To illustrate the critical thinking necessary, let's do a couple of examples and see if the answer appears, okay?

Example #1: Fat-Be-Gone diet tablets.

What factor would be most important to successfully market Fat-Be-Gone diet tablets?

1. A quality brochure with great copy that stressed the benefits.

2. A quality product that was manufactured to the highest standards.

3. Good pricing.

4. Good street corner location.

5. A large market of fat prospects looking for a way to lose weight.

What's your choice for the most successful factor?

Example #2: Reel-Cheep long distance service.

What factor would be the most important to successfully market Reel-Cheep long distance service?

1. Great television commercials with a famous movie star.

2. Nice billboards on busy highways.

3. Fair pricing that undercuts the major suppliers.

4. Convenient voice mail features.

5. A large market of prospects who want long distance service.

What's your choice for the most successful factor?

Is the answer obvious yet? If not, let's try one more example and see what is the most successful factor.

Example #3: Fly-By-Night discount travel.

What factor would be most important to successfully market Fly-By-Night discount travel?

1. Having your own infomercial on cable television where you show videos of exotic locations.

2. Glossy brochures with beautiful scenery.

3. A high-volume location in a busy shopping mall.

4. Endorsement by the Travel Agents of America Committee For Excellence.

5. A large market of prospects who want to travel.

What's your choice for the most successful factor?

Is it obvious yet?

If chose answer #5 in each of the three previous examples, then you've got it!

Instead of trying to find ways to market and sell products to people who don't want them, successful people find large markets of prospects who want your products.

Look around you. Do you see network marketers do this? They say:

"I've got this product. Now how do I sell it to the public?"

What should they be saying? They should say:

"I've got this product. Where can I find a group of people who desperately want this product and its benefits?"

Let's compare two distributors who are attempting to sell Reel-Cheep long distance service. One distributor attempts to force the sale while the other distributor looks for a market of people who desperately want the product.

Distributor #1 goes to his local market and says:

"Reel-Cheep long distance service has good rates. I know you're getting good rates now and never heard of us, but we do have a nice brochure. We may be a bit more expensive than the regular phone carriers, but we do have cheap rates to El Salvador."

Distributor #1 sells, sells, and sells, but no one is buying. People are happy with their present rates. They don't care about El Salvador. And that glossy brochure hurts their eyes.

Distributor #2 does not go to his local market. Instead he finds the El Salvadorian community in his city and presents them with this offer:

"Reel-Cheep long distance service has the cheapest rates to El Salvador. You can talk with your relatives in El Salvador for twice as long for the same price using our service."

Distributor #2 takes orders and takes orders and takes orders.

Selling diet products is easy -- if you find the right market.

Let's look again at the strategy of Distributor #1 and Distributor #2. This time we're going to market Fat-Be-Gone diet tablets.

Distributor #1 goes to every fat person in town. He says:

"Fat-Be-Gone diet tablets will help you lose weight in just 30 days. Try some now."

A few people buy Fat-Be-Gone diet tablets, but most don't. Most of the fat people in Distributor #1's town aren't motivated to lose weight.

Distributor #2 looks for a ready, eager market of fat people who are highly motivated to lose weight now. Where?

Distributor #2 goes to the local high school and get the mailing list of people who are coming to this year's class reunion. Distributor #2 writes a letter to them saying:

"Your class reunion is just 40 days away. Fat-Be-Gone diet tablets will help you lose weight in just 30 days. Try some now."

Distributor #2 simply gathers handfuls of orders from his mailbox.

The most important success factor in marketing is to find a hungry, desperate market for your products.  Nothing else comes close.  Just because your MLM company has a product, it doesn't mean that your market wants it. If your market says "no", you have a choice:

1. Find a new market that wants your product.

2. Reposition your product to be more attractive to your present market.

3. Starve.

I’ll take choices #1 or #2. What about you?

Tom Big Al Schreiter is the author of the Fortune Now Newsletter, a generic training resource for professional network marketing leaders. If you’d like to read some free back issues, go to http://www.fortunenow.com or get the current issue free by calling 281-280-9800.