Welcome to Part 2 of My Story – Part 1 Here Believing 100% in my MLM business, immediately I began as suggested making a list of family members, friends and associates who could benefit from this free call service.
Excited by having this opportunity to promote I thought everyone is going to want the chance to benefit from cheap phone calls. Additionally, they could also make some extra money by promoting the service themselves with was a win-win-situation.
My immediate family and some friends were happy to try the service (involves dialling a prefixed number) even though at first they were reluctant to make the change. I suppose they went along with the idea at the time as a way of supporting me.
MLM works by using the relationships you have with other people to promote the product and services. People are more inclined to give a service or product a try since it comes recomended by someone they know.
It’s a very clever way to promote a
business since there are no expensive ongoing marketing/advertising cost, word
of mouth and recommendations builds the business (product or service).
Two months had passed and I’d run out of family, friends and anyone else who was willing to listen. So the next call of action was to make contact with people from your cold market, basically people you didn't know, but who might also benefit from this service. This involves talking to any and everyone who would listen, and for me this was the difficult part, since I didn't like talking to strangers.
For more exposure I also had some leaflets printed which included my contact details and the opportunity in more detail. The next few mornings were spent delivering to houses and businesses in the local area. Cold calling was next on my list and I targeted estate agents or businesses that make a lot of outgoing phone calls, since they would benefit most from this service. I managed to get a few customers from this marketing method, but not really anyone to take up the opportunity itself.
In the process I had managed to recruit 5 additional people all of whom were trying to build their team and customer base. Some were motivated and others were not so keen or simply lacked the commitment to take it further.
Every now and then the MLM Company would have these big presentations where all the top MLM business owners would fly in from different parts of the world. This was to tell their story and how much success they were having with their business, a good way of getting people motivated and helping them to focus on growing their individual businesses further.
In time I eventually found that the people above (my team leaders) or support network lacked the commitment or drive needed to make their own business a success. This does have a negative effect on you, especially if you’re looking at them for inspiration and as a successful business role model. Now, from this point on the cracks for me now were starting to appear.
The thing with MLM is that you are relying on the efforts of your whole team, the people above you and below you to drive their own business in order for your business to grow. This is key to everyone's success, a productive team and ambitious team leaders will be the ones who succeeded at MLM.
For me the motivation was running out for this opportunity and mainly due to the fact that this MLM was not delivering what it had promised, new services and products.
Each day was becoming more difficult and I struggled to find it enjoyable anymore. It got to the point where I was spending less and less time on the MLM opportunity and more time pursuing other things.
The opportunity was interesting and a real eye opener. I'd still recommend the experience to everyone since there are many people making a steady income out of MLM. But no matter what business model you choose, internet, traditional business, MLM, or franchise if you don’t enjoy what you do or lack the passion to really drive your business it will be very difficult.
It should be fun and interesting for you to continue each day or how else are you going to find the drive and passion to put in the long hours, hard work that is required to make the business a success
MLM offers everyone the opportunity to start a small business with very little set up costs, risk, and financial outlay. There are also a wide variety of MLM opportunities out there and you’re bound to find one that you would like to promote e.g. health products, baby products, pet products etc.
Like any business opportunity you should be passionate about the service that you’re promoting. People have to genuinely believe that you also love/like/use these services as your enthusiasm will shine through and go a long way to helping you sign up new customers and build your own team.
A lot of people say that most MLM don't work and that they are scams! MLM companies will also tell you that everyone is a potential customer and part of your target market; this is not always the case. Some indeed may be scams, but this can be said for all types of businesses So be smart and do some due diligence to makes sure that you’re not wasting your time or money.
It’s worth attending a few meetings, speak to many different people and then make a decision to join based on your own findings. Ever business carries an element of risk and uncertainty, sometimes if you don't step up to grab an opportunity a good business may just slip through your fingers.
I hope you found my story a little interesting at least. If you have any questions need advice, or already up and running with your own MLM opportunity - I’d love to hear from you
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