What Are You Selling?

Your #1 Product is You

I love being affiliated with MLM Direct Sales Companies like Amway. They offer hundreds of consumable products -- but whether or not you realize it, the primary product you are selling is yourself. Before a prospect decides whether to buy your product or join your organization, he decides whether or not he wants to do business with YOU.

The key thing to keep in mind is that YOU are your business, not your MLM. In other words, it isn’t enough for your opportunity to be different… you have to be different. -- Ann Sieg, The Renegade Network Marketer, page 80

You Must Be Visible

I’ve created two diagrams to show the difference between selling yourself first and selling your product or opportunity first.

1. I’m a small business owner, employee, and a distributor for a network marketing company. This first diagram shows my mindset about my business structure before I learned about differentiation and selling myself first.

2. The second diagram shows how I’ve implemented the “You are your business” strategy and have reorganized my businesses – and my life. My personal talents, gifts, interests, experience, and personality are integrated with my business efforts.

If you are a distributor for a network marketing company, that company falls underneath you in this model. The goal, then, is to gather a list of people who have already done business with you before being introduced to your network marketing products or opportunity. Those people have willingly given you their contact information along with permission for you to communicate with them directly (through an opt-in form), and will always be your customers. As Ann Sieg says in The Renegade Network Marketer,

"For network marketers, this also requires a serious shift in thinking where you become the bigger “parent company”… Your opportunity is just one of many services." (page 107)

"The key here, what separates a business owner from a sales rep and what allows yout to have your own customers, is that you have to have something unique to offer people above and beyond your opportunity. The more you yourself bring to the table, the greater your returns are. By taking this approach (one where your MLM is one of multiple products you offer), you are now an equal with your MLM as a business entity." (page 109)

The Renegade Network Marketer

The Renegade Network Marketer is just one of several books Ann Sieg has written. Its 130 pages are packed with insight and wisdom that took Ann Sieg years to acquire. Even experienced business owners will glean morsels from this book, although it is easily understood by beginners.

In chapter 10 of The Renegade Network Marketer Ann Sieg explains how to implement and leverage the information she provides in the first nine chapters. In fact, those who purchase the book (a steal at $67, I might add) also get unlimited access to the Renegade Back End system. The Back End is not a one-size-fits-all system. It's a place to begin customizing your own marketing funnel. It's the next step in taking full ownership of your business.