Let’s be perfectly honest here, short of winning a jackpot, you can only make money when you exchange some form of value, a product or service, for money.

And that requires an ENERGY INVESTMENT on the part of the seller, either work or money invested promoting, selling and servicing the products.

Whether you invest time or money or a combination of the two, it helps when you WORK SMART and part of working smart, is marketing SMART PRODUCTS that back you up … especially if, like many network marketers, you are not a natural sales person. So remember this one phrase as you read through these criteria;

SMART PRODUCTS DO MOST OF THE SELLING FOR YOU!

Here’s what I consider essential (like make or break) criteria for a successful product in network marketing.

1. Fulfils a Basic Need.

Demand for products and services that fulfil a basic human or animal need tends to remain fairly constant in both good and bad economic cycles.

Buying the latest fashions may be the cool thing to do … when times are good. But if things get rough as they sometimes do, we’ll pass up on a new dress but never on the lipstick and eye shadow. In fact there’s even a “Lipstick Index” that runs counter to economic recessions and the theory goes like this, “During uncertain economic times, women tend to splurge on AFFORDABLE LUXURIES like lipstick and eye shadow.”

People also don’t have to be convinced or coerced to buy basic products because they are already buying them! If you can offer an easier, cheaper or better deal they will listen and maybe buy.

Go, find yourself a product or service that sells itself, month after month, and you will have a solid foundation on which to build a successful business that is both fun and rewarding.

LIGHT BULB! Women make about 80% of the buying decisions in a home. It might be worth taking note of that!

 

2. Delivers Honest Quality

My definition of honest quality is a product that “does what it promises to do.”

If your marketing campaign catches my attention, your product’s QUALITY is the first of only two ANCHORS that will hold my attention.

As a rule, we only buy junk once. If a product or service doesn’t live up to its promises, we won’t be shopping there again. From a business perspective that seems like a whole lot of wasted MARKETING ENERGY. Why lose future sales because of poor quality?

Don’t waste time marketing junk! Do yourself a favour, invest a little time checking out the quality of a product range BEFORE you invest time and money marketing it.

One way of doing that is to be a happy customer yourself. If you can be a happy customer, then why not others? So buy some product and see how you feel about it.

 

3. Value for Money

The QUALITY of your product or service will hold my attention long enough for me to think about the VALUE I get from it.

Remember that QUALITY is not necessarily the same as BEST or even synonymous with EXPENSIVE.

First of all ‘best" is a subjective standard based on a combination of quality and value; how you, the customer, feel about the deal you are getting. That's all that matters. What’s best for one is not necessarily best for everyone. Secondly, most people can’t afford to buy expensive products without breaking the bank!

Imagine that you want to buy a car. A Mercedes would probably rank high on most of our wish-lists, one of the ultimate status cars. Everywhere you look in the world, Mercedes are driven by a huge percentage of the world’s rich and famous. It’s certainly one of the best brands and most of the models are expensive but how many people can actually afford to buy a Mercedes?

Can’t afford a Mercedes? What about a Toyota Corolla? The Corolla may not have the ‘status appeal’ of a Mercedes but it is one of the most popular cars in the world with its hard-earned reputation for quality, durability and reliability. Toyota produce honest cars and sell more of them than any other car-maker.

So both Mercedes and Toyota deliver excellent VALUE for money but within different affordability ranges. Anyone starting to climb the network marketing ladder of success would do well to consider a Toyota as their entry level car while aspiring to own a Mercedes when they achieve the success they want!

So a product or service does not have to be the “best” on the market to deliver value for money but it does have to deliver on the promises it makes at a price that makes sense to the customer. That’s VALUE.

 

4. Consumable product or recurring service.

You caught my attention with your brilliant marketing campaign and you held onto it with the quality and value of your product, what now?

If you sold me a fridge, that would be the last you see of me for a few years, if ever. That’s not the kind of product you need for a network marketing business.

The ideal product or service is one that has people happily and regularly coming back for more of the same, preferably month after month, year after year. You need a CONSUMABLE product or service.

I am sure you can see how much value you would get out of your marketing campaign if you could keep selling your products to the same happy customers for years.

And that’s an important point to remember. If your marketing campaign delivers customers to your door and the product’s quality and value bring them back for more, then the quality of your service will keep them happily returning for years.

It can only happen with a decent consumable product or service. More about this in my hub on High Pay-off Activities.

Warning: Consumable is important but avoid anything that has a shelf-life shorter than your sales cycle. You don’t want to be discarding unsold product because it has expired.

 

Finally, a SMART PRODUCT could have broad appeal, one that everyone wants, or it could meet the needs of a very specialised niche. The point of the exercise is to discover a product you like and that has a viable market. Better still, if it’s in a high growth industry.

So keep an open mind as you look for the right product, you may be amazed as what you discover!