MLM company training typically incorporates lots of hype, with claims of superiority, extravagant growth, and other big language. That type of training is typically not very helpful. A large percentage of people involved in network marketing have no experience with any type of promotion or marketing. This type of training usually leads the average person to frustration and possible failure.



Are you a salesperson?

The vast majority of people who get into network marketing are not salespeople, nor do they wish to become one! Yet the training people get from their uplines goes something like this: Now that you've joined, get your entire family and all your friends to join you! Go out there and talk to everyone within three feet! Get out of your comfort zone! Get 100 no's! Make 50 dials a day! This type of training tries to turn trainees into salespeople. In network marketing, this leads to frustration and discomfort because people don't like to sell or be sold, especially by their friends and family.

Here's the funny thing: In my previous life, I was in sales! I sold everything from garbage services to advertising, and I was successful, too. When I got into network marketing, I thought, No problem, piece of cake, I can sell anyone anything; this will be easy. Guess what? It was hard. I did everything my upline told me to do, and I still didn't have success. When I asked what else I could do, I was told to just keep talking to people and not to quit. What kind of training is that?

Do you have a simple, duplicable system?

In network marketing you need a system for promotion, presentation, and follow-up that is simple and duplicable—a system the average secretary, plumber, teacher, mechanic, retiree, salesperson, or CEO can follow. A system that's rejection-free. For you to have success, a good upline needs a training system in place to teach people about people. Network marketing is a teaching and mentoring business, and in order to be successful, you must understand people and what makes them tick. Most MLM upline training consists of telling people it's a numbers game. Have you ever been treated like a number? Did you like it? How did it make you feel? Is that the way you want to make people feel? It's not a numbers game—it's about people, and people are not numbers.

Most MLM companies don't provide training that's worth a hill of beans. Typically, it consists of a lot of motivation and “you can do it” hype. That's okay. Believe it or not, the company's job isn't to train the distributors in the field; their job is to manufacture and ship the products and then send us our checks. That's why it's so important to find an upline or team that has a system already in place, a system that you can plug into for some good meat-and-potatoes training and that has great support and makes you feel part of a team, not alone on an island, struggling to survive. When you find a MLM team with good, solid training in place, it will be magic!