Network Marketing - How Sharp Is Your Axe?
Copyright 2010 Donovan Baldwin
In his book, "Super Prospecting: Special Offers and
Quick-Start Systems", Tom "Big Al" Schreiter tells the story of an older
lumberjack who once observed a young lumberjack laboring to chop down a
tree. After watching the youngster work himself to nearly
exhaustion without accomplishing much, the old man said, "Looks to me
like it'd be easier if you sharpened the axe."
To which the younger man replied before returning to his attack on the
tree, "I don't have time to sharpen the axe, I have to get this tree
cut down."
Now, it probably seems obvious to most of us that having a sharp axe would
make the work go faster and easier. The young lumberjack
would be able to cut down more trees with less work just by taking a
few minutes to sharpen his axe. Prepare his tools.
Learn his trade, you might say!
You know, it's funny. Most of us have no problem seeing the
point of that story, but everyday, people sign up for network marketing
programs and then start hacking away with very blunt axes!
Most of these folks have no idea of what network marketing is, how to
go about it, or how to measure success.
I recently received an email from a gentleman interested in getting
into network marketing. He asked some very insightful
questions, but one demonstrated his misunderstanding of most genuine
network marketing programs.
He asked, if I remember correctly, how long it would take to make a
significant income from a certain network marketing program, and seemed
to indicate that he would expect a sucessful program to generate an
income of about $48,000 or more within a relatively short period of
time. Otherwise, he would consider it to be a scam.
Well, to tell the truth, I guess my two friends who I often hold up as examples
somehow missed that point. It took each of them about three
years in perfectly legitimate programs to begin making money anything
like what my correspondent expected. At that point, by the
way, their incomes began to grow exponentially until they were taking
home over $100,000.00 a month. We'll say nothing about
countless Avon ladies who are network marketers and whose income from
network marketing is less than $20,000.00 a year, who consider
themselves successfully affiliated with an honest company.
Or, I guess I should be concerned about my affiliation with a
nationally recognized company (you've probably seen their commercials
on prime time). The first year, I only made a few hundred
dollars. The second year a few thousand. I'm in my
fifth year with them, and I am now making the magical number...a six
figure income from that program alone. I presently have over
200 fully satisfied customers and tons of repeat business.
Not what I would call a scam! Would you?
I don't mean to be insulting to the gentleman who asked me the
question. His questions were certainly valid. I understand his
concerns and applaud his attempt to gain some insight into network
marketing. However, it appears his understanding of network
marketing is limited to a desire to find a program that will in some
way do the work for him...make income for him. Unfortunately,
network marketing is a business...albeit a special kind of
business...and it works best when worked certain ways. Many
successful network marketers have written many excellent books and
articles on the subject, and there are marketing and internet marketing
training programs available for those who wish to learn. Some
colleges are even offering courses and classes on network marketing and
internet marketing.
People who decide to try network marketing should be doing more than simply
listening to the person who recruits them and scanning the company
literature. If they were hired to do any job they had never
done before, no matter how menial, they would recognize the need to
familiarize themselves with the business and how it is
conducted. Especially if they intended to rise in the
business and succeed.
A few books the beginning network marketer might want to read are:
These tend to be a little old but can probably be found thru
Amazon.com, and they are excellent education for the beginning network
marketer.
The person who fails to educate himself or herself about network
marketing in general and their chosen business in particular, has
chosen to fail. Like the young lumberjack, they will flail at
the tree until their strength or motivation fails them, and then they
will wander into the forest...perhaps complaining loudly about trees,
axes, lumberjacks...anything but themselves. They will not
know why they failed, how they could have succeeded, or how to measure
success.
Their axes will be dull, indeed.
About The Author:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Donovan Baldwin is a Dallas area freelance writer and Internet
marketer. A University Of West Florida alumnus
(1973) with a BA in accounting, he has held several managerial
positions and run his own business. After retiring from the
U. S. Army in 1995, he became interested in Internet marketing and
developed various online businesses. He has been writing
poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently
publishes articles on his own websites and for use by other
webmasters. Get free advertising at
xtramoney4me.net/free_advertising/adlandpro.html.
NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this
article within your website or newsletter as long
as you leave the article fully intact and include
the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)
by Tom "Big
Al" Schreiter
by Mark and
Rene Yarnell
by Richard
Poe (and several
others)
by John
Milton Fogg
by Nancy
Michaels and Debbi J. Karpowicz