It is easy to feel pressured into thinking that there is only one right way to market your business. Between the multitude of business books available, seminars you can attend, and online advertisements that push the "latest proven" system, our minds can be pulled in many directions.

Such pressure intensifies if your home business is network marketing since your sponsor or upline leaders may insist on your duplicating their marketing methods exactly. In addition, pressure to conform to an assortment of MLM Gurus can be hard on network marketing newbies.

No matter what you may have been told, there is no "right" marketing system that every home business owner should follow. It depends on a variety of factors, one of which is your set of personal traits or your personality type.

No one marketing system is right for everyone.

But let me be very clear; I'm talking about systems, not procedures for systems.

• There are right and wrong procedures to create and maintain a blog to attract people to a product or business and there are best practices for doing this. But not everyone is equally suited by personality to be a blogger!
• There are right ways and wrong ways approach people and invite them to listen to a phone conference or presentation and there are best practices for doing this. But not everyone is equally suited by personality for inviting people to listen to a conference!
• There are right and wrong procedures for getting to know people through networking events and then telling them about your message when the time is right and there are best practices for doing this. But some personalities are better suited for attending networking events than others.

Yes, you can learn to do all of those things. But your personality, along with other factors, influences which marketing system you will:

• prefer to do.
• learn most easily.
• provide you with greatest success.

There are a variety of ways to look at personality traits. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) is probably the best known. It uses four scales that yield, when scored and combined, 16 different personality types. The four scales focus on:

• Where you focus your attention: the outer world of people and things (extraversion) or the inner world of ideas and impressions (introversion).
• The way you take in information: through the five senses with a focus on the here and now (sensing) or from patterns and the big picture with a focus on future possibilities (intuition).
• The way you make decisions: based primarily on logic and objective analysis of cause and effect (thinking) or based on values and subjective evaluation of person-centered concerns (feeling).
• How you deal with the world: preference for a planned and organized approach where things are settled (judging), or preference for a flexible and spontaneous approach to life where the options are open (perceiving).

Whether these particular descriptions and labels are the most realistic is a matter of debate. Another well-known way of looking at personality types is known as the DiSC® Assessment. The DiSC looks at four types of behavior - dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness - to see how different people react to situations and other people. Whether observing results of the MBTI or the DiSC Assessment or any other test, one thing is certain: people vary across these scales. People are different.

Carol Merlo, a network marketing leader, has written about the application of personality types using the terms Professors, Entertainers, Captains, and Angels. She makes the helpful observation that different personality styles have a stronger preference or bent toward different business activities that make up traditional network marketing. I believe the same could be said about the entire range of marketing options. Her book is called: The Four Core Networking Types

If you are not sure about your own personality profile, you might consider talking with a Lifestyle Coach - one who is familiar with home businesses and network marketing.

Take a look at another way to categorize the four personalities in the video below. Although the language is Hungarian, there are English sub-titles and it is very well acted! Again our point is simple, people are different.

So build on your strengths.  In general terms, if you enjoy inviting people to your home, visiting and going places with friends, dislike paper-work, and dislike using your computer except for email and looking up needed information, then you are probably going to do better with traditional person to person networking.  No matter how much training is available, internet marketing systems may not suit you very well. 

On the other hand, if you are more introverted, prefer conversations to be goal-oriented, tend to be detail-oriented and organized, then you are apt to do better with online marketing.

In short, with proper training, anyone can learn to do any marketing task.  However, when you build on your strengths and leverage your personality type (that is, focus on the marketing strategies that suit you), the training will be enjoyable and the resulting performance will be strong.  And, when you attempt tasks and activities that do not suit your temperament, style, set of traits, basic nature, or whatever you want to call personality types, then you will feel like you are swimming upstream, and it will not be as much fun as it ought to be.

But there is one thing you cannot escape: Building relationships.

Having said all of that, network marketing is a people business. You cannot escape talking with people no matter what marketing system you use.  Attraction marketing is all about people coming to you.  When they do, you must build a relationship.  As you converse, what you say and how you say it must still be attractive!  In other words, learning to develop consultative phone skills or Natural Selling® skills are necessary for success in all of the network marketing systems. 

Whether you look online, or to the bookstore, or to any of a variety of home business magazines, you will find marketing experts who take strong positions for and against various marketing methods. Some of them promote their ideas with charged words and phrases like "old school" and "new school."

Example 1 An extremely successful network marketer and an exemplary practitioner of offline, person-to-person marketing warns:

Make it a goal to have the largest possible list of contacts so that you can successfully connect people. Connecting people, making referrals, is one way to give value to others. Make friends without an agenda. Let all your contacts know what you do. When it comes to showing the product, it's always best to do it one-to-one, in person or over the phone.

Be aware that those who advocate using the internet or telephone prospecting have an agenda and they will sell you things that they make money on and will distract you from being successful. I don't 'capture leads on the internet'. I may use social media strictly to look for opportunities to connect with people that I have met in the past. But 'internet marketing' is the hardest way to build the business and the retention is the lowest that you'll get because the people you sponsor are faceless and there is little to no relationship.

