Principles for MLM Success

Network marketing is amazing. In my over thirty-five years of working, it’s the only form of business I’ve found that offers a level playing field. In other words, anyone can become successful in network marketing. The great part is that others have already blazed the trail, so it’s just a matter of looking at what they did and doing the same thing. Over the last ten years, I’ve had the distinct honor to interview many top income earners and in this article I will share some of their principles for success.

1. Coachable – MLM is a business of duplication. Those who have already been successful will share their secrets to success and all you need to do is listen and do what they tell you to do. Unfortunately, I was not very coachable in the beginning. I was successful in traditional business and figured I could do the same things and be successful in network marketing. Boy, was I wrong and because I didn’t listen to my upline leaders, I didn’t make any money. They’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt, and the pay-check to prove it, so be coachable and duplicate their success.

2. Dreams, Goals, and Objectives – Studies have shown that very few people have written dreams and goals, yet those who do, achieve high levels of success. Identify your dreams first – if time and money were not inhibitors, what would your life look like? Describe your dream house in great detail? Likewise, your dream car, vacations, wardrobe, lifestyle, and so on.

From those dreams, goals can be developed. A dream is the big picture and goals are the steps that will get you to the dreams. For example, let’s say your dream car is a Mercedes SL65 with a cost of $225,000 and a monthly payment of around $3,800. What are the steps necessary to achieve that dream? An increase in your income might be necessary – so the goal would be to increase your monthly income to let’s say $10,000.

Next, you break that goal down into bite-size objectives (the things necessary to increase your monthly income to $10,000). Each day you should review your dreams, goals, and objectives in order to determine your daily activities.

3. Work – Network marketing has probably produced more millionaires than any other industry and although each of those people built their businesses with different companies and using different methods, they all did one thing – WORK. MLM is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s a get rich through hard work business. One of the main differences I see in those who fail and those who succeed is the level of work. Most of those who fail treated their MLM business like a hobby – working whenever they had some spare time. However, the top income earners work their business every day. Let’s say that after a thorough evaluation of your schedule, that you can only devote ten hours a week to your business. Take a daily planner and block out those available time slots and commit to working your business. Now, work is not filing, checking e-mail, or surfing the web. Work in MLM is prospecting, presenting, follow-up, registering new associates, training, and support. In the beginning, you should spend 90% of your time in prospecting, presenting, follow-up, and signing up new people. As your network builds, you can devote more time to training and support, but never, never, never stop prospecting or your business will die.

4. Consistently Persistent – Most network marketers give up to early. They expect to make $10,000 their first month and when they don’t, they quit. Just like any business, it takes time to build an MLM business. You are going to have to contact a lot of people, give many presentations, and endure a great deal of rejection. However, it is the person who is consistently persistent, that will succeed. If you are duplicating a successful system, then the only thing separating you from success is time. When things are looking dark, keep going. Make one more call. Talk with one more person. Follow-up one more time. If you are with the right company, you should never give up.

5. Make a Million Friends – The advice that made the biggest impact on my success in network marketing was to go out with the idea of making a million friends, instead of a million dollars. You can only be successful in network marketing if you help others become successful. So, every day go out to find some new friends, who you can help become successful in your business. Forget about your wants and needs and serve. This is called servant leadership – you lead by serving those you lead. The more friends you make and serve, the greater your success in network marketing.

These are just a few of the principles of success. I’m sure that your sponsor and upline leaders have their own list, so make sure you ask them for their principles for success. Now, the final key is that it’s one thing to have this knowledge and it’s a whole different thing to actually do what you’ve learned. Be a doer and watch your business and income skyrocket.