The single most important skill in network marketing (That you probably haven't been taught!)

If you are like most network marketing professionals you where drafted into your current organization with a flurry, finding yourself being dispensed an avalanche of “starter materials”: literature, list builders, products, standing order forms, check lists, seminar dates, upline phone numbers…and a healthy array of tips for “getting started fast”.

And with the combination of belief in the product, desire to answer a financial need and the healthiest self confidence you could muster – you began to “follow the instructions” for building a big business.

Has it worked?

If it didn’t it’s not because of something you didn’t know or a genetic deficit or something about the way your parents raised you. It’s not because you haven’t been to enough seminars or because you haven’t read the right books. It’s not the calling script, the way you offer samples or the amount of time you do or don’t put into the business. If you network marketing business didn’t work as you expected it is because you didn’t get coached.

And if it did work – it’s either because you did get coached – or you knew how to coach before you got into the business.

The single most important skill in Network Marketing – and the skill that you likely weren’t taught— is how to coach and be coached.

Let me explain.

All that information you received – that was education: information that is handed to a willing student that – through their own effort, pace and ability to absorb it all – gives perspective to what they signed up for. Education doesn’t tell you how – it only tells you what.

And the seminars or tapes or videos or “nuts and bolts sessions” or “get started meetings”…those are training. Training is the process of explaining how (where education leaves off) but it is necessarily generalized and designed for a broad audience; besides being delivered through the eyes (read: experiences and filters) of whomever is delivering the training. Application of the training is left up to the trainee – and some have the necessary skills to take generalized training and apply to their unique circumstances and others don’t.

Most don’t.

But coaching, my friend, is the missing piece. Coaching is the process that involves two essential components:

1) Collaborating with a person to apply both education and training to that person’s unique and personal circumstances. 2) Continuous support that enables the person being coached to feel a sense of accountably, while at the same time having access to a sounding board and partner to help plan new courses— based on new information— toward a defined goal.

Were you coached to your current level of success in Network Marketing? Have you been introduced to the fundamental principles of coaching? And, by the example of a skilled coach, have you been taught how to be a coach to those that you bring to your business?

If you can’t answer “yes” to these questions— or are not sure— then we have a terrific opportunity for you in the coming months in TheNetworkMarketingMagazine.com We will be exploring the key components of becoming a world class coach…breaking down the fundamentals and helping you to learn how to apply— in your own unique circumstances – what is required to coach the people in your network so that it grows fast and continuously.

We are going to coach you on how to become a coach! And as a coach, you will find that helping other people succeed reaps the truest reward in network marketing – as well as creating a literal “autobahn” to the financial success you intended.

Steve Dailey is the Founder of PrimeFocus Coaching and AchievementBridge, Inc. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science from Colorado State University, Steve Dailey launched his first career as a professional swimming coach. During what he calls a "laboratory experience in human performance,

psychology and motivation" he built "feeder" programs for aspiring national level swimmers in Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, South Carolina and Texas. Though rewarding, swimming offered limited financial opportunity so Steve followed his entrepreneurial urgings to launch a business in the field of Sports and Recreation management. Starting with less than $200, he grew that business to a multimillion-dollar enterprise in only 2 years. Leveraging team building skills, organization development insights and coaching techniques learned on the pool deck, his business grew to serve tens of thousands of customers and employ over 300 people annually.

This success was soon recognized in the local business community as other entrepreneurs began to request Steve's insight on business building strategies. Responding to this interest, he began to market services as a "Business Development Coach" noting that coaching high level athletes and coaching goal-focused business people had many parallels. Soon, the concept attracted entrepreneurs and business leaders from a wide variety of marketplace segments, business models and stages of growth. Through the process, Steve rapidly honed an array of essential achievement principles that positively influenced success in virtually every business environment. Not incidental to this broad exposure were lessons learned in observing both "best practices" and "lethal errors" in leadership, sales and marketing, strategic business development, human resource management and motivation, financial planning, career advancement, predicting and responding to business trends, corporate ethics and innovation.

As the technology "boom" rumbled to the forefront of the marketplace, Steve then narrowed his niche to coaching early stage technology companies. His coaching model offered valuable input, collaboration and direction to eager executive teams, the new executive talent they were attracting and the venture capital companies that were funding them; all in maximizing opportunities in an extraordinarily fast paced time in business history. Again, more insight was gained - this time in defining critical factors that influence success and failure in high velocity/high risk business environments.

Most recently, Steve has focused his passion for coaching in developing high-yield achievement systems for Sales Professionals, Business Executives and Entrepreneurs that include web-based tools, leading edge coaching methods and executive "coach mentoring" programs where business leaders learn to be effective coaches to their own teams. You can find out more about that at his website: PrimeFocusCoaching.com Coaching Philosophy Over 20 years practicing the "art and science of coaching" Steve has truly been on the leading edge of the development of business coaching as a profession. His philosophies have helped shape other professional coaches and coach teams, as well as the success trajectory of the hundreds of clients he has served. The essence of Steve's approach to coaching can be defined by his emphasis on "achievement" rather than simply "personal development". Steve says, "True achievement is attained only through the experiences one has in producing tangible results while developing new habits in the process. When a person then learns to build and leverage a broad scope of resources toward specific intent, they will win at everything they pursue. A coach's value is defined by the degree to which they can build these attributes into their clients as permanent, reusable tools." Personal Steve resides in the beautiful hill country of Austin, Texas with his wife and son. He ranks in the top 10 in the country in Masters Swimming and, having eclipsed the 50-year mark, thoroughly embraces the second half of life as the "better half".