When I first got started in network marketing, I was taught by my MLM Company’s leaders to make a list of my friends and family, get more names from those people, talk to anyone close to me (known as the 3-foot rule), and hand out business cards and flyers. The crazy thing is that I actually did it. Once, I made it to the bottom of my list (that only took about one or two weeks), I asked my sponsor what I should do next and he said to make another list or prospect the list I already had again. Using your warm market is a traditional MLM marketing method but it has it limitations.
The first limitation is that using warm market prospecting is untargeted. It’s untargeted because you are talking to people that didn’t request more information about your network marketing product or service. When it comes to marketing your business that is probably one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. Can you find customers and business builders using this method? Yes, you can and there are some that grow a large organization using just their warm market but that is the exception not the rule.
One fundamental rule of marketing is to target your marketing. The more your message relates to your prospect, the more likely you are to convert that prospect into a customer. The problem with using your warm market as your leads is that you are trying to create interest in your network marketing product (or if you do what your MLM Company preaches, in the business opportunity) instead of them already being interested to begin with. This traditional MLM marketing method requires a lot more time and energy to get sales.
Another problem with using the traditional marketing methods that are taught by MLM companies is the limitation of using your warm market. How many people do you really know? Even if you can write a list of 100 names and you got everyone on that list to give you 20 more names (which isn’t likely to happen) you only have 2000 leads to work with. And remember these are just names and numbers of people, they aren’t people that already have an interest in your network marketing product or service so you are going to have to try to create that interest.
It doesn’t matter what business you are in, leads are the life blood of that business. Without leads, your business is dead. In order to grow your business to where you are making a good living every month, you will have to make a substantial number of MLM sales. I can almost guarantee that you will NEVER close 100% of the time.
Let’s say that you can convert 5% of your list into customers. (I’m assuming that you are very good at sales when I use a number like 5% because the reality is that it would be closer to 1% when you are using untargeted prospects.) At a 5% conversion rate with your 2000 names, you will have 100 MLM sales. Sounds pretty good doesn’t it? But this is assuming that you actually get to talk to all 2000 people on your list, NOT likely to happen. You would actually be lucky to talk to half of those people. (Remember that the majority of those on your list are referrals.) Let’s go with it anyway. 50% of 2000 = 1000 and you can convert 5% of them. That gives you 50 MLM sales. Still sounds good doesn’t it?
It sounds good but the reality is that you will maybe get 3 sales from your warm market. Assuming that you can make a list of at least 100 names. 3 MLM sales does NOT a business make and what do you do when you run out of names on your list? Do you go selling door-to-door? I’ve done door-to-door sales before, I can tell you that you have to have a very thick skin to make sales that way.
