New School vs Old School MLM
You hear it all the time, it’s New School vs Old School, and the only way to compete successfully anymore in MLM is to use attraction marketing online to generate leads and monetize your list with funded proposals.
Some say that ‘Old School is dead’ and ‘New School is in session’.
But does ‘New School’ in and of itself guarantee or speed up your building a long term residual income?
Is marketing online now the only way to build a business? You might think so if you believe everything that you see.
But the bottom line is that network marketing is built on relationships and moving product.
It isn’t really any more complicated than that.
And it is actually not a matter of new school vs old school MLM.
Certainly there are multiple ways to go about this business, and including some marketing, with a multi-faceted approach, is best for most people struggling to find leads.
New School vs Old School MLM; Marketing Online
But does the percentage of people you can actually build relationships with increase exponentially just because you may be able to get hundreds of people into your sales funnel each week?
Do you really believe that when someone says they are getting hundreds of leads a month, are they really recruiting hundreds of reps per month into their primary opportunity?
You know you still have to work to achieve results. But if your focus is entirely on your marketing, you could be losing some good prospects in the shuffle.
You see, New School vs Old School MLM has become a marketing phrase in itself, designed to promote replicatable marketing systems. But it is making a simplified statement about a complex issue.
While duplicatable replicated marketing systems help, they are not the complete solution to struggles that most network marketers face.
This is because internet marketing can be a complicated and overwhelming subject, with a minimum 6-9 month learning curve to achieve results!
Nothing in This Industry Has Really Changed
The truth is that you still have to build relationships in order to succeed in this business.
That means that people have to personally get to know, like and trust you.
And for that to occur, you have to offer value, offer something that will help solve their problems.
The fact of the matter is, the basis of using attraction marketing in MLM is that people will be attracted to someone they believe can help them to succeed.
And the next proven-to-grow-limbs-back juice or the next pre-launch opportunity that comes along will not accomplish that.
But, neither will the ultimate hundreds of leads per month generating system.
An auto-responder will never take the place of a real relationship.
Letting the system do some of your sorting makes sense, but personal contact is crucial.
Moreover, people that you sponsor from a less personal relationship will likely be the first ones to leave your downline to chase after the next best system or opportunity that comes along.
Although social media has provided a multitude of new avenues by which we can attract people and begin to build relationships, a truly wonderful advantage for this business, it still boils down to Know-Like-and-Trust.
New School vs Old School MLM; Combinations Work Best
So what do you want to be marketing? Your system, or yourself?
With the focus on marketing systems, many are spending more time and energy marketing their system than they are doing the core business building activities, or even providing value and building their personal brand.
While marketing the system will recoup the costs of that system, it isn’t going to build a passive residual income.
But the question isn’t so much as an Old School vs New School MLM but more the approach, in using both.
The Keys to Success are Not the Product, Plan, or Particulars of Practice
It isn’t a matter of having THE absolute best product (let’s face it, a product that is marketed via MLM has no choice but to be superior to what would be otherwise available or you should leave it alone).
It most certainly isn’t about being in at “pre-launch”! Of course growth curve is important, so is long term stability.
And the key to success is not to have the latest patent pending compensation plan that pays 90% (no company could afford this without hidden breakage). And is there ever a patent on one of these?
And the key to success certainly isn’t the marketing system, but how you market it while branding yourself.
The Keys to Success are the Skills for Success
What it amounts to is this: What your success ultimately depends on is really you, your desire, and persistence; your will to succeed.
No one should fail in this business unless they quit.
If you truly want to succeed you have to do nothing less than improve yourself, learn the skills that are necessary, and be able to help others do the same.
You must write down your goals, and be of a positive and successful mindset.
It is absolutely necessary to be good at communicating with people, and knowing how to get others to listen to you.
Your own listening skills should be first on your list of self-improvements if you are at all challenged in this area.
So it’s not New School vs Old School MLM as much as it is how best to do both.
And if you have limited means to get out and talk to people, or just do not want to talk to your warm market about your business, then take the time to learn the skills to marketing successfully online.
Just realize that you MUST not forget about offline marketing while you allow this transformation to take place. It will take time, so be sure you have a good stock of perseverance and persistence ready to go!
This system provides some absolutely fabulous ways to enhance your leadership and duplication using online methods taught by the industry’s most successful leaders.
