April 18th, 2008
Using The Web In Your Business - By Mark Rawlins
In past years, I have watched as the Internet has gone through different levels of acceptance in the MLM industry. The first level was skepticism and ridicule. The Internet was dismissed as a passing fad. The second level was blind acceptance and a rush to get onboard before the train left the station. Everybody wanted to have a personal Web page even if they didn't know how they could use it in their business. The third level, which we are at now, is to understand the importance of the Internet and make sure we are getting value for the money we invest.
I was talking to a friend of mine, a top distributor in a large network marketing company, who was frustrated because the Web was not helping his business. He said, "I know I need to use the Web in my MLM business, but I am just spending a lot of money and I don't see that it is doing any good." I ask him what sort of things he was using the Web for and what specific areas of his business he had hoped to improve. His answer was revealing: "I don't know what we are doing. I have a Web guy that does all of that for me." When I asked how much time he spent with his Web guy, he said he had to run his business; he didn't have time to spend with the Web guy.
My thought is, as Bob Dylan sang, "the times they are a changin'." We have to make time to keep up with the times.
I tell this story not because it is unique, but because it is all too common. Distributors buy Web pages not knowing what to do with them. These individuals think that they will automatically get customers from "cyberspace," but don't have any other ideas how to make it a part of their business. Companies are selling Web-enabled products to MLM distributors, but are not providing training or even a strategy on how these products become part of a distributor's business.
Distributors are asking critical questions regarding how this Web tool will help accomplish the core activities of network marketing--selling, recruiting, motivating, educating, training, and supporting the people in their organizations. They want to know how it fits with the other tools of their business. Distributors are starting to find out what corporations found out--your Web strategy has to be a part of your business strategy.
So, how do you go about doing that--making sure that the Web tools you buy are valuable to your business? In my experience there are four prerequisites that make all of the difference:
Investing time and energy: Someone in your organization or the company creates sales presentations, prospecting tools, and product promotion materials. It takes time and energy. These materials need to be on your Web sites and continually updated.
Training on how to use the Wweb tools: Make the Web tools as easy to use as the techniques your distributors are already using. Remember, tools that you put on the Web have a learning curve.
The message is important, not the method: It doesn't matter how great your Web site looks or if the latest whiz bang technology is used to create it. If you do not use your Web tools to assist people in understanding the message of your company, the tools will not be effective. Remember, Web designers know the Wweb, but you know your customers. A site needs to be understandable and user friendly to your customers.
Focus on what the Wweb is good at: Look at communicating with and training your downline, working with your warm market, and working with your customers. All of these things are achievable, but other goals like recruiting your entire downline on the Web are most likely going to create disappointment.
Obviously there are other issues to consider in using the Internet in your MLM business, but I have found that the basic key to success is getting people to understand the concept that their Wweb strategy needs to be part of their business strategy. It does my heart good to see more and more of my prospective customers no longer make their decision primarily based on the question, "What does your product do?" Instead, the critical question posed by more and more of them is, "How does your product help my business?"
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