Internetwork Marketing Training

As the old year passes away and we face a new year, it is often a good time for reflection and goal setting.  How much do you weigh?  What did you weigh last year at this time? What is your blood pressure reading?  Do you know your cholesterol count?  These are measurements that we can look at if we care about our health.  Those that care about health will often have check ups also.  

Some people will ignore these signs until it is too late - they are in the hospital, or worse yet, in the grave.  Facing reality and accepting accountability are sometimes difficult tasks - not just with our health, but in most arenas of life.  Often those closest to us do not have the courage or expertise to properly analyse our conditions.  Doctors are professionals who are paid to tell us to change our diets or lose 30 pounds - most mothers can’t or won’t do that for us.  

My dad was a long distance runner for many years.  He did several marathons and triathlon events.  He appeared to be in good shape.  One day he was running and felt chest pain.  He was inclined to just press on, but remember a couple of his running buddies over the last few years had died of heart attacks.  He decided to get it checked.  They found 3 major blockages which ultimately led to triple by-pass surgery.  Sometimes the outward doesn’t reflect the reality.

So here is the comparison  - your network marketing business needs check-ups.  Too often ill gotten advice is given by ulteriorly motivated and/or unequipped associates to “just keep running.”  The carnage in the mlm industry is filled with the fruit of that lie.

This short article is a simple exhortation to be sure your business gets a “check-up” once in a while - whether you think you need one or not.  Just as a doctor can gather scientific data to give a report and suggestions to spur us on to better health, so can proven business professionals in most fields.  Most business partners or company upline or trainers have a conflict of interest and/or lack of a broader picture to professionally give your business a good “physical” also.  “Moms” are usually great encouragers, but not who I want doing my physical.

Here are some arena that a good business “check-up” should include:

17 Point Check List for MLM Success

#1.  The WHY factor.

#2.  The Essential Ingredient.  

#3.  Tools of the Trade.

#4.  Your TARGET Market.

#5.  Professional Skills.

#6.  TIME Management.

#7.  Who is the BOSS?

#8.  Marketing OR Selling?

#9.  What does it take to be a LEADER?

#10.  The BIGGEST Phobia.

#11.  Follow - Up OR Follow - Through?

#12.  Repulsion OR Attraction?

#13.  Monetization - People will Pay to talk to you.

#14.  Rabbits and other LIES.

#15.  Short Cuts to Success.

#16.  Duplication.  Duplication.

#17.  Let Uncle Sam pay for it.

Why don’t some people want to have a check up?  Check ups can expose things that we would rather ignore.  It can make us feel vulnerable.  Denial can seem easier to cope with, but it is more deadly.  Some don’t believe that there are actually tangible things that can be measured and analysed in a network marketing business.  Others just don’t want to make the time.  The same bad reasons for not wanting a health check-up can be applied to a thorough and unbiased business check-up.  

To your good health and prosperous business in the days ahead - or NOT.

One of the key questions that needs to be answered for the professional network marketer is: "What are you selling?" To put the same question in a slightly different way is: "What is the main thing you are marketing?"

If you are in the industry of network marketing - take a moment and answer the above question. Do it now - before you read on - the rest of the article will mean more to you if you do.

OK. Done? Good.

When posed with this question the vast majority of those whom I have asked this question have had good answers - but not THE right answer. Their answers have included;

A great nutritional product.
An excellent legal service.
Amazing Skin Care product.
The best new MLM company that just launched.

The list is long of what I heard.

What may surprise you is that there is ultimately ONLY ONE correct answer -

The right answer is - find out by reading the article I published - MLM Success Selling

Technology has been advancing aggressively and its momentum is increasing. For someone old enough to remember "party" lines for phone service and which family got the first color tv set in the neighborhood - only to tune into one of 3 stations, the surge of advances in technology has been amazing. My first exposure to the computer was using punch cards and the program language "cobalt" in the late 1970's as an officer in training at the United States Air Force Academy..

When the personal computer was gaining popularity in 80's and into the 90's I remember learning DOS and working with windows 3.0. As Y2K approached, I had my first home business running well based on new technological developments in the health care field. I remember backing up all my work on New Years eve in the hoopla of what might happen! (I really wasn't too concerned - in fact I found my wife a very cheap airline ticket to go to the Bahamas with for a few days with a friend. She was literally in the air as the new millennium was birthed!)

