Category Archives: Home Based Business

Why Quality Of Your Product & Price Matters When It Comes To Network Marketing

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I have been around the network marketing industry since I joined my first company Pre-Paid Legal back in 2000.  I have seen some great products and services being sold by word of mouth marketing over the years.  Who can argue that Amway, Avon, Legal Shield (formerly pre-paid legal), or Shaklee are not great companies with great products or services?  I’ve personally used products over the years where I never even became a distributor and was just a customer Juice Plus, Send Out Cards, and Nerium to name a few.

What I love about network marketing is it allows people to purchase products that in most cases are better quality than what they would get on the shelf in a store.  Mainly because of the distribution model being word of mouth the companies typically pay out around 50% of all income to their distributors instead of going retail and paying out nearly 80% to advertising agencies, wholesalers, resellers, and so on.  It also allows individuals with no experience or limited experience in business to create additional income with a very small investment. Unfortunately, certain companies out there don’t have that great of a product.  I still remember a few years ago sitting on a phone call with a company owner who was bragging how he was getting his product from China for $6 and selling it through his network marketing business for $60.   This is where I have a love hate relationship with the business as most businesses are built on a product or service first and a distribution channel later. In many cases in network marketing, the business is built on a compensation plan first than a product secondly.  In fact, I’m shocked that after what happened with Veema (being shut down by the FTC), and all of Herbalife’s problems in recent years that anyone would even consider starting a network marketing company without focusing on a product or service first.

You see, for a company to be successful in the long-term it cannot be built entirely by just recruiting people who are going to join the business and pay out commissions.  It must have products and services available to the general public that people would buy without a business opportunity attached to it.  And this is where it gets tricky.  Because as a network marketing begins the word of mouth is usually spread by distributors recruiting distributors.  After awhile if the products and services are good and priced right many distributors who originally got into the business to make money will just become loyal customers and the word of mouth will travel and over time there will be many customers and that is where you want to be.  In fact, if you just build a business model on recruiting distributors and have no customer base your business and company is doomed over a period of time – it will eventually fall apart like a deck of cards.  That company I talked about earlier where the owner was buying his product in China for $6 and reselling it to his distributors for $60 is no longer in business today.

Why are price and quality important?  If you put a product in the marketplace that isn’t priced accordingly then – it better make a person fly, because if people see they can buy a similar product that’s just as good elsewhere for a lesser price – you’re going to lose a customer. It’s as simple as that.  And I still believe today that most products I come across in network marketing are of good quality, but many still don’t understand that consumers won’t pay double or triple for a product they can buy elsewhere.

So if you decide you want to join a network marketing company before you begin marketing it do some homework on the products to see if they are priced accordingly, good quality, and something you would personally buy whether or not you joined the business to make money or not. Keep in mind in network marketing you are building a business for you and your family that could potentially pay you residual income for years to come.  Don’t make the same mistake I have in the past by joining a company just because you can make money quickly – that usually doesn’t last.  Ask yourself, if this company will still be around in 3 to 5 years?  Is this a business that I could put my mom or relatives in and sleep straight at night.  If the answer to the above is YES, than you may have found your company.

If you are looking for a company that has better products, is priced right and can potentially add an additional $100, $500, or even $5000 or more per month to your families budget than definitely click on the link below.

Click here to read more about how you can change your financial future and make a difference.

More Resources For You:

How To Build a Big Downline in 90 Days in Network Marketing

How to do a 3 Way Call for Network Marketing

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If you are involved in network marketing or thinking about it.  One of the best ways to build your business is by putting your prospects on a 3 way call with a leader in your organization.  In fact, I suggest that you have at least 3 or 4 leaders in your organization in your phone on auto dial, so you can plug into these folks when you need them.  If you’re new to network marketing you will want to practice using the feature on your phone.  You can google, how to do a 3 way call on your phone.  It’s pretty easy to do.

When is the best time to use a 3 way call

You should use a 3-way call after your prospect has seen a presentation either live or online and this tool should be used for 2 reasons, one is to get all of your prospects questions answered and to enroll your prospects into the business.  There will be those times where someone will just watch a presentation and will sign up for your business without a 3 way call, but in most cases, many will have questions before joining your business.  That is when you need to put them on the phone with your leader.  Don’t say too much at this point except, something like “That’s a great question, I’ve got my business partner on the other line and he has a lot more experience than I am.  Let me see if he is available.”  Then you simply dial up your leader and see if they are available.  If they are not available, call another leader until you find someone who is.  This is where you will use edification after you get your leader on the phone, “This is Bob, he has been with our company for 5 years and is having lots of success with it”.  After you introduce your leader, you don’t say anything, put your phone on mute and let them do most of the talking.

