Choose Your Team Carefully

It’s up to you to find the right fit

There are all sorts of ways network marketers come undone. One of them is getting onto the wrong team.

To illustrate the importance of getting on the right team, let’s take two hypothetical friends, Nicky and Vicky.

Nicky and Vicky decide to give network marketing a go. Neither knows that the other is considering network marketing. It’s pure coincidence that they choose to do it simultaneously.

Nicky

Nicky gets into it because a neighbour is in it. She thinks it might be a good way to earn some extra money in her spare time. She’s tried the products her neighbour sells and likes them, so she reckons it’ll be easy.

Nicky’s neighbour shows her how to demonstrate the products and fill out the order form. Nicky goes to a company presentation where a few of the top distributors tell their rags-to-riches stories, which are very inspiring.

Nicky can’t wait to start calling family members and talking to people at work … except that she’s not sure how to get the conversation around to the products … and what if my family aren’t interested? … and will my work mates think less of me for doing this? … and on and on and on.

After a couple of weeks she sees her neighbour again. The neighbour asks her how she’s going? Nicky says she’s doing ok. Even though she isn’t. The neighbour says “Great”. During the next couple of weeks, Nicky gets up the courage to talk to a couple of friends about the products. She is sure they’ll want to buy them. But they don’t. Now Nicky isn’t so sure it’s going to be as easy to do as she’d imagined.

She sees her neighbour again – at the local shop. Her neighbour asks how she is going. Nicky says she is finding it a bit harder than she expected. Her neighbour tells her to do product demos. People who try the products will buy the products and they’ll want to become distributors themselves.

Nicky’s neighbour reminds her that all distributors find it hard at first. The neighbour says that she struggled for the first six years. Nicky has no idea her neighbour has been doing it for so long. This shocks Nicky. That explains why the neighbour is still working at her regular job. This isn’t how Nicky saw it panning out. She’s been led to believe that in no time she would be earning enough to give up her day job.

She comments to her neighbour that she still finds it hard to talk to people. Just do the product demos, her neighbour tells her.

“Is that what your upline recommends”, asked Nicky.

“I don’t have an upline”, says the neighbour. “He left the business years ago. And HIS upline quit last year.”

Nicky thinks about this.

“So whom do you talk to?” she asks.

“Nobody.”

By the end of the year, Nicky has given up her network marketing dream.

Vicky

Vicky is introduced to network marketing by a friend of her sister. It’s something she’s considered for a while. Not actively. Just something that has been in the back of her mind for a while.

Vicky asks her sister’s friend which company she’s with. Vicky knows the company. It’s been around for many years. She asks her sister’s friend how long she’s been doing it. “Six years” is the answer.

Vicky is thinking about this when her sister’s friend says, “You know, you should do this! It’s easy! I can sign you up tonight.”

Vicky’s sister adds, “Yes, you’d be great at it!”

Vicky smiles.

Driving home, Vicky decides that she should seriously look at network marketing.

At home, she gets on the computer. She finds a website that shows the fastest growing network marketing companies. She knows her sister’s friends company – but she just wants to see what else is out there.

She’s never heard of some of the fast-growing companies. That’s because most are new this year.

But she sees a couple of well-known companies that are growing well. Her sister’s friend’s company is one of them.

Vicky finds another website that lists the top network marketing leaders in the world. She sees that a number of them are with the same company as her sister’s friend.

She Googles these names.

She finds that one of them lives in her state. She also discovers that this woman got to the top level of her company in record time.

“Hmm”, she thinks. “She must be doing something right.”

Vicky discovers something else when she Googles this woman. She’s a big believer in the power of self-confidence.

Vicky’s quite confident, but network marketing means talking to people about your products or business opportunity – and it takes a LOT of confidence to do that!

A couple of months later, Vicky sees her sister’s friend again. She mentions this woman’s name. The friend is enthusiastic. “She’s great! She signs all her people up to a confidence-building program. She does weekly calls with each of them. She send them encouraging emails all the time. And she has more Platinum distributors in her downline than anyone in the country!”

Vicky’s mind is made up. “That’s the leader for me”, she thinks.

Vicky joins that team. At the end of her first year, she is well on her way to becoming a Platinum Distributor herself.

David

Imagine you’re a young David Beckham. You have ambitions of being a great football player. You want to join a club. Do you just join any old club? Or do you do your homework? Do you ask other players for the club with the best reputation? Do you search for the club that produces the most stars? The club that offers the best facilities? The club that has the best training program? The club that has the best support staff?

Network marketing is a team sport. When you’re starting out you don’t know what you’re doing. You need experienced people in your upline to show you the way. You need people who are strong, who have demonstrated an ability to nurture those in their team. You need people who understand the importance of self-confidence to network marketing success.

To succeed in network marketing, remember the choice of company and team is yours. Get it wrong and you’ll give up. Like Nicky. Get it right and you’ll succeed. Like Vicky.

Greg

Greg Alder coaches leadership skills to corporations. He is associated with a new network marketing success system that coaches people to become confident, manage their time efficiently, become accountable for their actions – and to work together as a team.