Many people in affiliate programs seem to think that once the sale is made, their work is done. Affiliates depend upon successful downlines if they want to make a lot of money. That means the sale is not the end of your involvement in the process, rather it is merely the beginning of a much longer process of team building.

People joining affiliate programs tend to have big dreams, but sometimes they fail anyway.

Reasons Why People Fail to Become Successful Affiliates:

There are three main reasons why people fail to adapt to change, especially technological change:

1. Lack of Skills
2. Lack of Knowledge
3. Fear

Adopt the “Coach” Role & Mindset:

If you adopt the mindset of a “Coach,” you can dramatically improve your Downline’s performance along all three lines.

When someone joins an affiliate program there is generally a fairly big learning curve to overcome – new product(s) such as the just-released MaxPro System, new technology, and virtual relationships, all of which are especially problematic if your new recruit is a novice in the world of internet marketing (or marketing in general).  Internet marketing, like any industry, has its own set of jargon, and the affiliate program will have its own set of tools and techniques to master.

If you ignore your new recruits, they can get very frustrated in a very short time due to information overload.  If you allow your new recruits to become overly frustrated, they are likely to drop out and never become productive team members.

Your bottom line will be a lot bigger if you invest some time with your new Downline team members, coaching and mentoring them.  Take the initiative to help your recruits learn about your products, technical support and other resources available to them.

Chances are very good that you’ll also need to spend some time helping them learn how to market the product in this new Web 2.0 internet world of Blogs and Social Networks, which are unfamiliar to many.

You can take a passive stance, and hope that new recruits will contact you when they need help – or, you can be more proactive, and contact them to make sure that they have the knowledge and skills that they need to perform the tasks being asked of them.  Take the initiative to help your new recruits overcome their fear and buyer’s remorse.

Coaching is realy just an attitude and a desire to build up the other person together with your proactive behavior.  You will gain substantially from this small investment of your time and your commitment to be a Coach for your Downline team members.

One very good place to start for obtaining all the rest of the education about internet marketing that they’ll need is to have them join the Online Success for Beginners course.

Are you just simply buried by the sheer volume of IM information there is available?You are not alone.In reality, that’s the most common problem voiced by budding entrepreneurs trying to create a meaningful income online.

Let’s explore some of the best ways to stay on-track and eliminate all the hype.

First, it’s absolutely critical to realize that “internet marketing” is a truly vast term.So massive that, essentially, it truly becomes meaningless.

It’s essential to break it down.It’s crucial to specialize.  For example, let’s deal with a subset of the huge internet marketing pie: Affiliate Marketing.  Granted this sub-niche is still MASSIVE, but we’re beginning to get more manageable.  

What’s the next move?

Well, if you are a potential affiliate marketer just starting-out ponder obtaining specialized help from an reputable Affiliate Assassin.

But, even before this crucial step of soliciting expert advice ask yourself these basic probing questions, and make sure that you can answer them all clearly and succinctly.

What is Your Prospect Truly Searching For?

If you don’t know the answer to this before you start you are basically just wasting your time.

You need to identify with your clients and deliver real value. Or else you are pretty much assured of failure.

OK, let’s say you have the customer’s true best interests at heart, what then?

In order to be able to become profitable and, therefore, be able to stay in business and continue to provide excellent value to your clients you have to get a tiny bit self-centered also.

Ask yourself the following question:
Why Are You Marketing This Particular Affiliate Product?

This is the basis of your profitability, because your entire marketing program depends on it.

Allow me to explain, if your chosen affiliate product is simply a lead in to acquire customers for, say, consulting, speaking or different business ventures down the road, you do not need to worry too much about the first affiliate product’s price.

But, if selling the affiliate offering is your core profit center, you need to sweat the pricing level details a lot more intensely in order to maximize your profit.

That points to the next logical progression.

What Else Can You Sell to Give Your Customers Extra Value?
This is really important because in the vast majority of cases, “affiliates” do not make a lot of money on their first sale.

  Often, Up-sells and Continuity Programs are where the real money lies.
So, acquiring a business-mix related to your initial affiliate product is a crucial step in making your affiliate marketing venture profitable for the long haul.

Remember, at the end of the day, your marketing success depends on totally understanding the answers to the above queries.

If you can get these questions answered right at the very start, you are well on your way to being able to maximize your long-haul profitability.However, if you discount them you will surely leave a lot of money on the table and, maybe, even more crucially you’ll be unintentionally short changing your customers as well.

