Thinking about getting into network marketing and want to set yourself up for success?

Before going all in, save yourself heartache by learning from the mistakes (and successes) of people who have walked this path for you. 

Here we’ve put together a list of 6 common mistakes network marketers make when starting out in the industry, so you can avoid making these yourself. 

One: Choosing the wrong opportunity or product 

Your success or failure as a network marketer starts with the products you choose to market and the business you chose to work with. 

Networking marketing is $180 billion dollar industry, with over 10,000 opportunities for you to leverage, however no different to starting a conventional business the onus is on you to do your due diligence on business opportunities. 

Don’t get sucked in by promises on a company’s website - look up reviews online, speak to people who have genuinely made money from that opportunity and most importantly read the fine print before getting involved. 

Two: Going in with false expectations

Too many people go into networking marketing opportunities under the illusion that they are ‘get rich quick schemes’. They buy into the hype that they'll be making six figures within 30 days of signing up, and then find themselves let down when they’re not. 

While network marketing is a quicker path to building wealth than many traditional careers  or even starting a business from scratch, you need to appreciate that success in any industry takes time. 

You need to learn your product, learn new skills and be willing to put in the hours to make your network marketing career work if you want to reach a heightened level of success. 

Three: Only targeting your friends and family

It’s tempting when you’re starting out as a network marketer to purely target you friends, as this is an ‘easy option’. 

In some cases selling to friends does work, particularly if your friends happen to be within your target market. But you’ll quickly lose traction, not to mention annoy people, if you rely solely on your immediate network to generate sales. 

If you truly want to succeed as a network marketer and avoid becoming known as “that annoying sales guy/girl” you need to expand beyond friends and family to find new pockets of people to sell your product to. 

Doing so this year has taken me all across the close - South Africa, India, Zambia and Thailand are just a few of the countries I’ve visited.

Four: Lack of follow up 

On the other end of the spectrum we have new network marketers who are so concerned about coming across as ‘spammy’ that they forget to actually follow up their prospects and leads. 

How many times have you given up, let lead go cold and moved on to the next because they didn’t buy from the straight away? 

Research shows that it takes most people 7 touch-points with a new business before they commit to buying, so great network marketers realise that the fortune is almost always in the follow up. 

You can do this without coming across as ‘spammy’ by delivering value first in the form of content, emailing your database of leads regularly and offering existing customers opportunities to buy new products. 

Ultimately people buy from the person or business who is front of mind - so if you want to outshine your competition, make sure that’s you. 

Five: Not believing in their product

If you don’t believe in the product your selling then why should the people you’re selling it too?When it comes to generating sales authenticity is key, if you’re only there to make a quick buck, and don’t actually care about the impact you’re having on the people you’re selling to, you’ll quickly come unstuck in this game. 

There are 10,000s of opportunities to choose from when it comes to network marketing, so do your due diligence and pick a product that you actually resonate with - something you would actually use yourself. It makes selling a whole lot easier. 

Six: Not willing to put in the work 

The single biggest reason that many new network marketers fail is simply due to a lack of work ethic. 

They get excited about the product and the opportunity to build wealth while creating a lifestyle by design, and fail to realise that there are a whole lot of of steps between starting out in this game and making 6 or 7 figures. 

While network marketing does offer you the freedom to live and work as you chose, this doesn’t mean you won’t have to make sacrifices and put in the work - especially in the early days.