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DAkippa
Forums Member
Joined: 6 Apr 2009
Posts: 2
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#1 · Posted: 6 Apr 2009 13:57
Ok so I work for the mlm company Xocai. Xocai is a great healthy dark chocolate mixed with acai bery that can aid in wieght loss and and many other health issues. My problem is they tell us everyone is our target market becuase everyone loves chocolate and wants to be healthier, but I Keep running into the same objections... too expensive, and when I try recruiting people they say PYRAMID SCHEME! So where is my target market?? Where would I find people either interested in the health benefits, or the business oppurtunity?
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Adam Kipling
http://www.newhealthycocoa.com
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jeffathome
Forums Member
Joined: 9 Sep 2008
Posts: 135
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#2 · Posted: 8 Apr 2009 20:26
Write some articles on the benefits of your chocolate and submit them and put a link to your site in the resource box. Then your prospects will come to you. Maybe try and target people who buy Godiva chocolate or some other expensive candies. Unfortunately I feel you might have a tough sell on your hands but good luck.
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happywife
Joined: 14 Aug 2007
Posts: 1420
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#3 · Posted: 8 Apr 2009 20:29
Hi Adam,
Is this your first excursion into network marketing? 
Xocai may be one of the harder MLM's to make a good online business with. Here's why I say that, so bear with me....
My first site chocolate-candy-mall.com is (obviously) all about chocolate candy - I love the stuff!  I'd been building it for about a year when I was approached by a Xocai business builder and asked to consider joining and marketing via my site. I was getting about 400-500 visitors per day at that point.
I considered it, but I had never been involved in an MLM before and I wasn't prepared at that point to use my monthly profits from my site to pay for the required monthly purchases. I told him to contact me a few months later when I felt I might have the available cash flow to reconsider.
He did, and it was then that I started doing some research on the demand for "healthy chocolate." That was early last year. The numbers were not good at all. As much as I liked the idea of healthier chocolate, there really wasn't search demand to make the investment worthwhile.
Eventually, the fellow decided to get out of Xocai altogether and offered to just give me his position in the company for free, but I still didn't feel it would be worth the time and money it would take me to generate a decent profit from it, so I turned down the offer.
Funnily enough, I did eventually join an MLM and I'm doing pretty well with it so far, but it is completely unrelated to my chocolate site.
Here's the thing. You're right about needing to either find people interested in the product or the business opp or both.
Because the demand for the product itself is so low, you'll have to think of another angle. What is the greatest health benefit of Xocai chocolate?
From your site it says...
Clinical studies show that the unprocessed (un-heated) cocoa bean is full of flavanoids & other nutrients that can be good for weight-loss, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, heart disease & much more!
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and also...
patented "Cold Press Process" in the creation of dark Belgian Chocolate, which keeps ALL the antioxidants, flavonoids and nutrients intact!
So, you have a few angles there to consider. You can target the benefits of antioxidants or flavonoids. Or you can target the subject of cholesterol, blood pressure, heart disease, etc.
The other angles may be the acai berry or the bluberries included. Acai is getting more and more popular, so that may be an interesting angle to research.
Basically, to sell the product you need to find those people who will be most benefited by it. The product needs to meet "their need."
It IS an expensive product. You can't get around that. You need to find a way to make the price "worth it" to a target market. That is going to be your greatest challenge.
The other option you mentioned is targeting the business builders of the world. Finding people who are looking for a business opportunity. There are really two problems with that...
1. That's a very competitive niche and will most likely take you a few years to really break into it solidly.
2. Anyone who you "sign up" is going to be faced with the exact same problem you're faced with - how to find a target audience.
If you are truly sold on the health benefits of the product and are determined to make a money with this, I would suggest you choose one of the angles I've mentioned (or another one you come up with after thinking about it more) and build a niche site targeting that specific niche.
For instance, let's say you decide that your favorite feature/benefit of Xocai is that it helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels. Then consider building an entire website about controlling cholesterol.
In this way, you will be targeting people who are actively searching for a solution to their cholesterol problems. You can then link to your product site for them to make a purchase.
But the best thing about that option is that you can also monetize in many other ways! On your cholesterol site, you can earn Adsense income, recommend other related cholesterol products and earn commissions on sales (affiliate marketing), and even maybe write an informative ebook or "report" on one aspect of cholesterol health and sell it for a few dollars, too.
This way your income will be diversified, and it won't be completely dependent upon your success with Xocai. If you build your site right (I highly recommend using SBI), you will get plenty of free targeted traffic from the search engines and it will be YOUR business, not Xocai's.
Xocai will just be one of your monetization models and if the worse comes to worse and you don't stick with Xocai for the long haul, you still have a web business on the subject of cholesterol health that will continue to make you money.
