Leadership Lesson

While desired products and a great Company are important aspects to your business, ultimately people will join your business to work with YOU!

“Attraction marketing” is an extremely popular strategy for getting quality leads in the on-line network marketing community at the moment. And rightly so!

With attraction marketing, you promote yourself, your skills and knowledge and most importantly your leadership. It is all about giving and increasing your value to others through continual education and experience. The main idea is that people will be naturally drawn to you, and want to join you and work with you, if you help them to solve their problems.

When you market yourself in this manner, and concentrate on the needs of others, you will find you do not need to actively advertise for leads (people to talk to about your business opportunity). You certainly will not have to buy leads.

Do not buy unqualified leads! It is a waste of your money. These leads are not targeted to your particular niche and they will know nothing about YOU and what you can offer THEM.

So… You need to market yourself as a LEADER. How do you do this if you are just starting out? Good question!

•  Brand yourself

Get your name and face out there! Whether marketing on-line or in the real world, it is important people know who you are and what you stand for. Make sure your name and a photograph (one photo only is better for consistency) are displayed on everything that is associated with your business – websites, email signatures, business cards, flyers, etc. A handwritten signature (real or digital) is also a nice touch and emphasises that you a just a regular person too!

Pay attention to your grooming! – No need to be in a beauty pageant but do smarten up whenever you leave the house! Clean, neat clothing and have your hair done.

You want to look successful even if you don’t feel successful yet.

•  Give value though your knowledge and experience

What are you skills? What are you knowledgeable in? What have you done in the past? Brainstorm everything you are good at and ask yourself if others could benefit from these skills, etc too. For example, are you great at writing newsletters or articles? Do you have a knack for starting conversations with strangers? Do you know everything there is to know about growing vegetables? It may be anything but it does help if it related to your products, your business, your industry or network marketing in general.

If you are adamant that you do not have anything of value to share, why not share your educational journey? Interview successful business leaders. Review business books. Create a platform for others to share their knowledge. There are plenty of ideas – get creative!

Be generous with what you have to offer and, most importantly, give for free.

Use meetings, training sessions, a blog website, articles or newsletters to get you knowledge out there.

•  Market to a niche

It is far easier to become a leader in a specified area (a niche market) than trying to excel in all areas of the business or industry.

When starting my on-line marketing strategy for example, I planned to target all small and home businesses with a desire to create wealth according to social and environmental values. I quickly realised that if I further reduced my target market to only include network marketing entrepreneurs with this same desire I could be more specific with my information and therefore (hopefully) more helpful and valuable to them.

And the more VALUABLE you become to people, the more they will see you as a LEADER.

If you target the community in general rather than focusing on a niche you are being inefficient, and this may cost you financially. Your message may get lost in the crowd.

I prefer on-line marketing as it is very cost effective (or free!) and you can quite easily target your niche while opening up your products and opportunity nationally or globally.

Remember, you are giving freely your skills, knowledge and leadership – you are NOT marketing your business opportunity at this point.

• Lead by Example

As with parenting, people will not take notice of what you are teaching or sharing if you are not implementing the lessons yourself. For example, if you are sharing the best kept secrets to using google adwords, you better make sure that you advertise this way and that you experience great success with it – or can at least share testimonials from people who are using the technique with success.

Your followers who want to learn new skills and knowledge from you need to be inspired that they are taking the right course towards achieving success. This will not occur if you are all talk and no action!

Be the very best you can be and others around you will want to emulate your success.

Being a leader does not mean you need to hold your team member’s hand so that they are forced to take action in their lives and business. It simply means that you inspire them to motivate themselves to take action and achieve their own goals and dreams.

• Continue your education and training

Finally, a LEADER is always learning new skills and gaining more knowledge. Further education and training is vital. A leader should always be ahead of the game – one of the first to hear and learn new concepts or ideas.

Ask your followers what they most need help with and take courses on these subjects. You should also increase your knowledge in personal development concepts and marketing strategies – vital for networkers.

Take courses, read books, participate in seminars/webinars and enlist the help of coaches. The knowledge you gain will increase your value to your followers.

Increasing your value quickly will elevate you to position of leader more quickly.

Yes, you will always receive training from your chosen MLM Company – But it pays to find additional support and specialised training from outside sources.

Scan the web for network marketing leaders who have achieved success using your chosen marketing strategy – whether that is home presentations, print media or having an on-line presence. Learn from your chosen leader by reading their blogs, enrolling in their training webinars and conference calls, or (for the most daring of you out there) calling and speaking to them directly!

Leaders and Mentors love to share their knowledge in order to see others succeed! Take in their tips to building business and – here’s the kicker! – implement them into your own business. The idea is not to copy your mentor, but emulate them.

Never lose sight of who you are and what you have to offer the community – but do use the knowledge and skills of proven leaders to help push you in the right direction. Remember that you eventually want to become a proven leader yourself, so playing to your strengths is highly recommended.

There are thousands upon thousands of training sources on-line. How do you know which ones to participate in? EASY – by following the recommendations of your particular mentors. If you trust and follow their business advice then put trust in any recommendations they pass onto you as well.

Want to work with a leader who will help you develop your leadership skills? Please contact me – I would love to have you on my team!