Network Marketing — How Do I Get More Sign-Ups?

by Barbara Chapman

This is probably the number 1 question most network marketers ask, and get asked. Because let's face it, if you don't have people signing up in your business, it doesn't make any difference how well you organise your business, how motivated you are, or how many hours you work - if you don't get anyone to sign up in your business, you are failing, and you won't last very long - eventually you will run out of money and motivation, and common sense will dictate that you have to stop what you are doing before you break the bank and drive yourself (and your loved ones) crazy.

So, back to the big question - how do I get more sign-ups? Traditional network marketing methods would dictate that you have to make more contacts, meet more people, hold more meetings, do some soul-searching - is your 'why' big enough? All of which wouldn't necessarily do anything for business except perhaps cost you more time and money, and dishearten all but the most optimistic. But not necessarily get you any more business.

But some time ago some of the big earners in the industry started to explore what they were doing and examine why they were being so successful. How come their business was growing, their team was sharing some of their success, they were building residual income - and if they taught their downlines to do what they were doing, the same thing was happening for them. What were they doing that had people contacting them, asking - no, begging them to let them sign up in their business? Their contact lists were growing daily without much effort on their part, they no longer needed to buy leads at vast expense (and of little value), people they had had no previous contact with were just joining their business, uninvited. They had become the hunted, instead of being hunters.

On close examination, they found that what they were doing that was different from the majority of other network marketers, is they were no longer selling anything. What? I hear you ask - how can you be a network marketer without selling anything? Almost every network marketer around will tell you, everything your upline and company will have taught you about being in network marketing, will involve selling. Whether it's running home meetings or placing flyers on cars, placing online ads or using myspace, each of these will involve a sales pitch. And what about all those 'killer emails' and lengthy sales pages on every other website?

So if these successful network marketers weren't selling, what were they offering that had people queuing up to join their businesses?

Education, that's what they were offering. Whether it was education about the product they were selling, or education about how to sell that product (how to duplicate what they were doing) they were teaching people to be successful, like them.

It's a known fact that the vast majority of people want help with some aspect of their lives - they want to know how to run a better business, how to play golf better, how to lose weight, how to have a better relationship, how to make their favourite soup - and if you can help someone to fulfil this need for help, they are going to value you.

Because the successful network marketers were offering this help, this education, people valued them and started to contact them, rather than waiting to be contacted. They began seeking out the people who could help them fulfil a need.

The term 'Attraction Marketing' was born.

How can you apply this method of marketing to your own business? Firstly, stop SELLING and start EDUCATING! If you've been network marketing for any length of time, whether online or offline, putting aside your 'pitch' in favour of the role of teacher may seem quite daunting. If you've spent hours learning the ins and outs of the product so that you can 'sell' it, you may well feel that it would be a waste of time to stop perfecting your sales pitch.

Well, you don't have to do that, because in order to take on the role of teacher or mentor, you still need to know your product inside out, because now instead of just blurting out a 'pitch', you're going to have to instruct potential business partners in how the product works. In order to offer any real value to them, they'll want to know a lot more detail than a traditional network marketer would have given them - not just the impressive numbers around the compensation plan, but all the 'nuts and bolts' of your product as well. Only by going into detail can you hope to offer real value, which is what you need to be offering before people will start coming to you (instead of to someone else who IS offering real value). A potential business partner needs to be reassured not just that you are an expert in your chosen field, but that you are going to help them become one too.

So stop selling, and start educating!

© Barbara Chapman, All rights reserved.

Submitted on April 17, 2009.