MLM Expert Advice

I’ve said this before, your market is NOT everyone.  Although even top MLM superstars will say when asked who their market is “Everyone” it most definitely is not.  And even if it were you can not market the same way to everyone and expect anyone to respond.  You need to find your niche.  For example I know of one couple where the wife had been a nurse and while she loved nursing and the people it brought her in touch with she hated the hours and the pay.  She and her husband joined an MLM and decided their niche market would be other nurses who felt the same.  Note that it wasn’t all nurses just those who:

• loved their work
• loved the people they treated and worked with
• hated the hours
• hated the pay

This was their niche market.  Wikipedia provides us with the followng definition for a niche market:

“A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing on; Therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intending to impact.“

I would suggest taking it one step further.  Your niche market should be a market you love as in my example with the nurses.  Now some may disagree suggesting that if you love something it may be too narrow a market or that if you love it too much you may not be able to make sound business decisions regarding it.  Obviously you need a profitable market but you also need balance.  You want a profitable market that you have interest in.

I’m going to stay away from markets related to products as MLM products span the gamut from house hold products to health care to legal care and beyond.  Instead lets look at finding a niche market for your business. What do the following groups have in common:

• Nurses
• Doctors
• Business Executives
• Small Business Owners
• Big Business Owners
• Computer Programmers
• Restaurant Owners
• New Mothers

All of them are possible markets for your MLM business opportunity but you wouldn’t consider presenting your opportunity to each group in the same way.  For a new mother you might suggest that your MLM business opportunity provides a way to make extra money from home to provide for the needs of her child whereas for business owner you might tell them that your MLM business opportunity provides a business with no inventory needs and no staff to manage.  Each market has its own needs based on the career or circumstances.

Again you wouldn’t target all new mothers or all new business owners just those in your specific niche. For example are you wanting to market to single mothers or those with a spouse or significant other.  Do you want them to be in a specific age group or income level?  Each of these “sub” markets or segments of the new mothers market has different needs that your MLM business opportunity satisfies.

You need to do the research to find which specific segment of the market has the greatest need.  In other words you want to know that your market has what you have to offer but also how much or how badly the want it.  Additionally you need to know how profitable the niche market you are targeting is and what your competition is for that segment of the market.  By doing the research you are putting together an effective MLM business plan.

So how do you find your niche market?  Check back in a few days for some steps on how to identify YOUR niche market.

If you’ve figured out what your market is and you have identified the product you have that will satisfy the market’s needs then the next thing to do is to identify what you are going to offer your MLM prospects.  Whether you want to lead your target audience to your MLM opportunity or one of the products that you market keep in mind that the product or opportunity is not your offer.

“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.”
– Theodore ‘Ted’ Levitt, Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School

In other words, don’t make a better drill with more options on it, find a more cost-effective way to make a quarter-inch holes!  Don’t look at all the details and features of your MLM opportunity or product, figure out what problems it can solve for your audience. Nobody cares about the product or service you are selling; all they care about is what the product or service will do for them and most people don’t realize this.

The Solution = Your Offer

Prospects become members of your team or buy your product not because they need something but because the product makes them feel something.  When they purchase your product or sign up for your opportunity they are looking for the solution to a problem. Positioning a “solution” to your customer allows you to solve their problem and set you apart from the competitiion at the same time.  This has two advantages:

1. when you can solve the problem in a way that others cannot, you have their attention
2. it focuses your prospect on finding the solution and not the price

I am not telling you to charge an outrageous price for your product because you have a great solution, rather create solutions at fair prices that deliver value and service and they will keep coming back to you.

So concentrate on the benefits of your product not how much it costs and what it is. Features are common to any product but benefits are personal and specific. Concentrate on:

• How easy it is to use your solution, or
• How easy it is to use your solution than if they tried to solve it themselves
• How great they will feel or how much better they will feel when they have the solution
• How satisfied they will be with the solution
• How having the solution will solve other problems or prevent them

For example, talk about:

• The protection of a money-back “no questions asked” guarantee
• The fact that they can “pay online” at get started immediately
• That one-on-one training comes free
• That taking action now will prevent the problem from getting worse

Obviously these are just ideas and you will have to tailor it for “the solution” that your product or opportunity provides.  While you are trying to list out the benefits remember that emotion drives 84 percent of all buying decisions, not logic. Emotions like ego, security, pride of ownership, greed, health, prestige, status, ambition, and fear of loss all affect buying. Be well aware of these emotions as you define your product’s benefits to tell a story with words that allow your prospects to easily visualize themselves using your product or service:

Your product must be positioned as a solution and be marketed as the solution!

