Have you noticed the number of people complaining about ads, promotions, and network marketing lately? It seems like everywhere we turn, someone else is pitched out. New articles are written weekly complaining about ads, newsletters, commercials, the commercializing of holidays…even direct sellers.
People are feeling more and more frustrated about just how much advertising they are surrounded by. They've started installing adblockers, hiding and reporting posts, and tuning out ads. Of course, we have to sell, right? Businesses have to offer their services and their products to the people who need them. And how will the people know what's being offered without marketing? Hence the marketing conundrum. How do you market your business so that people know what you have to offer without marking your business as just another sales pitch to be tuned out?

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Network Marketing is a Different Kind of Marketing
The fact of the matter is, people don't mind buying from you…they mind being sold to. People don't necessarily like being viewed as just another customer, someone for you to whom you pitch your wares. They want to feel special, liked, and to know that you care about them and their needs. If you have a product that fixes a problem, they'll buy it. They just don't want to hear about your product every time the see you.
This is precisely why relationship building and funneling in direct sales is so important. When you have a well-established relationship with your customers, you know when they need a solution sometimes even before they do. You can approach them not as a consultant who only cares about making the sale, but as a friend who wants to see them resolve their issue. And having a strong funnel helps you build relationships with people you don't already know.
All too often, direct sellers fall into the trap of wanting to offer products and services and they forget to offer their friendship. If you're in network marketing, and you want people to know what you sell, then you can't forget to offer that friendship. Let's put it this way: you can't afford to forget to offer that friendship. Your conversations have to provide value outside of what you sell because otherwise, you risk people tuning you out with the rest of the marketing world.
How do We Offer Friendship Online
This is also why the 3Ps are so important. The 3Ps help facilitate friendships by teaching you how to offer your friendship along with your products and specials to your audience. Since no one wants to be sold too, building a trust with your customers makes it feel like more of a recommendation, or they're buying something because they want to support you as a person.
Look at it this way, you trust your in person friends not to steer you wrong in recommending a product for <insert problem> right? Why would that be any different if they sold it.
#EmpowerSocial
