How to Find Network Marketing Customers?

On this training page we will briefly review how to find network marketing customers and then go into more details of the different methodologies you should consider.

The main difference between a network marketing business and your traditional business model is that unlike your standard shoe shop in a supermarket where there is always traffic walking past the shop window to see what you have for sale, in network marketing people do not know what you have for sale unless you show or conversationally promote/recommend them. A very simple fact in business is that no-one is going to buy a product or join a business if they do not know it exists. Where in traditional business models customers generally come to you because they have seen what you have for sale or been influenced by an advert or promotion, in a network marketing business, until you have a solid customer base, you need to be proactive in finding your network marketing customers by taking your product and positioning yourself in the marketplace.

Before we dive into the different methods of how to find network marketing customers by promoting your products you first need to understand some basic marketing principles. These are discussed in more detail in our Network Marketing Prospecting Distributors chapter, however for now you simply need to understand the basics. Customers don’t just buy products or services; they buy benefits, or bundles of benefits. This was briefly discussed on the last page where we defined a product as a profitable item that offers a solution to a consumer’s problem (need/want /desire).

Regardless of whether you are trying to promote your product or your business solution, your goal is to identify your prospects ‘problem’ and then tailor your solution to be specific to their requirements. Additionally you should always put the customer’s needs first, that is, think of how you can help them instead of how much they can help you (ie profiting from the sale).

“In the factory we make cosmetics, in the store we sell hope.” - Charles Revson (Revlon Cosmetics)

Let’s look at an example.

Let’s assume that you are trying to find network marketing customers for your skin care range and that you have set up a product stand at an expo. Someone (prospect) approaches your product stand, how should you respond?

Instead of blatantly trying to promote the first product you can get your hands on, the best approach would be to politely greet your prospect and then try to identify your prospects need/want/desire (problem), such that you can potentially solve it. For example you might consider asking the following question after your greeting:

“Are you looking for anything in particular?”

This is a simple leading question that can help to qualify your prospect and or identify their need/want/desire early in the conversation. After asking this question your prospect will respond by either revealing their problem (need/want/desire) or with something like “just looking” in which case both are positive responses. You now in some cases have already indentified a need/want/desire and for those who have responded “just looking” you have now set yourself up to ask a follow up question:

“Do you have any particular skin care concerns, in which I might be able to offer some advice?”

This is great prospect qualifying question as they are required to think about their need/want/desire and if they don’t offer it, then there is a fair chance that they were never interested in your products in which case you can simply respond by saying:

“Please let me know if you need help or more information on anything.”

This now allows you to concentrate your efforts towards prospecting others and also invites them to chase you if they change their mind.

As discussed in our business prospecting chapter the person asking the questions is always the person in control of a conversation and therefore learning to ask the right questions can go a long way to helping you establish network marketing customers.

Physical Evidence Works Best

An additional word of advice regarding your product prospecting technique is that while facts tell, stories sell. When approaching your prospects to promote your products or services, if you refer to the facts or features you will generally be perceived as a sales-person (ok in some situations). On the other hand if you can provide an example (physical evidence eg testimonial) as to how your products have helped someone to overcome a given situation (ie products provide benefit in solving a problem) your prospects will be more open to hear what you have to offer.

Facts sell, stories sell!

Again this was briefly discussed in our network marketing product training page where physical evidence was highlighted to be one of the modern P’s of the marketing mix. Whilst your product or service might look to solve your prospects problems, if you can demonstrate (through a story or demonstration) how your product have helped to benefit others, your prospects will find your product more appealing.

How to Promote Your Products and Find Network Marketing Customers

1. Casual Prospecting
2. Network Marketing Product Display
3. Network Marketing Product Parties
4. Network Marketing Advertising
5. Network marketing Product Presentations (coming soon)

In the coming pages we will discuss each of these methods and highlight some simple things you can do, to keep yourself one step ahead of your competition.

Start by learning the most important strategy - casual prospecting to find network marketing customers.