If you don’t know anything about business, take some comfort in the fact that one of the world’s most successful businesses is run by 16 year olds! It’s called McDonalds.

Each McDonald’s store turns over, on average, about $2 million per year. The average age of a manager is around 21 years. The average age of an employee is around 16 years (except here in Singapore). Yes, I used to be a service crew in McDonald’s back in college so I’m pretty much familiar what goes in and around a McDonald’s store.

The success of McDonald’s depends on everyone in the business following a system. This is one of the key secrets of business success. Grasp the importance of this and you can achieve great things.

To understand how systems emerge in business, imagine 10 people started a widget company. Statistics would show us that after the first year in business 7 out of the 10 that started would be out of business for one reason or another. Now there are just 3 companies left in the widget business.

Over the next 5 years it is likely that one of these 3 would also close its doors. Now there are just 2 companies left in the widget business.

The question to ask is what did these 2 widget makers do that the others didn’t? What made these 2 companies successful? If we could find the answer we could start another widget business, do exactly what they did and we’d have a good chance of success.

This is, of course, the basis of a franchise. We simply take a success formula from one business and duplicate it in another. The formula comes in the form of a system. Systems consist of lots of smaller systems for everything we need to say and do to make the business a success. Here’s another way of looking at it…

Think of your business as a stage. On the stage we have a number of actors. In order for the performance to be a success, each actor needs to follow the script. Back to the McDonald’s example… When someone says to you “would you like fries with that?” you are hearing part of the script. The McDonald brothers worked out that if they asked every customer “would you like fries with that?” 3 out of 10 would say yes. That’s a 30% increase in the sale of fries! Now here’s something that a lot of people are not aware of…

You’ve been given a script too! Successful businesses not only write scripts/systems for their employees, they also write them for their customers. These scripts are either subtle or direct instructions to customers to help the business owner become more efficient and profitable.

An example of a subtle customer script is an ‘In‘ door and an ‘Out‘ door. Don’t laugh! What this script says is that if you want to buy something from me you have to walk in through this door. When you leave walk out through this door. Don’t believe you’ve been cast in the role? Try walking ‘ In’ through the ‘ Out ‘ door! Not only will you feel like you’re being a bit naughty, other people in the store are likely to glare at you with disapproval. Remember, they’ve been given the same script! What about more elaborate scripts…

Probably the most successful and elaborate customer scripts have come from banks. Bank executives worked out how much it costs to do a transaction over the counter. They also worked out that if they could train you and me to do their work for them, they could make a lot more money. All they needed was a script. They developed the script, and relatively quickly, were able to get you and me to do exactly what they wanted. I’m referring to the use of Automatic Teller Machines (ATM’s).

The script that the banks came up with was so elaborate that it alone would probably have done little to change our behaviour. So to get us to follow the script they used basic psychology in the form of the “carrot and the stick” approach. The carrot was, and still is, lower bank fees if you use their ATM. The stick is, higher bank fees if you don’t. Pretty simple eh? It’s also quite scary. What the banks did was to succeed in changing the behaviour of 100′s of millions of people in the space of less than a decade! And in doing so reaped, and continue to reap huge profits.

The point is this… systems are extremely powerful tools in business. Your task, as a business owner, is to develop systems for your business that maximize your profits.

For most people new to this idea, the question is ” Where do I start? ” To help you answer this, here is a framework that you can use to systemize your business.

In business, there are only 5 areas that determine how much profit you make. When you develop a system that works for one of these areas, you will increase your profits. As you systemize each area in turn, YOUR PROFITS WILL MULTIPLY … The 5 areas are…

1. Lead generation

2. Conversion

3. Number of Transactions

4. Average Dollar Sale

5. Profit Margin

You can use the above framework for any business. If you’re using Network Marketing to promote your home based business, you’ll find some helpful information on Lead generation and Conversion on this site.

To get what YOU want…

Help people to get what they want.

Continue…

Well, according to tried and proven Network Marketing (MLM) principles… absolutely nothing. The concept of the ‘pre-launch‘ has more to do with ‘Get IN Quick‘ AND ‘Get RICH Quick‘. It has nothing to do with building a stable and profitable business for people like you and me.

No wonder established off-line MLM companies are tearing their hair out. They watch in horror as newbie MLM companies launch themselves down cables into your living room and into your wallet. What they see is a lot of damage being done. Damage to people and damage to the Network Marketing Industry.