Why don’t I want to explain my business

The reason you don’t want to vomit information on your prospects is because you want a couple of things to happen.  You want them to say to themselves that I can do that and see  that they will not be alone in building their business.  A good leader won’t even vomit with information on your prospects unless they have watched a presentation.  You don’t want to probably even mention the company until they have agreed to watch a presentation unless they pressure you to tell them.  Keep it short and sweet and get them to a presentation and then use the 3 way call and you will find yourself succeeding much more in your business versus going after it alone.  Sometimes your leader will even enroll your people for you, but I think its best to use them as much as you can and not become too dependent on them.  Even when you get the business down to where you can walk and talk it, remember to always take your people to another leader for a 3 way.  Never over explain in this business or you will talk yourself out of sponsoring your next would be superstar.

Network Marketing Success Tip – How to build a decent sized downline in 90 Days or less…

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Have you ever joined a network marketing business and waited until you got your products and kept making excuses until you made your list or got to work?  I know I have, I can remember times where I spent days or even weeks just working on my office or waiting until my business cards arrived or until I got my new products in the mail before I did anything with my business.  Some people I have come across over the years spend 90% of their time just doing that and not much more.  And you wonder why so many people are not successful with network marketing.  Some people I have come across over the years spend 90% of their time just attending events or training calls.  That’s valuable, but unless you get into action you will probably never see your business grow past an auto ship order and a tax write off.  If you want to make income in MLM whether it be a few thousand or several thousand a month you must sponsor a lot of people and continue to do so over and over again until you get a decent sized team together.  Once you get a good team going your activity will shift to get into the trenches and work with your people.  3-way calls, presentations, etc…

This article isn’t really written for the team leader with a large team, but more for the person just getting started in network marketing or the individual who is struggling.  I want to give you some valuable tips to build your business fast without being an internet guru.  Besides the internet rarely works building a large team if you don’t know how to connect with others offline.

So below I have given you some action tips that should really help you get up and running. But before I leave these tips keep in mind that you really only get paid to do two things in network marketing – recruit customers, and to recruit distributors.  Once you realize that -you can spend 80% of your time on that activity and the other 20% working with your team and on-going training.  I call it the 80/20 rule and you won’t move from that until you have a team of at least 50 or 60 people who are active and calling you for 3 ways or support.

Activity Tips to Explode your Network Marketing Business in 90 Days!

  1. Make a list of 20 people who know you and like you and call them and tell them what you are up to.  Don’t worry about the outcome just call them and announce to them that you are a distributor with this great company and wanted to share your products and opportunity with them. You might get a response like, isn’t this that pyramid thing?  You’re going to answer, “I don’t know about that, but I plan on taking my family to go see the pyramids after I build this business.”
  2. Once you go through your 20 then you will want to cold call.  You need to make a goal of how many calls you can make per day.  If you work full-time it may only be 5 or 10 calls per day.  If you’re scared of the phone you will need to get over it eventually, but you can reach out to 5 or 10 people per day on Facebook via Facebook Messenger.  If you need tips on how to do this you can fill out my form on this website and get my free E-book to help you get going.
  3. Always be adding to your network and make sure you have business cards on you at all times.  As you continue to expand your network there will be more and more opportunity to share your opportunity.  If you don’t get out of the house much then you may want to look up professionals in your area and email them until you get good posture on the phone.   You can do this through Facebook or LinkedIn by doing a search.  Only do this a few times per day.  I have an entire blog post on how to do this activity click here to read (read after you get through this post).
  4. Set a day and time that you are going to do your business and stick to it.  If you have a full-time job then you might only be able to work in the evenings (The best time to reach people anyways).   You will do only prospecting from 6PM to 8PM Monday – Friday and attend 1 training call per week.  That’s about 10 to 12 hours per week and very doable for most people.  You can generally reach around 10 to 15 people per day if you put the blinders on.
  5. Once you get someone who says they would like more information than you simply invite them to look at your opportunity – online, offline, wherever.  Most presentations take around 30 minutes.  Once they agree to watch your company presentation schedule a time to follow up and ask them one question, “What did you like best”?  Then wait for their response (first person to speak always loses).  Remember, you don’t care about the outcome.  If they are interested then you simply call your upline immediately and get them on a 3-way call or schedule a time to do this (please make sure you know how to do a 3-way call on your phone).  You’re off the hook at this point.  Let your upline enroll your downline and breath.

