Last time we talked about how network marketing is just like traditional businesses in many ways. The difference is that we are creating passive income whereas many self-employed type businesses do not end up creating passive income. In this edition of “Thinking Like a “Real” Business, we will take a look at the first step of any business:
Market Research
Let’s be honest though, most of us MLMers don’t even think in terms of market research. We are taught to just “get 3 that get 3 that get 3” or “find some people who find some more people and teach them to do the same.” This can work, and should definitely be a part of your business.
However, if you want your business to grow LARGE and FAST, you’ll need to increase the amount of people that you get in front of and the best way to do this is to do what every other business does: Market.
Marketing allows us to get in front of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of people quickly… that’s why there are ads everywhere – online, tv, radio, news papers, magazines, etc. But before you can get started with marketing, we have to do some research.
I won’t lie and tell you this is the most exciting part of doing a business. It’s not. Seeing hundreds or thousands of dollars deposited into your account is fun. Market research… not so much. But without market research, you will very likely NOT see any dollars added to your bank account.
In a nutshell, market research is about the following things:
- Identifying what problems your company’s products, services, or opportunity solves
- Identify groups of people that have these problems
- Identify how to best get in front of these people
If you know what you’re selling and how to get what you’re selling in front of people who want it, your work is pretty much done. You’ll at least be further than 90% of network marketers who have never even considered these questions.
In the next episode, we’ll dive a bit further into these three questions and look at some examples. Before then, think through these areas by asking yourself the following questions:
- What market are you in? (what industry)
- What problems do your products, services, and opportunity help people solve? (does it help people lose weight? save money? protect themselves financially or legally? etc.)
- What groups of people need these problems solve?
- What are some possible ways for you to get in front of these people?
Stay tuned for the next episode!
