I’m sure most people have heard the phrase “like attracts like” or “birds of a feather flock together”. How often do you find yourself with friends who have something in common with you? Maybe you have similar interests or a similar outlook in life? We take it for granted that people who come into our lives are attracted to us in some way, whether a physical attraction, intellectual attraction etc., otherwise why would they be in our lives at all?

So why do we treat building a network marketing business any differently when we should be employing ‘attraction marketing‘ principles to build businesses?

Traditional network marketing, in which family, friends and colleagues all appear on your hit list and you pursue them relentlessly with your product and/or opportunity, only to hear a chorus of “thanks but no thanks”,  is demoralising. Just ask anyone who’s started a business and they’ll tell you how they were ready to quit before they got going, simply because the rejection by their friends and family proved too much. I have in the past joined more mlm opportunities than I care to mention. For the first three companies I joined I diligently made my list and approached most people I’d written down on it. By the time you join company number 4 your friends and family believe you are a joke and keep asking when you’re going to do a proper job! They might be friends and family, but if they are negative and discouraging would you really want to work with them? Are they really going to follow your lead? See you as a leader? No, I thought not!

This is where attraction marketing comes in. The day I discovered that there was another way to build a network marketing business was a revelation. I was introduced to this way of doing things when I read Mike Dillard’s Magnetic Sponsoring book. Network marketing is not about the company you join or the products you sell, but is in fact about YOU and branding yourself as the expert. When you talk to a prospect about your business it’s not your business they’re really interested in hearing about. They don’t want to know about the compensation plan, what your products can do, how many countries the company trades in, or how long the company has been trading for. Fair enough, they’ll want to know those details at some point, but in the first instance they want to know about YOU and whether or not you can help them achieve their goals. Prospects don’t care about anything else until they have established some kind of a relationship with you. They want to know if they’re dealing with someone who knows what they’re talking about. The only way they’re going to find out depends on how well you brand yourself as the expert. You have to demonstrate that you are the leader they want to follow. People don’t join companies, they join leaders.

How do you attract the right people into your business? For a start, you no longer need to convince people to join you. My definition of ‘convince’ is to talk someone into doing something they don’t want to do. Do you really want to spend your time with people like this? When you position yourself as a leader they’ll be attracted to you, your personality, your positivity, your confidence in yourself. If you demonstrate that you need people in your business they’ll never follow you. The day that you realise that you know they need you more than you need them, is the day you no longer have to convince anybody to join your business. You will attract people into your business. People will call you to ask you about your opportunity.

If you want to attract a dynamic leader into your business, there’s only one thing you need to do – become a dynamic leader.

If you want to attract people with confidence – become more confident.

If you want to attract people with a great work ethic – develop a great work ethic.

If you want to attract a great business builder – become a great business builder.

In network marketing you don’t get what you want, you get what you are. Be the kind of person that leaders are attracted to. Become the hunted, not the hunter.

And if there’s one last piece of advice I should impart here – Read More! Learn about the industry in which you are involved or considering joining. For some reason most people who start in network marketing believe that they’re going to get rich quickly (or at least be in a position to quit their day job in days). Doctors, lawyers, accountants and teachers (to name only a few professions) have to train for years to be considered experts in their fields, so why would a network marketer know everything about this business after a couple of meetings or the odd webinar? Attractive leaders in network marketing educate themselves. It’s an ongoing process that is essential if you are to increase the value in the marketplace of YOU as an attractive leader.