First Year in Network Marketing?Are you new to the network marketing? Is this your first year in network marketing? This article is for you. As a new distributor, associate, IBO, or whatever your company names a new business associate, you’re facing several challenges.
My mentor Dale Calvert said: “Your first year in network marketing, or even your first two years, should be looked at, as going to school.” You’re learning the lessons, (if you’re teachable and study) that those who went before you have learned, as they carved out a trail for us to follow. To become a success in the industry, you must first be a follower. You must survive your first year in network marketing to continue your schooling "There never was a winner, who wasn't a beginner." -- Denis Waitley 
I recommend that you buy Mark and Rene Yarnell’s Your First Year in Network Marketing book. You need to know; there were a few things that you may have heard in the recruiting process that may not be true. I’m not saying you were lied to, but sometimes people over-embellish the truth in their excitement."In Network Marketing, you persevere or you perish. Quitting is the one sure way to fail. Surviving the first year establishes a new distributor with a good basis for success.” -- Mark and Rene Yarnell, in Your First Year in Network Marketing Companies love to say that this business is so easy that anyone can do it. They can with proper training. Unfortunately, the typical process is to throw you to the wolves and see if you survive. Your sponsor doesn’t think he’s doing that. but it may be: Here’s your kit, go get em, with a poor sponsor. In the meeting or conference call you may have heard that: Our product almost sells itself! If only, that was true. Mark and Rene detail several challenges in Your First Year in Network Marketing: Rejection - The rejection rocket can be devastating. Many new distributor’s expectations were: Everybody wants to be in business for themselves and the product almost sells itself. It might be almost easy, if you have a cookie cutter marketing system to retail products. If your company has multiple products, don’t just focus on one product. There’s a seat for every saddle. Your first dose of rejection may come from where you least expect it. Your spouse or partner. If you’re lucky, and your spouse doesn’t balk, the next dose of rejection may come from a friend or business associate. They simply don’t understand the industry or they have bad pre-conceived ideas about it. In my last company, I experienced rejection from some, and ridicule from one man. I used that, to build the burn, to succeed in network marketing. I did. It’s a fact, there have been bad companies in network marketing, just like in all business. If you, or your new recruit meets an avowed mlm hater, they’re going to puke all over you, with all the negatives they can. Even if, you and your prospect, are prepared for this, the first time it happens will be a shock. Management Trap - The management trap can hit a new distributor after he’s recruited a few people. Instead of continuing to retail and recruit, time is spent babysitting current distributors who should be leading their own teams. This stops them from growing and stalls out your growth. As your team sees you leading by example in your retailing and recruiting, they’ll follow. Likewise trying to build a team for a family member is a waste of time. You think you’re helping them but it’s welfare, not necessarily appreciated, and not helping them grow. "You can help a thousand, but you cannot carry 3 on your back. Learn to help those who deserve, not those who need." -- Jim Rohn
It’s easy to get depressed if you dwell on people quitting or failing to work. All network marketers must master overcoming rejection. Rejection during the first year in network marketing is especially tough. Most new recruits are not prepared for, or expecting the rejection they will face. The only solution is to move forward, and look for those who want success as, bad as you do. See How to Qualify Prospects for more help in interviewing prospects. When you’re down, you call your upline leadership for help. Never call your downline and dump on them. That’s like pouring poison in the well you drink from. Spending time listening to upbeat networking cd’s is helpful in getting out of a funk. False Expectations - Some people paint too rosy of a business picture, while still others, may intentionally mislead prospects for advantage. This can happen with a short term game plan. A recruiter may be tempted, to promise more than they can deliver, to get a prospect with a big prospect list. Here’s some help in Choosing a Sponsor. When your first year in network marketing fails to meet these false expectations, it’s disappointing. This is a get rich slowly business, not a get rich quick scheme. Serious long term wealth takes serious effort over a period of years. An area not covered in Your First Year in Network Marketing is all the pyramid schemes that have proliferated since the internet became popular. Now herds of people are rushed into companies with promises of wealth in Pre-Launches. Warm Market - Failing to make a large list of your warm market friends, family, associates and others. This is usually called word of mouth marketing. During your first year