Network Marketing Product Training

What Makes your Network Marketing Product Marketable?

On this network marketing product training page we will teach you what you need to know about your products to make them marketable. One of the most commonly used strategies by marketing experts in any sales or marketing business to help identify their product’s marketable is the ‘marketing mix’. Incidentally this technique has been around since the early 1960’s and has been published in every marketing text book ever since proving its creditability.

The marketing mix uses 4 P’s to help you understand the marketability of your product.

Product – What are you selling?
Price – What does it cost?
Placement – What locations can your product be purchased?
Promotion – How will your consumers find out about your product?

Most good network marketing companies have already done their homework and designed a generic marketing mix strategy for their distributors to use. However understanding this basic process can help you to better position yourself into the market place, expand your customer base and increase your product sales. For this reason this network marketing product training page will further explore this concept and discuss its relevance.

Network Marketing Product Training

Product
Your product is a profitable item (or service) that offers a solution to a consumer’s need/want/desire. A very valuable lesson in network marketing product training is that your goal should not be to sell a want/need/desire, but instead offer a solution for a problem (want/need/desire) that already exists. In business we don’t create a problem; we simply have to develop a strategy to respond to what’s already there.

Putting this into practice the following network marketing product training activity can help networkers to indentify a target market and how to approach them.

Network Marketing Product Training Activity Identify the need/want/desire (problem) that your products help to satisfy? Using this information identify the people that would benefit from using your products (solve their problem). This information can help you to create a targeted marketing campaign which will be discussed later in the chapter.

Price (and the value proposition)
The price generally refers to the monetary cost associated with your product (or service), however we would like to extend this definition to include the value gained by the customer for using your company’s product (e.g. branding, quality, product experience, practicality etc). When developing a marketing strategy for your product it is a good idea to consider the cost/value ratio of your product. For example at your local supermarket you will find many different varieties of bread. While some people are happy to buy the cheap "no brand" product others are willing to spend more for a brand they trust or a product that they believe delivers better value (eg flavour, health benefits, shelf life etc).

To look at it another customers don’t just buy products or services, they by benefits, or bundles of benefits. Understanding the cost/value ratio of your product can help you to tailor your marketing campaign to specific consumers that would actively be looking for such benefits.

Network Marketing Product Training Activity Write down all the things that contribute to the cost/value ratio of your product line. You should try to be unbiased and list both the positives and negatives. You might like others to also contribute to your list so that you can get another perspective. Then, write down a list of both sales and non-sales methods that you could use to provide value to new and existing customers.

One of the advantages of network marketing is that it allows you to develop a strong relationship with your customers, adding to the value of their product experience. This concept will be discussed in more detail later when we look at customer retention.

Placement
The placement refers to the location in which your product can be purchased. In general, the more conveniently your product is placed for your target market to access, the more likely you are to make a sale.

Placement should also be considered in the overall cost/value ratio of your product as discussed above. For example your local corner shop is generally more expensive then the big brand supermarkets, but if you’re only going to buy milk, the placement and the cost/value ratio tends to lean in favour of your local corner shop when you take in consideration travel time, parking, queue waiting times, customer service, convenience etc.

One way that network marketing companies have tried to make their products more conveniently located in the marketplace is through direct selling, which allows the consumer to establish a direct relationship with the manufacturer. Advances in communication and technology continue to make this process even more convenient where consumers are now able to place and change orders over the internet.

Whilst for the younger, internet savvy generation this offers good product placement and convenience, it is also important to understand that not everybody has confidence in their ability to use the internet and therefore being able to use the phone (or meet with someone face to face) may offer some consumers a more desirable option.

Network Marketing Product Training Activity Write down how your products are conveniently located in the marketplace? Think of ways you could make them more conveniently located in the market place.

Promotion
To properly understand promotion it is best if we initially think big picture and then work towards being more specific for your network marketing business. Promotion has 4 distinct elements – advertising (paid advertising for example TV, radio, posters etc), public relations (which is basically non-paid advertising eg editorials, winning awards, presentations, testimonials etc.), word of mouth (relationship referrals - traditional networking approach) and point of sale (were the transaction occurs). Whilst most network marketing companies rely on the word of mouth approach, do not feel that you should be limited to this. There is no single magic bullet in regards to promotion and therefore a combination of strategies is most likely to achieve the greatest results.

How to develop a marketing campaign to promote your products will be discussed later in this chapter. However a sneak peek here will help to summarise some of the basics. When you put the 4 p’s together the ideal message to promote your products to your target market is:

Promotional Message: We have a great product in response to your problem (need/want/desire) at a wonderful price (cost/value ratio), which is conveniently placed (easily accessible).

Now obviously you don’t have to say it like this, but this is essentially what you want your target audience to be thinking in response to any product marketing campaign. If you can do this, making a product sale should be easy.

Whilst there are 4 p’s that make up the traditional marketing mix, there are a few additional P’s that we believe should also be considered when developing the ideal marketing strategy and these include:

The competent person (essentially this refers to you and your downline members) who interacts with the potential customer and is able to tailor their product solution towards the customer’s problem (need/want /desire).

The physical evidence that you product (or service) provides good value and will satisfy their need/want/desire. Good examples include a product demonstrations (see it in action), product testimonials (see results and customer satisfaction), being able to sample the product etc.

The pleasure that your customer receives as a result of purchasing your product (ie customer satisfaction). This does not only include the satisfaction of the product itself but also the friendly service and the future customer care that they receive to keep them loyal.

Now that you understand what it takes to make a marketable product, you can use this knowledge to better position yourself in the marketplace.

The next step in this Network Marketing Product Training chapter is to discuss how to find Network Marketing Customers?