That's just one "angle" to consider. I hope I've been clear enough to give you an idea of how you can approach this and make a success of it if you really want to (without running off your friends and family in the process). 
Blessings,
Angie
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A8ch
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
Posts: 856
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#4 · Posted: 8 Apr 2009 21:42 · Edited by: A8ch
DAkippa: My problem is they tell us everyone is our target market becuase everyone loves chocolate and wants to be healthier...
I personally consider that statement to be no more than a weak sale pitch from a lazy representative who is trying to recruit sales people. It's a misleading attempt to suggest there's a wide market and therefore strong demand for the product.
The reality is that not everyone loves chocolate; some people's systems can't tolerate it, and there are many people who are not obsessive about maintaining their health. So while it's important to trust, it's equally important to verify!
DAkippa: but I Keep running into the same objections... too expensive, and when I try recruiting people they say PYRAMID SCHEME!
Those are objections you should expect to hear as a matter of course. It's an automatic initial response you'll get from most people you approach, so prepare yourself for it. Come up with half a dozen responses you can use to dismiss those objections. This way you can confidently overcome them in future.
DAkippa: So where is my target market?? Where would I find people either interested in the health benefits, or the business oppurtunity?
The answer is hiding in plain sight in your questions. Broadly speaking, your focus is two-pronged:
1. delivering health benefits
2. offering a business opportunity
Of course you'll have to drill down to find the most effective sub niche and the right incentive to stir up interest in each of those areas.
Angie shared some very insightful and practical information which will help you get your bearings. You've got to do your own homework and flesh out things for yourself, though. That can't be avoided.
All the best!
Hermas
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johnjimat
Forums Member
Joined: 31 Mar 2009
Posts: 357
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#5 · Posted: 9 Apr 2009 01:01
work hard is key of success.. if one cant then try another one
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moneymagnet23
Forums Member
Joined: 2 Apr 2009
Posts: 43
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#6 · Posted: 9 Apr 2009 04:58
Dakippa,
You will alwayws hears people excusses, if you want to succeed in this businees you have to learn how to block out peoples excuses and just see that they are not right for business. I do suggest following up with people and showing that the product either works or taste great..
Most people only buy after 7 approaches..
I however don't like this approach, i like to set things up automatically where people come and beg me to join , rather than vice versa..
There are many ways to do this, but most importantly its getting people to contact you.. And then closing the sale.
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cherie27
Forums Member
Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 676
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#7 · Posted: 9 Apr 2009 05:52
It seems like your target market might be a small number of people. Beside chocolate, what other products can you offer them?
If it is only chocolate, it will be very hard for you to promote your business.
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ScottCofer
Forums Member
Joined: 2 Apr 2009
Posts: 36
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#8 · Posted: 9 Apr 2009 07:09 · Edited by: ScottCofer
Your target market? Network marketers ... Period.
Focus your efforts on attracting networkers that may be looking for a change (i.e. dissatisfied with their current company).
There are plenty of lead-generation programs on the web that use opt-in pages to gather leads. Get hooked up with one that doesn't charge you for the replicated page or use a free site-builder/host like Weebly and create your own ..... then you'll need to drive web traffic to it.
Best to you,
Scott
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malibumentor
Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 354
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#9 · Posted: 17 Apr 2009 20:38
You are elicting the response "pyramid scheme" with
the language you are using. In some way you are leading
people to raise the objection - stop doing the leading
and the objection will all but vanish.
It sounds like you are trying to sell but keep hitting objections,
which says you need to learn more about salesmanship,
prospecting and presenting.
Keep at it - and educate yourself.
Short story - you are probably coming on W-A-Y too strong.
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samueldarwin
Forums Member
Joined: 10 Oct 2007
Posts: 514
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#10 · Posted: 17 Apr 2009 23:10
They are both in online and offline. Try to do some adwords campaigns. You will learn quite a lot about market and stuffs like that. I lost money in adwords without making sales but that thought me a lot.
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RICH4NURICHE
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Joined: 6 May 2009
Posts: 180
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#11 · Posted: 19 May 2009 00:12
DAkippa, what you should do is re-evaluate your company and products. I agree with happywife and a8ch on their advice but let's go back to the beginning. Put yourself in the customers shoes. If it was you buying the product, would you be able to commit to buying it more than once? Can you profit from retail sales? They may tell you that your market is everyone but in reality those that said it was too expensive gave you a tipoff that they did'nt fall into the target market category. In other words, those that could afford the economy compact KIA from the dealership were not the ones that could afford the Cadillac Escalade. The latter being a smaller target market and probably not your neighbors next door. It's possible the Xocai business does'nt "fit" you. You will have to determine that by thoroughly reviewing it. If you focus on getting a customer base first, would that be a doable plan to implement? Get back with us and let us know what you come up with. I'm sure any one of us would be glad to help you further.
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