I recently polled my Facebook friends to see what their reaction is when they notice one of their friends has been bit by the network marketing bug. I wanted to see if they are generally supportive of their friends entrepreneur spirit or if it makes them want to run far, far away. I got a mixed reaction, but it was mostly negative. I know from my personal experience, even though I’m in network marketing myself, I tend to cringe. You may not have spoken to a friend in years and all of a sudden they want to be your best friend now that they have this new shiny product they want you to buy.
So what is the biggest mistake people make when they get into network marketing?
SELLING!!!
For the love of all that is good and holy stop selling!! You may think you have the best product on the market. You may be part of the best team out there. But your desperate posts of stock photos with your latest sales and desperate pleas to have people join your team so you can reach your next goal have GOT TO STOP. Be real and honest right here and right now. Are those posts really working for you? Based on the lack of likes and comments I see on them I would say that would be a big fat NO. I may sound a little harsh right now, but I promise you it’s for your own good. If you continue with the salesy posts you will burn out and your will burn out fast. And in the mean time you are chasing your friends away.
So how are you supposed to sell if you can’t sell to people? A good start is by being genuine and be yourself. Don’t join a network market and become that product. Stay true to yourself. Tell your story and how the products have helped you and your family. If they really have help you then you will have a story to tell.
Another thing you can do is start genuinely building relationships. Don’t just send a message to an old friend with the whole “Hey, how’s it goin’? Long time no see!” and then immediately follow it up with “So I have this thing you would just LOVE!!”. Actually build your relationships and most importantly build trust. Believe me, your friends see right through what you are doing when they get those messages. You’re not trying to be their friend. You’re just trying to reach a quota. Am I right, or am I right?
Another way to sell without selling is to give, give, give. What can you provide to your friends and family to build trust with you before they become a customer? A tutorial, a free challenge, some tips. Think creatively. There are so many tools out there right now to help you with this.
Great post! Very helpful indeed
I get invites to join networking teams. Honestly, I have tried once. Only once and it did not work for me. I agree with your suggestion to build trust first. I will keep that in mind if I ever decide (once more) to join a networking group.
Yea, I tend to be one of the ones that run for the hills. However, if it is someone I know really well, I will try and support them if I can. As for the others, I generally offer up verbal support rather than monetary.
This is on point. People love to shop but does not want being sold to. Thus, this is the biggest flaw of network marketers. Appreciate your advice and will keep this in mind with my upcoming campaigns.
Your post had so much good advice. I have known many people who try to sell products and lose all sense of self. All they do is promote their product. I always like to see a little bit of personality!
Oh, goodness, I so agree with you! I have left so many blogs, even if they are interesting, just because of the “hard sell” strategy, with multiple pop ups and all. I would rather have time to just look for myself, and then buy if I’m interested, and not having it forced on me.
I agree with building building trust first. At the other hand if your close friends really support you they will help you by either buying your product or to promote it for you aswell.
Network markets can be so hard! I tried once and failed terribly. But I’ll agree that if you build relationships, it becomes very easy to even sell. Again, bring authentic is very key.
This is so true! I tried network marketing a few years back but it wasn’t for me. So many people go about it the wrong way.
Totally! People have become very start, largely because they’re constantly exposed to bad marketing. The key is to believe in the product/service yourself, in order for others to believe YOU!
This is such great advice! I definitely agree with the stop selling-it can just seem false and not genuine. Trust is a great way to build rapport with those you wish to join networking!
I totally agree. You need to stop selling and market how you can add value to others lives. Great article.
I remember hearing something about people don’t want to be sold to so I agree. I would rather hear about what it is you’re selling and decide for myself.
Yessss!!!! Value first = builds trust. Educate, inspire, inform, engage. Then sell through story based content. That’s exactly what I teach. Great post
Being a small business owner can be so hard sometimes you really have to understand how others minds work.
great tips to help beginners to avoid doing when they venture into the online marketing world
learnt so much from your sharing here & thanks for the tips shared
cheers, siennylovesdrawing
Learn a lot from this. Thank you so much for your kindness for sharing this post.
Sound advice. Aggravation is a poor sales tool. 🙂
I work for a tech company and it is exactly this. I am a sales supervisor and the first thing I teach isn’t marketing your product it is marketing your people. People want to see themselves in the people that are selling to them. If you sell products instead of an experience, you will get half of as many buys as you could’ve. I think you hit this right on the head!
Great suggestions for avoiding the beginner pitfalls. I have never joined a conventional network marketing group, but I do cross-promotions with several friends.
Great post! I hate it when they are very pushy.
What a great post, very helpful
Completely agree with you.. most marketers make such mistakes!
I’m not in that field but I’m sure it helps many people who are trying to sell their products.