Machine Gun or Sharp Shooter - what to do next….
Do you know what the difference is between someone shooting a machine gun and a sharp shooter? Well simply put someone firing a machine gun is spraying fire everywhere not focused on any specific target but hoping to hit something everywhere. A sharp shooter focuses in on one target takes aim and fires.
Are you feeling like you have too many things you have to do to make your business work. I mean you hear about blogs, social marketing, articles, pay per click, solo ads, twitter and the list goes on and on.
Most people get overwhelmed by the number of ways they can market and they go out with a machine gun approach and start shooting stuff everywhere. Or they become so overwhelmed that they put the gun down and say that is too powerful for me.
I want to challenge you to take a sharp shooter approach and hone in on 2-3 things you want to do in your business and if that is too much just focus on 1 thing and learn to do those things well. Once you have mastered those things then add on another. Eventually you will get to the place where you will have the spraying power of a machine gun but it will be with the laser focus of a sharp shooter.
How my day went
Here I am sitting in a library thinking let me get some work done but low and behold my wireless card is not working. So what do I do? I have some choices I can
a) get frustrated and play spider solitare or some other game on my computer
b) call my friend and complain that I can’t get an internet connection and my time is shot
c) take it as a sign that God wants me to take the rest of the day off
d) do some other work that doesn’t require internet connectivity
I have found that people myself included sometimes approach their business with that a,b or c approach. We plan on taking certain actions and something happens that prevents us from doing that one particular thing and our whole time is shot. It doesn’t have to be.
This is why it is always good to have a plan of initial action and a contingent plan in case the initial plan can’t or won’t work. Productivity isn’t measured just by accomplishing the one thing you wanted but how effective you were in using the time and resources you had at your disposal when you were working. If something isn’t working do something else until you can make it work.
Are you a tortoise or a hare?
This is number two in my biggest mistakes. You may be familiar with the old story of the tortoise and the hare. The hare obviously much faster decided to race the tortoise and the hare knew he could beat him hands down. The hare got out to a big lead and decided he would take a nap and when he did the slow and steady tortoise cruised past him and beat him in the race.
Many people take the hare approach to network marketing online and I used to be one of those. Ask yourself these questions to see if you are a tortoise or a hare:
Do you find yourself spending all of your money buying leads for your business?
Are you joining a new company every 60 days because this is “really the one”?
Are you working on your business 1 hour a week and expecting great results?
Are you trying to build 3 network marketing programs at the same time?
Do you feel like the product doesn’t matter just the comp plan?
If you say yes to any of these than you are acting like the hare.
Here are more questions:
Are you taking the time to learn how to generate your own leads?
Are you excited about and a user of the product you are marketing?
Are you working on your business every day?
Are you committed to your company long term?
Answering yes to these questions put you in the position of the tortoise. You may be moving at what seems like a slower pace, but the good part is you are positioning yourself to slowly and steadily win the race.
Newtork Marketing Online- Multiple streams of Leads
One of the keys to success in any network marketing business is leads. One of the mistakes I made when I first started out was I chose the fast easy way to get leads. The two fastest ways to get leads for your business is to buy them or to use pay per click(ppc).
If you buy leads, they can be very high cost, you don’t know the source of how they got these leads and you don’t know how many other people were sold these leads so the quality of the lead may definitely be an issue.
The other source PPC, can be very successful and you can generate lots of high quality, unique leads that you own, however if you don’t know what you are doing it can cost you a fortune.
I believe you need to create multiple streams of lead generating sources. Here is what that will do for you:
1 - It will expand your marketing presence online
2 - It will stretch your marketing budget as many of the ways to generate leads are actually free or very low cost
3 - It will set you up for long term sustainable growth on the internet
4 - It sets you apart from 95% of the marketers out there who are only interested in fast, quick fixes
5 - It allows you to help anyone in your organization because they can build a business with a small marketing budget.
What are some other lead generating places online? Here are a few:
free traffic
craigslist
my space
squidoo
facebook
articles
forums
blogs
and the list goes on.
Visit me at http://www.theonlinebizman.com and learn how to put all of these lead startegies into practice.
Tip for those doing Network Marketing Online
If you are network marketing online, especially if you are doing pay-per click or are new to online marketing, then you need to make sure you are using google’s new keyword tool. You can find it in google adwords. The tool will help you with your pay-per-click advertising. Here are some great features of the tool:
You can research keywords for ideas…
You can find out how often those keywords are searched each month…
You can also know how much people are paying for those keywords…
You can also find lower cost variations on keywords that can get a lot of traffic but can save you money.
So whether you are new to the world of network marketing online or you have been around for a while, take advantage of this great tool for your business.
Are you a deer hunter or a fisherman?
My next biggest mistake was chasing people and trying to get them into my business. To be successful in this business you have to approach it like a fisherman and not a deer hunter.
The deer hunter gets dressed in camouflage, loads his gun and goes and waits for the deer to approach.
When the deer least expects it the hunter pounces. The poor unsuspecting deer was just minding his business and the next thing someone is shooting him. How many people have you killed and dragged into the business? Here are some ways deer hunters market.
