Every successful business needs a sound strategy.

For network marketers, strategies focus on the messages we use to reach out to others. For most of us, our presentations are the voice of our businesses. So presentation develpment goes hand-in-hand with moving our business forward.

Presentation strategy begins with our business objectives. Typical objectives for network marketing are:

–Sell our brand and our products effectively one-on-one.
–Continually grow our base of potential downline members.
–Train our downline members to be more effective in both selling and recruiting.
–Maintain commitment and enthusiasm of our downline members over time.

Each of these business objectives requires a different kind of presentation, and may also require a specific delivery method. Although some of the same slides may appear in multiple presentations, each individual presentation needs to fit its business goal.

A presentation to sell our brand and our products emphasizes our product story. Although it may be posted online as an on-demand presentation, we always need a version that we can present personally, either in person, or with an online service like PresenterNet.

A presentation to grow our base might have an online on-demand version that whets the appetite of a potential downline member. However, recruiting demands a follow-up version delivered one-on-one, either on line or in-person. And that version needs to spell out the potential rewards and mechanics of how a new member can prosper.

Training presentations to downline members need to be delivered on a regular schedule, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Each presentation needs to be a bit different. While this presentation may review information previously presented, the best versions concentrate on one subject that interests participants and makes them more effective. For example, this presentation might concentrate on how to make an initial introduction of our business opportunity.

Presentations to maintain commitment and enthusiasm may be connected to training sessions, but are often personalized. They might include personal advancement of individuals, successful business awards, and presentations. They might also include inspirational material such as YouTube clips, famous quotations, etc. whenever appropriate.

In all cases, presentations must be orderly and professional, using graphics and photos whenever possible, and using as few text bullets as possible. We’ll discuss presentation design methods in future posts. But the one rule to remember is, “Always use the right tool for the job at hand”. Presentations are our tools. Use them well.

Network marketers are learning that Webinars are one of the most cost effective methods of creating new prospects. In most cases however, Webinars are positioned as events that occur one or twice monthly and require strong invitation processes to ensure success.

Thinking outside of the box, an MLM can develop regular Webinar audiences that view their online presentations like radio or TV programs. These marketers build audiences who listen and view an online presentation program for 30 minutes a week if it deals with subjects that they find interesting. The marketing presenter then creates presentations that are more like interesting TV infomercials, instead of standalone events.

For example, an MLM we spoke with recently holds a weekly online show on cosmetics every Monday evening at 8 PM. Her online show is a discussion and demonstration of the best ways to use certain products. The products of course are from the health and beauty line she sells. Her slides focus on photos of friends who act as demonstration models, and include numerous shots taken at various points throughout the product application process. To give the programs a professional feel she embeds music at certain points, and gives newsy reports on pop culture items

Along with the stories she tells to an interested audience she mentions the financial opportunity offered to people who might also like to earn money doing what she does. Adding interactive slides that enable people to request more information, this network marketer creates a few new leads from every program.

This strategy works because audience members feel that they are viewing an online program that interests them, though they might not have been attracted to a Webinar event to learn about an MLM business. By delivering a new interesting program every week, this marketer has developed a regular audience that grows through word of mouth.

Many others have used similar online programs that emphasize a wide variety of subjects, to create audiences that trust the marketer’s credibility. In many cases, programs have little to do with the products they sell, and only promote the product portion during commercial breaks. Some successful people have even presented online religious programs with illustration to attract audience members. Each of these is another example of MLM’s thinking outside of the box.