What is the best skill you can develop to succeed in network marketing? There are literally tons of skills you have to eventually master, such as:
- How to invite
- How to show the plan
- How to follow up
- How to recruit
- How to train your team
- How to duplicate
- How to create systems
I could go on and on here. Most top earners spend YEARS and TENS of thousands of dollars investing in their business education. They realize that their skills are what will ultimately help them become successful (take a note of that please).
Of all the skills you can develop to succeed in network marketing, there is one skill that really stands out to me. That skill is marketing/lead generation.
Without a doubt, the best skill to master is lead generation and direct response marketing so you can focus on generating leads. I’ve found that most distributors struggle because they don’t have enough people to talk to. And they don’t have enough people to talk to because they don’t have leads. And they don’t have leads because they don’t know how to generate leads.
I took an almost four year break from this great industry to study marketing. Yes, I was still involved with companies during that time, but building a MLM Business was not my focus. Learning marketing, lead generation and direct response marketing was my primary focus during those four years.
I became a student of marketing. I read close to 100 books about marketing. I hired marketing coaches. I watched countless YouTube videos about marketing. I went to seminars and courses about marketing. Simply put, I tried to learn EVERYTHING I could about marketing.
Let me tell you something. It PAID OFF.
Now I can generate more leads than I know what to do with. I always have people to talk to. Best of all, these people contact me first. I don’t have to sell anything to anyone. They buy. I just answer their questions and sign them up.
I am NOT saying any of this brag. I am just trying to prove that once you learn marketing, you can succeed in ANY business, online or offline, traditional or home-based.
Marketing is the one skill that will give you the biggest return on your time and money investment.
My education began with the book Magnetic Sponsoring. That book changed my life. And then I became a student of guys like Dan Kennedy, Frank Kern, Mike Dillard, Jeff Paul, Joe Polish, and many others. All of this education really paid off.
Within a short time, I learned how to advertise effectively. I learned how to develop systems. I learned copyrighting. I learned how to follow-up. I learned how to get people to contact me. I learned the two-step selling process.
I could go on and on here, but I hope you are starting to see the point.
If you really want to make it to the top ranks, you must learn marketing. Most people do their marketing by talking to friends, family and strangers. That is a proven method, and it does work for some people.
It’s just not what I wanted to do to build a business.
I didn’t want to be the hunter. I wanted to be the hunted. I didn’t want to chase people. I wanted people to chase me.
Does that make sense?
The bottom line is that you must invest in your business education. Of all the subjects you can study, MARKETING, specifically direct response marketing will give you the best return on your time and money investment. If I was to recommend a few books or courses, this is what I would start with.
- Magnetic Sponsoring and other Mike Dillard products
- Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
- Anything by Seth Godin
- Anything by Dan Kennedy
From there you can evolve to other marketing experts.
In summary, marketing is the best skill you can develop to succeed in network marketing. Once you understand marketing and know how to generate leads on auto-pilot, you will be in control of your business. It’s what the experts do and it’s what you should do, too.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below to tell me what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
I am a beginner in network marketing and surfing through internet for information I came across this article. I appreciate the experiences that you have shared. I have already got a hold of Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad and I will look for the other resources too that you have talked about. I completely agree with you and strongly believe that if you get a grab of marketing skills, then you can get success in any business.
I love that you took a very proactive apporach to figuring out how to generate leads. People often wait for information to just fall in their laps and that is very rarely successful. You do have to take an aggressive approach in order learn and develop a strategy. I am going to have to take a look at people Dan Kennedy and Frank Kern to see what I too can learn. Thanks for offering some information to give people like me a head start.