MLM Business Leads
Network Marketing: Is It a Home-Based Business?
Copyright © 2006 Nabil Khoury
Before the Internet era, network marketing used to be the only “home-based business” and the only way to earn some additional income along with working a regular job and working overtime.
The marketing techniques typically taught in the industry consisted of introducing the products to family and friends–the classic way was to invite friends, family, and any acquaintances to hotel meetings, where they heard a presentation about the products and/or the business. After exhausting what was called your “warm market,” you then had to go to your chamber of commerce, your church, networking clubs, malls, and other public places in order to meet new people to whom you could present the business and the products.
Unfortunately, many network marketing companies are still using these lead generation techniques in the present day. Some recommend using what are called “drop cards” and flyers. The network marketer’s daily method of operation consists of leaving these flyers and drop cards in as many public places as possible, from restaurants to phone booths, in grocery shops and around ATM machines.
Rather than working from home, these techniques leave network marketers on the road most of the time, and network marketing, in this case, is not really what one would call a home-based business.
Currently, the Internet allows lead generation via Internet marketing. Internet marketing lead generation may be completely free or low cost. Leads generated through the internet are highly targeted.
Flyers and drop cards are replaced by simple signature lines in emails, discussion groups and forums. Visits to grocery shops are replaced by visits to forums. Expensive non targeted newspapers advertisements are replaced by cheaper highly targeted newsletter and pay per click advertising.
The current technology of phone bridges allows marketers to conduct presentations that connect prospects from all over the country, or even from all over the world. Expensive time consuming hotel meetings are replaced by a joining a phone conference call from the comfort of your home.
Network marketing is truly becoming a home-based business.
If your purpose in looking for a home-based business is to have the chance to spend some quality time with your family, and if you are planning to work part-time in the business, when evaluating a company, you may want to check about their marketing plan. Before checking compensation plans, products, or policies and procedures, it is recommended that you check the quality of the company’s training program; this should be done before joining, not afterwards. You will have to make sure that the network marketing company you are considering will teach you real marketing techniques and internet marketing for lead generation.
Nabil Khoury
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/-network-marketing-is-it-a-homebased-business-10621.html
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Network Marketing Success: Cold or Warm Market
You started a home-based business.
So why are you spending so much time away from home. . .
Prospecting at your job (if you still have one), the mall, the grocery store, networking groups, church, family gatherings, prospecting at. . STOP ALREADY, JUST STOP IT!!!
There is a better way. The most powerful tool you will ever learn to use in network marketing or direct sales is the telephone. The most powerful fuel for that tool is scripts. Before you can use a script, you need to have prospects, and that is what we will cover now.
First, stop chasing “prospects” that just happen to be in your life – your “warm market”. Not only is that a relief for them, since I know a few of them, they wanted me to tell you that they’d rather be your friend than your business partner. But, don’t you think you will be a little more than humiliated groveling through your warm market only to turn off your closest friends, relatives, and professional business contacts? This can kill you and your business during the first 90 days in business. Forget warm market prospecting because it’s wrong, wrong, wrong.
Our personal recommendation: DON’T go to your warm market at all. And if you send your new reps to their warm market (warm market defined as family and friends), who will in turn most likely reject them, causing your new rep to just disappear on you. The Art and Science of Marketing, when executed properly, puts the correct prospect in front of you and are interested in what you have to offer. It’s not about you and your need. Using your relationship through warm market prospecting may damage your relationships permanently.
Second: Get cold, targeted leads for your business’ products and/or services which is who we define as your true warm market, warm to what you actually have to solve a person’s problem, that’s our definition of a warm market and then learn how to use the most powerful tool in your arsenal, the phone. Time after time we’ve seen people bail out of network marketing because they are afraid of the phone. Why? They don’t have a proven script used by hundreds of people before them who have acquired a customer or a rep as a result. When the new rep strikes out in the “make a list of family, friends, and business you do business with” warm market, they feel foolish, and that’s the end of them.
Third: Analyze your product offering and identify the people who have a true need, want, and desire for your product or service the true warm market. This is how you will target your leads. If it was so simple and inexpensive to advertise to get customers, your company could do their own customer gathering without you. However, companies use the “network marketing” business model knowing most representatives will be out of business within 90 days and leave behind an average of 3 customers. Stop doing that.
Fourth, learn how to approach these re-defined warm market prospects through positioning; having people who have a true need want and desire come to you and requesting information. That’s the ideal way to market, right? Large companies brand their product and do traditional advertising such as newspapers, direct mail, radio and TV. However, as an independent rep, small business owner, these options will break your bank account in short order. Until you learn the art of positioning, you cannot put in 20 to 30 reps a week or make 20 to $30k a week targeting this true warm market.
