The Six Sigma Approach to Network Marketing

The Six Sigma Approach to Network Marketing

By Reginald Delaney

Foreword

Network marketing is a legitimate way to earn a substantial amount of money while continuing to work at your chosen profession. However, due to the compensation structure associated with many network marketing opportunities, those individuals that are highly effective at growing their network marketing business many times choose to pursue it full time. The ability to make a large residual or passive income attracts many individuals to the best network marketing opportunities.

In this article, I will briefly discuss how the Six Sigma methodology can be used to make you more successful in your network marketing efforts. I will begin by giving a high level discussion of the Six Sigma methodology, then I will show you how that methodology can be used practically in your network marketing opportunity.

So let’s get started.

The Six Sigma Approach

Six Sigma is a continuous improvement process which focuses on the understanding of data and systems that are key to producing desired results. By understanding the systems or processes that are in place for accomplishing tasks or activities we will be able to identify where efforts should be focused to improve the manner in which those activities or tasks are accomplished. Another important aspect of this improvement effort will be the data that are used to ensure that the targeted improvements are indeed being made.

Before we go further, let’s discuss the term “process” in Six Sigma speak. When we use the term “process” in Six Sigma, we are talking about the series of steps or actions that are necessary to accomplish something. When we view things from this perspective, it is easy to understand why everything that we do in life is a process. For example, in order to get to work on time everyday there are certain steps that must be taken in order for us to accomplish this activity or goal (…more on goals later). We must wake up on time, we should allot time for us to complete our personal hygiene activities, we should allot time for breakfast, we must account for the travel time, and we must account for the amount of time that it will take for us to get to our workstations and commence work. If we don’t allow sufficient time for each of these activities, we run the risk of not getting to work on time.

So, let’s apply this knowledge of processes to our network marketing opportunity. The specific process that we will focus on for our discussion here is the process for increasing the number of recruits that we bring into our opportunity. We will use this activity to show how the Six Sigma approach can be put into practice to accomplish the goal of getting more recruits into the business.

The 5 Phases of the Six Sigma Process and How They Apply to Improved Network Marketing Recruitment Efforts

There are 5 phases that are employed for all Six Sigma based improvement efforts. The phases are as follows: 1) Define Phase, 2) Measure Phase, 3) Analyze Phase, 4) Improvement Phase, and 5) Control Phase. So let’s go into more details about each phase while determining how to achieve the goal of increasing the number of recruits that we have in our network marketing opportunity.

Define Phase for Increasing the Number of Recruits

In the Define Phase we are laying the foundation for the necessity to address the process that we are seeking to improve. For our example, we are stating why it is necessary for us to increase the number of recruits engaged our network marketing opportunity. In other words, we are creating our “Business Case”. We are essentially stating that as a result of increasing the number of recruits into our business opportunity there will be some benefits that will make this a worthwhile endeavor. In our case, we know that if we increase the number of recruits, we will increase earnings for ourselves and for our team. Also, we know that if we can show these new recruits how to recruit more effectively they will be able to achieve their financial goals more quickly. The benefits as stated in the Business Case will help create the goals that will be used as the driving force for making and assessing the level of improvement. These goals will be used by the team of individuals that will work together to bring about the desired improvement.

Once the team knows why it is important to make the improvement and they have a targeted level of improvement or a goal in mind, they will be ready to begin the act of understanding the existing process so that they can determine where to focus their improvement efforts. Once they know where to focus their improvement efforts, they will be able to determine what other resources or individuals they may need to accomplish their goals.

Let’s define our current recruiting process for our network marketing opportunity. This is called the “as is” process in Six Sigma lingo. This represents our process for recruiting as it exists today. So let’s consider the high level steps that make up the recruiting process. They may look something like this: 1) Identify a prospect, 2) Determine if the prospect is a warm market or cold market prospect, 3) Approach the prospect, 4) Make introductions, 5) Find out prospect’s current status and receptiveness to the opportunity, 6) Share more information on the opportunity, 7) Request permission to followup after prospect is given time to consider the offer, 8) Follow up and recruit the prospect. Once the team has agreed on the high level steps associated with the recruiting process, they begin to use various techniques and tools to help them determine which of these steps require the most attention. This should be the step in the process that has the greatest potential towards helping the team to achieve the identified goal. Also, this step in the process can be thought of as the step that is most responsible for the process not performing at the level we wish it to perform.

Now that the team has determined where to focus their improvement efforts they must decide who needs to be involved in helping to identify the improvements needed. These individuals are stakeholders in the process. The stakeholders will help to brainstorm and implement the improvement strategies for the customers that will benefit from our improvement efforts. The customers in this case are the prospects for our network marketing opportunity and the new recruits for our network marketing opportunity. Since the entire Six Sigma philosophy revolves around doing those things that are of benefit to the customer, we must keep the customer’s needs in mind as we work to improve our process. Some of the things that may be important to our customer are: 1) Don’t take up much of my time during your introduction, 2) Quickly, tell me why I should listen to you, 3) Don’t speak to me condescendingly, etc. If you know what is important to the customer (i.e. the “voice of the customer” in Six Sigma lingo), you will be able to make sure that you don’t harm relations in one area as you seek to make improvements in another area. The goal of the Define Phase is not to generate solutions, the goal is to identify the problem, create the vision for improvement, and lay the foundation for the improvement effort.

This wraps up the discussion on how the Define Phase comes into play when determining how to increase the number of recruits for our network marketing opportunity. The next post will address the Measure Phase and its importance with regards to increasing the number of recruits in our network Marketing Opportunity.

…To Be Continued…