Let’s face it – planning is not a fun activity, especially when it includes numbers.
However, planning is important if you want to be successful in network marketing.
Nothing happens by magic … so laying out a simple path to get you from where you are to where you want to be helps keep you on track and moving.
Comment below if, when you joined your network marketing company, your upline or team trainer told you to figure out your “Why”.
For most network marketing companies, this is the first thing trainers ask people to do.
Your Why is the real reason you signed up as a distributor …
the reason that achieving your goal is so important …
the reason you’ll stay committed until you achieve victory.
If your Why isn’t strong enough, you won’t stay in the company long enough to learn what you need to learn to be successful.
So savvy trainers and uplines will encourage you to dig deep until you hit the true reason you signed up.
There’s a world of difference between a surface Why of “I want to earn an additional $3,000 a month” …
and “I want to give my 60-year-old husband the gift of retirement”.
One is factual but has no emotional hook.
The second evokes all the emotion you feel when watching your husband go off to work day after day, tired, worried and discouraged, knowing he can’t afford to retire.
One leads to “I’ll give this a try.”
The other leads to determination to make it work.
For many of us, we knew we had hit our Why when the tears started …
when the words grabbed our hearts and made it tough to breathe.
These are the Whys you hear from the stage, when distributors finally reach their goals …
and we all sit in our seats, silently mouthing OMG …
as we hear what these folks had to go through to get where they are.
In many cases, the Why is obvious and urgent – “I did it to feed my kids”.
In others, it is more subtle and profound – “I did it to be there for my kids because my parents were never there for me”.
If you’ve never gone through an exercise to discover your Why, do it now.
Sit with someone you trust, face to face, either across a table or in chairs facing each other, knees just touching.
The job of the person sitting across from you simply is to ask “Why” when you state your reason for wanting to succeed in this company.
It’s important that your partner says nothing else and shows no emotion during the exercise.
Your job is to keep digging deeper every time they ask “Why?”.
When you’ve gone as far as you can go …
and the emotions are exhausted …
stop and write down your true Why.
Now that you know your Why, you can set the goal that will satisfy that Why.
Let’s say your goal is to enable your husband to retire.
How much money do you need to do that?
Is it $1,000 a month, $2,000 a month?
Do you need to purchase additional things that you got through your husband’s company, like medical insurance?
Take the time to figure out exactly what it will take to give your husband the gift of retirement … or whatever your Why is.
Once you know, that is your goal.
For this exercise, let’s say your goal is to make $3,000 a month in commissions.
Once you have your goal, you can turn it into a SMART goal.
SMART stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound
What exactly must be accomplished to say you achieved this goal?
In the case of our example, the money paid to you by your network marketing company must be at least $3,000 per month.
“Enough money for retirement” would not be specific.
What can you track to show progress against your goal?
In this case, it’s the monthly commissions being paid.
It’s simple to see whether or not the commissions are growing month over month, and when you’ve achieved the goal.
Is the goal realistic and do you have a chance of achieving the goal?
If the top earners in your company make only $2,000 a month, then your goal is probably not attainable.
You need to join a different company.
Is the goal relevant to your life and your Why?
If you’ve just received a $500,000 inheritance, making $3,000 a month in your network marketing company may no longer be relevant. You can invest the inheritance instead.
If you have no way to feed your children because you can’t find a job, making that money is necessary for your family’s well being and is entirely relevant.
Does your goal have a date by which you need or want to achieve it?
If it doesn’t, then you can go on forever, kidding yourself that you’re working on your goal.
For a goal to be solid, it needs an end date.
For our example, let’s say the date is twelve months from today.
Now that we have all the components, our example goal would look like the following:
I am earning $3,000 per month in commissions as a distributor with the XYZ company. It is July 27, 2018. Today my husband is handing in his notice at work so he can retire.
Once you have your major, long-term goal, it’s time to break down the goal into quarterly chunks.
Our goal above might look like:
Q1 - $300
Q2 - $750
Q3 - $1,500
Q4 - $3,000
After you have the quarterly goals, you need to decide what your first month goal will be.
Let’s say $100 in commissions.
Great job!
Now that you have your goals, it’s time to put together the rest of the plan to finally get to your daily actions.
In future blogs, we’ll be talking about the products you want to sell, the people you’d prefer to sell to, and the financials.
Don’t worry – you won’t need a math degree – just a calculator.
Give yourself a pat on the back for getting this far and …
See you in the next blog.
To your success,
Wendy
PS If any of this planning is confusing, go to https://www.wendybyford.com/join-me/ and sign up for a 10-minute strategy call. I’ll be happy to discuss where you’re stuck and give you more guidance.