in network marketing, running out of people to talk with is disastrous. This makes the second six months of your new business, problematic. Usually the reason people fail to make their list, is a lack of conviction. You need lots of people to talk to in network marketing. Hopefully your upline mentor has came up with some ways for you to generate free network marketing leads. Your doubts will make failure certain, during your first year in network marketing. Starting to generate cold market leads and internet leads will take time as you’re starting from zero. Learning internet marketing will be a big plus, but will take time. Lack of Focus - What the Yarnell’s call the scatter bomb, losing focus, on what is working can be devastating. Wanting a quick shortcut to success can cause a distributor to abandon what’s been working and chase after other recruiting systems and ideas. The old adage of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it applies. The scatter bomb can cause a distributor to chase after other new companies, pre-launches, leaders, and recruiting systems. Duplicating the upline mentor’s system that’s taken them to six figures will eventually get you to the same or greater success level. Why change that? Meeting Mines - Those coming out of corporate America are usually burned out on boring corporate meetings. While large hotel meetings may be useful for those who are not good at face to face, face to face meetings may be more successful in enrolling distributors. Smaller home meetings are much more personalized than large hotel meetings. Some distributors can become professional meeting attenders. The meeting is their social event of the week and a good excuse to say, they’re working their business, by attending. There time would be better spent one on one with a live prospect. The deception meetings are when you’ve been invited to a friends for dinner. Suddenly they spring their marketing presentation on you. This is usually done deceptively. It’s a good way to alienate a friend. Getting a small office leased seems like a good idea to some distributors. After all they think, it is a business. Trouble is, many of your prospects don’t see themselves renting office space. This may cause them to think they can’t do business this way. An office can actually hurt your business. Why would anyone want to take on an expense like this when you can commute 25 steps to your own home office? New School Network Marketing - Unfortunately Mark and Rene’s book was written in 1998. While much of their advice is relevant. I think they were things they couldn’t see 11 years ago. In the last 11 years, there has been a tremendous movement of people online. This movement has changed many idustries. Phone books and newspapers are two that immediately come to mind. The majority of your network marketing prospects are online. I still recommend Your First Year in Network Marketing, as a must have study for a new distributor. Once they’ve read the book, it may be time for them to start learning attraction marketing. Today, part of attracting business partners and customers is done by learning to use all the free social media. Prospects that are dissatisfied enough to be exploring their options, will do so online. It only makes sense for today’s network marketers to have a robust online presence. Why not be the one they’re looking for, and finding online. Even our training is easier to do because of the internet. We can send a regular trainings by email using an auto-responder. We can record videos, and show our team, step by step, how we do things. We can hold a Webinar and have our team participate remotely. There are paid attraction marketing training programs which teach the latest techniques of attracting prospects. None of what is in this paragraph was going on 11 years ago. One of my previous companies did not have a web presence or web sites for their distributors in 1998 when I joined them. They were convinced that no one would enroll online. Imagine their surprise when over 80% of our enrollments came in online the first month the web sites went live. Most companies will either give a distributor a replicated website or charge a small monthly fee for their sites. There are some special challenges in learning how to market your network marketing website. Regardless of how, you decide to build your business, offline, online, or with a combination of both. Whatever you do you’ll be building your own special brand. Your brand of You. In a nutshell, your first year in network marketing, will be one of survival and learning. If you can persevere and not quit things will get easier. Take a lesson from these famous failures. They hung in there through their failures to become successful in life. Return to Top of First Year in Network Marketing Page Updated 07/22/2010
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First of all, you’re new, you don’t know who to listen to, and who to believe. It’s like, your first day in school, all over again.
Depression - The Depression torpedo can hit in your first year in network marketing. It can also affect seasoned network marketers, at any time. A job can usually be waded through, while in a depressed state. Network marketing requires an upbeat enthusiastic attitude for maximum effectiveness. 
