SIX KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE YOU SET UP A NETWORK MARKETING BUSINESS

3. Do You Have a Marketing Plan?

If you're happy that you have the right products and that there's a market for them, there is one more very important question to ask on the marketing side: do you have a Marketing Plan? Being satisfied that a market exists for your products is important, but then you need to work out how you're going to reach that market. It is not a good idea to go into a new business without seriously considering this.

Network Marketing companies will tell you that the way to do this is to make a list of your relatives and friends, who you will then proceed to sign up. There's nothing wrong with doing this of course, and it might even succeed - if you're lucky enough to have the right kind of relatives and friends.... But even if you do, you'll run out of friends and relatives before too long. You're also likely to experience some rejection from your friends and relatives, and in many cases this has prompted network marketers to give up their business in disillusionment.

So your Marketing Plan needs to go a little deeper if you want to be successful. After all, IBM and McDonalds didn't succeed just by selling to their relatives and friends, and I don't even know of any shops which have been successful simply by selling to friends and relatives. Why should our business be any different?

In developing a Marketing Plan you should address at least the following questions:

* What is my target market?

* How big is the market?

* What market share can I reasonably aim at? (ie my sales and marketing goals)

* How will I reach the market and achieve that level of market share?

There are many ways to reach your market, and approaching your friends and relatives may well be one of them. Different businesses use a number of sales and marketing techniques to reach their market, including such things as:

- media
- other advertising
- sales representatives
- web sites (but remember that they only work if you can get people to go to your site)
- emails
- other forms of internet marketing
- sales letters
- sponsorships
- business cards

Apart from not-for-profit organizations, every business exists for only one purpose: to make profits. Hence every business needs to make sales. And please be assured that Network Marketing businesses are no exception. Every business needs to have a Marketing Plan which the owners are reasonably confident in. Never forget the old saying: "if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there".... Without a Marketing Plan your business will probably go nowhere - and almost certainly it will go in the wrong direction!

So before you decide to go ahead with your network marketing business, please make sure you have a Marketing Plan which sets out you marketing goals and how you'll get there. And please make sure that you are confident that the Plan will work...