With the advent of the internet, many distributors are opting to use technology to help in building their network marketing businesses.

As we enter a new age in network marketing, is traditional network marketing a complete waste of time to build your MLM?

Network Marketing in the Industrial Age

The strategies and tactics developed by network marketing companies were developed in what we refer to as the "industrial age."

This is an age in society when people moved from an environment where the majority of citizens made their living off the land to an age when the majority of citizens made their living working for companies in specific locations.

Traditional network marketing strategies worked very well in the industrial age. The large majority of people worked for corporations.

Opportunities for growth were limited because starting a corporation or investing in one required a substantial amount of capital. For the average person, network marketing was one of the few opportunities available for wealth creation.

Network Marketing in the Information Age

With the personal computer infiltrating the home starting in the 1980s and the internet reaching worldwide penetration in the 1990s we have the birth of the "information age."

With information available to everyone at the click of a mouse, a host of new opportunities became available to the average person.

Network marketing must now compete with a number of different business models for the attention of the average person.

With individuals and companies providing training, businesses such as making money in real estate, the trading of financial instruments for profit (stocks, options and commodities) and the creation of internet based businesses; there are now a number of different options for the average person to start a business from home.

Since we now live in a new age, this begs the answer to the question, is traditional network marketing, a group of strategies and tactics developed in one age still relevant for a new age like the information age?

Are Traditional Network Marketing Strategies Still Relevant?

Traditional network marketing strategies and tactics will still work for now. This is because we still have a large portion of the population that has not embraced technology to the point where it has become a way of life.

For example, the baby boomers, while comfortable with technology, aren't necessarily dependent on technology as much as some of the younger generations.

However, as the internet and modern technology become more prevalent, the effectiveness of traditional network marketing strategies will continue to diminish.

Many younger people are growing up with a computer and the internet in the home. Many of them spend more time on the computer than they do watching television.

The best way to tap into this group as a target market is to use the power of the internet.

Offline Vs Online Network Marketing

Traditional network marketing is a very slow and labor intensive way to build a business.

As we continue to work in the information age, people want results the fastest and most efficient way possible.

The technology available for using the internet for prospecting purposes makes it dramatically easier to sort through prospects than using traditional network marketing strategies.

While I won't go as far as saying traditional network marketing is a complete waste of time, I will say that it is time consuming.

If you are comfortable with the internet, you will generally find it dramatically easier and more efficient to build your business using internet marketing strategies and techniques.

These strategies cost less money, allow you to contact larger numbers of people and allow you to build your business at a faster rate than traditional network marketing strategies.

Contents at a Glance

1. Traditional Network Marketing Strategies to Build Your MLM: A Complete Waste of Time?
2. Network Marketing: Why Your Product Doesn't Matter
3. Working On Your Network Marketing Business Not In It

Find Related Topics

While there is certainly a measure of satisfaction in empowering people with a great product, your product really doesn't matter when it comes down to what will determine your success in network marketing.

Want proof? Here's the proof!

Are there other network marketers that offer products completely different from yours that are earning full time, even 6-7 figure incomes? Of course there are.

Are there other network marketers that offer products similar to yours that are earning full time, even 6-7 figure incomes? In many cases the answer is yes, there are.

So if people are earning huge incomes, even though they aren't marketing your product, it must be that your network marketing product really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Now, of course, you can't go around offering junk and expect to be successful. However, you also cannot think that just because you have a good product that will guarantee your success.

Network Marketing Success = Networking and Marketing

Too many distributors in this industry put all their focus on their product. It's good to be passionate about your product.

However, if you want to build long term success in the network marketing industry, you must understand that your product is not the key determining factor for your success.

There are only two determining factors in your success in network marketing and they are your ability to network and your ability to market. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Effective Networking

In order to build a successful network marketing business, you must learn how to effectively network.

There is a very good chance that out of all of the individuals that you personally sponsor, very few of them are going to be the ones that cause your business to explode. At least not directly.

