Life is all about growth. We physically grown into adults. We mentally grow as we are schooled. We emotionally grow as we mature. All of these kinds of growth happen in stages. The skills needed to develop a successful network marketing business are built up over time in stages as well. Most people get into a network marketing business and hope to start making money as quickly as possible. That’s completely normal. What most people then realize is that there is going to be a significant amount of work involved. They get started and find themselves failing and then they give up and say that the business did not work for them.

Most of the time, these people were just working their way through the process of how to effectively grow their network marketing business. Just as an Olympic athlete will practice for hours and hours in order to sharpen their skills, business owners must practice the craft of networking in order to make their network marketing business grow more efficiently and effectively. This building of skills happens in 4 stages.

1. Unconsciously Incompetent - This is the stage where everyone starts. You don’t know what to do and you don’t know that you don’t know. This is where your newest associates and/or distributors reside. You are not skilled in the art of meeting people, nor or you practiced and polished in presenting your marketing plan. Your fist task in this stage is to plug in to your business’s training system and make good use of your available support. If your company has meetings, go to them. If they have conference calls, be on them. If all they have are book, cd’s and videos, then by all means read, listen and watch. You must start the learning process as soon as possible.
2. Consciously Incompetent - Now that you’ve started learning what to do and how to do it, you at least know what you are not skilled in. You’re results are probably the same as they were in stage one. People are still not coming to your appointments. No one is getting registered. Your customers are not buying. This is the critical stage, because many people will become discouraged at this point. However, the most important thing to do here is to practice. Keep making those presentations. Keep calling to make appointments. Keep having parties or meeting new people. You’re almost through to the next stage where the money will start to roll in.
3. Consciously Competent – Congratulations! You now know what you are doing. People are joining your business and your customer sales are increasing. As long as you are focusing and concentrating you are having some success. You still do not feel natural at this stage. You may still have to get yourself psyched up to make phone calls. You still may be nervous when you are showing your marketing plan or demonstrating products, but at least you are starting to get results. Keep going because the true breakthrough will happen at the next stage.
4. Unconsciously Competent - Now you’re cooking with gas as they say. Your network marketing business comes so easy and natural to you that you don’t even have to think about what to say or do. It has been repeated so much that you could do it all in your sleep. You are no longer consciously thinking about what to do. You know it all by heart.

So keep up the good work. If you currently in one of the first 2 stages just hang in there and keep practicing. Remember that most people give up before they get to stage 3 and it is at stage 3 where you will really start to make money. Good luck to you and your network marketing business.

Each one of these ideas is critical to your success. It’s also a good idea to check out some of the other resources available at mlmachiever.com They have some good articles that cover the basics of building a solid network marketing business.