Don’t let the word “investing” in the title scare you away. There are excellent free network marketing training programs out there, but even if you don’t invest any money, you will be investing your time and trust in the instructor/creator of the program. Here are the 4 questions you need to ask yourself before diving head first into a network marketing training program.
What is the useful lifetime of the skills taught in this Network Marketing Training Program?
This question is listed first because it is the most frequently overlooked by novice network marketers, especially anyone interested in online network marketing training. The profession of network marketing has been around for 100+ years and some recruiting and sales tactics associated with it have worked well for decades. Other tactics are more fleeting and capitalize on short-term opportunities. Do you want a long-term business based on solid principles or a shaky business reliant on a sneaky tactic? In screening network marketing training programs avoid any programs that promise or promote “loopholes”, “secrets”, “tricks”, “proprietary software” or “black-hat” methods. These words are littered across the sales pages of most network marketing training programs. Buyer beware. You want solid, foundational skills, not loopholes.
What level of student is this Network Marketing Training Designed For?
It is impossible for any network marketing training program to address the needs of the beginner and the veteran alike in a single course. Even attempting this pretty much guarantees that you will disappoint both groups. Many network marketing training courses are promoted as one-size-fits-all in order to attract the widest possible audience, but this is a marketing mistake. Beginners should buy beginner courses and experts should buy expert courses. You know which one you are! Don’t let the sales copy for the program convince you otherwise. Start with the basic and work your way up. You can’t do calculus if you’ve never succeeded with algebra or arithmetic.
What is the upfront and ongoing cost of this Network Marketing Training Program?
At the risk of angering the creators of many network marketing training programs that I actually really like, I’m coming out against membership-based training programs with an on-going monthly cost. Why? These are great for the program creators, but hardly ever the most cost-effective choice for the consumer. Allow me to explain.
If you join a network marketing training program for $67 per month, you should dive in during the first month and learn as much as you possible can from that course. In the second month, you need to think about whether you’d be better off paying another $67 for the same program, or buying program from a different author, a more advanced program or a piece of software to implement the ideas you learned with the same $67. You are almost always better off with the second option. True, you might miss some great content in month two or three of the original program, but it is more important to diversify across multiple network marketing training programs.
As a rule of thumb, you should be spending at least double your monthly autoship (or a minimum of $150 per month) or building a better business system so you can grow faster. If you don’t have $1800 per year to invest in your business, you should reevaluate your choice to be in business.
What evidence is available that past student have successfully applied what they learned?
This sounds so obvious. Clearly you don’t want to buy a network marketing training program that no one is finding success with. But, our psychology is often easily fooled by a well-written sales letter or video. Here is how it works. Everyone is naturally attracted to the big success stories – big lottery jackpots, big inheritances, big residual checks. But, it is actually much more important to know how many people got mid-sized lottery winnings, mid-sized inheritances and mid-sized residual checks. These stats are much less sexy and flashy, so there often aren’t emphasized.
You need to avoid any network marketing training offer that is based on the large success of a few individuals and look for moderate successes of many individuals. The reviews and testimonials on the sales page are the best place to look. How many are there? Do they represent different socio-economic groups, genders, races and geographies? The broader the reviews and testimonials the better.
Lastly, try to determine if the network marketing training program is partly or wholly responsible for the success that is claimed or if they bought the training program after already being successful in network marketing. This last issue is rampant and makes me so angry…people selling systems that they themselves never used.
Not on this list: What are the credentials of the instructor or Network Marketing training Program Creator?
You may have noticed that the credentials of the instructor or program creator are not among the list of 4 questions. This was not an accident. While having done it yourself can be a great route to being an effective teacher, there are plenty of mentors that are not smashing successes themselves, but provide really high quality network marketing training. Think about it. Some pro and college football coaches were elite-level players, but many excellent coaches were only average players. They’ve risen to the top of the coaching ranks despite never having been an elite player because they know how to teach and how to create a system that works.
The conclusion – You shouldn’t buy a network marketing training program from someone who has never been in the business, but you don’t need to restrict yourself to superstars.
