If you’re growing a network marketing company, it’s a good idea to leave some room for making mistakes. Following are strategies that can help shorten that learning curve.
I am loyal to a fault.
And I’m not sure why that is.
Allow me to explain.
Just over 10 years ago, just before my second daughter was born, we decided we needed to trade in our car for something more reliable.
As J doesn’t like the car shopping process, it fell to me to wade through the options. So, off I went one Saturday to shop. Boy, did they see me coming – er, waddling.
No sooner had I stepped onto the lot had they taken my car around back (and kept the keys), added my name to the big white board as one of the day’s sales, and had me driving “my new car” around the block.
Of course, I felt pressured.
When I called J to update him on what was going on, he said simply, “Come home.”
Easier said than done. Remember, I didn’t have my keys, and I had no idea where my car was.
“Tell the salesperson you want your keys, and come home,” he said again, his voice barely above a whisper.
After I had begged for my keys and promised I’d be back, the saleswoman thanked me for being her first customer back at work, especially as she had just recovered from a hysterectomy.
Yup.
J blew a fuse when I told him this.
Was it tacky for the saleswoman to apply that kind of pressure? I think so. Did I think she was playing the sympathy card? In retrospect, yes. Should I have simply gone to another dealership instead? Probably.
But did any of that matter? No.
I had made a promise. And I wasn’t going to go back on my word.
Keep in mind, she didn’t really work for my business. So I can’t say for sure why I felt loyal to her.
Maybe it was a female/uterus thing.
I don’t know.
I cringe as I write this, but I ended up justifying buying that stupid car, and hating every day I had it.
I’d like to say that I learned my lesson, but some days, I’m not so sure.
But this weekend, for whatever reason, my loyalty streak reared its head again, and I ended up buying something against my better judgment from a network marketing professional J and I had just 24 hours earlier expressed our distrust of.
When I told my husband I had bought something from this particular network marketing professional, he looked at me like I was crazy.
The thing was, they were the first to offer the service (if I had shopped around, I could have easily purchased it elsewhere for the same price). And even though I debated buying from them (we both felt like their business practices are less than honest), in the end, I did it anyway.
Do you want to know why?
Because they had introduced me to the service, and I felt like I “owed” it to them.
In California, there is no “cooling off” period when you purchase a car. That’s a relatively new law, and I think that most states still let you change your mind within a short period of time. After all, cars are one of the most expensive things you’ll buy in your lifetime, and sometimes our emotions get the best of us when we should really be making clear-headed decisions.
But in network marketing, there is no product of service, no opportunity, no discount so incredible that you can’t impose a cooling off period if something doesn’t seem right.
For no other reason that, if there’s money to be made on the transaction, there will always be another opportunity.
So do yourself a favor and promise yourself that if you’re ever in doubt about purchasing something related to your network marketing business that you’ll call your own cooling off period.
My recent mistake didn’t cost us a lot of money, but it could have. Learn from my mistake, and make sure you can walk away until you’re ready to make a sound decision. It’ll be totally worth it in the end.
If you are really dedicated to succeeding in Network Marketing, before you begin, you’re going to want to learn all the marketing secrets you can. For expert insights on this and other useful resources from Pamela and Jerry Schott, visit their blog or MLM Lead System Pro page.. This article, Network Marketing: What a Hysterectomy Taught Me about this Business is available for free reprint.


