Last week, we went into great detail about how you can create your network marketing business story. It’s something you can use in situations when you’re ready to talk to prospective customers and future consultants about your business.
But let’s take a step back for a moment. What about that common, simple question that comes up in conversation just about everywhere? It is of course, “what do you do for a living?” Ask yourself, how confident are you when you answer that question?
If you don’t convey full confidence when answering that simple question, you will never get the lead-in that you require in order to fully tell your network marketing business story.
In this post, we’re going to show you how to answer that question in every situation with absolute, unwavering confidence, specifically by looking at the four areas you need to be inherently confident in.
Be confident in your product.
If you don’t have full confidence in the product you are selling, start here. The most successful people in network marketing are successful because of their passion. They aren’t quasi-interested in the product that they market. They love it.
You need to love that product so much that you can’t imagine your life without it. Even if you don’t use it now, it should be something you used in the past to get where you are now, such as a weight loss program that helped you reach your goal, and lose the weight for good.
You need to believe in that product so much that you are sure that it will change people’s lives for the better, in one way or the other. Even if you market party foods, they need to be party foods that help your customers throw the types of parties that everyone wants to go to because they know their food will be the best.
You need to trust in that product so much that you would sell it to the people you love most in this world – your friends, your parents, your children, your siblings, your neighbors – anyone. So if you sell skin cream, you better trust it enough to let your own daughter use it.
You need to be so invested in this product that you are the very first person to know after the creators themselves, when something old has been updated or something new has been added. That way you’re never open to surprises, or the compromising situation of a customer or consultant knowing before you.
This is the level of confidence you need in your product. If you have that love, belief, trust, and investment, you’ve got the right product for your network marketing business.
If you don’t, then maybe it’s time to look for something else. There are so many great products and companies to work with, that there is really no excuse for sticking with something you don’t believe in. This is the first point to comprehend, and very important in conveying the utmost confidence when responding to that ever-persistent question “what do you do for a living?” This will ultimately prove critical in achieving network marketing success.
Be confident in your industry.
Network marketing has a reputation, and outside of people who are successful in network marketing or know someone who is successful, it’s not always the best. So in addition to being confident in your product, your lifestyle, and your skills, you need to be confident in the industry as a whole.
The biggest challenge you’ll run into is the people who perceive network marketing in a generally negative light. This is due to a number of factors. Firstly, they may equate network marketing to pyramid schemes. Secondly, they might think of network marketing as a pipe dream – something that sounds too good to be true. Many see it as shameless self promotion, but the focus is so very wrongly negative.
If running into these types of people has negatively affected your confidence in your industry, don’t worry. Instead of thinking of network marketing in a bad light, keep the following points in mind.
Network marketing is simply marketing through a network of personal and professional connections. Plenty of businesses utilize marketing through personal and professional connections.
If you walk into an accountant’s office, chances are you’ll see a rotating business card holder with cards from other professionals that the accountant knows – lawyers, real estate agents, insurance agents, etc. All of those people are part of a network wherein each person refers their customers to others in their network. This is probably the most common form of network marketing.
MLM is multi-level marketing. It’s the enhanced version of network marketing. Many businesses have a MLM structure when you think about it.
You start with a vendor that produces a product. You have many businesses who sell that product. Within those businesses, you have teams of salespeople. When a salesperson sells the product to a consumer, they make a commission. The business makes a profit. And the vendor makes a profit. Ultimately, it’s multiple levels, each of which market to the other in a way that drives sales.
So how is that different from a vendor who puts their product sales in the hands of individual distributors rather than the big box stores? It’s not. And what’s wrong with an individual distributor creating their own sales team? Nothing, really.
Consumers who like small businesses should feel better about buying from an independent distributor as that would shift their spending away from the large corporations.
Occasionally affiliate marketing gets lumped into the network marketing industry as well, and rightfully so, because it is a form of network marketing in the sense that people build networks of connections online in order to sell products by others to make a commission.
And that is really the way any relationship between a salesperson and product works – the salesperson or affiliate marketer sells a product and makes a commission. There’s nothing slimy or scheme-like about it.
Anyone who has bought a car likely knows a bit about network marketing, MLM, and affiliate marketing. Chances are, their salesperson handed them a business card and said that for every new customer they sent to him or her, they would get $100 cash. That’s marketing to your network, being a tier under the salesperson selling a product, and earning commission for a referral.
