Six Sigma for Network Marketing ?

What do you do if you are working your business and for some unknown reason not achieving the results you think you should be, or know you can? The problem for many is we don't have any real problem solving skills to help us establish a practical system for operating our business. Or if we have a system in place, we don't know how to identify where in our system something may be off track and need adjusting.

Corporate businesses do a pretty decent job in my opinion of taking their best and brightest and sending them out to formulate problem solving methodologies, that can be taught pretty easily, (duplication) and then implemented to help solve a wide array of problems from cutting unnecessary costs to improving and streamlining processes, to increase profitability.

Unfortunately, they do a pretty bad job (generally speaking) of sticking with one tool or program long enough to reap the benefits. Companies like people, have short attention spans and are eager to move on to the newest and shiniest fad on the market.

I have been trained in Six Sigma for 8 years now and find that the model is very helpful and can be used in almost any application you can think of. The reason for this is because every conceivable action in your life or work is in the basic sense a process. Anything you do, has process steps involved to achieve the desired outcome. For example, making a pot of coffee- you put a filter in the holder, add a specific amount of coffee, fill the water reservoir, and mash the on button. That is a process.

Six Sigma was designed to look at a process and improve it. There are different Six Sigma models of course. I would like to share with you the D.M.A.I.C. model to help you in your Network Marketing Business. The letters in this model represent the different steps in this problem solving tool.

Let's say for example, you have been working your business for 1 month now and have only recruited 1 person. You expected to have 3 people in your down line by now.

Phase 1. D=Define. Define your problem statement. In this example, it would look something like this:

In 1 month, I have only recruited 1 person.



Now we must establish a future goal for improvement. Make it realistic. and quantify it.


In March, I will recruit 2 people into my organization.



Phase 2. M=Measure.

Now we must measure as much as possible our previous results up till now. We want as much information as we can get. It would be very helpful if we kept some type of records as to how many people we offered our opportunity to in 1 month that only resulted in 1 new recruit. If not, I recommend you start this practice from now on. This will help you establish a ratio or percent that you can use as a benchmark for future improvement goals. Let's say for example you spoke to 10 people in 1 month and only got one. That means you only have a 10% success rate for this time period.

Phase 3. A=Analyze. This is the hardest part. Especially if you don't have some accurate data or stats to go back and look at. Going forward in your business, it would be helpful if you kept some type of log for you to track your daily business activity and the results of those activities.
For example, if you know that you have been devoting approximately 65% of your time focused on recruiting friends and family, 25% of your time placing ads online, and 10% of your time marketing on FB or another Social Network vehicle, now you can quickly identify where your efforts have been directed.

Although it's a little difficult in this simple example to make all the points that are worth mentioning on this subject, the next step would be to identify what outlet you found your 1 prospect through. If it was on FB, you might want to increase more of your time and efforts toward FB marketing. To find out where to cut some of your time and efforts, you want to probably cut from the vehicle which is sparking the least amount of activity. If you were able to speak to 4 potential prospects through Craig's List advertising, but were unable to recruit them, you probably want to either increase your efforts in this area or keep it the same for your first try at this. If you couldn't convince any friends and family to take a look at your opportunity, this is the obvious place to cut your efforts.

Phase 4. I=Improve The improve phase is the organization of the changes you intend to make to improve your outcome. Example would be- Friends and family recruiting- 25%, online advertising- 40%, and Social Networking Marketing- 35%. Based on your business time/effort analyses, this might not be a bad start to making your adjustments. Try this new model of activity for a specified period of time. (1-2 weeks should be sufficient) If things start to improve slightly, you may want to go back and adjust this model again to support your new results. If it gives you your desired outcome. Then you are on to the control phase.


Phase 5 C= Control When you find the appropriate breakdown of your maximum effort efficiency, it is important that you continue to work your business in this model. It is just important to maintain good records and frequently make sure that you aren't subtly regressing in your desired results. If you decide to try to improve your results, start the process over and monitor and control.

Although this is a very shallow simplistic look at Six Sigma, it is a nice structure to help you keep your business activities and the results you are getting documented and easy to see. It will also help you to develop some good disciplines to help you build your business and reach your goals quicker.