It’s not so much what is being sold in these programs, it’s how it’s being sold that is of most concern. Thousands of people are being lured into programs by visions of luxury cars, holiday homes and unlimited income. Nothing wrong with this picture except…

To make your business stable and profitable, you need a lot of people in your business selling product; not cars, houses, bagfuls of money and incredible lifestyles!

What happens when you get a whole lot of people in your business chasing a dream? If you haven’t already guessed or been through the experience, let me tell you… You get a whole lot of people in your business dreaming!

If there is one concept about Network Marketing that I want you to take away with you it’s this… “There are few sellers in the land of dreams.”

If you were sold a dream, guess what you’re going to have to sell to the next person? When the hype dies, so will your business. Unfortunately, so will your dream and the dreams of many others. This, of course, raises questions about responsibility and accountability… So, how do you build a stable and profitable business using Network Marketing?

Well, the first step is to get your thinking right. Network Marketing is a people business. To be successful you need to stop thinking “What can I get?” and start thinking “What can I give?“. This is sometimes referred to as moving from a mind-set of survival to a mind-set of contribution .

A definition of survival thinking is focusing on what you need to say and do to make a living. This is evidenced by playing life safe, rarely stepping outside your comfort zone, working a 9 to 5 and focusing on retirement. People who are in survival mode need constant re-assurance. This is, for example, why people rush home from work to catch the 6.00 news and avidly thumb their way through daily newspapers. Here they find constant re-assurance in the stories of all those poor people who didn’t survive. Surprise! One of the most watched television programs of all times was called ‘Survivor’ where 99% of people didn’t survive!

As long as you think survival you will stay there. In fact, you’ll be trapped! This thinking will limit your success in all that you do including, what you learn, your relationships, your work, and life itself. One thing is for certain… If you go into Network Marketing thinking survival, you will fail.

For your business to be successful through Network Marketing, you need a whole lot of people in your business SELLING product. By offering a fantastic lifestyle and not much else, you will attract a measure of BUYERS. Your success, however, relies on SELLERS.

The BUYERS you attracted are mostly survivors. These are not the people you want in your business. These are not the people who will step outside their comfort zone and sell your product. I’ll say it again… “There are few sellers in the land of dreams”.

Now, here is what I call a Blinding Flash of the Obvious…

Your success in Networking Marketing depends on your ability to turn BUYERS into SELLERS.

The only way you can do this is to start from “What can I do that will help this person in my business succeed”. You’ve got to take an interest in people. You’ve got to teach them all you know; give them all you’ve got. Contribute until it hurts! AND when you do, teach them to do the same. Can anyone do this? Yes. Is it hard work? Yes. Will you have ups and downs? Yes. Can it change your life? Yes!

Network Marketing is the most efficient means of marketing any product or service. It can be as exhilarating as it is exciting. It can bring you all the financial rewards it promises. The difference between those that win and those that lose is how you play the game.

Believe in yourself and your product Invest in your product Set personal goals Invest in tools to promote your business Systemize everything Contribute – be willing to coach others Work hard at the start Enjoy the ride!

Continue…

The first question in business that you should ask is “How do I generate leads?” If you’re in business you need leads or prospects. These are people who may be interested in buying from you.

Here’s what most Network Marketing companies on the Internet are offering their partners as a lead generation strategy… “Just tell 10 of your closest friends and relatives about this fantastic opportunity and get them to tell their friends and so on”… WHAT A LOT OF RUBBISH!

Let’s put this into perspective. Here you are with little or no training in business or Network Marketing. One day, some company in Wackoland promises that if you just pay $29.95 you’ll be on the crest of the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen. Not only that, if you pay your money now, you’ll get into this business before it’s even a business! You’ll be getting in “pre-launch”!! Not only that, you’ll only have to work a 1 hour day. In the space of a few months, you’ll be driving a Porsche, taking your family on world trips and living the lifestyle you’ve always dreamed about.

Do you seriously believe this stuff? And even if through inexperience, you quietly slip the company your credit card number, just in case it’s true, are you seriously going to approach your brother, sister, mother, father and your local religious leader with the same story? If you did, how big do you think your organization would get?

The only people that are going to benefit from this lead generation strategy are the people who took your $29.95. You see, and I can’t emphasise this enough… “There are few sellers in the land of dreams”.

Now that you have read the above and would never fall for a company that just sells a lot of sizzle, what happens when you come across an established Network Marketing company with a great product? Do you need a lead generation strategy that goes beyond marketing to relatives and friends? My idea is that you do.

