Build Prospect Confidence with Testimonials

Testimonials can be very effective tools for promoting your products or opportunity.
Testimonials can be very effective tools for promoting your products or opportunity. Prospective customers or business builders will be more interested in learning about your products or opportunity if they know that other people like themselves are excited about it. They will have more confidence in you and your opportunity when they hear or read other people''s opinions. People really do care what others think and are influenced by their opinions, and if those other people are their peers, their testimonials will be even more credible.

If you are just getting started, you may not have testimonies of your own yet and will need to begin by using some from your company''s promotional material. However, shortly after you sell your first product and recruit your first distributor, ask them what they like about the product and the company, and do the same with each additional customer and business builder. As you are doing this, you will be teaching those who will become your downline to do the same thing. Send a card or letter to them, thanking them for their purchase or for joining your team, and request a testimonial from them. If you send a letter, you could enclose a self addressed stamped postcard to increase the likelihood of receiving a reply. If they do not reply, call them and chat for a while, and then ask what they like about your products or business. When they have positive comments, ask their permission to quote them in your materials. It is a good idea to get their signatures on a waiver, but it is not mandatory. Use their name, city, state and occupation if possible, because that gives their statements more credibility. Testimonials will be more effective when your prospects can identify with those who give them.

Make it a habit to do this, and keep a file of testimonials. It will be helpful to separate them into several categories, like product testimonials and business opportunity testimonials. Keep a separate file for types of people you are targeting for your opportunity, such as businessmen, housewives, blue-collar workers and retired people. If some of the statements could fit into several categories, make copies and put one copy in each relevant file. If you use a computer, enter these into a folder with appropriate headings so you can find them easily.

Quote comments exactly as they were spoken or written even if they have grammatical errors. Don''t add your own words or try to make them sound better, and never make them up ? that would be morally wrong. You may edit them if they are too long, but if you have a lengthy one that says a lot, go ahead and use the whole letter. Most of your testimonials should be just a few sentences, and if you have lots of them, it proves that many people are using your product or have joined your business. Use testimonials that are specific, describing benefits of your product or opportunity. When people are willing to give details about how their lives have improved because of your business, their testimonials will prove to be very valuable.

If you are mailing a packet of information, make a separate page for your testimonials. They will stand out and be more effective when they are grouped together instead of distributed through the rest of your material. When you use the Internet to build your business, create a link to the testimonials, and if you contact prospective business builders via email, do the same thing.

Testimonials are valuable, and you should do your best to develop a large file of them to prove your sincerity, integrity, reliability and trustworthiness.

Robert Butwin is a natural coach and author of the book Street Smart Networking, first published in 1994 to share his success secrets with others.

Profiting from the Internet Seven Essential Concepts

Network marketing business builders are always seeking new and better ways to grow their businesses.

Network marketing business builders are always seeking new and better ways to grow their businesses. The Internet provides them with a marvelous method of reaching millions of people all around the world, and if they include the Internet as one of their recruiting tools, the benefits could be enormous. However, many people have gone overboard and limited their business building efforts exclusively to the Internet. They use only the Internet for communication with prospects and with their downlines, and since their recruits learn by example, they will use the same method.

To be successful in network marketing, you should always have several different methods of attracting people to your organization, and the Internet should be one of those methods ? not the only method. It is easier to build a powerful successful business with people who live near you that you can meet with in person rather than with only people that you rarely see.

Seven essential concepts necessary for building a successful network marketing business using the Internet are:

1. Look at the Internet as one of several methods to generate leads for your business ? not your only method. To be successful, you need to recruit leaders who will help you build your business. You can do that more effectively when you meet with prospects, your downline and upline face to face and establish a personal relationship with them.

