Networking has been a popular business term lately. Almost every person engaged in a business or looking for a job is building his or her own network of people to help in this venture.

There are cases when you use your network to get some information about the market you are trying to penetrate or to test your product. If you are looking for a job, you ask for information and tips from the people in your network. There are times when you also ask these people to recommend you or your product to other people in their network. This way, you maximize the benefits of having a wide network of people.

When you are into sales, you may need to build or recruit a network to do a function that is greater than that. These people will be your downlines who will also engage in the same selling and recruiting business as you do. They will also have to build their network later on.

In this case, the performance of the people in your network is of greater importance than that in the previous examples. Usually, a big portion of your income depends on how your network moves and performs.

Therefore, you need to try very hard to encourage people to try your business. To persuade them, you will have to brief them on the product, facilitate product presentations and sales seminars, and give samples. You have to invest much time and money to gain a number of people in your network.

However, once they agree to venture in the same business, you shouldn't stop there. After investing your effort, time and money, you have to encourage these people to perform and make sales.

This is the usual problem with sales and networking. No matter how many your recruits are, if they don't start working, recruiting them is useless. They are people that may agree to sign up because of the free registration and the products that you are giving. After that, they're as idle as non-recruits.

Thus, you have to exert as much effort to keep your downlines (and to make them function) as you have exerted when you are trying to recruit them into your networking business.

To help you determine what you need to do, you have to analyze the reason that your downlines aren't encouraged to sell the product or to recruit people in their network. Outlined here are the basic reasons that downlines give up easily and what you may do to prevent it from happening.

* They don't have enough information about the product.

When you entice them into signing up as your downline, you probably gave them product samples and briefed them on how the product functions or what it can do. However, doing that isn't enough to get their confidence in a product, no matter how much they trust you.

Remember that these people may be using a different brand for several years. Or perhaps, they don't feel the necessity to buy the product, thus, they also don't think they should market it to any of their friends. For either case, what you can do is to emphasize the benefits of the product. Explain to them the benefits in using the product, not just the products functions and features. If necessary, highlight on what makes the product superior over other popular brands on the market.

* They can't get a sale or a recruit after a few tries.

Not all sales attempts end up in sales. The same is true during recruitment of downlines. You might need to explain this to your downlines. There are also times, if they really have tried many times, that they are using an incorrect strategy.

To help them on this, give them ideas on sales and recruitment. If possible, set examples and help them in making their first few sales or in getting downlines. Do be hesitant to give them some of your prospective customers just help them learn sales techniques. Remember that when they continue performing as your downlines, their performance also increases your metrics.

* They can't see themselves growing.

These may be the people who are just making very few sales or recruits every month. They feel that this business does not work for them.

With these people, you can help them improve their sales and recruitment techniques. You can also update them on the performance levels that they should set as their goals. There are also times that you need to check their metrics. They may be close to getting to the next level but may just be lacking one sale or one recruit. Lend your helping hand and help them get to the next level. This way, they can see new opportunities ahead of them.

Your downlines growth affects your growth as well; therefore, make an effort to check how they are doing and to encourage them to keep going. You may establish yourself as an example, especially when you were still in their situation.