Have you ever heard someone say something like, "If you’re just patient long enough, you will achieve your goals?" Patience is critically important in network marketing, but without the footwork, you’ll be waiting for success forever! Prospecting and persistence provide this footwork. In this article I will explain the significant roles of the three basic P’s in network marketing: prospecting, persistence, and patience.

Prospecting

Without question, prospecting is the key to success in network marketing. No activity is more basic to a viable network marketing business than prospecting on a regular basis. The people with whom you come in contact via your prospecting can become partners in business relationships that may last a lifetime. By and large, network marketers are some of the most dynamic and interesting people you’re likely to meet.

Prospecting must become a regular activity if you truly wish to create a residual income in network marketing. As for myself, I spend a minimum of one to two hours every day prospecting on the telephone. I train my downline to establish a regular prospecting routine that fits their individual situations. When I’m not on the telephone, I usually have a prospecting tape, booklet, or something related to my business opportunity with me just in case I run into someone with whom I might like to work. Tangible selling aids are a big plus when breaking the ice with new contacts.

Network marketing is a prospecting and people business. There are, however, people promoting "free lunch" programs that promise to build a check for you without the need for prospecting. Time and time again these "downline-building" programs go out of business without delivering what they promised to people.

Persistence

Persistence is my personal favorite of the 3 basic P’s. To understand persistence, take for example, the love of my life, my four-year-old daughter, Angie. Not long ago, we were at the park and she decided she wanted to climb up a slippery slide - not up the ladder, but up the slide. After two or three attempts, she looked back at me with an expression of frustration. I just smiled and shrugged my shoulders. Angie stepped back, removed her shoes, and took a deep breath and was up the slide like a bullet! Through her sheer persistence to get up the slide, she found a way.

Just as persistence was critically important in my daughter’s slide experience, so it has been in my network marketing career. My first attempts at network marketing weren’t going in the right direction. This resulted in countless wasted hours and thousands of dollars poorly spent. But, it was a priceless education and because of my persistence, success started to come little by little. I could have quit years ago, but my love for this business and my sheer will kept me going.

Patience

For me, this has been and continues to be the hardest of the three basic P’s to develop. One of my best friends and a valued mentor is always reminding me to seek first to understand others before becoming a presenter, a teacher, a friend. Believe me, that takes patience. I want to be understood. I want to share my ideas with others. However, I am learning, that to be understood, we must first listen to what our prospects are telling us. If we move directly into selling our program, how can we possibly know what our prospects’ needs and wants really are? If we are patient, ask and listen, the resulting communication tells us!

By mastering prospecting, persistence and patience, you can achieve success in network marketing. Success takes consistent, focused action over time, so apply these three P’s daily in your network marketing program.