You see, most of the people who buy Internet based businesses are recruited through the Internet. Most are not experienced Network Marketers. The fact that they themselves, along with thousands of others, are joining businesses as a result of on-line promotion is evidence that the Internet works as a great lead generation tool. This has led me to the conclusion that Internet Based Networkers (IBN’s) should provide their business partners with the tools and the strategies to promote their business on-line. In fact, as you were recruited on-line, you should demand the same opportunities for your investment and your downline.

Most, if not all IBNs, give you a web site to promote. Few give you the tools to promote. Having the best web site in the world without the tools or the knowledge to promote it is a bit like having a really nice brochure of your product on the top shelf of your wardrobe. You can invite a few friends home to have a look at it and that’s about it. Think about it. Currently there are around 20 billion web pages on the Internet. Therefore, the odds of someone finding your web page, without promotion, are about 20,000,000,000 to 1.

If you’re going to do Network Marketing on the Internet, invest in the tools and programs that will continuously generate new leads for your business. If you’re going to have any significant business growth in this cyber market, you need a constant supply of leads.

There are numerous tools and programs on the Internet that will help you generate leads. Deciding which ones work and which ones are value for money can be a challenge. We have been through this process and admit it was very time consuming. To give you a start, we describe a lead generation tool that can help you build your business on the Internet. There are 3 reasons why we talk about these products…

Once you have leads or prospects for your business, the next question is… How are you going to convert these people into customers? A prospect is someone that looks at your product or offer. Customers are people that buy from you. So, what are you going to do and say to your prospects that will convert them into customers? In other words… What is your conversion strategy?

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about here. Imagine you own a retail store. You have lots of customers coming into your shop attracted by your advertising (lead generation strategy). Your conversion strategy is to greet them when they walk in off the street with, “Can I help you?“.

After a while, you discover that nearly all prospects respond to this strategy with, “No thanks. I’m just looking around.” Don’t laugh! Half the retailers in the world haven’t worked this out yet!

When you measure how effective this strategy is, you find that only 10 out of 100 prospects buy something from you. So you decide to change what you’re doing.

Instead of asking, “Can I help you?“, you ask, “Have you been in this store before?” If the answer is “No” you get to show them around the shop. If the answer is “Yes” you say, “I thought I recognised you!” and continue with “would you like me to show you what’s new or would you like to look at something in particular?”

This time, when you measure the result of your strategy, you find that instead of 10 people in every 100 buying, 16 in every 100 are buying. That’s a 60% increase in your conversion!

This example emphasises that what you say to your prospects can have a significant affect on your business AND that means a significant affect on your profits! So, how do you start building a conversion strategy for your business?

When you go to the page Marketing System you’ll learn the basics of setting up an on-line conversion strategy. Let’s look at one of the essential ingredients for conversion in Network Marketing.

On the page Network Marketing we highlighted that your success depends on your ability to turn BUYERS into SELLERS. We also pointed out that the only way you can do this is to start from “What can I do that will help this person in my business succeed?” It makes sense, therefore, to develop your conversion strategy based on this premise.

What you say should reflect a genuine interest in helping your prospects. This might be as simple as pointing them to this site to get a better idea of succeeding their Interned business OR how about giving them some of your hard earned knowledge based on your experience in business. Contribute, contribute contribute in all that you say and watch your business become stable and profitable. That brings us to “The Law of Momentum“…

The Law of Momentum says that, whenever you start a new business venture, it takes ten units of effort to get one unit of result. However, as you continue your efforts, you will gain momentum. When you have momentum, it takes just one unit of effort to achieve ten units of results. Nowhere is this truer than in Network Marketing.

So, as you begin your conversion strategy based on helping others, you may find the early results disheartening. If this happens to you, remember the Law of Momentum. Stay with it. Keep giving. You will succeed!

To get what YOU want…

Help people to get what they want.

Continue…

This is often then first question you are faced with when promoting your business opportunity on the Internet. To help you answer this question, if you haven’t already done so, please read the information on Lead Generation and Conversion. This is the framework for building a marketing system for your business. Now let’s look at how to build a marketing system…

To be successful your marketing system MUST continually do two things…

1. Generate leads

2. Convert leads into customers.

Most Internet based businesses spend most of their time telling you how easy it is. Selling you the dream of making your first Internet fortune. They give you a generic web site, some basic marketing information and perhaps a few marketing tools. What you don’t get are leads for your business. Yet, contacting potential customers is the most important ingredient for your success!

For many people, success or failure relies on how many contacts you have in your address book. Once you have exhausted this resource, your business can come to an abrupt stop.

The reality is that you are working in a competitive market. If you’re going to compete you need to get competitive. There may be 200 million people out there on the Internet BUT, there are around 20 billion web pages. To make a ripple in this sea of competition, you’ve got to build a database of leads and keep putting new people in front of your business proposition. When you do, the sky is the limit!