But don’t completely discount off line marketing! Attraction Marketing is only duplicatable in part, and requires extra time, training and resources.
If desire to help people is genuine, and is not attached to an outcome (their joining you in business), then with your building your own skill set and confidence, and a successful marketing system, you will attract people to you that you may never expect.
It’s no longer a question of New School vs Old School MLM, but how best to combine the two, each given the right approach and skill set.
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Vicki
What a great post. I totally agree with you.
Thanks for the insight and I will check out your free training.
You Can’t Outgive The Universe…
Thank you kindly Joseph! Your feedback means a great deal to me, I’m so glad you enjoyed this post! And I love your signing comment, the Universe gives back tenfold!!
To your everlasting success!
Vicki
Hi Vicky,
Very inspiring. Although I probably work differently to a lot of people reading your articles in that I am wanting to promote my shops and complementary therapy centres, I found it very interesting and useful.
Thank you,
Julie
Thank you Julie! I appreciate your comments and wish you the very best in your business! I will be stopping by your web page
Have a great day!
Vicki
Great post, you summed up our business in this statement “the bottom line is that network marketing is built on relationships and moving product.”
Thank you Perry!
I did make that statement because sometimes it does seem to get lost in the shuffle, with all there is to learn and do to succeed in this business!
I appreciate your support!
Wishing you every success,
Vicki
Hi Vicki! I love this post! I bought into the sales funnel concept for about a minute, but just what you said came to me; where are the relationships? How could they be nurtured? Whose leads are they after the “Funded Proposal”? It didn’t take long to see that there was no future in that kind of strategy, so I dropped it like the proverbial “Hot Rock”! After all, what I want to do is to help people be all they can be! You can’t do that 30,000 people per month, can you?
Thank you Carl! I had to laugh, that was my same reaction when I began to work into that process. I’d rather have 30 people per month who I know I can build a relationship and work with!
Hi Vicky,
This is Minnie Punsalan from far away Phils.
I just read this article and would love to read more of your writings. Gee I wish I could talk to you personally. but then, our time zone is very different. When it’s daytime here, nighttime there. I wish our schedule can meet. Thanks for article and I hope you’ll send more. God bless.
Hi Minnie! Thank you so much for your lovely comment – I will email you and hopefully we can set up a time that we can chat, nothing is impossible!
Wishing you all the best,
Vicki
Vickie. I am a newby and am just looking for information to help me. I really enjoyed reading your article and a lot of what you said makes sence. I am really excited about the product that I sell as I know how well it has worked for me and how my health has improved ten fold. I would like to have others reap the same rewards but getting them on board the program is my first obsticle. I think I have a lot to learn to speak to people and tell them my story. I am now retired from an office job and although as a supervisor I dealt with customers and staff so I have no problem speaking to people but lack the skills to get them to my website or speak wiith me. Can you help me with this aspect of MLM? I look forward to future information that you post/
Hi Myrtle! Thanks for your comment. Yes, just let me know if I can help you with these skills!
To your success,
Vicki
Hi Vicki,
thanks for that, food for thought indeed!
I agree that attraction marketing is, dare I say, “over marketed” at present, particularly because many of the people pushing it are themselves newbies, starting out by telling others how to be successful, before having achieved success for themselves – I don’t think that helps the industry’s image.
Online marketing is a lot more work than some would have us believe. Perhaps another way to express what you were saying, is that building trust online may be harder for some than building trust offline, face to face. Whichever type of marketing you use, you need to earn trust with it!
And of course there are plenty of ways to grow an MLM business OFFline, such as joint ventures, or plain old teaching as Ann Sieg explained at the beginning of her Manifesto.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that some “successful” MLMers or “power speakers” do not know how to earn trust. They shout and yell and jump up and down, even making exaggerated claims about the products – but how many quality prospects take them seriously? Then there are others whom, when asked what they actually do on a daily basis to be successful, avoid the question and give vague answers about “setting goals” etc. Has anyone else noticed this? This is why I say that the *secret* of being successful, is to stop being so secretive! Stop shouting slogans and start teaching people the nuts and bolts of how to sell products!
Hi Abdurrahmaan,
Yes it’s true, people are spouting ‘attraction marketing’ as the new great way to have prospects lining up at your door with check books open, but that is transparently one-sided as can be seen by most people even new to the ‘market’.
