Do you suffer from “the grass is always greener” syndrome? Symptoms include: bad attitude about your current marketing business, distraction, and signing up for programs which claim they can guarantee your success.   Have you found yourself running from one guaranteed system to the next, only to find disappointment.

If you have been surfing the Internet for any length of time and are genuinely interested in making more money, you probably have found yourself signing up for the newest and best business opportunities, hoping this will be the time you will get lucky. Today, I want to talk about one of the reasons why 95% of network marketers fail. Obviously, there are many reasons why so many leave this business, but among these, and probably one of the most important, is a lack of focus and planning. Ask yourself this question: Do you have a business plan which you are following?  Without one, you are like a ship without a compass in the vast sea of Internet opportunities. Do you know where you are going, why you are going there and how you are going to get there?

A Business Plan is an outline which details your business and how you are going to make it work.  Basically, it is the compass I described earlier.  Here are some key elements which should be in every network marketers business plan:

1.   Who are you? Sounds simple enough right?  Do you know who you are? Can you explain this to other people? Are you confident, motivated, enthusiastic and educated? If you are none of these things, or if you lack one of these elements, you will fail. Network marketing is not easy, and you will use all of these positive character traits to attract people into your business, or sell them your product. This is also called attraction marketing.  Mike Dillard has some great free training about this subject.  You can pick up his free 7 day video bootcamp  through this link – http://www.lisarebecca.magneticsponsoringonline.com.    Basically, in this business, you are attracting your customers.  You are essentially selling yourself.

2.    Do you understand people?  If you do not know how to talk people, you will not be able to sell anything.  Everyone was born with a particular kind of temperament.  Some people are the outgoing, partying type, some shy, some blunt and some laid back.  Understanding how to identify your customer or business lead’s temperament will determine the way you talk with them.  You will not be able to sell your product or business the same way for each temperament.  There are countless books written about understanding yourself and other people’s temperament. I recommend going to your library and just picking up one of these types of books. Not only will it be fun for you to discover your own temperament, but you will soon learn how to spot every-one’s temperament, and will adjust your sales pitch accordingly.  It goes a long way in successfully selling.

3.    Why are you doing this? You better know exactly why you got into this business or you will be leaving faster than you came. You will want to post this “Why” in a place you can see everyday. You will have more bad days than good when starting out. Having your reasons posted will help you persevere when times get tough.

4.    What are you selling? Do you fully understand the product you are marketing? Do you know every aspect of that product? This is extremely important, because it will determine who your target audience will be and how you will present it to them.

5.   Determine your target audience. You will not be marketing to everyone. If you try to market to everyone, you will be marketing to no one. In your business plan, detail who your target audience is and how you plan to put your product in front of them. For example, if you sell a vitamin which helps people with ADD, arthritis and epilepsy, you will want to pick one of those things and market it. You would not pick all three, but instead just target one aspect of the vitamin. You could decide to make your target audience people with ADD or parents with children who have ADD. Perhaps you know a lot about the subject, or you could research it. You begin by writing articles about ADD. People would read those articles who have ADD or know someone with it. These people would then become your potential clients. There are many ways to do it, but I will save that for a different time.

6.   Determine your budget. The first few years of a business are difficult and you will probably not have a very large budget for advertising. Do not become overwhelmed with all of the advertising possibilities. Study each one, look at your budget, and determine which ones are right for you. It is essential that you do this before you begin. Advertising can range from hundreds of thousands per month to absolutely free. If you are a new business owner, you will want to utilize all of the free advertising resources you can and then pick just a few paid advertising options.

7.   Determine your hours of operation. All businesses have a start and finish to their day. If you are the work-a-holic business owner, you will find yourself working non-stop. This will only burn you out. Instead, determine what hours you will be working and stick to it. Set up a work day schedule which will detail the hours you will be spending working on advertising, writing articles, answering e-mails, and following up on leads. If you are working on a tight schedule, you will need to carefully plan how you will spend your time. A word of caution on time. If you choose to spend some of your time in social business forums, carefully monitor your time. Many people believe they will be able to build huge businesses in the social forums and waste valuable time. These forums are great places to ask questions and learn. You may even get lucky and get some leads, but this is not where you want to focus all of your time.

8.   Determine the amount of money you want to make and estimate how long it will take you to do this. If you are realistic with your goals and have a well thought out plan, you will not be disappointed when success is not overnight. You will have already determined how long it will take you to reach the goals you are setting, and in knowing that, you will be less likely to give up.

These are just some of the things you will want to have in your business plan. They will help you stay focused on your goals. You will want to look at your business plan each day and determine if you are implementing it. If something is not working, such as an advertising campaign, you will want to revise your plan and adjust.

To illustrate how a network marketer could easily become distracted, I would like you to do a little experiment with me.  Do a google search by typing in the words “the best network marketing company.” What do you see? There are countless ads and articles written about the best opportunities around.  Every network marketer thinks their opportunity is the best. Usually these opportunities are hyped up and claim to make you rich overnight. I am sure you have seen them before, and maybe have some in your e-mail inbox right now. If the ad is well written, you will be compelled to sign up for this new offer. Usually the offer is free, so you think that it can’t hurt to check it out. PLEASE ignore these offers. In your daily business, delete anything that does not have to do with your business plan. Don’t even read it! Stay focused and on task and you will move forward. Look at other offers, sign up, get distracted, and you will fall behind your target goals and eventually give up.

If your business does not have a plan, write one today.  Creating a business plan will focus your goals and help organize your methods to achieving these goals.  You cannot succeed without a well thought out plan.

Lisa Drong
http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/the-key-to-staying-focused-in-network-marketing-738552.html

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,