life forever. It deserves serious consideration.

2. Product Philosophy

More than 80% of all successful networkers belong to companies that have nutrition products involved in their programs. Network marketing companies with products and services that directly compete with strong conventional markets have a very high failure ratio. Typically, in the conventional market, companies such as GNC and Wal-Mart have tremendous pressure to compete on a price basis. They do not have the personal service available to explain why one bottle of nutrients costs twice a s much as another bottle. Price becomes t h e determinant factor for which product will sell. In the past six years, 80% of all new distributors that have entered the network marketing industry have joined companies that include nutrition in their agenda.

The product philosophy of the company leaders is a cornerstone to success. Growth without responsible product strategy is short-lived. Product philosophy should be balanced between growth and stability. In order to achieve quick and progressive growth at a “grass roots” level, the program needs a flagship product that will open doors. The more unique and exclusive the product is, the easier it is to gain the interest of prospects. Be careful that the company does not hide a poor pay plan behind a “sizzle” product. Success requires a balance between these two factors. The flagship product should be backed up with a number of quality and diversified products. Although many networkers join this industry to supplement their income, history teaches us that the product is generally the primary consideration in determining which program they will join.

A company with an internal research and product development department is more inclined to provide quality, cutting edge products. Product formulas that are backed by scientific research and clinical testing can better withstand the “battle of the hype.” Be careful to examine the claims made by distributors. Often clinical studies quoted do not verify the effectiveness of the actual products being promoted.

An example of this is the recent HGH precursor “wave.” A great majority of the claims being made about the product refer to the research conducted on individuals who had the actual HGH hormone administered intravenously. Very little research has been conducted on precursors. A few years ago another similar marketing scenario occurred with a DHEA precursor. Dozens of mainline network marketing companies were promoting a precursor that supposedly increased the body’s production of DHEA. Research data on the benefits of DHEA was used to promote the precursor. The Life Extension Foundation, an independent non-profit organization, performed a clinical trial on 1,000 individuals to discover if the precursor actually elevated serum DHEA. Not a single individual experienced an increase in blood levels of DHEA. I suggest that you personally study out the science behind product claims. A bogus product will not maintain long-term growth or retention.

3. Compensation Strategy

Another important consideration to your selection is compensation strategy. I suggest that you carefully examine different perspectives on this subject. My preference in compensation strategy is based on balance. There are two fundamental aspects to compensation strategy; the pay structure used and how the commission percentages are arranged. Breakaway, uni-level, binary, matrix, and the Australian two up are examples of the various compensation structures. Each of these structures has advantages and disadvantages. I have found that only a few very experienced networkers really understand the dynamics of these structures and will promote the one that profits them the most. Overall, I believe the uni-level has the greatest capability of providing the best balance in compensation.

There are several considerations in analysing pay plans. It is important for a plan to adequately compensate the part-time marketer within the first three levels. Traditional programs have “stacked” the commission structure in favour of the “heavy hitter,” resulting in excessive attrition. One of the keys to low attrition is to allow the part-timer to get into profit with a small number of customers or distributors. On the other hand the pay plan must adequately compensate the experienced, full-time marketer in the deeper levels. The compensation strategy must be balanced between these two segments.

Part-timer vs “Heavy Hitter”

A successful program must attract leaders who can develop effective marketing strategies and support systems. Without this segment the organization will have a weak foundation and will not achieve and maintain maximum growth. If the part-timer is not adequately compensated, attrition will erode incomes and will begin the unwinding process from the bottom up that can even destroy companies.

The company must balance its investment between compensation to distributors, product development, competent corporate leadership, logistic support, and effective marketing sales aids. If the company invests too much into compensation it may fail to finance other areas that directly affect the ability of the marketer to build his business. As ironic as it may sound the highest paying program is the last program you may want to be involved with. I have existing downlines in several companies and some of the best paying programs have been the most difficult to build.

Programs that compete on the basis of “pay out” alone, generally, do not have enough money left over, after paying out commissions, to invest in product research and development, nor in state-of-the-art marketing materials. In the past six years four companies have each enrolled approximately one half million distributors. In my opinion all of these companies have inferior pay plans but have product focused programs. Not one of the programs with the most lucrative pay plans have approached that kind of growth. When you examine programs look for balance.

4. Marketing Strategy

When you examine a program, study their marketing strategy. Does the company have marketing “tools” in place that will support your strategy? What is your personal strategy? Are you going to work this business from a warm market perspective? Are you going to “work the phone,” advertise, build through the Internet, or use direct mail? Does the company have videos, cassette tapes, a strong Internet presence, toll-free message support, or effective literature? Building a successful business requires more than a lucrative pay plan or a “sizzle” product.

5. Support Available

When you are introduced to a program, shop around for the right upline support group or sponsor. Even an experienced marketer can be more successful if they have the right upline support in place. Your organization will need all of the support they can get. You are not obligated to join under the first person that prospects you. This is a business not a hobby or game. You have a responsibility to yourself and your loved ones to make a good business decision. The company and upline you select will, to a great degree, determine the boundaries of your success.

