Are You Core? by Randy Gage

There are nine key qualities that every great Network Marketer possesses. It's likely that you already practice some or most of them. But to be a leader, and set an example that others can duplicate, you must practice ALL of them.

To live all nine core qualities means you've made and honored a commitment to "Go Core." To develop your business, you must identify and work with the people in your organization who are willing to make this very same commitment. Let's take a look at each one of these core qualities:

Core Quality 1) Use all of the products

To "Go Core" means that if your company has a product, you would never buy a competing product for any reason ... ever! A "Brand X" product purchase takes money out of your business and puts it into someone else's. A core person never buys "Brand X," regardless of sales, convenience, or for any other reason. It's simply bad business. You must use all of your company's products that apply to you - and be able to talk knowledgeably and enthusiastically about them - to effectively build your business.

Core Quality 2) Develop a consumer group

Your business is driven by the volume produced by sales to the end consumer. A great deal of those sales will be to distributors who "buy from their own store" and use the products themselves. But there are many other people who will benefit from your products or services, but are not interested in building a business at this time. These people will become your consumer group.

It's critical that you develop this consumer group. This is good business, because you:

Service the people who aren't distributors, but need your products or service;

Earn retail income;

Develop consistent income you can count on from regular customers; and

Build personal group volume - volume that can keep you qualified to earn other lucrative bonuses and incentives. It's a good goal to develop a base of at least ten retail customers when you are just starting out.

Core Quality 4) Make regular presentations

Like every business, Network Marketing requires consistently taking action steps. One of the most important of these is making regular presentations. Realistically, you need to be making three to five presentations a week when you start your business (working seven to ten hours a week). As your business grows, you will want to increase this number. When you reach what I consider "full time" in this business (about 25 hours a week), you will want to be making five to eight presentations a week. Of course, not all of these presentations will be new prospects that you want to personally sponsor. Many of them will be presentations you are conducting for your people as you train them and build depth.

You must consistently make presentations if you want to grow your business. Don't be misled into thinking you're growing your business with "busy work" (reading manuals, going to seminars, filling out forms, etc.). These things are important, but they are support functions to the real business - which is making regular, successful presentations to prospects.

Core Quality 4) Attend the functions

Functions are the glue that holds your business together. Attending them helps you grow your business, gives you crucial training, and keeps you focused. In your regional area, you will have the chance to attend opportunity showcases, product workshops and rallies. If these are within two to three hours driving distance, you will want to attend. There will be other events, such as conventions and leadership conferences, which are held annually. These are major, often life-changing events, and you'll want to schedule your vacation time around them so you never miss one.

Core Quality 5) Spend daily self-development time

If I've discovered one fundamental truth, it is this: your business will grow only as fast as you grow. You will have to develop new skills as your business progresses. Initially, you will need recruiting and training skills. Later, you will need time management and organizational skills. Ultimately, you will need leadership, communication and empowerment capabilities. In order to develop others, you must first develop yourself.

It's important that you set aside specific time each day for self-development. For most people, this is best done in the morning before your workday starts. You might meditate, exercise, listen to inspirational tapes, or read anything that helps you grow your mind, body and soul. Set aside this time and stick to it.

Invest in audiotapes, books and videos that help your personal development...and make sure half of this is specific to your network marketing business. Keep tapes or CDs in your car to play at every opportunity you have throughout the day. Get a portable CD player and use it when you go walking or cycling.

Don't end your day by watching the late news and then going to sleep. Make sure the last input you receive before going to bed is positive - even if it's just reading one paragraph from an inspirational book.

Many companies or sponsorship lines offer programs that provide positive, inspirational and/or instructional material on a subscription basis. If you're in such a situation, you are quite fortunate, because much of the work of finding and getting good material is already done for you. Sign up right away and make sure your people do, as well.

NOTE: If your company doesn't have such a program, or you would like to supplement your program, I'd like to suggest that you consider a subscription to my "Dynamic Development Series." Each month you'll receive a one-hour tape dedicated to exploring the frontiers of body-mind development. You can find details at: www.randygage.com/products/selfdevelop.html

Core Quality 6) Be teachable

If you want to build your business in the fastest manner possible, you must be teachable and willing to be coached. You will find Network Marketing is quite different from traditional businesses. Things that work great in sales, sometimes do not work well in Network Marketing. Your sponsorship line has learned the methods, strategies and techniques that work best in your business. They will work with you and teach you everything they know...without charging you a penny. Your sponsor is the repository of all the experience of many generations of distributors - all the way to the company. Learn from them.

