Training your downline to duplicate online

by Joy Healey

The theory behind network marketing (MLM) is simple. You recruit a small number of people and train them to do the same. One very wise upline of mine said "Simple but not easy". And those four words explain why so few succeed in networking, especially online.

Few of us want to talk to family and friends, so Internet Marketing is a very attractive alternative proposition because you can do it without leaving your home and in unsocial hours to fit round friends, family and an existing job. Internet Marketing can be used to promote any business, and the system I now use works with both my networking and conventional businesses.

Concentrating for this article on Internet Marketing for MLM, the adverts say "anyone can do it" but you'll quickly find that if you're don't have certain basic skills and knowledge you'll struggle. I speak as one who really knows. For over twenty years I ran a conventional business in computer programming, so I came to Internet Marketing thinking that with my background it would be "a breeze". How wrong can you get?

At first it didn't even dawn on me that I had a problem. I just thought "things are a bit slow to start with" or "this program is no good" - but then I looked about me in one particular program where others were making lots of money while I was only making a little. We had the same business and compensation plan - what they had, and I lacked, were Internet Marketing skills.

I looked right the way up-line for help, but we all had the same lack of knowledge. Finally I recruited a personal contact who did have these skills and it was by watching his success that I realised that it wasn't the program that was at fault, but my inadequate knowledge. Yes, he gave me a few pointers, but it's not in the interest of the downline to pass their help and skills upline!

Most compensation plans do not allow you to hit the big-time one the back of "one lucky find". To hit the higher positions you usually need to get at least two legs doing well. And if you build a business on the success of just one leg, you're always looking over your shoulder wondering what happens if he takes his team elsewhere.

In my opinion the company I was trying to promote, and that I have been with since 2002, only expected their business to be promoted by word of mouth, in the traditional networking manner, and were a little startled by the success and skills of those who joined and "flew" on the Internet. So, at the time, they could do little to help. To their credit they have since then added some basic Internet training, but even with that there are still three distinct groups of affiliate:

"Talkers" - Those with the gift of talking to people and selling the business face-to-face "IMers" - Those with Internet Marketing skills whose teams just fill, as I have seen first hand from a few very skilled people in my team "Hopefuls" - Those who lack both the above, but just want to make some extra cash. Without the skills of the other two groups I have found that these people usually quit pretty soon, unless they joined purely for the benefits of the product, rather than the income. In my experience, "Talkers" just ARE. They're the sort of confident people who could sell ice-cream to an Eskimo. I am not, by nature, a "Talker" and use my company's local meetings and online training sessions instead. However everyone finds it easier to speak confidently about their business after having success, so my preference is to concentrate on helping people reduce the steep learning curve of becoming "IMers". "IMers" may bring their skills from a previous career or business; some have enough cash to pay for someone else's expertise; others have spent considerable time and effort learning these skills, which means gaining a knowledge of (or circumventing the need for) domain registration, web hosting, HTML, FTPs, splash pages, lead capture pages, frame-breakers, ad-tracking and auto-responders - to name just a few of the obstacles you need to climb over. While the first two groups have an advantage on the face of it, even the "Talkers" and "IMers" need help, because if they recruit "Hopefuls" who cannot duplicate the skill of their sponsor, without a good training resource, the new recruit soon quits and needs replacing. As a sponsor it is my responsibility to help those who join my team. Originally when new "Hopefuls" looked to me for help with marketing online I hadn't got a clue, so how could I help? What I needed (and found) was a system to move "Hopefuls" into one of the successful groups, with the maximum speed and the minimum expenditure of time and money. When this can be achieved, so can the often quoted, but seldom achieved, "recruit three people and they do the same".