Before we explore a few of the ways you can start generating leads for your business opportunity, there is one thing that we need to get clear. If you want to get serious about making money on the Internet, it is going to cost you money. That’s business. It takes money to make money. You have to invest in yourself and your business. For those of you that believe you can build a profitable business on the Internet without investing money, stop reading now! “Oh! but I already paid $ for my business opportunity” Forget it! “They didn’t tell me that when I joined the affiliate/network program” Of course they didn’t! If they did, you probably wouldn’t have joined the program!

Your business is going nowhere and you’re going nowhere unless you take the next step. You need to get professional. Accept the fact that there are companies out there that have spent a small fortune on developing products for doing business on the Internet. AND accept the fact that if you want the really good stuff, the stuff that works, you’re going to have to pay for it. The good news is that if you choose wisely, it won’t cost you more than a few dollars a month to generate thousands of dollars in profit.

One of the best ways of generating leads on the Internet is to offer something for free or very little. The most common way people achieve this is to bulk email using a bulk email program. To fill it up with email addresses, you can either purchase software that harvests addresses from the Internet, purchase a mailing list from a reputable supplier or use a system like Veretekk.

Veretekk is a complete on-line marketing system that we use and highly recommend. What we like about the program is that it produces a constant supply of leads.

Veretekk doesn’t go out and hit people over the head with your offer. The way it works is by giving you as many as 20 web sites that offer a variety of free stuff. For example, free vacation coupons, free software, free web sites and free e-books.

These sites are uniquely yours. On each of the sites there is an opt-in box where visitors can opt to receive other great offers from you. Hence, you get addresses from people who have benefited from your free stuff and are interested in more free stuff.

If your business has something to sell outright, you need to tread a little more carefully. Nevertheless, Veretekk gives you the opportunity to communicate, build a relationship and position yourself to offer your product or business opportunity. One word of warning…

Although Veretekk is the fastest and most economical way that we know to generate safe leads on the Internet, it requires a considerable investment of your time in setting it up to work for you. There is a lot to learn! The Veretekk Silver system is 100% free – which allows you to explore and use the system to convince yourself it really works. When you’re ready to get really serious about your business, you’ll want to invest USD$41.95 per month for the Veretekk Gold service. For this you get a guaranteed supply of leads as part of a comprehensive on-line marketing system. Plus through the Veretekk Down Under community we have a wealth of expert trainers from right here in Australia ready to personally assist you.

There are other lead generating sites on the Web that claim to supply you with the addresses of people that are interested in your business. What we have found though, is that many of these sites use a 3rd party to generate the leads. They can be very expensive; USD$100 for 500 leads is not unusual. And very often, the leads you pay for are not genuine or what we call verified. Depending on your target market, buying leads may be right for you. By all means check out what’s on offer and, if you decide to buy, make sure you get value by measuring your success.

Whatever your source of leads, emailing any of them is not for the faint-hearted . It’s a steep learning curve. One mistake and you can be accused of Spam and lose your ISP in an instant. The moment you start bulk emailing you’re a marked man or woman. The main service providers know what you’re up to in terms of volume. They don’t like you doing it. All’s quiet until they receive a complaint. Depending on how naughty you’ve been, you can lose your ISP without warning; no questions asked. And, as has been our experience, you may never even find out who ruined your business! Ouch!

To minimise the risk of losing you’re ISP, you need to verify all email addresses regardless of where you got them. The rule is, if it’s not in your address book, verify! So, bulk emailing is a 2-stage process. You’ve got to get permission first (verify) before you send your business proposition or offer.

If this all sounds too hard or too risky for your liking, there is another way. Veretekk have a product called Veremail. This is one of the most exciting email marketing products that we’ve ever seen on the Net.

Veremail allows you to upload your mailing lists and do all your bulk emailing without fear or risk of losing your ISP. This program will verify the leads for you! It can send massive lists in seconds rather than hours and even manage your lists. Veretekk Gold members get Veremail included as part of their service. This program can save you thousands of dollars in time, software and materials. Most importantly, Veremail eliminates the risk of you losing your ISP. If you’re serious about making it on the Internet, this program is worth checking out.

Once you have decided on a system for generating leads, you can start working on your conversion strategy. Getting people to look at what you’ve got to offer is the easy part. Getting them to buy from you on-line is a little trickier.

The people who are really successful in getting people to buy from them understand that conversion is a process . This is not unlike selling in the real world. To be successful in converting leads to customers you need to…