There is more that you can do once you start making money like advertising and purchasing leads, but these tips should keep you busy for a few months and get you a decent sized downline in 90 days.  The keyis to be busy every day and keep moving.  When you run out of people to talk to turn to Facebook or LinkedIn and just keep going and you will be successful.  If you feel like you need some coaching or just a mentor for a month or two to get you going feel free to email me at john@johnlowery.biz for a free 30-minute consultation.  I have coached many successful networkers over the years and know what it takes to build a large team.

 

Why You Need a Happy Goal!

Happiness, Home Based Business, Travel

A few years ago I remember thinking if I just got the bigger house or the fancy car or the bigger bank account I would be happy.  I got that and then one day it pretty much vanished almost overnight after a divorce.  I promised myself from that point forward I would only put all of my extra money into surfboards and guitars (which I did for awhile).  But then after 7 surfboards and 4 guitars, I realized that was kind of silly and that I basically would need storage for all the above.  Thankfully, my neighbor who is a good friend of mine now lets me store some of my surfboards in his storage house – ha ha.

You see, in business just like when you have a job you need to set goals.  Unfortunately, most goals are kind of mundane like – make more money, get a better job, or pay off debt.  These kind of goals are great, but they aren’t really happy goals.  Even though surfboards and guitars may seem silly to some, it’s actually not.  To me, I love to surf and play guitar (those things make me happy).

A few years ago I started reading up on happiness and minimalism.   And even though that didn’t force me to sell off all my surfboards and guitars I discovered something else that made people really happy, in fact, things really aren’t that important.  What they have discovered is what really makes people happy is experiences.  So a few years ago even though I had already done a ton of it already in my life, I started to travel frequently again. I would think about places to travel to and make a goal – a happy goal to take a vacation for a week or two and go and see new places and have new experiences.

“There are 3 things you need to be happy in life – someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.” Jimmy Buffett (American Musician 1946 – )

There is nothing quite like putting a vacation on your calendar for a week or two and scheduling it out for 2 or 6 months.  It does something to me when I work, as it gives me something to look forward to.  It’s a happy goal.  I find not only does my work become more manageable, but that I really enjoy those days leading up to that vacation.  In fact, I’m on vacation right now as I write this. I’m looking at the ocean and enjoying the tropical air from my hotel balcony.  it’s my 3rd vacation in the past 12 months. And when I vacation I don’t really do much business, I shut down and try to really enjoy the moments, because when it’s all said and done it’s not so much about the things you have, but the things you have done.  So my challenge to you if you aren’t already traveling and investing in experiences is to start doing it.  If you don’t vacation from time to time you are missing out in my opinion.  Plus, it’s a great way to recharge your batteries (your human batteries).

If money or your work schedule is keeping you from taking those much-needed vacations and traveling more, just know that happy goals will subconsciously force you to attract more money to make that much-needed vacation become a reality.  If traveling doesn’t interest you, at least find some things that you enjoy and start setting more happy goals around the things that you love.  It’s important to give yourself something to look forward to.

What is the Best MLM Marketing System

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What is the best MLM Marketing System?  Since I entered The MLM/Network Marketing world online back in 2008, I have always been in search of good marketing systems.  I’ve used company provided systems (that usually cost a fee).  I’ve used free marketing systems by 3rd parties, and costly systems by 3rd parties.  What I have found is that most have a few negatives – the free ones don’t have a good follow up program that allows you to make phone calls and schedule follow-ups with your prospects.  The company provided systems are tailored only towards your company and allow for very little customization – no tweaking emails, videos, etc.  Most company provided systems don’t allow you to make money promoting them to your downline.  The company provided ones will be good for your friends or family members, but won’t allow you to generate leads on your own.

“The Fortune is in the follow-up” Every Successful Network Marketer Ever

Here is what you want to look for when using and an outside marketing system.

  • Capture Pages (non-company specific is best I think for curiosity sake)
  • Pre-Made and customizable pages (availability is good)
  • Customer relation manager (must be able to follow up, make notes, and schedule follow up calls.
  • An email autoresponder.  (You need to have a way to follow up with people when you can’t reach them by phone.  Great for list building too.)
  • An email broadcast feature (ability to send email broadcast to all your prospects at one time)
  • A way to earn commission (affiliate commissions).  Get your system for free or get paid to share with others.  Many may not join your company as they may already be with a company, but a 3rd party tool can always make a difference.

