Network marketing is a tremendous way to build a lifestyle of your dreams, but it takes learning and developing good habits that will help you grow. Don’t derail yourself with bad habits that prevent you from becoming your best version of yourself. I’m going to share with you how to avoid 20 major pitfalls that will kill your network marketing career.
Pitfall #1: Having a “Stinkin’ Thinkin'” attitude.
Your attitude is key to your business. It sets the direction for your life. One of my favorite books (and movie) The Secret, has many passages about how the way you think effects your outcome. “The world moves forward… it doesn’t know could’ve, would’ve, should’ve, (etc.)”, “What you think about becomes your maximum potential.” So, are you going to think small? You see, negativity doesn’t belong here, it only exists when you allow it and sets you back. Remember, “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll. When your attitude is positive, you’ll be in the right position to handle what comes your way.
Pitfall #2: Listening to naysayers.
We’re constantly being surrounded by people who are waiting to say “I told you so.” Especially when starting out, when we’re trying to change ourselves for the better, we are still associated with people who are stuck where they are at and not willing or ready to grow. Those same people don’t want to see you grow (even if they say they do) because it reflects on them where they are at in life. They’d rather keep you down so that you can keep them company in their misery. When you have a small belief factor in yourself or your business you get trapped into entertaining someone else’s disbelief. You waste a lot of time. It’s usually because of a lack of knowledge to stand your ground. Many people will not ‘see it’ until they ‘believe it.’ They are also the people that suffer from pitfall #1: stinkin’ thinkin’. They don’t have your vision, so why would you let them ruin yours? So, don’t allow people to rent space in your head.
Pitfall #3: Allowing rejection to affect you.
Rejection is going to happen. Not everyone is going to join your business or be a customer; even as much as you want them to. The fact is that people are going to say ‘No’. That’s ok. We’re not looking for everyone, we’re sifting through to find the right one. I went through 176 ‘No’s’ before I got my first ‘Yes.’ You have to ‘know that you know’ that you are only going to get better with practice and time. Be encouraged that when people tell you ‘no’, they are not rejecting you personally. Maybe it’s not the right time for them, but situations change. When their circumstance changes you want to be the person to follow up with them because you may have the solution to their problem.
Pitfall #4: Neglecting your responsibility to your business.
YOU made the decision to start your own business, to be your own boss. So, when did someone else dictate your success? If you’re going to own your business then it’s up to you to see it through and to do the things to help it succeed. Neglecting your business would include passing your responsibility off to your leader. 
They are there for training, mentoring, and support; but, if they aren’t it’s up to you to find the resources, leadership, and training opportunities. You’re responsible for exposing your product/service/opportunity, no one else. It starts and ends with you.
Pitfall #5: Procrastination.
Some people think that there is always time. You may have heard them say “I’ll start next week” or “I need to get my marketing materials first,” and a thousand other excuses I’ve heard to not do it TODAY. It only delays your growth and your income. The longer you delay, the harder it is to get started. So, your best shot is to hit the ground running. If you can talk to someone, you can market.
Pitfall #6: Not sticking to a schedule.
This is similar to procrastination; but, having a schedule is very defined and extremely important if you’re going to run your business like a business. Having a schedule keeps you accountable to your activity and reliable to your team. If you are not disciplined enough yet to stick to a schedule, ask your leader hold you accountable. Knowing that someone you respect is going to check on you can be a great motivator.
Pitfall #7: Burning out your leader with complaints.
Abusing your sponsor is a no-no. You get upset at your team lead that it’s not happening fast enough; but, YOU dictate the speed and success of your business. You and they don’t have time for complaining; it’s a declaration of negativity and pushes you back instead of forward. Not only yourself, but it places that negativity onto your leader as well. If you lose your leader, you cut off your lifeline to the one who can lead you to the top. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Pitfall #8: Being inconsistent.
Running hot and cold will crush your business efforts, and your people will lose trust in you. They won’t know when they can count on you to be ‘in the game.’ You may have heard that the hardest part is to get that wheel moving in the beginning, but once you get going it gets easier to keep moving. People want to follow someone who is moving, not stagnating. How many times do you want to start over?
Pitfall #9: Reinventing the wheel.
Having a know it all attitude will hold you back. People who ‘know it all’ tend to try to come up with extravagant schemes of how they’re going to do something new and something grand. Then they spend their entire time working it out and never actually getting to implement it. The smart business owner will take direction from mentors on what already works and run with it. Network marketing is a “Personal Development Program wrapped around a Compensation Plan.” Be coachable, open and emulate the leaders before you. Your level of income will rise as you learn and develop. The best and fastest way to do that is to follow what works from the people who have gone before you and are succeeding.
Pitfall #10: People who are not getting it.
