Yesterday I posted about the new model of attraction marketing and why it might be right for you in your home business. Some time ago I wrote about the need for online and offline marketing. There was an interesting comment from James Holmes who mentioned that if we don’t leverage the internet for growing our business then we would be the only growth industry not to do so.
To ignore technology in respect for our traditional business model does indeed seem like madness then, doesn’t it? See the article here if you’d like to track back to the original post.
Anyway moving on today I was thinking about how important it is to have a strong business plan to offer to your team members which covers both online and offline methods. After all we all go through stages in our life where sometimes we are out and about much more than others.
What do I mean by that? Well the mother of 2 young children will probably not be wanting to put herself in a position where she needs to be out of the home everyday trying to frantically generate leads for her business.
However she wants and needs her business to keep building even though she is not fully focussed now. That is why she initially started the home business.
Even if she is out of the house everyday with her kids she may want to focus on being with them and of course is likely to come across some great candidates along the way whom she can connect with and start to build a relationship, but it probably won’t be enough to keep her business moving.
On the other hand if you take the smart young professional woman who works in a busy lawyer’s office, eats out 3 times a week and has a busy social life with lots of cultural and sports activities, she may not have the same issues of meeting enough suitable people to build new relationships with on a consistent basis. (Notice I don’t say new people to jump on and ram her business opportunity down their throats on the first time they meet!)
Offline marketing can be very elegantly done and it has its place. With all the technology developments happening now people are drawn to their phones and laptops more and more. I found myself reading an e book in bed the other night and actually holding the laptop like a book!! I know I must get one of those new kindle things but for now…
The point being, that people will crave human interaction all the more because largely they are being deprived of it now. A Facebook or Skype chat is not the same as meeting someone you love for a cup of coffee. It is great and Skype is a tool that I can’t imagine living without but still face to face meetings have a completely different energy.
Dan Kennedy, one of the most effective marketers of our time teaches the need for online and offline. From what I can understand Dan Kennedy is the original Magnetic Marketer (forgive me if I’m wrong Mike Dillard!) Of course nothing is truly original and he will have expanded on the seed of an idea from somewhere else but still he teaches magnetic marketing but he shows his members how to market using all methods to attract prospects to them. Offline marketing can be done with attraction strategies as well.
Many of the current adverts for online attraction marketing deride the style of the training from the traditional Network Marketing leaders and the main source of annoyance seems to be that they don’t teach internet methods of prospecting.
I have given this a great deal of thought and I’d be very interested to know what others, like myself think who actually have built their business to a large degree using offline methods.
Here is my question. If a leader has say 100,000 team members spread across 50 countries and they get together globally, or in their regions for big training events, how could the leader train all those people on complex online methods?
To further complicate the plot it would automatically rule out a huge number of them from even being able to start to implement the training because English is not their first language and even if they can get by (which many can’t) they would not for instance be able to build a funded proposal made up of Magnetic Sponsoring or other available materials in English. (They could build it but their prospects may not be able to read it!)
Industry leader, Randy Gage teaches that the formula for duplication is based on having a large group of people taking a few simple actions over a sustained period of time. This how you escape the ‘grinder’ mentality and become an MLM Rockstar.
No matter how innovative we get with online attraction marketing, unless we can teach it in a systematic way that everyone can get the hang of it will automatically rule out the masses won’t it?
I think that is very possible now for those in the English speaking markets and especially with Social Media tools to build the business fast. However when selecting a new MLM company or team to join it would be a good idea to look beyond the product line and the other criteria (although that is of course important also) to what kind of systems are in place to build your business.
Personally I would be looking for a team and sponsorship line that knows how to teach and duplicate with offline methods so that your business can be easily expanded into exciting overseas markets like Mexico, Brazil and Italy. (Those guys are not going to be sitting at home hiding behind their computers and resisting telling their friends and family)
If you want a global business rather than a National one then these are the things to take into account. Does your company and/or and sponsorship line have prospecting materials available in all these other languages? Do they have them both in hard copy and online format?
Does your sponsorship line have a strong system in place that can work for anyone, no matter what their language, English Literacy level, cultural background or social skills?
In closing I think if you work online you will of course attract other people who want to work online and that’s great. Make sure you join a team that has that system to offer you so that you don’t need to build it yourself before you can even start.
However when your downline are making money (possibly instantly with the MLM and/or funded proposal) they may very well be excited and for example; want to share the opportunity with their brother and his wife who happen to live in Mexico. Now Tom who is American married Maria from Mexico who speaks English but is not that computer literate and doesn’t write English too well.
She has been in Network Marketing before and is actually looking for a new opportunity. She asks how the business works. If you can only offer her an online model in English you will most likely lose her. Who knows but she could have been a Diamond?
Anyway you get the picture. A lot can be said for Niche and Targeted Marketing but if you are fortunate to work with a Network Marketing company that is in the early stages of growth across multiple continents and time zones it would be madness not to take advantage.
As always your appropriate comments are welcomed and read with interest. (Commenting on blogs gives you backlinks to your website and can generate traffic for you!)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rachel Henke coaches people to be more successful and to have more fun in their home business. Get Million Dollar Training Info and Subscribe to the Professional Networker Blog
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Thu, Feb 5, 2009
MLM Rockstar Training, Marketing Offline, Marketing Online, Randy Gage Team