Don’t try and complicate your MLM Business. As we all know it is not an easy business, but it is terribly simple.
I use to be in a “Two Tier-high end-affiliate program” that was all done online. I made a lot of money because I learnt about Internet marketing and like everything I have always done, I did what I needed to do to make it work. However after 6 months I realised that not 1 single other person in my team had made 1 single sale. Why? Because Internet marketing is complicated, it is a jungle to get everything right.
Now did they all have the same opportunity to make money as I did? Yes they did, but here is one thing I have discovered – Not everyone is like you and me. They don’t have the killer instinct, they don’t have the burning desire or the work ethic the work ethic. I see it today in MLM as well, but here is the difference; The every day average person has a REAL opportunity to build a huge business without Internet or even computer experience. Anyone can build a big MLM business either online or offline for just a few hundred dollars up front, rather than $2,000 to $20,000 up front and must be done online.
I could no longer take that sort of money from people knowing full well that they had a very very small chance of ever making that money back. My businesses have always been built on hard work, honesty and integrity and they always will be. So I got out of that and went into a traditional MLM business with a great long term residual income model and the rest is history. I still use the Internet to build my business, just like this Blog right here and I even teach some of my high achievers how to do the same, but the majority of people just do it offline, face to face, on the phone, at live events and they build huge organisations and can duplicate it.
Now don’t get me wrong the Internet has changed the MLM world forever and I love it. It means that we can achieve in 3-5 years what we use to in 20. Things like social media, Skype, emails and smart phones are easy to teach and duplicate.
Understand this: Network Marketing is, always has been and always will be a Trust, Like and Relationship business. That will never change. So to be hugely successful long term and become a Deck Chair Millionaire you are going to have to pick up the phone, meet with people, build relationships, train people etc. The great thing is that you can do that offline but you can also do it online with social media, which is very cool these days.
Where people fall down is that they try and do it ALL online, they try and do big expensive newspaper ads and expos, they try and do SEO, Blogging and use auto-responders to do the talking. None of this is duplicatable. The main reason people do this is either that they get bad advice from their mentor, or they don’t seek the good advice that their mentor would have given them and try to work by themselves re-inventing the wheel. But mostly it is because they procrastinate and are fearful of picking up the phone, presenting, scared of what people will think, scared of rejection and getting out of their comfort zone, so they do the things that don’t put them in that situation. But it doesn’t work.
So if you want long term residual income and a business that duplicates and makes you redundant so that you can sit on the beach for the rest of time, then you need to keep it simple. Sure, use the Internet to generate leads but make sure you reach out to them offline once you have that lead and be careful what you teach your team. If they can build their business to a good level through prospecting, talking to people, picking up the phone, attending and inviting to live events, enrolling them, training them, leading them and duplicating that whole system that you have put in place, then they may be at a stage where you can start teaching some online strategies for them but not before.
Keep it simple, duplicate and I will see you on the beaches of the world.
Aaron Byerlee.