Healthy Business » forever living

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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Team building – why people join this business

wbhawkins — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:00:35 +0000

Your reason for joining us is important to know!

Another really good person joined my team at Healthy Business this week. She is someone I have known for two years or so through a business we worked in together. She came to a focus group I ran to get people’s feedback about the business and she asked about the business at the event. My new team member joined for a number of reasons which included earning extra money, to meet new people and to reach her full potential, amongst others.

Although I introduced her to the business, I have not done this on my own. My sister-in-law has spent a lot of time with her, talking to her about what she wants to achieve and helping her to make the right decision for her. That’s another aspect of this business which I like. Although I am running my own business, I’m not running it on my own. There is a huge amount of support and team spirit which is unusual in many of the businesses I have worked in over the years.

People join for different reasons which might be for extra income, or the desire to help other people, for example. But, the fact is that the people who do well have their ‘reason why’ instilled in all of their activities. If they are not clear why they are putting in the effort, they will find it more challenging to succeed.

Recently, I wrote a page about why people join this business which, I hope, puts the beauty of this business into perspective of the everyday realities of our daily working lives.

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Turn your business experience on its head

wbhawkins — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:36:47 +0000

Unthink your experience and look at things differently

“Why doesn’t your company just do a massive deal with Wal-Mart, Tesco or Carrefour and sell tons of its products through them? It would be a lot easier and they would make loads of money.”

That’s the question and statement that I hear often when I talk to people about the business I am now in. People just cannot believe that Forever Living does not do this and that it decided that it wanted to give people an opportunity build themselves a rewarding career and to do all the things that they dream about doing through hard work, perseverance and helping other people.

People just don’t believe that this is possible. They don’t believe that a company owned by a billionaire could possibly care enough about the people in its business to help them achieve all that they ever wanted to achieve.

Corporate life conditions you to think that there is only one way and that way offers ‘thin value’ to its employees. The ‘thin value’ is diminishing benefits such as your pension contributions, or an expectation of long hours for no-extra pay, or having to deal with internal politics which stop the business from helping its customers. The economies of the western world have been blown apart and are now heavily subsidised by their governments by billions of pounds because the financial system was allowed to run away with itself in the belief that it was creating value for society overall when, in retrospect, we see clearly that it was not. The system was geared up on greed and self-importance.

So, when this business asks ‘why do you want to do this?‘ to people who are interested in it, one of the answers people regularly give is ‘Because I want to help people‘. Often, though, our society mixes this desire of people with patronage or charity. But this is not the case.

This business is built upon people helping other people. That might be helping them to be all they can be in life. Or helping them with their healthy and well being. It might be helping them to set up their own business. It might be helping them to get rid of their debts.

This way of thinking works. I have been going to a business networking group for several months now. There are several regular members and some people who come as guests. All of them are from different businesses. We do some business amongst ourselves but the group is too small to rely on the individual members to get much business from them. As we have got to know each other, we have all started helping each other out with our expertise. I help someone with knowledge about internet marketing. Someone else helps me with their financial knowledge. Another person helps the group with printing ideas.

By giving our time and helping each other out, we have now started to recommend other people in the group to our own contacts. These referrals are becoming increasingly regular and lucrative. People in the group realise that it takes time to get to know someone but when you do know them you know you can rely on them. This is ‘thick value’ and it is not something which conventional business can handle easily. Everything has to be measured. Nothing is given away.

But some things cannot be measured. How do you measure trust, for example?

Quite often people are surprised when I help them out over the phone or through an email with some ideas. They are not used to it. And that’s what people find unsettling about the Forever Living business. It’s not a pushy business. It’s a helping business. It’s a business which says ‘Just try this. If you don’t like it, bring back the product, even if it’s the empty bottle, within sixty days and we’ll give you your money back. No questions asked‘. It’s business where the leaders and owners are very humble ad approachable. There are no big egos.

