Healthy Business » business opportunity

Seeking to understand is a lesson in life

wbhawkins — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:03:05 +0000

Seek to understand and you will be more effective

It is always surprising to hear people when they don’t want to learn how to do something which will benefit them. Working with technology for the last twelve years has shown me that you have to keep learning and accept that it never stops. You are always learning because the technology keeps changing and improving.

Of course, when you learn, you begin to understand. Understanding means you have to listen. By listening you cut everything else out of your mind and absorb what you are hearing. The Army has a good acronym which is the basis of all of their training: ‘EDIP – Explain, Demonstrate, Impersonate, Practice‘. It’s simple and it works. By practicing, you transfer all of that ’stuff’ that you see and hear into your long term memory. When you do that, you become skilled and things make sense because you have gained experience.

To learn takes effort. To practice takes discipline. When you put the effort in and keep ‘at it’ new perspectives on your subject appear. This is when you ‘get it’. But you have to start with an attitude of seeking to understand. That simple phrase is one of the pillars of being effective in whatever you do in life.

It took me five years to ‘get’ this business. It took that long because I started off not wanting to understand how network marketing works. But, my sister-in-law persisted and I started to see how it works and I was amazed at its simplicity. This simplicity is often an aspect of the business which most people find suspicious about network marketing. Most people seem determined to make a simple plan complicated because they think it sounds better and gives them some sort of comfort.

Network marketing is designed to simple and replicable. Being replicable is what most people in traditional business want to avoid. They want to be unique. Being able to replicate the business is a cornerstone of network marketing. And understanding these and others principles is when you suddenly see how far you can take the business.

However, most people are very wary about network marketing. They have prejudices about it which are founded in activities which were made illegal thirty years ago. This stops people from wanting to understand about the business. They block it out. They think it is a ‘get rich quick scheme‘ when, in fact, with persistence, time and duplication this business is actually a ‘get rich slow business‘.

It’s shame. Because it is an amazing business strategy which can change your life. But, you have to understand it, drop your misinformed opinions and learn. It’s worth it.

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Network Marketing is so Web 2.0

wbhawkins — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:06:22 +0000

Network marketing was built for Web 2.0

If you read what’s happening in marketing, of which advertising is a part, then you will know that this world is changing dramatically. For example, no longer do we watch TV when we are told to watch it. We can record TV using our digital boxes and watch it when we can fit it into our busy lives. When we watch the show we recorded, we can whiz through the advertisements.

Print advertising is no longer as effective as it used to be. People are buying less newspapers and magazines, and it less than certain at best that your advertisement is going to have an impact. Telemarketing is getting blocked out by ‘telephone preference services’ and email is getting blocked by spam filters. Direct mail is getting placed directly into the bin (let’s hope it’s the recycling one).

So, the new phenomenon is called social media where friends, colleagues and contacts congregate online and share what’s going on in their lives, whether that’s telling the world what they are eating right now (I can see a tweet on my screen now from someone telling me they are eating bread, cheese & marmite and washing it down with a bottle of aloe vera drink!). Some people scoff at it as a waste of time. But, the reality is that it is becoming a major source of influence for many people.

Social media and the term ‘Web 2.0′ are all about the new capability of web sites and tools, as well as the desire of people to share thoughts, ideas and information with people they know. This is from where much of our influences in choices about products, people and services derive today. And, on that matter, this is not new. We have always spoken to our friends, family and contacts for their thoughts on their experiences on a product or service. It’s just that the internet now makes it much easier to reach to people than was previously possible.

Big companies with big marketing teams are now struggling to handle this new approach. They are all geared up to ‘interrupt’ our lives with email blasts, TV ads, direct mail, SMS, poster, inserts, wobblers, banner ads on web sites, people shoving poor quality newspapers in your hand in the street, and activities which were deemed normal in the past but which are now blocked out by people at the receiving end.

It’s now a recognised fact that about 70% of all products and services are researched on the internet today before they are purchased. People don’t go to a manufacturer’s site to find out whether a product or service is any good or not. Oh no. They ask their friends, they check out web sites, blogs and forums for opinions and reviews. They block out the traditional marketing from the manufacturer knowing that it is biased.

So, what has this got to do with network marketing? People scoff at network marketing as some sort of ghastly, brainwashed cult that sells products through illegal pyramid schemes. It could not be further from the truth. Like social media, network marketing is based upon people who know, like and trust you.

The business I am in, Forever Living, does not advertise its products and it does not sell them through high street shops. Our products sell through recommendation. Anyone who owns a business wants people to recommend their product or service because they know it is powerful, more powerful than some marketer saying their product is great so you should buy it.

Take last night, for instance. I spent some time last night with two people who came along to hear about my products. I knew one of them from work in the recent past. She’s a great person who knows me quite well. She brought a friend of hers along, who was lovely, with her to see what all the fuss was about who had never heard of our business and products.

I showed them our products, let then try them and talked about how they had helped other people. My old workmate, without prompting, said she knew someone who had used one of the aloe vera drinks we produce to help them with a problem with their digestion and it had worked. Another mutual friend has used our aloe propolis creme for a long standing skin condition on her face. She had told me that within three days the creme had started to make a positive difference to her skin.

That meeting last night with two people I know was all about knowing, liking and trusting people and their views. That is what successful network marketing businesses are built upon. Recommendation from your friends and contacts. It’s what marketing teams in big companies dream about and which they are failing to achieve through the ‘interruption techniques’ they have used until now to let you know about their product or service.

Networking marketing is powerful and relies upon good people recommending good products to people who know, like and trust them. People who own network marketing business understand ‘inbound marketing’ where they don’t rely on old marketing techniques to sell their products. They rely on trust and word of mouth which is exactly what social media and ‘web 2.0′ is all about.

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What type of people start network marketing businesses?

wbhawkins — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:23:22 +0000

All types of people succeed in Forever

It never ceases to amaze me how many different types of people start network marketing businesses. I first really understood just how diverse the backgrounds of the successful people in Forever Living are when I went to a ‘Success Day’ in Leeds recently. (A ‘Success Day’, by the way is a monthly event in different locations around the country where the company recognises the achievements of its people).

At the event, I made a point of being introduced to as many people as I could who are already in the business and who are doing well. I met one inspirational woman who had been a doctor in a hospital but had left the profession to pursue developing her Forever Living business which she was doing very successfully.

I another woman who was doing very well and had reached a senior level within the business after leaving university and being introduced to the business by her mother. One of the presenters in the day had been a ’shelf stacker’ in a supermarket and is now one of the leading people in the business. Another speaker had been in a band in the 1960’s with a hit that reached number seven in the charts above The Beatles, who then went into academia and had decided to leave to pursue his Forever Living business full time.

My sister-in-law, Cora, also introduced me to the managing director of the business, Bob Parker, who still runs his own Forever Living business, who was a very approachable man which is typical of the type of people within the business. Unlike many people in traditional companies, the people in Forever Living are happy to share their expertise in being successful in the business. In addition, their are no ‘big egos’ which makes for a more inclusive feeling in the business. This is part of the ethos.

So, you can probably see that there many people in the business from all types of backgrounds that succeed in this business. You don’t need to be a brain surgeon or a sales superstar to do well. Everyone who succeeds in the business follows a simple marketing plan and follows three principles of network marketing. I will explain these principles in my next blog entry.

An article I read today about the personality of some network marketers makes for interesting readers. It’s by Dr Robin Rushlo. I am not sure it is entirely true but it gives an insight into how energetic some people are in network marketing.

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