Previously I’ve talked about branding yourself on the internet by showing yourself to be an expert.  In this article I want to talk more about how to show yourself as an expert.

When the Internet was in its infancy or more accurately when the World Wide Web was in its infancy (the WWW started in 1989) all you needed to do was to set up a web page with some links on it for your products or opportunity and people would click on the link and sign up.  According to the NetCraft WebServer Survey for April 2009 there are 231,510,169 sites and growing at close to 6 million/month.  While not all of those sites are active, there is obviously a lot more competition today and you need to stand out.

One of the best ways you can set yourself apart from the competition is by providing your prospects who visit your website with a detailed and complete education on your opportunity or product.  Again, as I have mentioned before, do not attempt to market all your products at one time — at least not on the same website.

For example lets say your product is for those who suffer from dry skin, or skin irritations, then you could provide articles about the causes of dry skin or natural remedies for dry skin or how diet affects dry skin or how your work environment can lead to dry skin, etc.

On the other hand if you are marketing your MLM opportunity on your site, provide articles or a free guide on how to successfully market or present your opportunity, or how to compare your opportunity to others and help people make a decision on which opportunity is best for them.

In other words provide articles that compliment your product or service.  You can do the research yourself and write the articles or hire a personal assistant to do the ressearch and/or write the article at sites like asksunday.com or elance.com.  Regardless of how the content from your site is produced, if it teaches people about your product or service then people will be more inclined to purchase or sign up because you are providing something original.

Your content needs to be different than anyone elses.  Keep in mind that most people are just using some cookie cutter template presenting the same articles that some person wrote rather than writing from a place of knowledge and passion.  Set yourself apart.  Consider what you would want if you were looking for a product that solved the issues your product does or were looking for an opportunity that has the features that yours does.  Also think about why you would consider your site to be representative of an expert and design your site and write accordingly.

Its likely that your prospects may never meet you unless you are just marketing in your own back yard so by presenting the education instead of just trying to push your product or opportunity you are creating and building trust and you’re helping them become informed so that they can make the best decision for them.

If you can truly think like a prospect and answer the questions that a prospect would have you will be seen as an expert.  So write and publish your version of the information on your website.  Don’t just duplicate something someone else wrote.  Your prospects will be thankful for the education presented and perceive you as an expert which in turn will increase the chances of them purchasing or signing up with you rather than your competition.

Release your inner expert!

So you’re MLM company has a website package or your sponsor does and it has all the fancy bells and whistles on it.  Why aren’t people signing up?

First of all if its a website from your company its not about you, even if they allow for some personalization.  But even if you build your own website, people aren’t just going to sign up because you have a web presence.

Your prospects visiting your site are thinking:

• Who are you?
• Why should I care?

If you aren’t answering these questions the moment they get to your website then they have already moved on and you’ve lost potential business.

Whether its on iTunes or Amazon, people buy things because they feel that they are receiving value for their money.  They care because they expect to get a benefit and if you aren’t offering them one, no one will buy your product or join your opportunity.

You need to target your audience.  If your website is about joining your opportunity then you may want to identify with their pain of not having enough money at the end of the month or not having enough time left in the day or perhaps both.  Maybe they want to have more time for family and not be a wage slave.  The point is regardless of your target audience you need to share with them your knowledge and your experience regardless of how long you yourself may be involved in your opportunity.  Remember that no matter how flashy the website it still has to be about you and from you because people don’t buy from a website, they buy from a trusted brand, from people like you.

Now if you’re a beginner and you’ve not had any success yet in your chosen MLM, that should not stop you from branding yourself.

“People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.” — Anonymous

When you’re new you may think you have nothing to share but you have plenty of information.  For example you could invite people to learn about your journey in MLM, another reason to document what you do.  Alternatively you could explain how you felt when approached for the opportunity you are in, the reasearch you did, and why you decided to join.  And if you’ve tried other opportunities or different ways to make money you could always share what not to do so that they don’t make the same mistakes.  There are many things that you know even if you’re new and even if none of the above gives you an idea, you could always reasearch a topic and make yourself an “expert” on the subject or you could interview experts.