As the new century progressed, a good friend introduced me to a new network marketing company. Although I was staunchly anti-mlm at that time due to my ignorance of the industry, I had enough respect for my friend to take a look at it. The light bulb went on, and I joined and started building a team. At first I did what my upline suggested, and found out after doing the old fashion ways and wasting lots of money on out-of-date marketing methods my company and upline suggested, I realized that something had to change if our team was to work towards success. I begin to research and learn how to market my business through the internet. Internet marketing, especially in network marketing, was in its infancy.

Also at the same time, I realized that the industry of network marketing had a huge vacuum that teaching solid business principles of marketing and team building could fill. It was out of this convergence of circumstances that the WorksTeam was formed. I had recruited some great people across the nation via network marketing and I had pulled together a mastermind group to lead our team. The initial goal was just to train the team within our company to learn more professional and internet based strategies to build their business.

As our team was growing and succeeding (our company reward me in 2003 with the most successful team builder in the company) we were also attracting people from other companies to our style and training. When our company was going through significant challenges, we decided at that point we couldn't afford to put "all our eggs in one basket" and begin to expand our portfolio and training - one of the best decisions we ever made. The now famous Ann Sieg became a part of our WorksTeam master mind leadership group at this point. Out of the incubation of that group came some great success, including some of the seed thoughts to her powerful Renegade System.

We opened the WorksTeam training up to anyone willing to invest in our tools and wanting to learn our approaches to training and marketing. The consultative approach coupled with the power of internet marketing became the center pieces of our training. We were some of the forerunners of changes that are now sweeping the industry.

As I transitioned into full time missions work in 2006, Wendy Mills took over the leading of the Worksteam and has taken it to even higher levels of professionalism and training.

The network marketing industry is just now starting to apply the tried and true business and marketing principles that propel every other industry in the world. NWM is shedding its infantile beginning ways and practices of marketing (like the 3 foot rule.) As the WorksTeam applies this revolution to the most recent internet marketing strategies and techniques, the future is bright.

What we have learned the years is that there will be challenges, but the effort to keep up with technology and apply it to online marketing is well worth the effort

Our family and business is so blessed to have close and meaningful relationships, like most families. As I was reflecting upon our blessings though, I felt extra grateful when I considered how transient we have been. Even though we rarely see those closest to us face to face, we maintain intimate friendships, and solid business associations. Let me explain -

Over the past 3 years we have moved several times from our home of 45 years of Rockford, Illinois, USA. We moved to Hawaii in 2005 to begin our missionary training with YWAM, (Youth With a Mission.) The power of residual income through network marketing has helped fuel our vision and dream. We then relocated to the Fiji Islands for most of 2007, and now we are based in New Zealand. Those were the BIG moves, in each location there were several little moves. I think I counted 8 different places we have lived.

If you are having communication challenges: staying close to loved ones, effective business follow-up, customer retention, support raising efforts, etc. etc. - the answer for my life may be a good fit for you also.

We keep adding to our close friends list, not losing them. There are probably many reasons for that, with the most important being that the quality of the people that are with us on this journey is phenomenal. I think also there is another reason that prompted this article.

As much as I love technology and have built 3 different home based businesses around new technology, I sense there has been a shifting in how technology affects relationships and communication is coming back into a balance. Those who are relying on email, or other internet based communication ALONE for the maintaining and building of their relationships are losing ground. There is still something about the old fashion letter, greeting card, or postcard that delivers a far more impacting and appreciated correspondence that anything over the computer. Think about it -

(Read the rest of this published article and how old fashioned methods are still needed for marketing success in this new technological world.)

The are bridges that must be crossed on any journey.  When we are coaching others to success it is crucial to understand human nature.  If just learning success and marketing strategies and techniques were enough - everyone would be successful at network marketing.

As an mlm coach, what is really fulfilling is when you see those you are coaching begin to effectively lead others.  Those who rise to the top as leaders of leaders usually go through a scenario of:

Someone to:      

Look you up!

Let you in!

Lift you up!

Lead you on!

Let you go!

Click here to read the full mlm coaching training article for coaches of coaches.