Attraction Marketing Strategies vs. Old School Network Marketing Strategies
Attraction marketing strategies (new school) vs. old school network marketing strategies are similar to one fighter in the blue corner and the other in the red corner. Old school network marketing (blue corner) has been around for many years and has been used successfully to build some of the largest businesses in network marketing. Great leaders at companies like Amway and Herbalife have credited old-school strategies for their incredible success and movie star lifestyle.
There are still people using old school strategies to build a great business in network marketing, and in my opinion there always will be. The question is not which old-school and new-school approach is better, but which is more duplicable, or makes the most sense to you, and which makes you the most money.
In his book “Cash Flow Quadrant,” Robert Kiyosaki tells a short story his “rich dad” told him and explains the difference between working hard and working smart. In the story, two businessmen each established a separate business to supply water to a town.
The first businessman brings endless buckets of water to town while the other leaves for six months and returns with a team of people. Then the second type takes another six months to build a pipeline to bring water to the village.
When the second guy with the pipe is finally ready, he delivers better quality water, more often, and for 75% less than his competitor. Of course, the second type did very well, which ties into the two questions Robert asks himself before considering a new business venture. These questions are responsible for making Kiyosaki rich and wealthy.
The questions are:
1) Am I building a pipeline or hauling buckets?
2) Am I working hard or working smart?
These are the types of questions to ask yourself if you want to join a network marketing business or want to improve your current business.
Here are some examples of Haul Buckets in a network marketing business:
- Cold calling leads in your network marketing business.
- Annoying family and friends, or anyone you know using that old school term “three foot rule”.
- All the other traditional old school network marketing techniques like mailings, getting flyers into people’s hands at the local mall, promoting checkout operators at the supermarket.
Let’s face it, who wants to do all that stuff? If you are running your business without employing some sort of system and without using leverage, you are definitely hauling in buckets!
New school (red corner) inbound marketing has been around since the birth of the internet and the information age. Attraction marketing has given network marketers an alternative way to build their business, using the pipeline system (from Kiyosaki’s story) instead of loading buckets.
Speaking of hauling buckets, and in fairness to old-school marketing, there are a refreshing number of Network Marketing professionals using other methods to build their business offline. They take a much more sophisticated approach to building your business than the old school methods.
Instead of ambushing unsuspecting potential customers in malls and other places, they invite individual people who have asked for information (through a friend or whatever) to a coffee shop. Or, they have a small group of interested people who meet at someone’s house and show them a short video, have coffee and some snacks. This type of building a network marketing business has been around for years, in the form of parties (as Tupperware has done very successfully for many years) and get-togethers.
All of this very relaxed, no pressure on anyone, and by all accounts, it’s also a lot of fun.
The idea of pull marketing is to generate qualified prospects for you to talk to by giving them the information they are looking for. You can offer your prospects an ebook or training that they could also teach your team, or a video training course that shows them how they can create their own qualified leads.
By doing this, you are offering them something of value and giving them some training to evaluate without them having to commit beforehand.
Inbound marketing is the complete opposite of the old school method of trying to “sell” anyone within a three foot circle, regardless of whether they want it or not.
Other benefits of the new school method are:
- Allows you to “attract” people to your business instead of chasing them,
- It allows you to be abundant, instead of appearing desperate,
- Allows you to stay in control of your business, and
- You can maintain your posture even when you are new.
Before the internet existed, there was little to no opportunity for people to research the validity of your company or products. It was difficult for prospects to compare your company with hundreds of other companies in order to choose the company that seemed best to them.
However, as I mentioned before, it is up to the individual which corner (attraction marketing or old school) where they want to come from. Either way, remember that owning a network marketing business is supposed to be fun and not something you dread waking up to every day.