At the end of the day, putting together the correct team and affiliate-marketing ingredients – right-off-the-bat – are critical parts in attaining affiliate longevity!

One of the top business networking trainers is an entrepeneur named Jon Berghoff. Jon is founder of Global Empowerment Coaching and has a history of teaching leadership, creating sales, and causing entrepreneurial success through ‘harmonic influence,’ which gives you control over yourself, your customers, and the world in general. Jon Berghoff is speaker and bestselling author of the “Cutting Edge Sales Book.”

This entry is a response to a question that came in from Mike in Fredericksburg, VA, after listening to the telephone seminar, “Becoming Wealthy During Turbulent Economic Times”. To hear the teleseminar, go to www.geconnection.com/turbulance.html.

To receive the FREE gifts that are listed during the teleseminar, go to www.geconnection.com/testimonial.

How can I use your tool of “farming” to breakthrough my current plateau of sales in my job?

“I really learned a lot from your perspective on hunting vs. farming as a way of attracting new prospects and customers. I’m really stuck though because I always have believed in the concept of giving value first, asking for business second, yet my annual sales revenue has hit a plateau and I can’t seem to break through to the next level. My question is, how can I use this “universal” or “spiritual” principle to really break through with my sales, not just to feel good about what I’m doing?”

Mike B. CPA, Fredericksburg, VA

ANSWER: Jon Berghoff

Mike, you are right on in searching for a way to use this spiritual principle to expand your business.

Most critical is understanding that it takes creativity, proactive effort, and old-fashioned hard work to provide value for other people. It can’t simply be a feeling or an attitude. The emotion, or attitude is required, but only useful when backed up with action. You might remember in the teleseminar that I mentioned the importance of behaviors, not just thinking, to increase results.

I would ask you this question:

What are some ways that you could be adding value that are easy to do, that you have allowed to become easy not to do?

This is a good starting place. If this triggers anything, than put it to work. You might take the three areas from the call: distributing information, problem solving, and gift giving, and ask yourself; what are the fastest, easiest ways you could apply these lessons. I use the words “fast” and “easy” because most people over-complicate the process of farming (giving value first, asking for business second).

It might be as little as making sure your assistant answers each phone call in a positive and uplifting way, vs. an unmonitored non-emotion-inducing approach.

It could be the difference between sending out a packet of complimentary, valuable info to your prospects before you meet them for a sales presentation, so they are conditioned from the start to see you as an authority or expert.

Maybe it means hosting a teleseminar for everybody in your sphere of influence, teaching them 4-7 ways to save money during tax season, or the 5 most common mistakes made by others in their field.

One of the master business networking trainers is a business leader named Jon Berghoff. Jon is founder of Global Empowerment Coaching and has a history of teaching leadership, creating sales, and causing entrepreneurial success through ‘harmonic influence,’ which gives you control over yourself, your business, and the world in general. Jon Berghoff is speaker and bestselling author of the “Cutting Edge Sales Book.”

This post is a response to a question that came in from Mike in Fredericksburg, VA, after listening to the telephone seminar, “Becoming Wealthy During Turbulent Economic Times”. To listen to the replay, go to www.geconnection.com/turbulance.html.

To claim the FREE gifts that are listed during the teleseminar, go to www.geconnection.com/testimonial.

How can I use your technique of “farming” to breakthrough my current plateau of sales in my business?

“I really got a lot out of your perspective on hunting vs. farming as a way of attracting new prospects and business. I’m really stuck though because I always have believed in the concept of giving value first, asking for business second, yet my annual sales revenue has stagnated and I can’t seem to break through to the next level. My question is, how can I use this “universal” or “spiritual” principle to really break through with my sales, not just to feel good about what I’m doing?”

Mike B. CPA, Fredericksburg, VA

ANSWER: Jon Berghoff

Mike, you are right on in searching for a way to use this spiritual principle to increase your business.

Most critical is knowing that it takes creativity, proactive effort, and old-fashioned hard work to provide value for others. It can’t simply be a feeling or an attitude. The emotion, or attitude is required, but only effective when backed up with action. You might remember in the teleseminar that I mentioned the importance of behaviors, not just thinking, to improve results.

I would pose this question:

What are some ways that you could be adding value that are easy to do, that you have allowed to become easy not to do?