Network marketing and/or direct sales can truly be done from home without hotel meetings and accosting your “warm market” friends, families and strangers. Know what your tools are, know how to use them, and before you know it, your business will take off.
Taking the higher road to Success,
Bob Listerman & Nancy Dewitz
610-444-5295 & 941-322-8351
Co-Founders of Promarketers
Nancy Dewitz & Bob Listerman
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/network-marketing-Success-cold-or-warm-market-86539.html
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Seven Tips For An Active Network Marketing Downline
If you are in network marketing as a home-based business, you surely have experienced this:
the “revolving door” syndrome – where you recruit one person and it seems two others drop out. Obviously, this is frustrating and makes you wonder why it is so difficult to get your downline to stay active. What is worse is to see people leaving faster than you can recruit them.
Way too often we focus so much on recruiting new downline members that we forget about the downline we already have. We focus all of our energies on the toughest part of building the business, which is recruiting. Yet we forget to take action on the easiest and really most important part: follow-up.
While follow-up may seem difficult, it is extremely important for future growth and improving your retention rates. With your MLM home business, the number of people in the downline who drop out should not be dropping out like they are. The real reason why people drop out because they are often ignored or forgotten by their up line.
Your goal for your MLM business should be to improve the retention within your own team and to be a strong leader for your downline. This should be a priority.
Below are Seven strategies you MUST do to make sure “revolving door” in your organization stays tightly locked and to keep your downline active for years and not months.
1. Commit to a customer service policy. If you truly want to build a solid and profitable network marketing business, you need to implement the policy of provide service and follow-up to your downline. Remember, people join a network marketing because of you, not the product or service. They have belief that you can help them meet their goals and have something beneficial to offer.
2. Follow-up is following-through. Just because someone signs up in your network marketing company, does not mean the sale is complete. You must follow-up with your new downline member within one week. Give them a courtesy call within the week to ensure they are happy and are using the product/service. If they want to build the business, call to make certain they are tapping into the resources and getting off to a good start.
3. Staying in contact shows you care. In your prospecting and recruiting efforts, you planted seeds to start the relationship building process. Stay in touch with your downline. An autoresponsder is a great tool to use for this. You can send your downline motivational quotes, techniques that you use that are successful, inform them of new resources they can use for their business, etc. Doing this will show you care and value their business. Staying in touch will also provide you with an opportunity to get additional business and to strengthen the relationship.
4. Anticipate the needs of your downline. By staying in contact, you can anticipate or stay ahead of your downline needs. You will strengthen your relationship and will more fully understand their current needs. This ultimately leads to anticipation of future needs. Try to always think ahead. This will help you keep your downline happy and satisfied.
5. Keep a database on members in your network marketing home business downline. As your business grows, it will become impossible to keep all downline information and individual needs in your head. You must create customer files with personal information on your downline. This can include their likes, dislikes, goals, passions, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. You get the idea.
6. Work closely with your downline members and be supportive. No one is guaranteed success. However, you will be amazed at how high of a success rate you will have with those you personally sponsor when you work closely with them and support their efforts. Keep in mind some people will never do what they need to do and you can’t change that. But, if you provide support and show you care, you improve the retention of your downline.
7. Create intimacy with your downline. Be genuine in your concern for your members. Show them you are not just in it to get their money. You must go above and beyond to assist people in getting what they want and need. The difference between you and your competition boils down to one thing – customer service. If you provide value through concern for them as a person and deliver quality customer service in every way possible, you will find your members will be there for the long term.
If you want an active and productive downline in your network marketing home-based business, keep in mind, the stability of your residual income will be in direct proportion to your personal follow-up and customer service. Make follow-up and customer service your PRIORITY! Your wealth and your downline members depend on it!
Monique Hawkins
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/seven-tips-for-an-active-network-marketing-downline-103775.html
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What The Heck Does Monopoly Have To Do With Network Marketing?
Imagine discovering that you were playing your favorite game by the wrong set of rules all your life. Here I was, playing my all time favorite game, Monopoly. And for some strange reason I decided to stop and read the directions.
Usually, I give out 1500 bucks to every person participating, and then place 500 big ones in the middle of the board to start off the free parking space pile. What’s more, is throughout the entire game all the money collected by the banker is placed on the free parking space too. So as you can imagine over time there is a mound of cash waiting for anyone who lands on the free parking space.
Well you’ll never guess what I discovered. As stated by the official Monopoly rules: Free Parking; A player landing on this place does not receive any money, property or reward of any kind. This is just a “free” resting-place.
