This is a guest post from our friends over at TheTelecomSecret
Position Marketing is a little understood term that applies to the approach used by 99% of network marketing or MLM companies. The principle is simple – position the company as profound and the top earners as experts. This sounds like a sound and logical plan – but where does that leave you?
As a novice marketer virtually no-one will regard anything you have to say with any relevance unless you are inherently wealthy – something most new recruits are not. The new recruit does not realize that by edifying their up-line sponsors they are actually promoting them and increasing their sponsorship rates instead of their own. Many times someone will ‘hear’ the pitch from a newbie before going online and signing up under the local “big fish” in the hopes of getting special mentoring or instruction. The ‘big fish’ then swoops in with a “buy first, ask questions later” approach filled with mis-direction and false promises. Once the early commissions are earned the ‘big fish’ continues on their way looking for the next prey. The novice recruiter didn’t profit at all from the experience (and likely never even knew their friend registered).
Why does nearly every ‘system’ out there insist on YOU building a list of 100 people – friends and family is always the routine. You are to submit this list to your up-line for one reason, and one reason only. So that when you’re broke and no longer involved your up-line can now contact these people with a typical tag line like “This is Mr. Big Fish Successful Guy, you know Tim right? He totally WANTED me to show you this! Come check it out, you won’t regret it!”. Most of your friends and family will ignore him – but some won’t – and you’ll be blamed for their lack of success when the ‘system’ doesn’t pan out. In reality – the ‘system’ is not designed to pan out – it’s designed to make a handful of people wealthy.
Anyone with REAL business experience knows the importance of a sales pipe-line and generating leads. Leads are generated through advertising your product or service – not through harassing your relatives and directing them, single-file, to your up-line. YOU instead need to position yourself as the expert. There is nothing the ‘top dogs’ know that you don’t. The only difference is how long they’ve been in the business and how many people they have out there still subscribing to the same, unsuccessful, system.
Duplication – you’ve all heard of it in one form or another. McDonald’s will serve you the same Big Mac anywhere in the world. Yes that’s an example of duplication – but it’s a duplication of a process, not an individual. McDonald’s follows the same steps and recipe to make your burger – and the reason is always the same – you’re hungry. Everyone on the planet is different however, so you can’t apply duplication to people. You can however duplicate processes. Find out what works for YOUR business – not your up-line. Articulate those steps until you can clearly see the process involved. Once that’s clear – you’re ready to TEACH other people your process and profit from it as a result. You’re now the expert and they defer to you because you’re the creator of the process. Edifying yourself and building your own brand are two key principles of success in any business.