This is a good starting place. If this triggers anything, than put it to work. You might take the three areas from the call: distributing information, gift giving, and problem solving, and ask yourself; what are the easiest, fastest ways you could apply these tips. I use the words “fast” and “easy” because most people over-complicate the process of farming (giving value first, asking for business second).

It might be as little as making sure your assistant answers every phone call in a positive and uplifting way, vs. an unmonitored non-emotion-inducing approach.

It could be the difference between sending out a packet of complimentary, applicable information to your prospects before you meet them for a sales presentation, so they are trained from the start to see you as an authority or expert.

Maybe it means hosting a telephone conference call for everyone in your sphere of influence, teaching them 4-7 ways to save money during tax season, or the 5 most common mistakes made by others in their field.

Don’t be one of those people who think that once the initial sale is made, your work is done.  But, if you’re in an affiliate program, you only succeed when your Downline succeeds.  That means the sale is not the end of your involvement in the process, rather it is merely the beginning of a much longer process of team building.

People joining affiliate programs tend to have big goals , but sometimes they fail anyway.

Reasons Why People Fail to Become Successful Affiliates:

There are three main reasons why people fail to adapt to change, especially technological change:

1. Lack of Skills
2. Lack of Knowledge
3. Fear

Adopt the “Coach” Role & Mindset:

If you adopt the mindset of a “Coach,” you can dramatically improve your Downline’s performance along all three lines.

When someone joins a successful affiliate program there is generally a fairly big learning curve to overcome – new product(s) such as the Infinite Income Plan , new technology, virtual relationships, especially if your new recruit is new to the world of internet marketing, or marketing in general.There’s so much to learn when you first start as an internet marketer: new jargon, tools and techniques, plus you have to learn the product itself.

The extensive learning curve can be very frustrating to your new recruits, so help them.  In fact, it can become so frustrating that many of these new affiliates will simply drift away, and never do anything to add to your bottom line.

Your bottom line will be a lot bigger if you invest some time with your new Downline team members, coaching and mentoring them?Take the initiative to help your recruits learn about your products, technical support and other resources available to them.

You’ll also need to spend time helping them learn how to market in this new Web 2.0 internet world of Blogs and Social Networks, which are unfamiliar to many.

You can take a passive stance, and hope that new recruits will contact you when they need help – or, you can be more proactive, and contact them to make sure that they have the knowledge and skills that they need to perform the tasks being asked of them.Fear is a major obstacle, especially buyer’s remorse – your personal involvement will go a long way to overcoming your new recruit’s fear.

Coaching is realy just an attitude and a desire to build up the other person. coupled with proactive behaviors on your part.The small investment of your time to coach your team will pay you big dividends.

Some baseball coaches just don’t really understand correct baseball pitching mechanics, and therefore their pitchers dedicate a lot of their efforts doing drills that just aren’t very effective for improving pitching speed and accuracy. They probably also make their players life weights with the goal of building up arm strength, but this isn’t necessary in order to throw at a higher velocity. The time dedicated to pitching workout programs would be much better spent if coaches would focus on the pitching techniques and the way that the whole body can generate explosive power to improve a pitcher’s velocity.

Some of the more common aspects of most pitching workouts include drills for pitchers, lifting weights, flat ground pitching, and stretching have actually been shown to make it more likely for pitchers to become injured or actually end up slowing down the pitch. This is because many of these drills and methods focus more on the arm than on the body as a whole. The best pitchers use use their entire body in order to throw the pitch, and not just their arms. When you use your whole body for pitching, and use it with maximum effectiveness, there are certain postures that your body should go through, and if your body gets trained in how it feels to be in these positions, it becomes natural to use proper pitching mechanics.

While this theory has been proven in a number of studies, most coaches don’t realize it yet. That is why many baseball coaches still have their pitchers spending wasted time in baseball pitching workouts with the methods that aren’t as useful in actually improving pitching. More and more parents are learning about the importance of using their entire bodies and the proper way of throwing a pitch through the use of training videos and manuals that you can find on the internet.

Maybe, as more studies are done showing the typical training methods are not as effective as previously thought, there will be more coaches switching to more effective pitching training regimens. Better workouts will lead pitchers through baseball pitching techniques, beginning from the end and moving backwards, and on te process of using their body to produce the explosive power that can be generated through pitching a baseball correctly.