So far our survey or readers shows:
Network marketing is like recommending a restaurant, only you get paid for it.
1. True 80 (34%) 2. False 152 (66%)
1. To those who say it IS YES like that: Why do you feel so many people quit the business – but they don’t stop recommending movies or books?
2. For those who say it IS NOT like that: How can we take advantage of the fact that we do talk to people and are in a great position to recommend stuff, including our products or business?
I said YES.
Here’s why people quit the business.
If I got 20% for every movie or restaurant I recommended that resulted in a sale, I’d be making about $20 a month in residuals. (I recommend about 1 movie a month and one restaurant a month.)
Not very good, huh?
The big difference in network marketing is that you have to recommend your product 2-5 times a day every day to make some sales.
Most people either don’t realize this, don’t want to do it, or just run out of ideas for new people to introduce to the product.
And if they don’t expose people to their product, they won’t make money, and they quit.
Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
P.S. Get your page at ever.com while you still can! E.g.,
http://www.best.dietcookie.ever.com
I said “Yes, it is like that” because I really feel that it’s true.
However, yes, I agree also that a lot of people quit the business but they don’t stop recommending movies or books.
Why is that? Well, one thing that comes to mind is that some people feel uncomfortable recommending something to their friends that they get paid on. I had one lady tell me flat out, “I don’t want to take advantage of my friends.” So although she had great results with the product I promoted back then she didn’t tell a soul. Therefore she didn’t make any money and eventually she quit the business.
Ilka Flood
http://www.JustDoItWithBooks.com
My Pastor said it best when he said, “People want to be where you are but they don’t want to do what you did to get there!” I said yes it is like that but it’s better because if I recommend a restaurant and they don’t like it, they won’t get their money back! I actually challenge my friends to “Rip me off!” I tell them to order my product with every intention of getting their money back and that way they can say they tried it. Otherwise, I won’t listen to their “complaining” anymore. 😉
Walter and Ilka…interesting perspectives.
If only people didn’t have to get paid for the things they recommend to make the business work…
And if only they didn’t HAVE to make so many more recommendations than they normally make in their day – in order to earn some income –
Other than that, I guess it’s the same…
Hmmm
I think the reason people quit this business is because they’re told how ‘easy’ it is to make ‘big money.’ I would say the majority of those who quit the business were sold ‘pie in the sky’ and from the beginning were wrong for the business. There are so many ‘heavy hitters’ out there who believe that NM is just a numbers game, who look for quality within quantity and will sell that big package to ‘anyone who can fog a mirror.’ Maybe that’s where the hight drop out rate comes from … think?
I liked Melinda’s Pastor’s quote “… people want to be where you are but don’t want to do what you did to get there.” I think that says it for the NM drop out rate. Most people just don’t want to ‘do what it takes’ to make the business work. I believe if there was a ton of gold buried 10-feet into the ground, there would be some people who would not have the ‘energy’ to dig to get it.
In all actually I believe it has little to do with whether or not we comparing Network Marketing to recommending a movie, book or restaurant.
Venetta
http://www.aloecare4u.blogspot.com
I said no because we are sellers. We sell stuff. Like it or not, that’s what we do.
If I owned a furniture store, I wouldn’t “recommend” my furniture to my friends and hope they buy. I would tell my friends that I had a furniture store and what kind of furniture I had for sale and the general price level (bargain, upscale, etc.). I might talk about why I like the furniture I sell. Then I’d say something like, “Bob, if you’re ever in the market for a traditional style leather couch, come take a look at what I have. See if anything appeals to you.”
No hidden agenda. Everyone knows I own My Furniture Store. They know that is how I make my living. Network Marketing should be no different. Let people know you sell stuff and that is how you make you living.
Ok, I relinquish the soapbox.
180skincare.com
To all of this I say:
Can you truly, and with certainty and honesty, recommend anything to a friend or potential client without having first hand knowedge? The best you can truly say is “you might try…”
It’s like this – my girlfriend and I bought some eggs a while back. All of them had double yolks. After that we bought some more and they too had double yolks. When we asked the person who stocks the eggs about he he stammered around and was dumbfounded. Would you take advice about eggs from someone like that?
Would you buy a Mercedes from someone who has never driven one? How about a friend that has never driven one who tells you to get such and such a model but hasn’t even touched one? I don’t think I would.
Yes, we do sell stuff. But most people will buy based on you and not on the product or service. If the people don’t know you and you have a stutter do you think they will take your word for it? Chances are no (it is a psychological thing) vecause they think you don’t know too much about it and are just tying to sell them,
The next several times you approach someone for a sale pay attention to your mood, attitude, appearance, speech patterns. Then really pay attention to how they respond. Do this until you make your next sale. Then try being a little dishelved and with a slightly haughty edge to your voice and a bit of a stutter. See if it takes a little longer to make your next sale.
It doesn’t matter what you are representing. In any business you are actually selling you!
Why don’t they stop recommending movies and restaurants? Because it is not the same as selling a product or service.
If they were making money off of their recommendations, it would change the whole dynamic, and maybe they would stop making recommendations if they were paid for what people saw and ate and a few didn’t like it or follow through.
I doubt it would make much difference for movies, since the barrier to entry is so low (the cost of admission) but on expensive restaurants that could afford to pay a commission a lot of people probably wouldn’t go, so if we wanted to make money we would have to recommend a LOT more people. And then for the people who did go some of them wouldn’t be happy.
Simply put, they have no stake, so its not a big deal.
In the end it is just a poor analogy all the way around. We shouldn’t say its the same NOR should we critique it as if it SHOULD be the same. It is not.
We are in the business of sales and marketing. Further, we are on the entrepreneurial side of sales and marketing – i.e. full commission. No base salaries, no protected territories, no sales manager pushing and driving us to greater effort and production.
Even further, if we are New School operating in an Old School environment, we have even further challenges. I have just spent the past two years working on a marketing plan that will survive the old school pressure I know I will receive once I launch my new school approach in December.
In some ways its not even new school since NO ONE is doing my foundational approach within NM. Unfortunately I made the mistake of test marketing with my upline, who immediately saw the power of it but wanted to incorporate it within an old school framework.
I could only laugh. I just had 20 realtors show up for a group presentation and he thinks I was going to hand my approach over to him? Especially since I had to protect some of those folks from him as he was loading them down in old school jargon and ideas (and scaring them) during some informal Q&A after the meeting?? The Gods aren’t that Crazy 🙂
As a result I realized I had to create a special presentation for my upline utilizing some of Kim’s materials (since for compliance reasons I can’t totally ignore him AND because the founder and CEO of the company likes to make field visits to those who are doing well) that would accomplish two things:
1. keep him/them at a distance
2. give me exclusive use of my approach for at least year.
Well enough of that. My point is simply this: it’s a tough world no matter your approach, and for most people it is going to require a series of personal and business transformations in order to conquer this world we call NWM.
The quicker we accept that fact and act in light of that fact, the better off we will be.
Michael
http://www.grmbeyond.com
http://www.uptownonthebay.biz