See you at the top!

Mike Akins

About Mike Akins

— “The Greatest Networker In The World”
Click here to find out why Mike Akins is known as The Greatest Networker In The World

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“How did you retire at age 25?” Many of my friends and relatives were asking me. “Tell me the secret!” they said.

So I told them.

Often times, they were not looking for an answer. Most of them were looking for certain words in my answers they could be negative about or justify why they can’t do it or why it doesn’t work. The most common question that followed whatever answer I gave is:

“Is this MLM?”

“What do you understand about MLM?” I always direct this question back to them.

And then, all sorts of description, criticism, label, belief, opinion and assumption would be coming out of their heads.

Most people are skeptical about MLM businesses because of past experiences of their own or the people they know. But when I go deeper into the source of such negativity and opinion, most of the time it was related to the approach that people often use in MLM.

I’ve got many answers like:

• I don’t like to sell products
• I can’t sell products
• I don’t like to call people, knowing that they will reject me
• I don’t like to meet up with people who are not interested
• I don’t want to force my relatives & friends to join me
• I don’t want to carry products or perform demonstrations
• I don’t want to deliver products
• I don’t like sales quota
• I don’t want to rely on my relatives & friends to join me for me to be successful
• I don’t want to ask my relatives & friends to join me and repeat all of the above
• I’m not willing to invest tens of thousands of dollars to get started

The real reason people are skeptical about MLM is because they still think that people nowadays are still using the door-to-door ‘direct-sales’ approach or the traditional ‘meet-up-with-friends-and-listen-to-their-needs-and-then-present-the-opportunity’ way to succeed in MLM.

You see, people are not negative about MLM just beacuse of the name. There could be certain things about MLM that people don’t like about. But not everything. You can’t deny the fact that the idea of you getting paid for your past effort just because you’ve duplicated a network of distributors who are actively building the business everyday, is very exciting. You can definitely retire when the passive income you receive from your business is more than your total expenses. And mind you, this source of passive income will grow over time even after you’ve stopped working on it, if you did it properly.

Everything has evolved over the past 40 years. The network marketing industry has evolved. And if you’re still looking at it the same way people looked at it 40 years ago, then you’re looking at an out-dated picture, and obviously losing the biggest picture of the world economy today.

Often times, I asked for their willingness to be open for just 30 minutes and see if what I was about to show them would be something totally different or exactly the same with what they thought. 99% of the time, they were totally surprised with what I showed them.

So, is this MLM? It’s better than MLM!

I run a home-based business. I don’t carry products. I don’t deliver products. I don’t beg my relatives & friends to join me or buy products from me. I don’t have sales quota to meet. And I don’t need to do all the things that most people are negative about (listed above) and I certainly do not need to invest tens of thousands of dollars to get started. No one should!

Then how do I do it? Simple. Just automate it.

My international team and I have developed an automated system that runs both online and offline to support us in dealing with all the mechanical procedures such as prospecting, presenting and following-up, automatically. Like what I wrote in my opening paragraph, I attracted more than a thousand visitors to my website (www.myunlimitedincome.com) for a short presentation of how they can achieve financial freedom with the support of my team and our automated system. With just a click, they will be directed to a free test drive of our automated system and learn more about it. After they gained more information, they can then choose to sign up as a customer or a member by using the automated system. A point to note here, all the information being presented to my visitors are automated. I could be doing so many other things while thousands of visitors browsed thru my website and viewed my presentation.

Once you’ve joined our team, you will have the privilege to have your very own website like mine, and start using it to generate thousands of visitors to your website and repeat what I did.

It’s that simple.

But is that all? Well, you were just being introduced to the slightest preview of how our automated system looks like and how it can help you automate your home-based business… and eventually your passive income.

The company that we’re attached to is capturing the 2 out of 4 major trends in the world economy today. With a comprehensive and user-friendly automated support system like this, we’ve indeed captured the other 2 out of 4 major trends. In fact, we’ve captured all the 4 major trends and we’re all riding the wave towards the next boom.

So, if I were to tell you that you:

• don’t need to sell,
• don’t need to stock up inventory,
• don’t need to carry and deliver products,
• don’t need to do massive cold calling,
• don’t need to go from door to door,
• don’t need to beg your relatives & friends to buy from you or join you,

and most importantly,

• you don’t need to invest tens of thousands of dollars to get started

… if I were to tell you that you can achieve financial success too and you don’t need to do all the things you don’t like to do as in any other MLM businesses… will you be open to spend a few minutes to learn how to do it?

Yes!

Take a look at www.myunlimitedincome.com and take your free test drive. Everything will be presented to you, with pictures and explanations along the way.

