It’s Black Friday -the busiest shopping day of the year.  So to celebrate the pinnacle of consumerism, I thought it would be fun to cover the most common emotional triggers for purchasing.

I want you to think back to a recent purchase you made.  What was it?  Groceries?  Health food/supplement?  TV? Car?  Home? Vacation?

What was it that prompted you to make that decision to buy?

More than likely it was one of the 7 biggest reasons you buy anything – considering you’re part of the 95% majority of the population. The psychology of selling has focused on these 7 reasons forever.

When you’re posting ads, articles, sales pages, capture pages and so on, you need to take advantage of the reasons people buy.  It’s called emotional response initiating, and if you’re not doing this, your sales will be very limited.

The chances are that you’re already selling a product or service for a MLM company that already has had their marketing masterminds figure out how to sell.  Your task will be to use them in your ads that sell you- the leader of your growing MLM business.

You have to use these 7 methods, singular or combined to improve your sales, regardless of the product you’re selling.

1. You want to save money. Everyone wants a deal, you included.  The internet allows people to shop globally, looking for the best prices.  All media advertises “SALE” “Savings” “Cash Back”.  It works!  How can you make your products have more value per cost?  Either decrease cost, or increase value!  If you’re selling you as a team leader, you need to increase your value.

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Foundation: (noun) – the basis or ground work of anything.

You need a strong foundation for anything that you try to build.  That may be a house, a snow fort, a sky-scraper, even pitching a tent.  This is equally true if you’re building an MLM business.

Although you may not believe it, your “company” is not the foundation.  Your product isn’t either, nor is the compensation plan or your upline support or company training.  Each of these add to the overall strength, but they’re not the foundation.

YOU are your MLM biz’s foundation.  You are the rock upon which your future success is built.

Wow!  Daunting, isn’t it?

In terms of buildings, if the foundation is poor, a building will fall apart from the bottom up.  It will rot, fall in, tip over, crumble… basically lose all value and become worthless.

What is the “foundation otherwise known as YOU”?  It’s the compilation of your wisdom and understanding that you make available to your reps.  teach.

This is what is loosely called “a system”.  This marketing system must be reproduceable by your team reps so they can in turn teach their own reps.

Here’s the basics of what you need to build a strong foundation for your MLM business.

1.  Committment.  This is a no brainer.  You must be committed to working at building your business.  You need to have realistic expectations.  Building a business in network marketing is not like playing the lottery: you won’t get rich in 3 months.  Make a plan, and stick to it!

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Affiliate marketing.  Why would anyone want to do that?

There are people that absolutely despise affiliate marketing,  others who think you can’t do without it,  and the furthest extreme are people that do nothing but affiliate market!  What does it all mean?

There’s good, and bad ways to use affiliate marketing.  Everyone has their ideas, and everyone is entitled to their opinions, likes and dislikes.

I’ve heard people complain that affiliate marketing is not what you want to do to build your MLM.  The argument is that it can distract you from your true purpose, which is to build your MLM business.  I’ve also hear the stats that most people won’t make more than 1-2 sales in their affiliates.

While this can be true, I feel people may be losing sight of the intention of using affiliate marketing.  It’s purpose is not to consume your entire focus, but rather to be a secondary stream of income that allows you to pay for the advertising you’re doing for your MLM business.

3 considerations about affiliate marketing:

1. The Primary Objective Of Affiliate Marketing is to keep reps in positive cash flow.  When used properly, affiliate marketing provides needed income while the person using it is learning how to build their MLM business.  Instead of all their commissions going back out to pay for marketing, they can put their MLM income in the bank and use their affiliate payments to market.

2.. Learning to be a good networker takes time. And because it takes time to learn how to be an effective network marketer, reps need something to get them in positive cash flow.  By now you’ve likely seen the stats that most network marketers quit by 90 days (the average amount of time a rep stays in a business).  This is because there is more money out than money in.

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The MLM industry has a bad name.

If you’ve been in a network marketing business for longer than 24 hours, you’ve already seen people roll their eyes and give you that “not you too” look.  Probably had a family member chastise you for being suckered into another “pyramid scheme”.

Over the years there have been too many people selling the fantasies of getting rich quick, quitting your job, telling your boss where to go…   And…IT”S STILL HAPPENING!

No one seems to be telling the truth about MLM.  The reality is that building a lucrative MLM business is such hard work that 97% of people fail.

Why does fantasy sell?

We want what we want, and we want it NOW!

Our society is impatient, and everything we desire should be given to us as fast as possible.  No waiting, no working…it’s all about simple immediate gratification.

Consider our North American habits:  fast food, processed food, drive through coffee kiosks, drive through pharmacies, banking,… everything that used to have relationships is being replaced with getting immediate service with as little human interaction as possible.

We can all instantly rattle off the stage names and real names of the members of the TV show “Friends”, but don’t know the names of our neighbors two doors down.  We know more about the private lives and troubles of professional athletes than we have knowledge of the issues in our own communities.