Hopefully, these new ways of thinking about the way network marketing (and all of the different marketing types that are often associated with network marketing) works will instill you with the confidence to deal with the next person who questions the reputation or nature of your industry. When you understand how important confidence in your industry is, you will be bestowed the ability to answer the question of what you do with much more confidence.
Be confident in your skills.
Network marketing is often thought of as a home-based business, or a work-from-home position. Anyone who works from home can tell you that there’s a certain unshakable stigma attached to it, whether they are a network marketer, they work from home as an employee for a larger company, or as a freelancer.
The unfortunate stigma is that anyone who works from home in any position, effectively does nothing and gets paid for it. This is, of course, far from the truth.
A moment of thought on the topic will reveal that, people who work from home actually have to work harder than their office-based counterpart. Let’s start with people who run their own businesses and are their own boss. Whether it’s a network marketing business or not, they have to undertake, manage, and/or outsource many of the following tasks.
- They have to: personally build their network of personal and professional connections.
- They have to: conduct marketing and advertising activities to reach potential customers.
- They have to: sell to their customers.
- They have to: provide exceptional customer service.
- They have to: liaise with vendors.
- They have to: carefully manage the consultants below them.
- They have to: keep track of inventory and distribution.
- They have to: balance their business checkbook.
- They have to: budget and forecast their finances.
- They have to: pay taxes for themselves.
Hence, if you run your own business, there’s a good chance that you are a networker, marketer, advertiser, salesperson, customer service representative, support team member, warehouse manager, accountant, and much more, all-in-one. This means that you have a skill set that is above and beyond the typical employee.
So, congratulations! When someone asks you what you do, you now have the confidence to know that, unless you are talking to a fellow network marketer, you are going to out-skill the person you are talking to by a long shot, dispel the various myths about network marketing, and increase your chances of becoming a network marketing success.
For the percentage of you that make money in their sleep, or while you’re cruising on your yacht, it’s not like you started out that way. You likely worked hard, and went through many of the above roles during your journey to achieve your current lifestyle.
Be confident in your lifestyle.
Now it’s time to touch on the lifestyle of network marketing business owners. Overall, it’s pretty different from the lifestyle of the average employee.
If you’re a parent, you’re able to drop off and pick up your kids from school. You’re able to help them with their homework. You have the chance to bake them that last minute batch of cookies. You have the ability to attend all of their school events. You can chaperone trips and participate in the PTA meetings.
If you love to travel, you have the ability to work from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection to keep tabs on your consultants and customers. You can have a condo or cabin in your favorite place to travel, in addition to your main residence. You can have two main residences so you can split your time between locations that allow you to be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Or you can even have an island residence with a mainland backup in case of hurricanes.
If you’re pretty laid-back, you can shop at times when the stores are least busy and have no understanding of the term “rush hour traffic.” You can make plans any day of the week, at any time that works best for you.
If you like the latest in everything, you can likely afford it. You can be the first person on your block to own to pull up in the latest technological masterpiece by Tesla Motors, or the first person in your circle of friends to have that new pair of virtual reality glasses.
If you don’t find yourself in one of the above positions, either you have a lifestyle plan that suits your specific personality, or you are in the process of getting to the lifestyle you want.
Whatever your lifestyle choices are, be confident in them, and understand how your network marketing business has helped you achieve them. Don’t let anyone tell you that your lifestyle approach is somehow wrong, or not as good as a different approach.
Putting it together.
If you are confident in your product, confident in your industry, confident in your skills, and confident in your lifestyle, answering the question of “what do you do for a living?”will be easy. The answer will come to you effortlessly no matter who asks the question, be it your old boss, your nosy in-laws, your golf buddies or the parents of the friends of your children.
It will be easy, because of your ability to counter any objection you receive in reply.
All you have to do at this point is put what you do into one simple sentence.
- I help people get in shape.
- I consult people on how they can save money on their taxes.
- I help people lose weight.
- I consult people on how they can obtain optimal health.
- I help women find the right cosmetics to make them feel beautiful.
- I help party planners select the best foods for their events.
- I help people earn a living from home doing something they love.
- I help people earn a living from home by helping them help others.
- I teach parents how to make more part time, than their spouse makes full time.
From here, the natural response would be to ask you how you do these things, to which you will share some information about your product.
The key is finding the answer that most often ends with the person you are talking to, saying something to the effect of “I would love to learn more.” At that point, you have the option of transitioning into your network marketing business story (which is a great option if you know the person well, and have their contact info to follow up with them) or getting their contact information and then leading them in.