Network Marketing - What Are You Really Marketing?

By Dani Johnson

Having the privilege of training thousands of people from hundreds of companies who market a huge variety of products and services, you can imagine the great disparity of answers I get when I ask the question, "What are you really marketing?" Let's see if you have the right answer? If you do, you can avoid years of frustration and become one the top marketers in your industry, leaving others in the wake of your record breaking production.

In a typical live training or conference call we have business people who market nutritional products, legal services, travel, insurance benefits, telecommunications, jewelry, housewares, software, electricity, financial services, asset protection, video email, music, movies, skin care, cleaning products, pet food as well as doctors, lawyers educators and other professions. You can only imagine the myriad of answers we get when we ask such a diverse group "What are you really marketing?" and "what is the thing that you are focusing on while marketing that particular product or service?"

When it comes to marketing, nothing becomes dynamic until it becomes specific. This doesn't mean that you have to overload your prospective client with an outrageous amount of information about your product or service. That is the furthest thing from the truth! Amateurs think that they need to impress people with their knowledge so they go overboard with the details and the facts about their product or service.

For example, a person who markets travel starts listing all of the places they get to travel and all of the hotels and airlines they use along the way. BEEP, wrong answer! People are much more impressed with your enthusiasm than they are with your knowledge. If things are simple then people looking to market your product or service will feel like they can do it. If they feel like they have to learn all of the facts and details first they will feel overwhelmed and give you the excuse that they don't have the time.

Ok, it's time to ask the question again, "What are you really marketing?" If you are still convinced that it is your specific product or service then let's fix that right now. What you are marketing is a WAY for DISSATISFIED PEOPLE to find SATISFACTION. You are directing them down a path to find that satisfaction. It is about finding that key thing that motivates them that is most important to them and keeping that thing in front of them.

Let's go back to the travel example. The dissatisfaction may be that they don't get to travel enough because they can't afford it. You may have a travel package that provides discounts as well as a way that they can earn extra money marketing the package. Well, if your entire focus is on all of the details contained in your travel package and business opportunity, you have not adequately motivated them to take the next step. But if the focus is on their dissatisfaction and being able to overcome it through the affordable travel benefits and have it pay for itself through the business opportunity, it has now become specific. You now have them focused on the RESULTS!

What is specific is now attainable. What isn't specific becomes confusing and therefore unattainable. Most home business builders are talking about and overloading their prospects with things that really don't make a difference. So it boils down to possessing a skill on how to motivate people properly. That skill is showing them how to get the results from your product, service and business opportunity that will turn their dissatisfaction into satisfaction.

You have now differentiated yourself from all those network marketers who continue to bombard prospects with information hoping that something will grab a hold of them and make them move forward. Now as a professional, you ask the questions that determine what prospects are dissatisfied with and direct them to the specific results that your business provides that will lead to their satisfaction. It really is that simple!