Personally sponsoring the superstar leader is extremely rare. However, even if the distributors you sponsor are not superstar leaders, that doesn't mean they don't offer value to your organization. These individuals can often LEAD you to the superstar leaders that literally build your business.

How often do you hear the following story in network marketing?

Superstar distributor (not a superstar at the time) sponsors Distributor A. Distributor A sponsors Distributor B. Distributor B sponsors Distributor C. Distributor C sponsors Distributor D.

Distributor D is a corporate executive that wants out of corporate America in the worst possible way because he's tired of never seeing his kids. He takes his network marketing business, explodes it, and all of a sudden, superstar distributor becomes Superstar Distributor.

This type of story goes on all of the time in network marketing. It happens because of the ability to network through the levels of Distributor's A, B and C.

The Marketing in Network Marketing

The second requirement for success in network marketing is to know how to market.

The only way you are ever going to sponsor anyone so that you can leverage their networks is if you know how to market your business opportunity. It is the marketing of your business opportunity that gives you the ability to sponsor new distributors and network through their contacts.

The distributors that fail to sponsor and recruit consistently simply don't know how to effectively market their business opportunity. They must learn how to market if they ever want to turn these difficulties around. Otherwise they will continue to struggle in this industry.

Focus on Network + Marketing

So don't focus so much on your product that you lose focus on what really matters for success in network marketing. Work on improving your ability to network and improving your ability to market and you will go a long way in this industry.

Network marketing distributors are guilty of this as well.

Most network marketers focus on the wrong areas in their business. They focus on the company products or the company compensation plan. While these areas do have their place and importance, they are nowhere near as important as the most important aspect of network marketing.

Your Network Marketing Business System

The most important aspect of network marketing is your business system.

As an independent distributor you have the ability to dictate what your business system is going to be.

You decide what your philosophy is going to be and how you are going to build your business. Therefore if you fail to have success in network marketing you have nobody to blame but yourself.

You cannot blame your upline because you decided to follow their system and it didn't work for you.

Remember you are an independent distributor in your opportunity and as such, you are the one responsible for determining which methods you are going to use to build your network marketing business and how.

If you continue to pursue activities that aren't working without questioning what is going on, that's a decision that you made.

When you work on your business not in your business you focus your efforts on what really matters and that is the system that you are going to use to build your business.

The system is what drives everything in network marketing because the distributors you recruit are going to follow whatever system you outline for your organization.

The Four Components of a Good Business System for Network Marketing

So what makes up your system? I will paraphrase what Michael Gerber defines as a good business system and make it applicable for network marketing distributorships.

He actually has six areas that make up a good system, but two of the six the distributor has no control over because the parent network marketing company provides the product or service, so they are excluded here. Here are the four guidelines of the good system...

1. The system should produce a consistent experience for everyone involved.
2. The system should work for everyone from the sharpest and most experienced distributor to the least sharp and least experienced distributor.
3. The system should leave nothing to question. Everyone should know what to do.
4. The system should be documented so that everyone can refer to it as a point of reference.

If you want to have success in network marketing, whatever system you choose to adopt for your business needs to follow these four guidelines.

By analyzing your network marketing business and making sure everything you do falls within these four guidelines you stand a greater chance at succeeding.

For example, if what you do doesn't work for the least capable distributor in your organization, your organization will never duplicate and grow without your involvement.

Be Business System Dependent Not People Dependent

The biggest benefit that network marketing offers is a walk away business model. This means you can cease your involvement with the business and still enjoy the income benefits that the business provides.

Walk away income will never happen if you don't have a system that works for the least capable distributor.

The key to success in network marketing is to be system dependent and not people dependent.

By working on your business and not working in your business you allow yourself and your business to become system dependent. As a result, you are able to duplicate your efforts throughout your organization and your team and income grow accordingly.

Contents at a Glance

1. Traditional Network Marketing Strategies to Build Your MLM: A Complete Waste of Time?
2. Network Marketing: Why Your Product Doesn't Matter
3. Working On Your Network Marketing Business Not In It

Find Related Topics