You could imagine how surprised I was by this. For longer than I care to remember I just played along to a set of rules that I never thought to stop and question. This is the exact same feeling that came over me when I dug deeper in to network marketing.
For instance, people today are stuck on the dream that they can build a down line to China in network marketing. Network Marketing is not like it used to be 30 years ago when there were only a handful of companies like Amway, Mary Kay and a few others.
With today’s technology, it doesn’t take any more than 50 bucks worth of computer software to come up with an affiliate program. That’s right! There are a bunch of Joe Smoes out there cranking out new network marketing companies and affiliate programs that are sleeker, sexier, and promise boatloads more cash. This is why people are jumping out of moving cars to join other companies.
What about the idea of buying leads at 3 to 10 dollars a pop. More times than not you’re doing nothing but wasting your time talking to deadbeats who are broke-minded, negative, and down right nasty. You know, the kind of people you DON’T want in your organization.
Think about the heavy hitters in this industry: Joe Schroeder, Dennis Karganilla, Corey Whidbee, or Gregory “Big Brother” Drake. When was the last time they gave you a call to join their organization or joint venture deal? That would be like HBO, AOL, Rachael Ray, or Oprah giving you a call to buy their product.
You know why they don’t call you? Because, when you Have people calling you for the 411 on your products they are way more qualified than someone you call. That’s just a known fact.
Or what about the idea of going through your own black book to build your downline. Pitch to your neighbor, pastor, family, the dog, or whatever poor soul is in a 3-foot radius of you. The idea is that you will get 3 who will get 3 who will get 3 and so forth.
You want to know why this will rarely work? It’s actually psychological.
When you pitch the idea to, let’s say, Bob, off the street to make an extra $2000 to $5000 a month it won’t register to him. A person’s internal world is 2 times bigger than what exist in the external world.
What does this mean? See Bob works a typical 9-5, grossing 35K a year after taxes. To Bob, internally, he is only worth 35K a year. So when you approach Bob with those figures he will automatically reject it because his self-worth is lower.
This is why the average MLMer is spinning his/her wheels buying leads, handing out magazines, or hosting in-home meetings. Do these things work? Sure. But it’s a hit or miss.
Wallace Wattles, author of The Science of Getting Rich, states that if you can do certain things in a certain way you will get rich with mathematical precision. There is a certain way to get rich in network marketing and it’s by being on the supply side. People who are offering systems, media, training, and leads are making the serious dough.
Take a step back and look at your business structure. Are you doing things in a certain way? Well, now that you know the rules, and it’s your decision on how you will keep playing.
Corey Whidbee
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/what-the-heck-does-monopoly-have-to-do-with-network-marketing-233512.html
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Network Marketing and the Art of Closing Sales and Getting Results
Why is it that so many MLMers never get around to making an stable and recurring income you ask? First of all this type of business is called network “marketing”, so how many network marketers you know actually have a marketing degree? Probably none, or if you do, are those people applying what they learned in school correctly? And even if they are great marketers, do they know how to close a sale? Because in the end you cannot call yourself a network marketer if you don’t practice the art of closing a sale and have some of what MLMers call “posture power”. Marketing a product, and doing it right, be it by networking or in a store or for a big company, plays a big part in the success of your marketing campaigns, but imagine a really big company (they have the financial resources to put up a huge marketing campaign) without sales people… the sales people are the one who their job is to successfully “close the deal”, you could have the biggest and best marketing campaign ever, it could be a great success.. but without people in your organization who practice the art of “closing” your marketing campaign will be simply that.. a marketing campaign..you need to have people who are talented at closing sales! Ok, but you don’t have the budget nor the resources of a big company.. well then you have to learn how to market your products AND close the sales yourself! Let’s take a look at how to do this.
I have to tell you that i have worked in sales for about 5-6 years, on the phone, in the public, in stores, and others, and i also worked in marketing for about a year or so.. so i want to share my experiences with you, and try to help you develop your organization.So now you have your marketing campaign running… of course you call your friends, family and relatives to let them know about your product, you meet new people everyday (maybe 2 or 3 people, you give them business cards and take note of their phone numbers).. that’s great.. you also have your online ads running, like adwords, blogs, forums postings, seo campaigns, ebay, froogle and others.. awesome! Now you get more leads than ever! People call you, send you e-mails and stuff.. you want to make sure now that you know how to close a sale, I’m going to give you some examples of things that might work, but you have to understand the 4 “personality types”! Because if you have no clue what type of person you’re talking to, you might end up not closing the deal, so you want luck to be on your side! Well..there’s no such thing as luck… i believe in hard work and coincidences, but you get the idea!