They approach their warm market with the opportunity first instead of the product…
They put up opportunity ads and disguise them as job offers…
They buy opportunity seeker leads and spam them to death…
They pressure you to make a decision right now, without giving you time to see if the business is right for you…
The fisherman has a totally different approach. He rows out to where the fish are and puts out the bait. The fish smell it and they come and basically capture themselves. There are people out there that want what you have. The secret is learning how to put the bait out so that people will come looking for you and in essence capture themselves. The lightouse marketing system teaches you how to attract instead of hunt.
What do you think is easier and which would you rather do? Chasing and shooting a deer who is trying to run away from you or reeling in a fish who is already caught on your hook? I would much rather reel in the hooked fish than chase the fleeing deer.
The Biggest mistakes I’ve made in network marketing
I am now beginning several blog entries regarding the biggest mistakes I have made in my network marketing career. The first mistake I ever made was having a short term view of the business. Here’s what I mean by that.
I was first introduced into network marketing with a nutrition company. I went to the meeting, I got all hyped up and I thought within the next 30 days I was going to be making a lot of money, after all the person on the stage had did it in record time. This caused me to look at my business as a 30-60 day sprint to see if I could make it work. When it didn’t happen that fast I was discouraged and I decided this wasn’t the right business for me.
Here is what I missed with this approach. I didn’t see the little gains I was making that were helping me move toward my goal. When I quit I now had to start all over and all of my gains though they were small were gone.
I think back now and say what if I had just kept making those little gains each month over the course of the next 3-5 years imagine where my business would be. So in your business, have a long term view
and don’t despise the little steps you make. I challenge you to be excited when you generate your first lead, your first sale, your first $10 commission check, because if you stick with it remember what you did to get it and repeat that process you are on your way. It may not happen next month but it will happen.
Oh No, not again……
Have you ever felt this way about your online network marketing business? You are excited, you get started, you’re working hard and then BAM, life gets in the way. You get that feeling of “Oh no, not again.” Well this happened to me recently as I began taking new strides in my business and then boom, life happened. I asked myself a question, how can I prevent this from happening? I came up with a simple solution that I am implementing now into my business. I call this my “BAMA” stategy.
BAMA stands for Be Always Moving Ahead
What does this mean? Very simple and it follows one of the laws of physics which says a body in motion tends to stay in motion. How I apply this is simple. Sometimes in my business I get discouraged when I can’t sit down and commit the time I feel I need to commit to it and I let things rest. Wrong action. You need to work on your business everyday, whether you have 2 hours or 20 minutes, this is what keeps your business in motion.
I recently read a book about a study of people trying to lose weight. One group weighed themselves everyday, the other group weighed themselves once a week. The group of people who weighed themselves everyday actually lost more weight and kept more of it off than those who weighed themselves once per week. Why? Becaause the ones who weighed everyday were able to respond to changes in their weight immediately. If you apply this to your business this can allow you to respond more quickly to any changes you need to make in your business.
So the next time you feel pressed for time don’t think “Oh no not again” but think BAMA. Don’t feel bad if you can’t spend 2-3 hours everyday on your business. Spend that 15-20 minutes but make it productive and you will be moving your business ahead.
By the way I just started implementing this today into my business so I will keep you posted on the outcomes.
Don’t look for suspects look for partners…
Are you struggling trying to do network marketing online. One of the challenges I have seen and experienced in network marketing online over the years is seeing people myself included, sponsor 10, 15, 20 people this month and then those people either leave within 30 days or they do absolutely nothing. Why is that?
I believe one of the reasons is people are often sold or “closed” into the business. I call these people suspects. In my mind a suspect is a person who joins your business for all the wrong reasons and it is not their fault it was how they were recruited into the business. For example I see all types of ridiculous things to “close” people into joining their business.. like
…”We’ll build your downline for you or get in now and I will place everyone else beneath you because you’re at the top…”
These are the wrong reasons to join a business. People that come this way are suspects. Remember if you have to sell people to join your network marketing business you will have to sell them to do everything else in your business. In fact I don’t “close” anyone into my business. I look for partners . Here is the difference. The partner is joining because they see the opportunity not because I sold them. They have an ownership mindset in their business and understand it takes effort to make it work. These are the people I look for, because these will make your business grow.
I like to approach people like this is a business and they are intelligent business people. Give them the pros and cons and allow them to make an intelligent decision. After all if they join for their reasons they will perform better. It doesn’t guarantee they will be successful but you won’t have to spend your time trying to get them to take any type of action.
Why can’t I keep my downline? - Last Part
You must have a system that works and is not dependant on you. Here is
an example of a system that is dependant on you. Having to do your own
conference calls, doing 3-way calls, buying and calling leads to try to
close. To me these things sound like work. Network marketing is
supposed to be about the system and the simpler the system the more
attractive your opportunity becomes. The truth is you can’t talk to
everyone and you can’t train everyone, but an automated system can.
Now I’ve seen advertisements for automated systems that promise to do
95% of the work for you and I don’t know how accurate that is but I do
know automation can take care of the overwhelming majority of the work.
If your system is simple it takes you out of the equation and frees up
your time now I can spend time working with all my new recruits and
remember I am only looking for 3-4 each month and teaching them to do
the same. So get automated and make the process simple and you will
attract more people and most of all you won’t have to ask why can’t I
keep my downline.