Which system have I found with all of the following above?  The company is called Prosperity Central and they have been around for about the last 6 or 7 years.  Everything is already set up for the novice and customizable for the pro.  If you have lots of leads to follow up with they have a software called Phoneburner that is built into their program which allows you to make calls up to 4 times faster than dialing manually.  I find it very helpful when I do big campaigns that generate a 100 or more leads a day and I need to follow up by phone.  In terms of price?  You can get started for as little as a $1 per day with all the bells and whistles ($25 per month) and if you refer 3 its free.  I’ve had my system for over 6 years and it’s never costed me a penny as my affiliates pay my monthly membership fee.  If you’d like to test drive it for free you can do that by clicking here.  I’ve also put together a short video below that shows you how it works.

 

How to Overcome Objections & Follow Up for Network Marketing

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If you’re involved in network marketing or direct sales and plan on being successful with it, you are going to have to get on the phone and make phone calls.  I’ve never seen anyone or had much success myself in network marketing without following up on my leads.  In my latest video, I go over how to do this effectively and why objections are really no big deal (how to overcome them easily).  I also cover the psychology of the buyers (your prospects) you will be dealing with and how to set appointments (follow-up).

How To Overcome Objections for Network Marketing

If you find that you just simply need to improve your skill-set feel free to reach out to me for some one on one coaching at john@johnlowery.biz

5 Things You Need to have – To Find Success in Network Marketing

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I recently came across an article in a magazine that my company provides on the topic of 5 elements you must have to be successful in network marketing.  In this article that was written by John Haremza author of “Right or Almost Right” he goes on to share that the 5 elements you must have are the following:

  1. The Company (Leadership, debt-free, profitable).
  2. The Product (is it easy to share and something you or others would benefit from).
  3. The compensation plan (does it pay out well as much as 50% or better)
  4. The timing (is the company growing, dying, or staying the same – you want to be with a company that is growing and hopefully beyond the $2 Million a month mark).
  5. The Training (Does the company provide free ongoing training calls, and events to plug into.)

Those are the 5 things you are looking for in your opportunity or any opportunity if you want to be involved in network marketing (direct selling, mlm, home based business).

To learn more watch my video below.

5 Things You Need – How To Be Successful in your Network Marketing Business

If your company is missing 2 or 3 of the 5 above elements no matter how good you are – you are going to struggle in building your business.  If you are open to another opportunity, not growing where you are, struggling, or just simply need some coaching feel free to reach out to me at john@johnlowery.biz

How To Recruit for Network Marketing on Facebook

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I used to do a 100% of my recruiting for network marketing on Facebook and MySpace before it imploded. I realized recently that I have really gotten away from it for a few years now.  It was so powerful a few years ago it wasn’t uncommon for me to sponsor 15 to 20 people per month by just using social media mainly Facebook. So today, I want to share with you some tips on how to get people interested in your business via Facebook.  I know these tips still work as I tested them last month and sponsored a few people using some of these tactics.

Post something about your business without a link to your business, but maybe a blog or just something to spark some curiosity.  I find that this usually works better than just posting a link to my company website.

Top Tips for How To Recruit with Facebook

Get in the habit of connecting or re-connecting with 3 to 5 people per day and watch your business grow. Who wants to join me in reaching out to 5 people per day on Facebook? And this isn’t about spamming, but actually sending out messages to people you have as friends or new friends.  Just simply introduce yourself and ask your new or old friend about what they are up to.  Again, you are not even mentioning your business unless they ask you about it.  Then and only then would you even mention it.  Just send a message with the following, “Hey John, it’s been awhile since we last connected, what are you up to these days?”

Start a Facebook Group for network marketers.  I started a group called “Become an MLM Superstar”.  I’ve definitely sponsored at least a handful of people from this group and it’s a great way to connect with others who may not join your business, but definitely are like-minded for the most part.

Just be consistent in your activity.  If you’ve only got a few minutes per day, maybe you set a goal to just reach out to 2 or 3 new people per day.  My goal is to go for reaching out to 5 new people per day with no ulterior motive except that I am looking for people who have similar interests (networking, business owners, music, entrepreneurs).

If you need a little more help with using the tactics above that I mentioned, please watch the video below to see how this could work for you.

How To Recruit For Network Marketing on Facebook

If you feel like you need help with this or some training on how to do it, feel free to reach out to me at john@johnlowery.biz or pick up a copy of my book on Amazon “The Social Media Puzzle & How To Profit From it”.

