Id like to start out with something very fundamental so that you can understand the importance of knowing the power of marketing in every business. In my definition, marketing is your orchestrated process of educating a prospect about the advantages that you bring to their self-serving result. And when you do this better than anyone else that the prospect deals with, the more effective your marketing becomes. The important phrase here is their self-serving result. You notice I do not say, your self-serving result. Everyday, I have the privilege of assisting small business owners with their marketing and advertising effort. 95% of the time, these business owners do one thing They LOVE talking about themselves in their advertisement. You too must have heard these familiar phrases. * We Have Been In Business for Over 20 Years. * Fast, Reliable, Professional Service * We Are The Largest _____ In The Industry These phrases do not focus on the benefits of the end user. Until and unless the business translates the meaning into the context of whats in it for the prospects needs, the prospect does not clearly understand why he should choose the business over the competitors. Network marketers love marketing the similar way. When done explicitly, their self-interest becomes the first in their priority and the prospects interest becomes less important. I receive spam emails (and phone calls) from fellow network marketers every single day. And their appoach usually starts out like this. * Hi, we have an amazing product that everybody needs and you can earn $1000 every week! * Hi, if I can show you how to put 10-15 people in your downline each and every week * Hi, if I can show you the way how to bring extra $1000 to $3500 every week, would 5 minutes of your time be valuable * We have the best product with most antioxidants The mistake here is this. These marketing messages do not focus on the needs of the prospect but go straight into the pitch! People dont care if you are the best or the worst. People dont care why you are in the business. Unless the prospect sees that there is an advantage in dealing with you, they do not care who you are or how long you have been in the business. How do you show you care? You have to first change your mindset before shifting your prospects mindset It requires better marketing. I say this because people do not buy your products or services but they buy result. And marketing is a continual educating of your prospect or customer about the ways you bring that result in their lives. True System = Marketing Many network marketing programs and franchise businesses claim to have a system. They say that they have the most revolutionary system with an amazing product to sell. But what this really means is that these programs own operational systems. But not necessarily the marketing methods, which should come before everything else. You can buy a business, such as a franchise but mostly they teach you their version of a system. If the business already establishes an identity, and you can open up a Subway, McDonalds or the Blockbuster Video, and you can sell because the market already creates expectation for your business, and hopefully your location pays off return on your investment. Your market knows what item to consume and they expect consistency in your franchise as they do when visiting the same franchise elsewhere. As a matter of fact, finding the right market or location becomes more essential than learning how to operate the business in order for your business to survive. Placing the unwanted business in the midst of untargeted market of people, almost guarantees a failure. But if your business does not have a brand or an identity, then you must create one. The same principle goes for a network marketing business. You cannot join an organization that leaves you with no marketing methods. The system you choose must not only have a good operation, but also marketing system so that you know what to do from point A to point B. And how do you gain an identity and a brand? You accomplish this through * Consistency * Targeting the Right Audience * Positioning All of the above help you create your brand and identity. If you do any one of them, your business grows better than most of your competitors, but if you do all of them, you grow exponentially, gaining competitive advantage that none of your competitors offer to the market. Creating A Proper Mindset for Your Business Your marketing changes when you decide to change from within Your mindset. This sounds very philosophical but I will impress this upon you so that it gets reminded until it becomes your philosophy. Once your prospect sees and identifies your philosophy, you become able to change their human behavior so that they become desirous to act upon your recommendation. But in order for you to persuade your prospects to act upon your recommendation, you must first add value by freely offering your resources and making it clear that you have their best interest. Your prospects must know that regardless of the transaction, you become loyal to their needs. Because the real profit of marketing does not lie in the initial sale. But in the residual, perpetual and marginal value of a customer. Most of businesses make a sale, close a sale, and you never hear from them. Either they dont have any backend products to sell or they dont know how to add any more value to their customers lives. If your business doesnt have any backend products that either help solve customers problems or meet their pressing need, you can offer newsletters or thank you cards that continue to add value to your service or products. If you focus all of your marketing activities to enhance the lives your customers for their lifetime, you will become the obvious expert and your customers will only do business with you. Let me give you a specific example. Guinness Book World Records writes about Joe Girard, Worlds No. 1 Used Car Salesman. Joe sold over 1200 cars a year or 18 cars in one day. All he received was his pool of customers and referrals. You want to know his secret? He sent greeting cards to his customers every single month. He became the only expert that all his clients would ever want to do business with. My mother, Makiko Hikichi continues to sell most number of life insurance policies in Japan and she is a legend in her industry. Growing up, she always had these junk (which I thought at the time anyway) in her trunk. Anything from towels, calenders, event tickets etc. All she does is she continues to visit her clients EVERY SINGLE MONTH, dropping by to give away stuff. For example, she only buys gas from this one gas station that belongs to her client. No matter how far it is, she drives her car across the town just to buy gas and washes her car, changes her oil etc. Most of the time, the owner isnt there and this is a business that she wont renew for 10 years, she still continues to be loyal to her clients and she writes more deals than anyone I ever know. In my home town, she is known as the expert when it comes to life insurance and all of my neighbors come knocking on her doors to sign up. She doesnt really have to go to them, but they come to her because of her identity. She positioned herself in the market by bringing consistent value in the lives of her clients. Only by understanding the value of marketing, can you choose the right network marketing company for yourself. I tell you that there are no secrets to success in network marketing, but by developing proper skillset and innovative marketing, you can achieve what it takes to be a leader in the industry. How To Choose Network Marketing Program There are just so many of them out there, right? Is it confusing? I think it is. Most of people today uses the internet to look for information but every time you review a program, you only hear good things about them. Every distributor in every program will tell your that their program is the best and their compensation plan is the greatest. Everyone wants to first talk more about themselves and the prospects interests become less important. On the web, everyone in your program becomes your competitor. Search Engines become the battlefield and how you differentiate yourself from your competitors make or break your network marketing business. The only way you will survive is by consistently educating your prospect or customer about the advantage you bring to the market. And the better and more powerful you become at articulating, explaining, illustrating, comparing, identifying, persuading how you bring the advantage to your prospects, the more effective you become as a network marketer. |
