How to Become an Attractive Network Marketer

Becoming an attractive salesperson has never been easy, but after an economic recession marked by dropping demand for lots of consumer products, making buyers come to you can seem like a tougher battle than ever. Luckily, attracting customers to your product or recruits to your business isn’t too different from attracting people to you in general. You can draw others in by using social networking, drawing positive attention to yourself, building relationships, and being confident.

1. Use social media websites like Facebook for socializing, selling, and recruiting.

Network marketing is built on connections, just like social networking. For example, consider my friend Rachael, a successful network marketer who I regularly buy products from. Rachel uses Facebook to talk to friends, promote her products, and reach potential new salespeople about network marketing.

“Even when busy, people always seem to be on Facebook,” says Rachael, “so it’s much easier to contact them.”

Part of being an attractive salesperson is being where the customers are, and today, that means being available online. The fact that Rachael also posts fun status updates and adds lots of new friends helps build her personal brand.

Another way to use social media for network marketing would be to create a website with a blog about your products. By writing articles with plenty of keywords related to your products and updating often, search engines can bring in customers that are already attracted to what you can offer.

Daniela Baker from CreditDonkey says another bonus to having a product blog is that you can link to an e-storefront complete with extra ways to accept payments, such as PayPal or various credit cards, like Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Accepting credit card payments through PayPal is integrated into the check-out process, so it’s easy for you and your customers. They don’t even need a PayPal account to use their credit cards.

2. Spark a potential customer’s curiosity by using your products in front of them.

If you can spark someone’s interest, they’ll come to you. Just using your product where others can see you can be a cheap or even free way to advertise.

For example, I first found out about the product I usually buy from Rachael, liquid drink mix, when she added it to her water bottle in front of me at the gym. We were already friends, but I didn’t know she sold health products. I had never seen a drink mix that was a liquid instead of a powder, so I became curious right away.

During the academic year, Rachael would set up a table at her university’s student union with her partner and just start using different health products where people could see her. People would come and start asking questions—some people would just about sell themselves the products.

Of course, this doesn’t work for all types of products, but it might work for yours. Do you sell make-up? Try taking your girlfriends out, setting up a table, and doing their make-up in public. How about snacks? Bring a friend, set up a table like you would for a picnic, lay out some samples, and see how many people come to find out what you’re snacking on!

Online, this could mean posting video demonstrations about your products on websites like YouTube. You could then link to these from your social networking sites.

3. Be patient and avoid using the “hard sell” with family or friends.

This tip fits in nicely with the two above. By bringing customers into your network and making them curious about your product, you won’t need to use “hard sell” techniques.

“Always be patient with the people you are either selling your products to or trying to recruit as a network marketer,” says Rachael. “They may show interest, but might not want to buy anything right then.”

Rachael lets people become interested in her products over time. For example, when I first became curious about Rachael’s drink mix products, I wasn’t thinking about buying them yet. I just thought they were cool and wanted more information. She answered my questions, gave me a sip of her drink, mentioned selling the product, then didn’t bring it up again for a while.

I stayed curious and talked about the product with her a few more times before buying my first box. If Rachael had tried a hard sales pitch, I would have been annoyed. Instead, Rachael built my interest in the product slowly.

If you focus on online marketing, you could use this approach by joining forums that your target market likes just to chat and get to know them, then linking to your products in your signature or bringing them up at helpful moments in the conversation. Adding a link to your products or product-related blog in your e-mail signature is another easy way to get people used to your product over time.

4. Don’t allow fear of rejection to dent your confidence.

Potential customers or recruits are attracted to confident people, just like everyone else. If you’re always afraid of rejection, that vibe will turn people off.

“Build up the courage to talk to more people,” advises Rachel. If one person isn’t interested, someone else will be.

Learning to be confident takes time for some people, but it pays off, both inside and outside the world of network marketing.

As you can see, the tips above could be applied to making friends, dating, business networking, or plenty of other social activities. If you present yourself and your products in the best light, customers and recruits will be attracted to your products, your company, and you!