I’m about to tell you to discard almost everything you’ve heard about network marketing. Multilevel marketing, also known as mlm or network marketing, is a specialized niche of sales that has the potential to catapult you into five figure monthly earnings, but only if you understand it and approach your marketing seriously. The fact is, most of what you’ve heard about network marketing is misconception, some of it fostered by recruiters and some of it by detractors. Here are the five most common myths about network marketing and how they can trip you up.
1. Network marketing – isn’t that just like a pyramid scheme?
Pyramid schemes are illegal investment schemes that involve no product – or more precisely, the investment scheme itself is the product. Network marketing, on the other hand, is a way to sell a product through word of mouth. As in any other business, the more people you have working for you and selling product, the more money you will make. Developing your network will build your income, but only if you are basing it on a solid product that people want to buy.
2. Network marketing is a get-rich quick scheme.
Few people will ‘get rich’ and fewer will get rich quick. Like any other home business, a network marketing business takes time to grow. You won’t see those five figure incomes the first month you’re in business. You’ll have to put in the time to develop your network and build it into a successful sales team before you’ll start to see a consistent stream of income.
3. Network marketing is so simple that anyone can do it.
If that were true, then network marketing wouldn’t show a 95% failure rate. The truth is that network marketing requires hard work, dedication and developing specialized skills in both sales and management – because you won’t really start seeing real money until you are managing a team of successful sales and management people.
4. The only way to succeed in network marketing is to sign up your friends and neighbors.
If you’re relying on ‘warm prospects’ – your friends, neighbors and acquaintances – you’re going to run out of sales and recruitment prospects pretty darn fast. The only way to make real money in network or mlm is to extend your network and learn to generate sales leads.
5. You can make a lot of money in network marketing without selling.
Like it or not, if you’re joining a mlm, you’ll be selling. It’s a matter of what you’re actually selling. The biggest mistake that most new network marketers make is concentrating on building a downline before building a market.
Look at it this way. In a reputable mlm, you’ll have at least two income streams. The first will be commissions on your own sales. The second will be residual income from sales made by your team. That second stream will be enhanced if and when your team members begin building teams of their own. When you first start in network marketing, your most significant income stream will come from your own sales commissions. As you build your team, more and more of your income will come from the second stream – and the size of that stream depends on you being able to teach those beneath you how to sell the product and train others to sell the product. How can you teach your team members to do something you haven’t done yourself?
There is certainly money to be made in network marketing. If there weren’t, mlm schemes wouldn’t be so prevalent. The key to succeeding in network marketing is in working, and working hard. There are no shortcuts, only sure roads to success.
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