How old is the company? Is it well-established or is it just starting out? How are the company’s sales? Are they rising or falling? What is the general reputation of the company? Reviews and blogs can usually give you a good idea if the company is reputable or suspicious.
Is this product safe? Are the product’s claims backed up by legitimate research? Would I use this product? Is this product priced fairly?
Ask direct and specific questions. If you find the answer too vague, ask for clarification. Ask exactly what the company will expect of you—how much are you expected to sell? How many people are you expected to recruit? Are you required to take part in training programs?
If a company makes more money selling products to distributors than to the public. If a company makes more money recruiting members than by selling products. If anything seems wrong to you, don’t sign a contract.
What product or service are you intending to sell? Who is your intended market? How much time will you dedicate to this? Will it be a part-time commitment or are you planning on working 7 days a week? What is your goal? Do you want to get rich or just make some extra money? Think long-term. Where will you be in 5 years? 10 years? What is your marketing strategy? Will you make cold calls? Use the internet or social media? Go door to door? You can update or change the plan as needed, but it helps to have a guide when you’re just starting out.
Someone who is available if you need help. Someone who you could see yourself working with. Someone who will be honest with you if there’s something you can do better.
Social media is a cheap, easy way to generate buzz for your product. Start a page for your company on each of the major social media sites and update them all regularly. Buy advertising space online and offline. Websites and newspapers can help build awareness for your product. Cold calling, though old fashioned, is still a popular method of finding potential leads. Personal interaction is also useful. Always have business cards on you and be ready to talk about your company. You never know when you may come across someone who is interested in what you have to offer.
Set up your web page with an auto responder designed to contact people who visit your page. Manage all your contacts in an organized file with all their information easily accessible. Have a sales pitch ready at all times when you contact a lead. Try more than once to turn a lead into a customer. Just because someone wasn’t interested once doesn’t mean they will never be interested. Be careful not to overdo it, though—you could easily get a reputation as a spammer, which can hurt your business.
