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The Personal Touch in Network
Marketing
As a network marketer, you are in the
business of relationships—dealing with people on a more intimate level than
would people in advertising or those in a traditional sales channel. This is
because you are cooperating with people to help sell your products. Each person
you deal with, in turn, connects to another person, who connects to another
person, and so on. Your downline and the legs that comprise it make up a chain
link of humanity, stretching as far as their circle of influence will allow.
Some folks have bemoaned the technological
coming of age of Network Marketing. We now have Internet, faxes, email, voice
mail, satellite, laptop computers, and a whole host of other technologies that
have automated our business operations, making our work easier. These folks
claim that Network Marketing has become coldly mechanical in the process. But
nothing could be further from the truth.
All that technology has done is automate the
normally rote and routine parts of what we do—things that in themselves do not
necessarily require a personal touch. The transmission of information, or
updates about a company’s product line, can be efficiently communicated over the
Internet or live, via satellite broadcast to all Network Marketing affiliates in
a particular company. Information quickly transmitted in this matter does not
make us colder, just more efficient. It gives us the ability to respond quickly
to market conditions and profit as soon as new opportunities present themselves.
No, this technology does not make you as a
network marketer colder or more impersonal. Rather, it should free you up to
devote your time and energies to developing that personal touch. That is, you
must build relationships with people in your downline. They are not mere numbers
in your matrix. They are living, breathing human beings. Many of them have the
same hopes and aspirations that you had when you were starting out. They face
some of the same fears of rejection from family members and friends whom they
approach about the business opportunity.
You can take some time away with members in
your downline and just share your own personal story, exposing your own
vulnerabilities and letting them see that side of you. That is part of
leadership: commanding respect from people who see you not just as their upline,
but as a role model, someone with whom they can relate.
Of course, there are some limits to how far
you can go in developing that personal touch. As you start out with a few people
in your downline, you might be able to “do lunch” now and then or engage in some
recreational activity together. As your downline expands (we would hope
exponentially), such excursions might be prohibitive in terms of costs. But
perhaps you could drop a card now and then to each person and ask how they’re
doing—or send them something thoughtful in the mail. In short, there are many
ways to keep in touch without breaking your budget. No matter how much success
you gain, keep that personal touch going.
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