When someone asks a network marketer, "So, how do you make money?" or "What do you do?" the dancing begins. Have you noticed that?

They waltz, they do the funky chicken, they shuffle and jump every which way just way just to avoid saying they're selling something.

We've all come to distrust sales people. Who wants to be identified with the smarmy sales person who, as the villain in the musical My Fair Lady, "oiled his way around the floor, oozing charm from every pore."

Women especially don't want to be seen as the typical sales person (=someone who will say whatever she has to, to make a sale). Or who makes friends in order to make sales. We don't want to be excluded from our social circles because of NM.

This leads to some interesting dances. When I asked an audience of networkers last weekend at a teleconference, "How do you make money in this business?" here were some responses.

"Work really hard."
"Duplicate."
"Know about the product."
"Teach others."
"Share the product."
"Talk to people."
"Tell the story."

I egged them on: "Any more? So far, none of these things will make you money."

Who here knows people who work hard, but don't make money? Or who talk to people but don't make money?

Things became quiet. The next responses were more tentative:

"Uhh, recruit people?"
"Ask your upline?" (Who was sitting in the room)
"Learn the pay plan?"

Guessing, hoping and dancing. Anything but sales.

Some people actually say, "We don't sell. We share. We educate and teach…" Yet, without someone buying a product because of you, there is no money going to you, is there? Someone has to pay your company money, and they give you a cut. That's called a sales commission/bonus, on a SALE.

So I wonder now: Is our own anything-but-sales mindset leading us into the same tactics of the less-than-forthright sales people we love to hate? Will WE ourselves now say whatever we have to, to avoid telling someone else that the Network Marketing business actually involves sales? Hmm.

Next time someone asks what you do to make money, how about this?

There are two ways to make money in a network marketing business:

1. Find customers who will buy your product or service; or

2. Recruit Sales Reps who will buy your product or service, but will also find
their own customers who buy and will also recruit other Sales Reps.

Customers pay money for your product or service which earns you commissions from your company. You must love and revere them. They're like the famous jeweled Faberge eggs of the Russian aristocracy. They dazzle, they glint, they shine and they are incredibly valuable. Treat them like your rarest possession, because they are. Repeat customers can give you income for years and years, after the initial work of getting them is done. Show the person how that works for 10, or 100, or 1,000 customers 5-10 years out.

Sales Reps (distributors, whatever your company calls them) help you lengthen your reach into the marketplace and they help you multiply sales. It's like forging a chain, link by link. The more you and they recruit the right ones, the longer and stronger your chain becomes. The more Sales Reps you have the stronger and further your sources of income become. When you show this, disclose the stats – that most recruits don't last. On the other hand, the fast start bonuses give a quick financial shot in the arm.

Then be straight and tell them the odds for both options. Don't let anyone start the business with you, thinking it's easy, that anyone can do it. We know better, don't we?

P.S. Let THEM decide which to focus upon more, Customers or Sales Reps.