I’ll keep this real simple for you – network marketing is, and always has been, a people business. All successful MLM is going to come down to how effectively you work with people; face to face, over the phone and through your electronic communications. You have a remarkable suite of tools at your disposal today – the internet, social networking sites, email, blogs – they’re all superior prospecting and marketing tools. But, never lose sight of this fact: behind every email, every click, every blog post and every solicitation of any kind, is a real live human being. And, people want to conduct business with people, not electronic wizardry.

In your network marketing business, you’ll be working with people on three distinct levels. We’ll look at the three levels and examine the importance of your people skills in each area.

The first level is your upline and more specifically, your immediate sponsor. This is the person who more than likely introduced you to the business and who you’ll consider joining to build a business of your own. It is critically important to the long term success of your business that you choose your sponsor wisely. Basically, your sponsor should be the person you aspire to become. Your sponsor will especially help you in the early stages of your business building efforts. The beginning is the most critical time for any new business, it’s very easy to get discouraged up front if things don’t start to click right away. Your sponsor should be ready, willing and able to provide you with a decent amount of hand holding. You wouldn’t want to become overbearing to your sponsor but at the same time, he or she should be easy enough to line up for coaching or three way phone calls.

The questions you’d want to ask of your potential sponsor to help you determine whether or not they’re a good fit for your business goals – and more importantly the answers they provide – are beyond the scope of this article but will be addressed in the next installment. Your sponsor is a member of your overall upline team. Although it’s difficult to determine the competency of your upline people until after you’ve started your business, chances are pretty good that they’ll share similar qualities with your sponsor. (Just think of the whole “birds of a feather” thing.) The overall upline team is important because you’ll become a member of that team. Is it a team you wish to be a part of?

The next level of people you’ll be working with is your downline; the people you’ll be sponsoring into your business. Will you be taking your business seriously? If so than the last thing you’d want to do is invite just anyone into your organization. I cannot stress this enough, network marketing is a serious business as long as you treat it that way. Do you think Bill Gates built Microsoft into the organization it is today because he threw the doors open on day one and invited just anyone to come in and work with him? Or do you think perhaps he interviewed people and made a logical assessment of whether or not they were right for his business growth? You’ve got to do the same. With the right people on your team your success will be inevitable. If you sponsor just anyone with a pulse into your business, you’ll be setting yourself up for many long days of frustration, lost time and lost money.

Here’s the rule of thumb in network marketing – if you were to find just two serious business building partners a year, you’ll be well on your way to financial freedom. That’s not to say that everyone you interview for your business has to be a superstar. Sometimes, a superstar will take a little time to develop. You may consider somebody as a business partner without expecting too much out of them. Next thing you know, they may just experience a Darwinesque progression as time goes on. Here’s the bottom line: be a little picky and be a little choosey on who you bring on board as a business partner and you’ll be just fine.

I’d like to offer you one last word on this – like attracts like. Do you want to find serious business builders to work with? Then make sure that you first are a serious business builder. People want leadership, they seek out leadership. Develop yourself as a leader and as a business person and you can then expect to attract the best people into your organization.

There are a number of questions you’d want ask of your potential business partners. However, those questions are beyond the scope of this article and will be addressed in a future installment. But, for now, suffice it to say that asking only a few key questions will help you to thin the herd rather quickly and find the people who will best compliment your business.

The final level is the people who will become your retail customers. Not everyone you speak with will join your business but chances are pretty good that many of them may become your customers. If these people trust you and appreciate the knowledge you have on the product line you represent then they will want to buy from you. All I can say here is that if people are interested to hear more about your products, give them the story. What I would caution you against is being too pushy or aggressive. NOBODY likes to be sold but everyone LOVES to buy. People will happily buy things for their own, emotional reasons. However, if somebody is sold something, chances are good buyer’s remorse will eventually take over. When people buy for their own reasons they will be good, loyal, repeat customers. However, if you have to sell them on using your product line it will more than likely be a one shot deal. So, why risk alienating someone just to make a single sale?

This is the fifth in a series of articles on the MLM / social marketing / network marketing industry. In the next article I’ll give you some ideas on the questions you’d want to ask of both your potential upline and downline business partners. Your business partners, on many levels, are even more important than the company you get involved with.

If you’d like to ensure that you don’t miss out on any installments in this series, I’d be happy to send past and future articles directly to you. Just shoot me an email and I’ll include you on my direct distribution list.