To finish off, I really enjoy reading Umair Haque’s blog articles. He talks about ‘thin value’ and ‘thick value’ a lot and this article is typical of his writing: ‘Is Your Business Useless?‘ is a great article which talks about the businesses which are “socially useless” and which have “created a jobless “recovery” and mass unemployment amongst the young“.

Read it and think about what it says. You might turn your conventional thinking on its head.

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My First Recruit

wbhawkins — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:43:06 +0000

It's about who you know, like and trust

It has been about two weeks since I started working on my new business in earnest and I have learnt a lot already. It’s not easy but when it works (and it does work), it is the most satisfying feeling to experience success. My first success has come in the form of my first team member.

My team member is running his own business already and wants to run his Forever Living business in parallel to his vending enterprise. We worked together in a former life and we got on well. He had looked at the business five years ago but had not known anyone in the business to understand what it was really like.

He got in touch with me after I emailed him asking if he knew anyone who was looking for an opportunity to start their own business or to earn some extra income. He called me to catch up and my up-line manager, Cora, and I took him through the details of the business.

This business is really built upon people who know you, like you and trust you. I’m looking forward to working with my new team member again and helping him to reach his goals. This business will enable him to work around his existing commitments while he develops his retail sales and his own team.

I have now planned to run my first ‘product launch’ next week in conjunction with a new, local spa who have offered me their ‘relaxation room’ (which is fabulous) to show people our range of health, nutrition and well being products and presents.

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How network marketing works

wbhawkins — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:23:36 +0000

Network marketing is about knowing, liking and trusting people

Networking is part of my being. It is part of most people’s way of life but they often fail to realise this because they just do it everyday. When you work with someone for a number of years, you get to know them. When you go to school with someone, you spend six to eight hours, at least, with them every day and you soon get to know them and they get to know you too. Over a period of time, you understand their habits, their passions and dislikes, their taste in music, fashion, food and friends. It’s natural.

Every week, I attend a business networking breakfast at a hotel where a group of us get together and talk about our businesses. One of the group gets up each week and gives presentation about their business and how they can help people. In addition, one person gives a quick ‘learning point’ about something they believe will be applicable to everyone around the table in their businesses. There is time to chat over our breakfast with whomever you are sitting next to and to hear their news. The group is diverse. There are solicitors, health and safety experts, accountants, web specialists, printers, financial experts, HR specialists and sales training experts.

I have been going to this for over six months and it has been interesting to see how many people in the group stick with the networking group and how many drop out. Most have stayed the course but some have dropped out. Those that have dropped out of the group left because they were not getting any business from it, as far as they could see. But, the funny thing is that after a few months of slow business, the group has started to increase the amount of business beig carried out.

The reason is clear. It is down to the simple fact that we are starting to get to know, like and trust each other. Those that have persisted with the early mornings have started to gain from it. The level of humour and noise has increased as people have begun to understand each other. People have done business amongst themselves and they have seen how professional they have been with them and so they now feel comfortable to refer them to their own contacts.

Some people that come to the group expecting instant business have totally missed how networking works. They think that they need to sell to everyone around the table. But the opportunity for business is not immediately at the table. The opportunity is with the contacts of the people at the table. The hard earned contacts of the people at the table will not be easily handed over without that person knowing that you are a trustworthy person.

When you are known, liked and trusted then you will find that your persistence with networking will bring you business which is profitable, sustainable and strong. And that is why people who have good reputations and who have good contacts and networks do well in companies like Forever Living. They succeed because they contribute to their network by helping people first and foremost. They don’t push their products or services onto people. They listen to people and understand people’s circumstances and recommend people who can help them if they cannot. Network marketers are in it for the long term and not just for a quick buck.

So, when someone approaches you with their network marketing business, it is probably someone you know well and you probably like and trust them. So don’t dismiss them as just someone trying to sell you something. They are doing something which is far deeper than that. They are paying you a great compliment because they know, like and trust you and would never approach you with something which they did not believe was anything but the best.

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