SUCCESS IN NETWORK MARKETING: HARD WORK COMES BEFORE THE REWARDS!

A few days ago I was talking to a young lady called Gwen, who had recently signed up with one of the international cosmetics companies which operate through network marketing. She was very excited.

Gwen told me about her new web site, about her likely future income, and about the car she was going to have very soon and the exotic holiday she and her husband were planning. All courtesy of this cosmetics company.

What Gwen didn't mention was how many people she expected to have in her team, or how she planned to build her team to a level which would give her the income level she was seeking. She didn't talk about all the hard work she expected to have to put in to build up her business, nor the time she'd need to spend away from her family.

I don't want to strike an overly negative note here, but it does concern me that companies, while naturally wanting to encourage their distributors, oversell the potential rewards while underselling completely the work required to earn those rewards. Many network marketing companies offer an excellent opportunity, but they do no one a great service if they over-emphasise the rewards and under-emphasise the effort involved in earning them.

In my last blog I mentioned two specific qualities which, it had been argued, were needed to be a successful network marketer. They were optimism and persistence. To those I should probably add sound business acumen, because to be successful, every network marketer must also be able to run a successful business.

Unfortunately, in their haste to recruit distributors, the companies always try to whip up the optimism but seldom emphasise the need for persistence or sound business sense. And optimism serves little purpose without the determination to take it beyond the first few days!

Sadly, because of the wrong emphasis, most network marketers fall by the wayside before they experience any real success.

I sincerely hope that Gwen does really well. But if she does, I fancy it will be in spite of, rather than because of, the company to which she has hitched her star.