Amateurs are messing it up for those of us who are doing it right. They may turn off potential prospects and make it more difficult for you to attract the right people because they have developed a preconceived notion that all network marketers are the same. At worst, they over-promise results, sign people up and disappear, and have a ton of bad habits that give our industry a bad name. Being a true professional means being positive but realistic, available, dependable, and a leader who is always growing and taking their team with them. Let’s stop sending people to the MLM graveyard.
Pitfall #11: Attracting the wrong type of people.
You have a vision and a goal for yourself, and you think the people you know have the same dreams, or at least they should. What ends up happening is that YOU want it more for someone else, so you go back to the same few people, over and over, never expanding and contacting new people. Your job isn’t to make someone else see what you see, but to find those who do. You need to reach more people to find the right ones, and in order to find the right ones you need to be attractive to the people you want to have in your business. You need to know what qualities to look for in a potential business partner and display those qualities yourself.
Pitfall #12: You stop prospecting and recruiting to work with your team.
Recruiting never stops. As you grow, you need to do both at the same time – recruit and train. Get out of management mode and lead by your activity. This is the best way to teach your team to duplicate what you do. If you teach ‘management’ then you’ll have a team of managers, not producers and the whole team will stagnate. People don’t want to follow someone who isn’t going anywhere.
Pitfall #13: Thinking that you have to know everything.
This is also ‘analysis paralysis.’ You don’t need to study every detail of your product, service, or company right away. Experience is the best teacher. You just need to know the basics – what to present and how to enroll someone for your product or opportunity. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t learn everything you can; but, your time is better spent exposing people to your business. Your company should have plenty of materials that you can reference if someone has a question, and the most important source of all, your team lead. The idea is to ‘Earn while you Learn.’
Pitfall #14: Not being hungry or passionate enough.
When you’re hungry you’re constantly looking for ways to better yourself. Your level of passion is apparent to your prospects. If you are completely sold out on your product and opportunity it’s contagious and you become more believable to your prospects. You need to always be passionate about that next step of learning to be better in your business. If you’re not pushing to learn something new, you’re not hungry enough.
Pitfall #15: Not being a product of the product.
Why would you expect people to buy from you if are you not using it yourself? Whether it’s a product or a service, your testimonial means more than a list of ingredients or benefits. You build the belief factor to people you are sharing your business with if you can relay personal experience. Likewise, you destroy your believability (and authenticity) if you don’t have your own story or enough evidence from other people such as your customers to relay to a prospect.
Pitfall #16: Being too comfortable or complacent.
Growth only happens when you’re uncomfortable. Comfortable is those old habits that never made you any money. Taking on a new challenge inspires you to be a better version of yourself. This is true physically, mentally, financially, and even spiritually. They all work together. Push yourself to become uncomfortable; then, when that becomes comfortable and normal, push yourself again. Your business and your income will grow with each step. If you stay comfortable, you never give yourself a chance to grow. Everyone wants a change; but, few are willing to become uncomfortable to ignite the change. It’s only then that breakthrough happens.
Pitfall #17: Scared to take risks, regarding or making a move; ‘playing it safe’.
Playing it safe means not willing to invest in business or your team with the ‘just in case it doesn’t work’ mentality instead of ‘I know I will get it done’. Going to company events, exposing yourself to learning opportunities, and making networking events is investing in your growth and ultimately your income. Every time I have the opportunity to attend a learning event or corporate event, or have invested in a tool to grow my business I have come back earning more money in my business and influencing more people. I always say ‘You can’t afford NOT to go for it.’
Pitfall #18: Not plugging into personal development daily.
What can you possibly offer to your team if you’re not willing to grow and develop in this industry and personally? You need to lead them to something bigger than yourself and people will follow you because you’re going somewhere – or as I like to say, ‘growing’ somewhere. Personal development is the tool to grow into thinking bigger, attaining new business levels, and becoming a true professional in this industry. One other benefit is that keeping your head into personal development turns off those voices that say you can’t do it; the ones in your head, and the ones from other people.
Pitfall #19: Not reinvesting in your business.
How are you in business if you don’t supply your business with the proper inventory we need to be successful? If your business is product-oriented, you need to have samples or supply on hand to attract new customers. Whether it’s a product or service, you need to have your marketing materials – flyers, brochures, advertising, signs, whatever it is that drives exposure to your business. Having and using these tools keeps your funnel full so that you continually have people in all steps of the process. Don’t let your funnel run dry by not having the necessary tools. It takes money to make money.
Pitfall #20: Quitting too soon because it’s not happening fast enough.
Network marketing works, there is an overwhelming amount of evidence. If it’s not happening fast enough you need to evaluate what you’re doing in your business and check that you aren’t falling into any of these pitfalls. Then, see if there’s anything more you can do that you haven’t done or tried yet; and, finally, trust the process. It’s not easy, but I guarantee it’s worth it. You get to be your own boss, you get to decide when you want to work on your fortune and build your dream instead of building someone else’s. Where else can you do that? The real question is, are you willing to stay even if the going gets tough? PSST!!! Do you want to know the secret to this industry… NEVER QUIT!
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