1) Does anyone have a complete list of what skills to master in NM and
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