So here we go!
Solid
The solid type of personality doesn’t like conflicts, arguments or fights, they would like everything to be in perfect harmony. Solids won’t really cry for attention like the expressive type! They don’t demand much attention, but they are certainly worth paying attention to, because they usually have a really good sense of humor, optimism, and a really interesting way of thinking. They are usually healthy and relaxed people. They like solitude and calm, but they will join in for a good laugh. They are, i would say, the most “balanced” type of personality. They can blend really well in most situation or group, they are easygoing and also sensitive and in touch with their emotions. Their weakness would probably be their lack of enthusiasm, since they are relaxed and calm people, you will rarely see them jump up and down. When trying to close a sale, you may have a hard time figuring out if they are interested or not, so keep in mind that the solids are usually stubborn, and don’t like to change. So when you talk to them about your products/offer you absolutely have to ask them what they think (in a very subtle way), or else they won’t tell you, and you may find it hard to investigate further. So you have to ask them the right questions at the right time and you will do fine, or else they will give you information bit by bit and it can take long, very long, so by asking the right questions you will gather infos more quickly. Try to get some useful information, then propose something right away, and then narrow down your search.
Expressive
Everyone notices the expressive person… try to think of a party, anniversary or gala. They are the ones who will light up the room! They are energetic and enjoy talking. They are usually fun to be around because they are dynamic and love to have fun. They are pretty easy to identify, they make the “grand entrance”, they love to be in the spotlight, the center of attention. They are optimistic and cheerful people. When trying to close a sale with the expressive type, make sure you use words and sentences like: trust me, amazing, beautiful, awesome, useful, fun! Don’t give them too much infos, you’ll loose them.. They will buy something in a heartbeat, impulsively.. so what you want to make sure is they keep buying your product month after month (passive revenues for you!), you have to be very careful not to stress them to close the sale, simply talk with them about how great your product is (don’t be over-enthousiastic tho), do it in a very “laid-back” way, don’t talk too fast, don’t rush them, but you have to come up with something that will make them go “wow”. Listen carefully to what they have to say, answer their questions, and make sure you understand exactly what they are saying! Only then you will be able to find that little thing that will make them go “wow.. I’m buying this”!
Dominant
Confident, authoritative, and result-oriented! The dominant will usually cut down more work than any other type in much less time, not that they are work-a-holics, but multi-tasking come naturally to them: talking bussiness on the phone, typing a report, checking their e-mails.. all at the same time… we all do this sometimes, but the dominants do this all the time! You could say they are “driven”, and they are willing to work long and hard to go where they want to go, and they will succeed! They empower others, and are always looking for new challenges. Their social life is, of course, not the same as the expressive type.. they like to converse, but it absolutely has to be interesting, intelligent and you have to be confident about what you are saying to a dominant, because they tend to be a little “bossy” and take control. To make a sale with someone who is dominant you have to be very careful not to be too expressive! They are results-oriented, remember? so talk to them about the results they will get if they use/take your products, they want to know what it will do, how and when! They are very strict, so you have to be very precise when answering their questions…if you don’t know the answer, just tell them you don’t know (don’t make something up.. they will notice!!), but you can ask someone else (upline, coach..etc) and you will get back to them with the answer. They will like you to take the time to consult someone else to give them the right information.
Analytical
“A place for everything and everything in it’s place” would describe the analytical type best. The analytical is usually someone who is intellectual looking, quiet and reserved. Someone who analyzes things, conversations, and situation without really thinking about it, or doing it on purpose, it just comes naturally to them. They are usually more interested in the spiritual side of things; spiritual values, wisdom and integrity, than the other types. The analytical type is really disciplined and loyal, and is not much of a talker. They are perfectionist and sometimes introverted. Trying to close a sale with the analytical can be difficult, they need time to think and evaluate your offer, so simply give them the information, give them time to think about it, then call them back or re-contact them, and ask them if they read or watched what you gave them, and ask them what they think, if they have objections and questions, you have to be very professional, answer their questions, and tell them you value their opinion, if your offer seems good to them, they will join, if not, they surely have more questions, so do what you can to answer all their questions, but never ever ask them to join or buy your product right away, that won’t work!
Ok, so now you know some about the basic types of personality. Of course marketing and sales are not just about knowing these! You also need good products, good marketing campaigns (try writing 4 different ads, one for each personality type) and also a solid team to help you as you build your organization (upline, coaches, mentors).
Happy marketing and sales!
Jonathan-C. Phillips
http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-articles/network-marketing-and-the-art-of-closing-sales-and-Getting-results-101692.html
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