THE 7 GREAT LIES OF NETWORK MARKETING - LIE NUMBER FIVE

In my last post of the 7 Great Lie Of Network Marketing we stopped at Lie No. 4 – We’ll build your business for you.

 

On this post we shall continue with Lie number five (5):

Lie No. 5 – We have the best product ever!
Now it’s not that this statement isn’t necessarily true (although often it isn’t)…it’s that it doesn’t matter. Hang in there for a second, I’ll explain.

 

Like most of them, this lie takes on many different forms. Here’s just a few of the variations:
The product sells itself! Nothing else on the market can even compare to this! We have the most lucrative comp plan in the industry! Our leadership team is unbeatable!

 

Each one of these assertions could go off on their own little tangents, but really what they all boil down to is this: Network marketers place all the emphasis on all the wrong things. It’s not that all these things (product, comp plan, leadership, etc.) aren’t important. These are all critical elements.
The problem is that while everyone is hooting and hollering about this stuff, they forget about the most important factor of all.

 

To illustrate this problem, consider investment properties for a moment. There’s an important lesson to be gleaned from real estate that can help shed some light on the situation.

 

It’s often said that the three most important factors in choosing investment real estate are (1) location, (2) location, and (3) location. If you’re looking at a piece of property from an investment perspective, you shouldn’t be admiring the beautiful perennials out back…or concerning yourself with how many kids the neighbor has…or noticing how well the drapes go with the carpet. If you are, you’re looking at it through the eyes of a home owner, not an investor.

 

In order for your endeavor to turn out profitably, you have to keep the main thing the main thing. Well just like real estate, when it comes to running a highly-profitable business, a similar formula needs to be applied. Namely the most important factor of all is… (1) Marketing, (2) Marketing, and (3) Marketing!

 

This may seem obvious to you, but think about how many people go running around, diving headfirst into one company after another, following the latest and greatest product, only to end up scratching their heads when they don’t make any money. I know I used to.

 

Just as focusing on things like the landscape, the flowers and the neighbors is the way a home buyer looks at a property rather than an investor…putting all your focus on things like the product, the comp plan and the corporate leadership is the way a consumer looks at a company rather than a business owner.

 

Please allow this to sink in: You Can Have The Most Ground-Breaking Product In The World, But If You’re Not Using Effective Marketing, No One Will Know And No One Will Care.

 

Effective sales & marketing is bar-none the most important function of a business.
Think of it this way: A one-of-a-kind product that’s being shipped from one country to another is only as good as the truck that’s carrying it. If the truck breaks down and never reaches its destination, it doesn’t matter how great the product inside it is.

 

Well, your sales and marketing system is the truck that carries your product. No matter how good your product is, it doesn’t matter if your marketing can’t deliver it. Not only that, but sales is the only activity in a business that actually brings in the cash. Think about it. Every other activity uses up that cash.

 

The product, the compensation plan, the timing, the people, the leadership, the management…all crucial aspects of a business…but none of them are income producing activities. The revenue brought in from sales is what makes it all possible. It’s the driving force behind everything.

 

And that’s why you need to be more concerned about the sales strategies you’re using than anything else. This can’t be emphasized enough. It could be the most important thing you ever learn in your network marketing career.
And understand this: You Can Make A Lot Of Money With An Awesome Marketing Plan And A Mediocre Product. You Will Never Even Come Close To Making As Much With An Awesome
Product And A Mediocre Marketing Plan.

 

Like Seth Godin, former Vice President of Marketing for Yahoo!, says: “Marketing is all there is. You don’t win with better shipping or manufacturing or accounts payable. You win with better marketing…”

 

Why am I telling you this? What’s the lesson for network marketers? Simply this: Your product (or your opportunity), no matter how good, will not sell itself and will not make you rich.

 

Also, keep this in mind: You May Believe With All Your Heart That Your Company Is The Best, Hands Down… But So Does Everyone Else.

 

Therefore, the person who succeeds is not the one with the best company, but the one who can do the best job communicating the idea of their company. Now just so that no one gets the wrong impression, I want to stop and emphasize something. I am not saying that your product doesn’t need to be top-quality. It does. I am a firm believer that the only way to do business is to provide a product or service that far exceeds your customer’s expectations. Both for ethical reasons and for the obvious business reasons of getting repeat business from satisfied customers.

 

Anything that you sell to anyone should always be of enormous value in comparison to what they paid you for it. It should always over-deliver. An unbeatable combination therefore, is to have a killer marketing strategy and a killer product. You want the best of both worlds.

 

BUT_the reason I’m stressing marketing so much is because in our industry it is so sorely lacking. Many times people are given the impression that if they’ve got an awesome product, they’re as good as gold and the rest is all gravy. The product will do all the selling for them and they’ll be swimming in money.

 

At this point, you may be thinking something along the lines of: “Well, seeing as how I’m in network MARKETING…that means my sales and marketing system should be pretty much taken care of for me. I mean, we use one-to-one sales and word of mouth_which of course everyone knows is the most powerful form of marketing there is.” That’s what they’d like you to think. But unfortunately it’s not the case.

 

You see, one of the most important (and shocking) things I realized when I made my transition from a floundering distributor to a thriving one, is this: The Marketing In Network Marketing Is Missing!

I know that sounds crazy, but it all makes sense when you understand that…
(a) Network marketers do not truly use word of mouth advertising, as explained in Lie No. 2.

(b) Just because we use one-to-one sales does not in any way mean that it’s an effective form of one-to-one sales. That’s like saying - I play golf, so that makes me a good golfer.

(c) Most of the marketing materials (brochures, websites, etc.) used by mlm companies are awful and have very little value to you (the reason for this is too long to get into here but suffice it to say that most company’s marketing materials are little more than pretty showcases that fail to connect with what the prospect is really looking for).

(d) The “proven” system of names lists, referrals, warm markets, home parties and hotel meetings is not all it’s cracked up to be.

 

Continue enjoying your reading from our next post of the Number Six Lie from the 7 Great Lie Of Network Marketing.