Plug your business in to this trademark automated system that ensures that you will not be involved in personal sales or direct distribution of products like you would do with any MLM/direct-selling businesses. You will be attached to a comprehensive automated system that will take care of the distribution and even presentation of the products. In fact, I’ve never sold anything to achieve success and retire at age 25 with passive income. I didn’t even need to deliver anything for that matter. My business has gone to various parts of the world even without me being physically there to expand my business. So if this business requires personal sales or direct distribution of products, that wouldn’t have happened. All you need to do is to build relationship and cultivate your leadership skill along the way with your people. Of course, trainings are provided online too.

Plug in to an existing, proven system today. Learn about my Simple Success System & Strategies that will allow you to have Continuous Income and Cashflows for Life… Guaranteed!

www.myunlimitedincome.com

Be different. Be respected.
Be a Platinum Networker.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Out of hundreds of home-based businesses, 4Life provides you with one of the most important factor of a successfully run business: CONSISTENT CASH FLOW.

No wonder it has been ranked as the #1 opportunity in the world.

As the famous Robert Kiyosaki says in his famous book Rich Dad Poor Dad:

“Cash flow, not money, relieves anxiety”

No face-to-face selling. No inventory to carry or deliver. No experience required.

My international team and I will provide you with FREE step-by-step training, advice and guidance to set up your own profitable Home-Based Business.

Get your FREE Test Drive of our online, automated system today at:

www.myunlimitedincome.com

Be different. Be respected.
Be a Platinum Networker.

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2) if one learns all the skills, is there anyway to be assured of success?

The answers are:

1. Yes, but they’re probably irrelevant

2. Sorry, no. Not for this business or any other.

“complete list of skills…”
That’s like asking: what is the complete set of skills you need to ride a bicycle?

The list is much longer and more complex than most people can comprehend, much less list. Try balance, strength, spatial perception, hand-eye coordination, etc. etc.

Who here has learned to ride a bicycle from such a list?

Success in NM depends on one thing first: Can you market the product and business?

Obviously, if you don’t like sales, and don’t have a partner who does, why do network marketing? Do something else for heaven’s sake!

But if you DO want to market a product (and business), and you are not afraid, do this:

• Take the product you are sold on and love yourself.
• Contact five people you know or don’t know, whatever YOU want.
• Market your product to them, however you want.
• Be wild. Be weird. There are no rules. Let no one tell you what to do.
• The outcome doesn’t matter. Your experience does.

Make note of what happens, good and bad, and you will know immediately:

• if you have some innate people talent and will like learning how to market
• what you need more practice doing, and
• what skills sets you need to learn.

Remember it’s not always a new skill you need. Often it’s a willingness to practice and develop what you already have. If you love what you’re doing enough to practice enough, and if you have enough patience with yourself, you will need very little else.

And if you are looking for skill sets you know you need, e.g. finding people to talk to, what to say, whether to follow up or not and if so, how, different methods of reaching out, building a customer base, recruiting, etc. here’s how to prioritize what you want to learn first:

• (Assuming you have found a product line you can really get behind and after the experiment above)—What’s the biggest obstacle which, if you could overcome it, would move your business ahead the most?

That’s the #1 question I’ve asked all my babies in every business I’ve built. Including everyone in my new little start up (whose product, per many readers’ request, is described here).

So ASK YOURSELF. No one knows you better than you do. Trust your intuitions. E.g.:

• If “getting started” is your biggest obstacle, one remedy is to find someone to do it with. Crossline, upline, cross company, even. We’ve done that hundreds of times.
• If “knowing what to say” is your answer, look for people who teach the kind of language YOU feel comfortable using. Not what THEY use, but what YOU want to use. Different people have different styles. Pick what suits you.
• If “working on the Internet” is your answer, find people who DO NM successfully online. It is not as easy as the sellers of training programs make it appear, I can promise you that. But it’s a neat option, especially if you are patient.

Last, ask yourself: why you are doing NM? What’s the real personal reason? Forget all the posturing about financial freedom and think of what it really means to you. What about it makes you think that you would stay with it no matter what?

And if there’s no such thing about it for you, be ready for a crash and burn. And pick yourself up and try something else.

Source: New School Marketing by Kim Klaver

www.myunlimitedincome.com

Be different. Be respected.
Be a Platinum Networker.

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1. If something has not worked for you in the past… STOP DOING IT!
2. Treat your business as YOUR OWN BUSINESS, not part of your uplines business!
3. Position yourself as an EXPERT in your industry!
4. Stop leading with BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY!
5. Stop following Internet systems that offer EXPENSIVE LEADS!

This article is written by William Winch. To view the full article on this topic, click here.

William Winch is a Network Marketing Mentor who specializes in helping people expand and explode their home-based businesses without breaking the bank. A former High School and College Business Educator and Counselor, he writes and practices the art and science of mentoring from his home office in Rochester, NY. His cause: To personally help anyone who is interested in improving their existing network marketing business.

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