Regardless of what you are an expert on if you’re trying to get people to join your opportunity then you want to further brand yourself by letting people know what you’re not.  You are not a recruit’em and leave’m.  You are going to sponsor them not recruit them.  They will want to know that even after they have signed up that you’ll still be around to support them… so let them know.

Your goal with your website and your brand is to build trust, so if you are sincere and don’t pretend to know the answers when you don’t then people will value your sincerity when you tell them the truth.

I know I’ve concentrated mostly on your opportunity but if you want to market your product (and I suggest that you target only one product and not your entire, possibly diverse, product line) then the same rules apply.  Instead of talking about why you joined the opportunity you could advise them on issues that your product helps with and how to maximize the benefits of your product.

Essentially to brand yourself effectively on the internet your website needs to be an extension of you.  In fact its no different than branding yourself if the internet didn’t exist.  Be truthful, honest, forthright, and lead your prospects through the often frustrating process of making an intelligent decision by being willing to serve them even if they don’t sign up or buy what you have to offer.

For more tips on how to do this effectively you need to check out the free attraction marketing bootcamp.

Do you know your target?

If so, what is it?

If you answered everyone, you are setting yourself up for failure and may be costing yourself a considerable amount of wasted time and money.  Now you may be saying “but I thought MLMs were for everyone”.  Thats true MLMs are for everyone but not everyone is right for an MLM.

Think back, how many MLMs have you explored before you found the one that was right for you?  Why would you expect your suspects to be any different?

Alternatively, maybe right now you are just trying to find consumers and you truly believe that your product can solve everyone’s problem.  First of all their is no product that is right for everyone and the truth is that most people don’t believe they even have a problem.

The key to maximizing your MLM success if finding your target market and marketing to it.  Whether you are trying to find consumers of your product or trying to grow your organization the same rules apply.

You need to narrow your focus to your target audience and then identify what drives them and listen to what problems they are trying to solve.  Once you have accomplished this you will no longer be trying to sell someone on something but rather guiding them to your product or opportunity with advice.  People are willing to buy something if they aren’t being sold on it. When you undertand your market’s needs you can provide a solution for them. This is known as attraction marketing.

But how do you identify your target market?

Well lets look at your product first.  It doesn’t matter what the product is but I will assume you know what the product is good for and what problem it solves.  If your products helps with a number of issues, choose one.  Those that could benefit from your product related to this one issue fall into 3 categories:

1. Those who have the issue your product solves and are actively searching for a solution.
2. Those buying competing or similar products.
3. Those buying your specific product because of its benefits.

You can provide advice and information to group 1 that gives answers to questions people with the specific issue would have.  Group 1 is just doing research they aren’t ready to buy yet.

Group 2 is using a competing product.  For them you need to address concerns they may have regarding the product – price, side effects, quality, etc.

Now group 3 is ready to buy they just want their potential concerns addressed about your product – can I get it at wholesale or preferred price? what testimonials do you have?

Each group is a separate target audience.

Now on to your opportunity.  You know that your business opportunity solves many problems.  For some they want to work from home to be with family.  Others want more time or money.  Again you need to choose one issue (I’ll use time) and again we have 3 groups:

1. Those who are looking for a solution to a time problem.
2. Those who are looking into a competing or similar opportunity or tools useful for a competing or similar opportunity.
3. Those who are looking for your specific business opportunity.

Group 1 knows nothing about MLMs and is just researching possible solutions to their time crunch.  Group 2 is familiar with MLMs so they know the industry in general and they are researching companies.  Group 3 is looking for your opportunity specifically and is looking for a mentor or a system of tools that they can get started with.

In both cases, whether product or opportunity, group 1 is the hardest to get interested in what you have because they are still researching the problem itself and know nothing of possible solutions.  Group 2 is easier because they are ready to buy into something similar.  And Group 3 is the easiest because they already know they want what you have.

Each group is a separate target and needs to be marketed to appropriately.  Depending on which you want to target you need to come up with the questions that group needs answers to. This will allow you to market to them either with a presentation or an ad where you provide the answers to those questions and letting them buy instead of you having to sell.