We work longer hours, spend less time with our families and wonder what’s wrong with our children.

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Somewhere in my past someone said “… it takes more heart than brains to succeed”.  At the time I believed them…  But, I’m not so sure about that any more.  I now think it takes a good dose of both.

I live in a town that has a long history of mining.  Since the 1860’s, millions of miners have come and gone, buying claims, physically toiling at the task of moving earth to access precious metals.   I respect  these men for having the heart to chase a dream that very few ever achieved.  Somehow the allure of finding the “mother lode” kept them at it.

Miners came from around the country and globe to seek their fortune.  They came with little knowledge of how to mine, little money, and few tools.  Unequipped, they blindly chased their dreams.

Just for a second here,  fast forward this concept a century and a half…  Does it suddenly sound familiar to the current state of network marketing?  Hmmm…

Back to the history lesson.

History showed us that the guy on the work end of a shovel or pick-axe was not the one making the money!  Heart and desire appears to be not the only requisite of success and wealth.  There seemed to be something else…

A fellow by the name W.A. Clark started out this way in mining.  He dug.  He sweated.  He hurt.

He also thought… what were all the miners doing?  The exact same, and achieving the same results – not much!

He questioned what they all had in common besides their work.  They needed supplies!  They needed tools.  And he realized that he could profit from their needs.

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You’ve found an MLM to join, but don’t really understand the compensation plan very well?  Not sure if the company is reputable?

No problem, you’re not alone.

There are many out there, and before you join any MLM, as a wise and savvy business person, I hope that you did your homework and found out more about the company – it’s corporate structure, the type of comp plan, how long it’s been in business, where the home office is located and so on.

Unfortunately, most people that join an MLM opportunity never do their due diligence to fully understand the implications and finer points prior to putting their money on the table.

Besides the products your company offers and their marketability, you must ensure the company platform is stable and that the commission system they employ works for you -BEFORE you sign up.

Remember, you are starting a business.  You’re not buying a lottery ticket!

10 of the considerations to make are as follows:

1.  You should avoid any plan that promotes commissions for recruiting additional distributors.  It may be an illegal pyramid.  Commissions should be primarily from sales, not sign-ups.  If it is front end heavy on rep sign up commissions, look carefully and proceed with great caution.

2.  Be wary of a compensation plan that asks new reps to purchase expensive inventory: they can collapse quickly and may also be thinly disguised pyramids.

3. Look at the type of comp plan: Matrix, Binary, Australian, Unilevel, Compresses?  There are benefits to each and some work better than others.  Research the kind offered in your company and figure out if it works for you.

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I was recently at a weekend seminar with Hal Perkins for a course titled “If Jesus Were A Parent”, based on his book by the same name.

Besides the eye opening methods about how to effectively disciple to my children to guide them into the world as disciples of Christ, I realized that much of what he said is true for a network marketing business too.

Before I get too far with this post, I hope I don’t offend anyone with the concept of creating an analogy between disciple building and MLM organization building.  Bear with me a few minutes and you’ll see the parallel…

As Hal went over many different aspects of how to take the principles of discipleship into everyday life, I was amazed at how much of a cross over there is into a relationship building business such as network marketing.

At the core of the message was that there needs to be implementation of basic principles of listening to others on a regular basis to help them meet their needs.

If you wish your children to become disciples of Jesus Christ, you need to create a relationship with them and with the church.  They need to have focused attention and leadership on a regular basis through their formative years until they have the knowledge to become disciples themselves.

Your MLM biz is a relationship based business whereby you are leading and teaching your reps until they have the ability to go out on their own with the necessary tools to do the same thing.  Fortunately you are not likely to require 15 + years to get your reps ready to go forth.

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How committed are you to building an online MLM empire?

If you are serious about marketing your MLM online, you need to treat your advertising campaign like a business. You are the President and CEO of You Inc., and you must weigh every business decision as though there were millions of dollars at stake. Sure, it would be awesome to roll out of bed at noon, post some content in your robe and slippers while you sip coffee on your couch, but the reality is that most of us can’t afford to do that.

You have to measure your daily work in results. The number of  hours spent typing on Facebook or Twitter is not a result: it’s a means to the result.

Replying to e-mails and building relationships is a necessity, but each activity must be viewed as a investment of your precious time.  You can’t put all your energy here to the effect of neglecting other areas of marketing.

As most network marketers run their business as an individual instead of as a group, only so much work can get done in a day.  Time efficiency is an absolute requirement.  Instead of a random approach, there must be a strict plan of action to achieve measurable results.

You got into network marketing because you wanted to make money to have the freedom that comes with it.   Don’t lie to yourself that it’s too hard and you don’t have the time or ability.

Work relentlessly at achieving your goals.

Mike Dillard spent 4 years to become an overnight success.  Cedrick Harris begain network marketing in 1993, and became an industry leader only inthe last couple of years.  The best in our industry struggled and suffered through the lean times to become who they are today.

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