Upline Hassle – Advice for Dealing with Old-School Uplines
Over the last decade there has been a lot of use of the terminology old-school and new-school Network Marketing. So what is this really all about? In simple terms, old-school Network Marketing is the original strategies used to build a business. These strategies involved person to person or ‘belly to belly’ approaches. Let’s dig a little deeper into that.
What is old-school network marketing?
The old-school way included talking to anyone you came into contact with. This also included things like home parties or hotel meetings. Now, there is nothing wrong with any of that but, technology has come a long way.
In other words social media has become a great way for people to build a business without leaving home.
However, in the old-school way when a new distributor joined a Network Marketing team they were asked to make a list of everyone they knew;
- Friends
- Family
- Colleagues
- Doctors
- Teachers
…. and so on.
Once the list was completed they were then taught how to approach or expose each one of these people to the opportunity. In the early days of the industry, the approach was often made by a Sponsor or Upline directly to the people on the list. The goal of that approach was to get the person to attend either an open or large meeting or to the new distributors home. This is where the Upline or Sponsor would be there to present ‘the opportunity’.
We can learn something from this though. The primary skill that stands out with the old-school strategy was that is was all about forming relationships with people. And, many of the genuine focused network marketers invested a considerable amount of their time and resources into developing powerful communication skills. More than anything, this is something we can take away from those strategies.
Relationships.
However, what happens when you have a sponsor or upline who simply doesn’t ‘buy‘ into the new-school way?
Advice for Dealing with Old-School Uplines
Before anything … respect comes first. After all, if you are asking that they respect your way of wanting to build a business — you have to respect where they’re coming from. And guess what? You can say something as simple as ‘Maria I really appreciate and respect where you’re coming from, and I ask you to do the same for me‘.
You are not out to convince Maria that her way is wrong (or right). All you are asking and needing Maria to do, is respect your choices too.
When you approach the topic respectfully, it should eliminate the friction.
Still not getting through?
Find a community of people who are building their businesses online – through social media. The reason for this is simple …
You have already determined that Maria is not going to support (but will respect) your choices for building your business.
So, what happens when you run into questions or need advice? A community of people like what we have built inside the Social Impacters CAN help to support you.
Building a business on social media can help alleviate the time constraints many people find themselves in. Whether you be busy with a career, family, even simply life in general – social media is a great option. We definitely believe that your old-school upline has your best interests at. heart and they are solely going off what has worked for them. There is nothing wrong with that, but we do have a different way!
Let us know if this was helpful for you and we look forward to supporting you inside Social Impacters!
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