I have had many people go down the internet marketing path and then regret it months later. I know of no mass marketing that works, including email campaigns. Focus on people skills more than technology skills. If you are looking for a large income and you have a choice between building a team or building a website, I advise you to build a team. You can always hire a computer expert.

Example 2 Two extremely successful network marketers and exemplary practitioners of "Magnetic Sponsoring" and "Internet Attraction Marketing" warn:

One of the lies in network marketing has been that everyone is your prospect. It's absolute lunacy. Don't buy into this fallacy. The "proven" system of names lists, referrals, warm markets, home parties and hotel meetings is not all it's cracked up to be. That model completely ignores the real key to success, which is this: getting the customer to come to you first.

When a person tries to pitch her "opportunity" they are seen as peddlers, street hustlers on the same level as some low-life schmuck peddling fake Rolexes. People generally do not respect peddlers. When the customer finds you, instead of you finding the customer, her perception of you is totally different. She naturally has more respect for you and perceives you as a consultant, not a peddler.

So, stop pitching your business to "Uncle Bob." Using a "memory jogger" to make a list of 100 contacts to whom you could pitch your business is what most sponsors in any network marketing company would have advised you to do in the past. It will work but it's not efficient. It's not smart business-all brawn and no brains. This business is ultimately about networking: Getting on the phone, meeting people, building relationships, and spreading the goodness. But it starts with effective marketing and lead generation. You have a choice: go out and spend years and years learning how to become bulldog recruiters (brawn), OR, learn and practice how to apply online attraction-magnetic marketing (brains).

What do you make of the war of words between these marketing gurus?

Each believes that their way-- the way that gave them their greatest success --is best. Each warns about using what they believe to be less effective strategies.

I believe both examples, both positions, are correct! Note carefully that -

• The words in both examples are taken from the writings of high earning, successful marketers!
• I respect all three of these leaders; all of whom have a large following of network marketers.
• All three leaders believe in "attraction marketing" within the parameters for which they are best suited - offline or online.

It is clear that at least some people can be very successful at either strategy. If you read more in detail from these sources, you realize that these gurus feel limited, restrained, or out of their own element when working in a different strategy or system. Hence the warnings.

What these gurus do not address is the idea that different people are better suited for different strategies. But, despite their opposing views, the advice of any of the above cited gurus is absolutely golden for the right person, namely the person ...

1. Who is intrinsically motivated.
2. Who is suited by personality for the strategy and system advocated.
3. Who finds a mentor or trainer who can break down the system for which they are suited into performable steps.
4. Who finds a mentor or coach who can provide feedback with respect to what is implemented from the training.
5. Who personally connects or agrees with the worldview and personality of the coach or trainer.
6. Who actually persists and implements the training steps that are taught.

So, go ahead and focus on the sources of expertise that provide information and support for the marketing systems that suit you.

Many (most ?) network marketing upline leaders will have strong opinions about the correct strategy for you to follow.

If you become intrigued with an alternate strategy, don't be surprised if your upline leader may try to change your mind:

That marketing method won't work, in fact it's just going to waste your time! We know a lot of people who have failed. In the end, you'll regret it. Network marketing can happen easily if you do it the way we are telling you.

If you ignore their advice, some upline leaders will cut off communication with you. Some very few will go further and do everything possible to prevent you from implementing your marketing strategy, going so far as to have the company revoke your distributorship.

The attitudes of network marketing leaders might be visualized this way:

I have no research, but I suspect that there are only a few leaders at either end of the continuum, and that most leaders fall somewhere in the middle, only tolerating differences, but leaning to the right, wanting distributors to "duplicate" them. By the word "accepting," I mean "engaging with and communicating with" the distributor.

Naturally, one thing that would be true of a network marketing leader anywhere along the continuum is that she is an individual who has developed expertise and experience in a marketing strategy and systems of her own preference. In addition she is able to provide new distributor training for that strategy and systems.

But my ideal leader goes beyond that and is represented by the left end of the continuum. This leader is also able to assist new distributors to identify their strengths and to recommend marketing strategies for which they might be best suited. In addition, she is ready and able to coach new distributors whose bent for marketing is different from her own, to direct them to other high quality training resources that will be able to meet their growth needs.

A good upline leader can be of great value to you. On the other hand, a bad upline leader is of no great concern. If you think you should follow a marketing strategy different from that recommended by your upline, but your upline is not accepting, then you should find a mentor who can and will support you. The mentor that you identify should be capable of providing training or pointing you to the training elements that best help you succeed.

So one more time: people are different and not all network marketers are best suited for the same marketing system.

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This is an excerpt from my 63 page eBook, Sort the Marketing Options Without Getting Lost. Get a free copy with subscription to my "Tips" newsletter.

PHOTO CREDITS

• Confused man in red shirt: © 2009 iStockphoto LUGO
• Bending colored arrows:  © 2009 iStockphoto JuSun
• Man with t-shirt:  © 2009 iStockphoto Strauski