The Fortune is In The Follow Up

Home Based Business, mlm, network marketing, sales, , , , , ,

I remember years ago hearing that, The fortune was in the follow-up.  At first thought, I wasn’t sure what that really meant, but now many years later, I can contest that if you are involved in sales or network marketing that your ability to follow up will be the difference between being a superstar or barely making a living.

Here is why you definitely want to follow up and why you will be ahead of most people if you do.  First of all, following up takes time and good time management and you must be on your game.  You see, most people simply need to have their hand held to make a decision even if they are super interested.  It’s just human nature.  There is a reason today that companies still rely on salespeople to introduce their products to the marketplace because they know that people typically will have a difficult time making a decision without someone there to help them make a decision.

Did you get the word help in the previous paragraph?  I hope so because as professional networkers and salespeople our job isn’t to push people into something they don’t need or want – that’s very ignorant behavior.  I call that “Bible Belt Selling” (Beating people over the head with a bible).  The best way to follow-up is to uncover needs with your prospect initially and see if they even have a NEED for your product or service.  If they don’t have a need and you keep following up you are an Ass.  You must do your uncovering initially to see if your prospect even needs what you have to offer.  I don’t care what you’re selling not everyone is going to need your product or service.  The best salespeople I have ever met aren’t the pushiest, they are the best listeners and they know how to put their products in the marketplace by understanding their customer’s needs first and foremost.

Now to the follow up.  It’s actually very simple, once you find out that a prospect needs your product or service your job is to make an appointment.  Find out what they need prior to the meeting to help make their decision.  Set a day and time for you to see them in person or on the phone and simply uncover their quesitons and help guide them along to make a decision to either buy or die.  What you don’t want to do is spend days, weeks, or months following up to find that your prospect cannot make a decision.  I personally, try and get prospects to tell me NO right away if they are not interested.  In fact, in the past I have told people ahead of time exactly how the sales process is going to work and that its ok for them to tell me NO.  I actually would much rather have a NO than someone stroking me along for weeks or months because they are afraid to tell me NO.  You want to get to NO or YES as quickly as possible when you are dealing with prospects.

So there is truth to the saying, The fortune is in the follow-up, but more importantly you want to get really good at recognizing a buyer and a tire kicker.  Most of your prospects will be tire kickers and that’s what you want to eliminate right away.  Follow up with your best prospects and get your tire kickers to jump in or jump off quickly.  So treat your prospecting or cold calling like you are simply hunting not so much for sales, but for qualified prospects,

So treat your prospecting or cold calling like you are simply hunting not so much for sales, but for qualified prospects, set appointments, and get your prospects to a Yes or No as quickly as you can.  If you qualify on the front end before you even start the follow up you will save yourself a ton of time and energy.  You may be following up with a lot less people, but you will ultimately find that if you get really good on your listening skills that you will have alot less work following up and your closing percentage will go way up as its much easier to persuade a qualified prospect to become a customer than it is an unqualified prospect.  So unless you are selling watches, or meat door to door.  Get good at qualifying your prospects and get to an appointment and follow up until your prospects buy or die.

 

Video Marketing on YouTube

Branding, Home Based Business, Online Marketing, social media marketing, Uncategorized, , , ,

Can you use YouTube to market your business online?  Yes, you can. In fact, I’ve got a few videos running right now that are getting me a steady flow of leads every day for my home based business. The thing I love about YouTube is that you can create a video once, put in a few search terms that people might use to find your video and then get up and walk away and never even touch the video ever again. I’ve done this time and time again and that is why out of all the popular ways there are to promote your business online this has to be my all-time favorite.

Unlike Google AdWords or Social Media you constantly have to stay on top of it and monitor it regularly until you get it right. It can take awhile to get it all on auto drive. Not so with YouTube, in fact if you make a handful of videos in your first few months on Youtube you should have a few that do well right away.

It’s pretty simple to get going, you just need a camera and a mic (most smart phones and computers already have). Make a short video 5 t0 10 minutes in length if possible. I find that videos over 15 minutes don’t get near the hits are engagement as the shorter ones. Don’t ask me why just what I have found the case to be.

Once you record your video and upload it add a good description and make sure to put your website in your description so people can get back to you. I get lots of comments and likes on my video’s but my goal is to get people to get on my email list, so I can build a long term relationship with them, but many will probably just subscribe to your video channel.

Not every video will be a hit, but I can promise you that if you stay consistent with it, you will make money from it.

If you’d like to learn more about how to benefit from using YouTube for your business make sure to pick up a copy of my new book “The Social Media Puzzle & How To Profit From It” on Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com

This blog was retrieved from an article I posted on http://medium.com on 3/13/17