It is hard to pinpoint the keys to success for certain but without a doubt it is dependent on your willingness, persistence, and overall self motivation. By taking the time to learn skills, and take action, success can be attained, but absolutely do not discount personal development. Albeit there may not be much in the trust building on a person-to-person basis of those who speak to large audiences, but their touting ‘goal setting’ is part of a larger picture.
As I’ve been compelled to stress lately, the top 2% of society is successful and not so coincidentally, about 2% actually write down their short, medium and long range goals. There have been hundreds of books written on how the most successful people of the ages have had qualities that are only achieved through attention to one’s own personal growth.
Combining a course of learning the skills associated with marketing and sales, along with the areas of personal development that will make you a great teacher and a great leader will have you earning more trust and respect than any online marketing system all by itself!
To your massive success!
Vicki
Hi Vicki,
Thanks for the awesome and informative post.
I couldn’t agree more with your statement that ‘the bottom line is that network marketing is built on relationships and moving product. It should not be made out to be anything more complicated than that.’
Building relationships is vital whether on a personal or business level , and these will develop over time.
Look forward to reading more soon , and have a great Christmas.
Best Wishes,
Liam
Thank you Liam! Yes it’s so easy for the basic principals to be lost in the shuffle these days! People would like for network marketing to be a get-rich-quick method to wealth but it takes time. However, if persistent, then the pay off is huge!
Hope you have a wonderful holiday!
Vicki
Wise words Vicki! I think we have a similar outlook on how to build the business using the best of both.
Thanks Rachel!
Yes, and the same even goes for retailing in this business, building volume in more ways than one,
like prospecting in more ways than one, and even marketing in more ways than one only multiplies
our rate of success!
Have a great day!
Vicki
What a breath of fresh air. You see so much hype that internet marketing is the end all to building a MLM team.
I have been full time in network marketing for over 20 years and built sizable organizations and it all came down to building solid relationships. Most my experience has been with offline marketing though I have picked up speed with social media given it is very similar to networking offline as well.
Systems have their place but they are not the end all and at the end of the day our business is built one beautiful person at a time.
Thank you for this post, it is very validating and good to show the whole picture.
Faith
Thank you Faith! I’m so happy whenever I meet people who really get that is about relationships first, and foremost! Even in telecommunications where I’ve had a career of 22 years (and building an MLM business in the last 3 years, seeing where all that is going), our marketing guy in reference to the sales team there has said it time and time again, “Never underestimate the power of relationships! People buy from people they like!”. The same goes for joining an MLM company, when so many are out there, and so many people recruiting in the same companies, on or offline, why does someone choose to join with one person over the other? Yep, relationships!
Thanks again for your support!
Vicki
Great post Vicki. I’ve been reading a lot on your blog and like what I’ve seen so far! Keep up the good work!
Thanks very much Chase!
Glad you like it, I appreciate your taking the time to stick around!
Wishing You Brilliant Success!
Oustanding post Vicki!
As network marketers we are still in the networking (relationship) business. Therefore it is paramount for any network marketer to learn and understand how to effectively build relationships.
The internet is a powerful tool and attraction marketing even more when used effectively. Both allow you to specifically target like-minded people more effectively that in a traditional sense. But the bottom line is that our ability to build and nurture relationships with others whether online or offline, is still extremely important. The only true difference is the tools you are using to do so, both of which eventually lead to one-on-one personal human interaction.
Thanks for sharing your insight!
To Your Success,
Sean Smith
Sean Smith´s last [type] ..How to Succeed at Network Marketing Online VIDEO
Hi Sean!
I’m glad you appreciate the distinction between marketing and networking! The marketing can only be secondary, as its roots are in the understanding of your prospective clients, customers or partners. Without real relationships, there won’t be any success in this industry!
Thanks again for stopping by!
Wishing You Tremendous Success,
People of the old school need to use the ideas of the new ways as well. Great article!
Thanks Alecia! Yes you are right, we just have to keep in mind not to abandon completely the networking aspect, communication and relationship building, of the ‘old school’ methods. Certainly we don’t need to be pestering family and friends!
Thanks for stopping by and for your comment!
Wishing You Fabulous Success,
I like what you write here… it’s make me think, what i have done before..
Hi Vicki,
I just wanted to say that you do a very nice job with all of your content. Keep up the nice work!!
Hi Arnie, thanks very much!