2. Use the Internet to attract prospects, but not to build your whole business. Develop a website that will encourage people to inquire about a home business opportunity. Use an attention-grabbing headline that offers free information when they submit their email addresses. After giving them the free information, follow up with the inquirers until they ask to be removed from your list. Every couple of days, send them an email telling about the network marketing industry, your company, your products, your compensation plan, the benefits they would derive from joining your organization, how to get started and the tax benefits of network marketing. After they have received that basic information, make the emails less frequent ? perhaps monthly. If you have a number of inquirers, use automated software to send the emails. Each email should teach them something, keep them interested and persuade them to reply so you can send personal emails to them or phone them and develop relationships of trust ? and eventually sponsor them.

3. It takes much longer to recruit through the Internet than face to face. New members of your organization may want to give up because of this, so teach them to use other methods of recruiting along with the Internet.

4. Some of your team members may not be familiar enough with the Internet to develop a successful business online. It is easier to duplicate the other recruiting methods, because anyone can talk to people, watch videos and listen to tapes or CDs.

5. When you sponsor people through the Internet, make it clear that you expect them to follow your training and leadership. People tend to concentrate on the method that was used to recruit them, so let them know that they need to talk to people and use the Internet as only one of several methods to recruit.

6. Develop a training site on the Internet for your organization. In that way, new people can learn things that their immediate upline may not know yet and get answers to any questions that they may have.

7. Direct prospects that you meet in your own area to go to your website to learn more about you and your organization. Many people would prefer to get information when it is convenient for them rather than attend a presentation meeting.

To be successful in network marketing, develop an Internet program that helps you save time, puts prospects at ease and makes your communication more effective, but never give up the tried and true face to face business building methods.

Robert Butwin is a natural coach and author of the book Street Smart Networking, first published in 1994 to share his success secrets with others.

Why e-Commerce Needs Network Marketing Now

With the technological advances and innovative methods of communication that we have today

With the technological advances and innovative methods of communication that we have today, you may think that network marketing could be a thing of the past ? and if that is what you think, you are wrong. Smart network marketers use the Internet along with their other tools for promoting their businesses or products. They may have web pages on the Internet with links to their products and to their business opportunities. They may sell products as well as recruit business builders through the Internet. They may train new distributors with webinars and conference calls and communicate with them via e-mail.

The Internet is available at any hour of the day and enables a networker to recruit team members from many different countries and sell products all over the world. However, a computer cannot hear the tone of voice of a customer or team member or read between the lines of an e-mail. Nobody would get emotionally involved with a computer, develop a relationship with it or care to be loyal to it. The Internet does not generate repeat business from loyal customers. Many people use the Internet to find the lowest prices for products, but the cheapest products might not have the most value.

Referrals and word of mouth are some of the most valuable tools for building a profitable business, and network marketing has been using those tools for decades. Network marketing leaders develop relationships with their customers and with their downline. They can show people that they care about them and are willing to help them meet their goals. They can teach their distributors how to be successful by their own examples. When people learn to have faith in their leaders, trust them and feel that their leaders really care about them, they will be loyal to them and their business.

Networking is a business of people working together as a team, sharing common goals and dreams, helping and inspiring each other. The more impersonal new technology we get, the more we need to balance it with the human touch ? with real live people.

Network marketing needs e-commerce, but e-commerce needs network marketing too. Nothing beats the personal contact you get with the tried and true network marketing system. People want to talk to real people ? they don''t want to talk to impersonal machines. If you have ever tried to contact someone at a large company and endured selecting from a menu to direct your call, been asked to enter account numbers, been placed on hold, been asked to enter various forms of identification, and were never allowed to talk to a live person, you know how frustrating that can be.

Only caring dedicated leaders can truly inspire and motivate their distributors, recognize and praise them for their accomplishments, celebrate their victories and give them the personal attention that they need. The human touch can never be replaced by any amount of technological advancements or automation. Uniting highly technical e-commerce with personal network marketing creates the perfect winning combination for success.

Robert Butwin is a natural coach and author of the book Street Smart Networking, first published in 1994 to share his success secrets with others.