That's right folks, he's back again, the uncelebrated, unheard-of,undiscovered Al Wood is here to finally put to rest two of the most nagging questions to ever haunt the thinkboxes of beginners in the world of network marketing. "Should I lead with the product or the business opportunity", followed by , "Should I build depth or width?"

Let me start off by saying that, unlike the chicken and the egg debate,the two questions above can have a dramatic impact on the success of your business. However, before you can fully begin to analyze anything that's shared here, it's important that you understand not to take everything you see, hear, or read from self-appointed experts at face value when building your business. In other words, the mere fact that Guru XYZ said it is so does not mean that it's the only way to get the job done. Have you ever heard the saying."Just Because a Path is Well Worn, Doesn't Mean It's the Right Path."

Here's an example. Years ago I worked with a very nice looking blond lady who advocated door to door selling as the primary means of getting new customers. She gave detailed instructions on how to dress, position your clipboard, talk, etc. in order to meet, greet, and sign deals in one of the toughest industries in America. Few could dispute whether her techniques worked or not since she was a six figure per year income earner and doing quite well. However, I will go out on a limb and say that far more people will happily open their front doors for a lovely middle-aged blonde than a 250lb, muscle-bound guy looking like he just got out of prison, aside from the suit. It's just not quite the same thing nor are you likely to get the same results.

So, as you can see from that short story, one technique or strategy is not always going to work for everyone on your team. As you read, experience, and learn new things, develop the all important skill of seizing those ideas which will work best for you. Feel free to share them with your team with the full expectation that they will also select and reject based on what's best for them and their situation. With that said, let's get back to the chicken and the egg discussion.

Should I Lead With The Product or the Business Opportunity...

If you are in a legitimate network marketing company, you probably already know that you are unable to earn money on the sole act of recruiting someone new into your business. You do know that right? That is point #1 in why I would teach beginners to lead with the product or service versus the opportunity. In reality, your new person could be all fired up and dash out and sell the business opportunity to 100 curious people. These people believed in what he or she said and paid the fee to sign up and become a marketing representative. Well, let's see.how much did they actually earn that month...100 new people times zero dollars in product sales, times zero percent, equals ZERO. Did I do the math right on that? I don't have to tell the experienced networkers how many times people sign up and do nothing.

But wait you say, my 100 are going to go out there and sign up some real customers and that's when I will make some serious money. But, what if,they went out and did the exact same thing you did? You guessed it...zero times zero equals zero again. I'm being hypothetical here but you get the gist of my point. Let's assume in that same scenario that your motivated new recruit went out and signed 100 new customers instead of business builders. They are going to soon end up with a decent sized check as well as some extra money to put towards additional marketing and advertising. Hopefully, they will then go on to teach others to secure some profit-generating customers as well.

Although I am highly inclined to talk about how one would go about getting these customers, I'm going to skip that for now and stick to the matter at hand. Now, what about the building deep or building wide debate?

Should I Build Depth First or Width First...

Like the other questions, you will get a long-running toss around on which method works best. Remember, I'm not a leaf reader, I'm just giving you my honest opinion and you can take it from there. Try to picture your new team member running out there and signing up a ton of people on their frontline. Can you see it? Looks great from your end because you have someone who is highly motivated and ready to change the world.

However, keep in mind that we are primarily talking about newbies in this article. How are they going to support 5, 10, or 20 frontline people and do it effectively? Well, normally the answer is-they aren't. The idea is to support them as best you can and see which ones will eventually have enough smarts to figure it out for themselves. Personally, I don't think that is the right strategy to employ.

Let me interject here that there is a slight difference between going wide with customers and going wide with business builders. Business builders take maximum support on your behalf in order for both parties to be most successful whereas customers require some interaction from you but they will generally be supported by the company (in most cases). I can come up with many pluses to support my argument of why new networkers should build depth first. Here are just a few of them that come to mind:

Allows you to develop team building and leadership skills without being overwhelmed
Allows you to focus on helping one of your key people to build a decent income
Allows you to assist your key people in developing a success story that can be shared by everyone
Allows you to methodically expand your business while maintaining firm control
Does not utilize the all too common methodology of "throw them against the wall and see who sticks"
Unfortunately, I am unable to come up with any minuses as to why building depth does not work. Okay, this article is meant to help you with honest opinion so I admit that there are a few that I could possibly come up with but not at the moment.

Moving on...you need to set the terms and parameters of your business. One of the fastest ways to virtually eliminate the debate of depth versus width is to only sign professional go-getters into your business. People that reflect who you are as a person and business owner. STOP trying to sign every warm-bodied person that crosses your path. Instead, learn to be very selective in choosing your partners. In the end, that mentality will allow you to build a much stronger team and ultimately a more reliable long-term residual income. In addition, you will be better positioned to choose either path and still find success.

Since we are on the topic, would you like to know the secret to signing quality team builders? It is one of the most often asked questions in our industry. Here it is...use honesty and integrity in explaining to potential partners what is truly required to build a network marketing business. This will go a long way in helping your prospects to sort themselves and will also ensure that you deal with top notch people. Those that fully understand in advance that it will take effort, time, and money will remain with you far longer than those who think it's going to be a free ride. No rocket science involved just basic common sense in building a solid organization.

Just in Case You Have Forgotten The Key Points...Here's a Quick Summary

1. I'm unheard-of, uncelebrated, and undiscovered. That's important so that you won't waste valuable time trying to look me up on search engines and old genealogy reports to determine if I have built 200,000 member teams. I have not. What I have done is helped other people to understand the power of what we do in network marketing and how to implement simple concepts that will help them to succeed.

2. Learn how to separate fact from fiction and use the things that will most benefit you. Remember, just because a path is well worn does not mean it is necessarily the right path. It may lead you right off a cliff.

3. Leading with the product or service is clearly the fastest way for new networkers to get into profit safely and quickly. Legitimate companies do not pay on signing recruits only. Yes, you could eventually turn them into paying customers but why not try it the other way around first. You have to make the final decision on what's best for you and your organization.

4. Going deep or going wide is a question that will hardly go away. But, when it comes to helping beginners in our industry, I will always encourage the concept of building a little depth before moving on to the next person. Again, you set the terms of that depth. It can be a handful of people or dozens of people. You win either way. Also, don't forget, the argument about depth and width all but disappears if you focus on signing quality people and not so much on always making them frontline.

Now that I've done my daily deed, I'm off to promote my business.

Until the next time. Arrivederci. Hasta Luego.

P.S./This is truly a great industry. Treat it with respect.