Patience is an essential business skill every network  marketer needs to be successful.

Unfortunately, it  is something I personally was not blessed with at birth. I do have to work very hard on it. The good news is, it can be learned.

Wouldn’t you agree with me that anglers would make great network marketers?

They definitely would have the patience for it. Just think about it. They sit there for hours on end with their fishing poles in the water and wait for a nibble. Sometimes they catch something. Sometimes they don’t. And sometimes they get lucky and catch “the big one”. But they never get upset if they don’t.

Network marketing – especially prospecting – is pretty much the same as fishing, isn’t it?

We sit there with our fishing poles in the water,

Knowing Your Network Marketing Numbers Can Save You A Lot of Frustration

Many new networkers get frustrated because they don’t know their numbers. But knowing them has a lot to do with their success in network marketing.

If you are just starting out in the network marketing industry (or in your new home business) you must know your numbers.

Realize that your numbers will be lower than someone else’s who has been working in the industry for a while.

Don’t compare yourself to your sponsor,

While browsing around the BetterNetworker.com site over the weekend I found a blog post I had posted there about a year ago. I thought it would be a good one to share with all of you today to start the week off on the right foot.

Lessons From A Blender

As I strolled into the kitchen that morning for my second cup of coffee, I saw my husband put huge chunks of ice into the blender for his chocolate shake. I looked at him and the first words out of my mouth were, …

“The more trustworthy you become, the more success you have the potential to achieve”  Jeffrey Gitomer

Ask any successful network marketer and they will tell you that the key ingredient to their success is TRUST.

Doesn’t that make total sense? Just think about yourself. Would you join or buy from anyone you don’t trust? Of course you wouldn’t.

So how do you go about building trust
with your prospect?

Here are some examples…

When I started this blog about a year ago, I knew very litte about blogging. But I knew, in order to grow my business, I had to have one central hub or nerve center to send all my traffic to. I also knew that I had to provide my visitors with good quality content so they would come back for more.

So I did all that but still, until just recently it was slow going. My Alexa ranking was hovering around the 2 to 3 million. Not really what I hoped for. Clearly, I needed some major help in order to increase my blog traffic.

Everything changed when

Or …What NOT To Do When You Receive A Friend Request At Your Social Network

Ouch! Someone hit me over the head with a baseball bat again. Not literally, of course, but it hurts just as much and it had me run for the Aspirin.

Over the weekend, I invited several people to be my friend at one of the top social networks. Unfortunately, one person mistook it as an invitation to spam me with his business opportunity.  Now, I will give this gentleman the benefit of doubt and assume he didn’t know any better. But this is a sure-fire way to get scratched off of my friends list. Like most social network members, I am there to build relationships.

Don’t take your clothes off on the very first date …

Spamming people who sent you a friends request with your business opportunity, is like

Productivity Advice from Jerry Seinfeld

We all have certain tasks that we should be doing on a daily basis. But for some reason or another we don’t.

Deep down we know that doing these tasks would not only help us become a better network marketer but they would also greatly improve our business skills.

There’s a great story about a young comic who met Jerry Seinfeld.

He asked him if he had any tips on how to improve his jokes as he was still learning the ropes.

The answer Seinfeld gave him was genius, not for the fact that he told the young comic to write every day (which he already knew), but because he told him

Build Your Business with Rapport

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Building rapport is the first step in building a relationship with your customers, clients or future business partners. It’s a skill anyone can learn and like anything else, it takes practice. The more we practice, the better we get at it. Eventually it comes naturally. My husband is great at this. He has a unique gift to make the person he talks to laugh within the first 30 seconds. Humor is a great ice-breaker.

Here are 3 important points that will help you become a great rapport builder:

1) Ask questions. You can find out a lot about a person by asking questions. Listen to the answers they give you and you will find out what their needs are. People love to talk about themselves.

2) Listen. I mean really listen to what they are telling you. Keep eye contact and give them your full attention. Looking around while listening is not only rude, but it will give them the impression that you are distracted or don’t really care. Make them your total focus and show genuine interest. Let them have the feeling that there is nothing else more important at that moment than they are. Do participate in the conversation but listen more than you talk.

3) Compliment. There is nothing that will give you faster or stronger rapport than a genuine compliment. Emphasis is on ‘genuine.’ Really mean what you say. People will see straight through a fake or insincere compliment and that would only hurt your trying to build that relationship. So be totally sincere. It makes us feel good when we get a sincere compliment and we open up. If you don’t know the person very well or you have just met, compliment them on their smile, their outfit or anything else that strikes you at first glance.

Building rapport can be a lot of fun and it’s different with every person you meet. The more you practice, the better you get.

How do YOU build rapport? I’d love to hear your comments on this.

To Your Success,
Ilka Flood
The Enlightened Networker