Core Quality 7) Practice accountability

Network Marketing is a business of relationships, and relationships operate on trust. To earn and maintain that trust, you must be accountable. You can never tell a lie to your distributors or customers and be accountable. Accountability also means that when you write checks, they're good; when you promise to work with someone, you follow through; and when you commit to attend an event, you're there - on time.

Accountability means that when we have a product display with 24 products, there will still be 24 products at the end of the night. It means never approaching someone else's prospect or attempting to steal distributors from another line.

You create the culture of your organization. If you do it right, it will mean you can hold a function and 800 women can leave their purses on their chairs, come back, and find everything exactly as they left it!

Core Quality 8) Edify the organization

Savvy distributors learn that they must edify their sponsorship line. By "edify," I simply mean to build up. When you point out the success and accomplishments of your sponsors - it makes those sponsors more effective when they come to work with both your prospects and distributors. Many times you will find it difficult to be a prophet in your own hometown. Sometimes your friends and relatives aren't yet ready to accept that powerful, positive concepts can come from you.

By edifying your sponsorship line - then bringing your prospects to them - you'll have support to hold you over until you develop some initial success and credibility. Likewise, your sponsorship line can help you when you're working with your new distributors.

This was a lesson I had to learn the hard way. I was so ego-driven when in my early years in the business, that I would never edify my sponsor. In fact, I did quite the opposite. I used to complain to all my people how weak my sponsor was, hoping I would look strong by comparison. (Of course it did just the opposite, but I couldn't see that.)

In any event, when my sponsor would come to town, do training, or conduct a meeting - none of my people would turn out. So when I needed someone to give me credibility, there was no one to provide that. I never got any of my close friends or family members in the business. I still today believe the reason is because I didn't edify my sponsorship line.

Core Quality 9) Follow the system

Leaders understand that "lone rangers" can be successful initially - but will not enjoy long-term success. For residual income, and walk away security, you must follow a step-by-step duplicatable system, and you yourself must be duplicatable.

This means that everyone in your organization uses the same marketing materials, employs the same training procedures and follows a standardized presentation. This way, the method you use to bring in new people is the same method they use to bring in their new people. You are completely duplicatable. Regardless of someone's previous job experience, their education or confidence level - they can do the business in exactly the same, successful way you did.

Your sponsorship line has learned what works and what doesn't. They have created the system based upon that experience. Follow the system and you have the resources of the entire sponsorship line working for you. If you change the system, you lose the benefits of having all those resources at your disposal. Also, when you change the system, (substituting a different tape, changing the presentation, etc.) you send a message to your people that it's OK to change the system.

Your first-level people change the system a little, so their first-level people change the system a little, and so it goes down through the entire group. After a few levels, there is no system, so you have no security, no potential for walk away, residual income. And that means no "drink out of a coconut money!"

"Go Core!

These nine Core Qualities are what separates network marketing leaders from the people who drop by the wayside and never reach long-term success in the business. Practicing all the core qualities isn't easy - it's not supposed to be. But you must practice them if you're truly interested in building a network where others can achieve the same success as you.

"Going Core" means doing all nine actions, not just the ones you like. It also takes a substantial investment in you. But you will discover that the people who commit to going core reach dramatically higher levels of success than those who don't. As a leader committed to empowering others, you have a responsibility to go core yourself, and create this culture throughout your organization.

--Randy Gage

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About the Author:

"How to Build a Multi-Level Money Machine" is available at www.NetworkMarketingNews.com or by calling the publisher Prime Concepts Group at 1-800-946-7804 or (316) 942-1111.

About Randy Gage: For more than 15 years, Randy Gage has been helping people transform self-limiting beliefs into self-fulfilling breakthroughs to achieve their dreams. Randy's story of rising from a jail cell as a teen, to a self-made millionaire, has inspired millions around the world.

Randy's "How to Earn at Least $100,000 a Year in Network Marketing" series is the #1 selling album in direct selling history. And his "Escape the Rat Race" audiotape has introduced the industry to millions of prospects all over the world. Randy has conducted live programs in more than a dozen countries, and his materials are used in countless more.

Learn More about Randy at www.randygage.com