Downline - Create Your Own Highly Responsive , Highly Targeted Leads
By: MelanieKissell | Posted: 14th August 2008
To build a downline of business partners and friends for life, do not purchase worthless leads or try to become a product know-it-all. Some people start their MLM business with the plan of learning everything they possibly can about their company's products or service. Some of them actually becoming an expert. Problem is, that is a total waste of time. It may sound logical. But this business is about building relationships rather than selling product ... because you are not a salesperson.
If you try to get people to buy from you, then you are dead before you start. And even if you can do it, you won't be able to train anyone else to sell a product. Selling isn't duplicatable.
Instead, what you must do is become an expert on people, because in network marketing, people are your REAL product. Your job is to help people achieve their dreams in life. And that means you must understand them. You must build trust with them. Build the relationship. That is job #1.
Devote your time to getting good at relationship-building skills. You need to become a very good listener, so you understand exactly what the people you talk to want. And then you help them get it. To achieve their goals, they will buy your products ... if YOU have built that relationship with them.
What could be worse than working with people you don't like? That's one reason people choose to build an MLM business - they want to escape from a job working with people they just don't respect or like. But sometimes a person loses sight of that fact and just wants to recruit anyone who will say "yes", and they sign up anybody they possibly can.
In my experience, you have to define your standards at the start and stick to them. One good yardstick when you're talking to somebody is to ask yourself, "Is this someone I'd want to go on a 30-day cruise with?"
This is a business you have chosen, and you also get to choose the people you will work closely with. Why on earth choose people you just don't like? Just focus on the ones who bring fun into your life, who share your dreams and goals. It's exciting to make new friends you really like and then to be able to support them in achieving their lifetime goals.
It's a big chore to have to talk daily to someone who is unfocused and with whom you have nothing in common, and listen to them gripe about the business you love. You really need to have your standards set in your mind when you talk to people.
Don't you love it when you go out looking to buy a car and a salesman is on you like glue? Some of them talk non-stop and some of them just watch your every move but his job is to sell you a car. Period. How uncomfortable is that for you?
That's one of the problems you get when you try to sell, which Michael Dlouhy writes about in "Success In 10 Steps" ebook. People see MLM as a sales business, and it isn't. Instead, MLM is a relationship-business. You've got to be able to build that bond with people because that is what will cause them to join you.
When a person doesn't trust you, they will not join you. That's one reason "Success In 10 Steps" has been used by so many in MLM as a great lead-generator - the message in the book helps to build relationships. And it's a very effective tool you may find pretty useful.
You can get a free copy of the classic ebook, "Successin10Steps", at http://michaeldlouhy.net
About the Author
Occupation: Independent Information Services Professional
Public Speaker; Associate with MentoringForFree; Health Educator - 27 years experience
Free ebook: http://melanie.successin10steps.com
This article is free for republishing
Printed From: http://www.articlealley.com/article_598960_80.html
Back to the original article
Tags: building relationships, waste of time, job, business partners, salesperson, relationship, earth, good listener, network marketing, downline, dreams, cruise, mlm business, yardstick