What Makes A Good Prospect

Whether you are in your first year network marketing or you are a seasoned MLM’er, you have to be able to sell your network marketing product if you want to succeed in business.  A common mistake that many network marketers make is believing that everyone wants or already uses something like their MLM product.  I don’t want to burst your bubble but that just isn’t true.  Not everyone wants your product.  I don’t care how great it is.

If I had a dollar for everytime a marketer told me “it practically sells itself”, I would be as rich as Oprah. 

Network marketing is just like every other business there is in at least one area – you have to make sales if you want to make mlm income.  I’m going to let you in on a little MLM secret – if you want to make mlm sales, you have to know what makes a good prospect.  Here’s why:

Knowing what a Good Prospect is will save you TIME and MONEY

The best way to know who will make a good prospect is to know who your target market is.  There are two key things to know to determine if someone is a good prospect for your network marketing product:

1.  Your prospect has a WANT or a NEED for your network marketing product.  You can have the best product in the world but if no one wants it or needs it, you won’t be making very many sales. 

For example, I was talking to this network marketing not too long ago that was looking for more information about how to make more MLM sales and they were in Enagic.  Enagic is in the business of filtering water.  The marketer that I was speaking to (the one that was looking for more information on how to make more MLM sales) tried to tell me that their business was about to take off because everyone drinks water and needs to filter it.  Obviously, this network marketing was notready to hear about my MLM training program.  My guess would be that this marketer hasn’t been with Enagic for very long and they don’t have very much experience in sales either.  If they did, they would know that not everyone cares about the water they drink, in fact, I know quite a few people that just don’t like to drink water at all.

I know, I know, it’s because they aren’t drinking the right kind of water.  If they tried the water after it’s had all the harmful chemicals filter out, they would definately want to drink more water.  Yeah, my husband also knows that he shouldn’t drink so much diet soda either but he does it anyway.  Which brings me to the second thing that a good prospect has:

2.  The prospect has to want a solution.  I’m sure that you know people that, for whatever reason, don’t see the answer to their problem even when it’s right there in front of them.  If your prospect has given up all hope of fixing their problem, then there isn’t anything that you can do for them.

Let’s say that your network marketing product is the water fitration system like what Enagic offers.  Everyone may NEED water but not everyone knows or even cares about all of the chemicals that can be found in ordinary tap water.  There are some that may care but found their solution in bottled water or in one of those simple little water filters.

If you have a network marketing product that you want to sell, go find people that have a WANT or a NEED for your product and (this is important) also WANT a solution.  It’s much easier to help someone that wants help than it is to try to force someone to look at a solution to a problem they don’t even know they have.

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Amy Howard, September 14th 2009 | Tags: , , , ,
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Marcia’s Email Marketing Method And How To Avoid Her Mistakes

I received an very interesting email this morning that I would like to share with you.  It really displays how far some network marketers will go to find free leads for their business.  It really is a great example of what NOT to do.  Unless of course, you have nothing but time on your hands and you don’t mind wasting it.  Here’s what happened…

I checked my email this morning to see that I had gotten an email from what appeared to be a gal that is a member of my Mahjong group.  I thought that there might be another game coming up soon that I may want to join.

For those of you that may not know what Mahjong is let me give you a little background.  Mahjong is a game for 4 people played with tiles.  It’s similar to the card game “rummy” but it’s played with tiles that have Chinese characters.  You are probably more familiar with the solitaire version that you can play on your computer.  Our Mahjong group gets together a few times a month in order to play with other people that like to play the game.

What Does Mahjong Have To Do With Network Marketing

Well if you have something to sell that Mahjong players may be interested in, then I would have to say that there is a big connection.  So, I opened the email to see who when and where this game was taking place.  But instead, I read that Marcia lost 40 pounds after having 3 kids and wanted me to check out her diet blog and tell her what I thought of it.  Well, my first thought was that Marcia is a network marketer in real need of some education in the art and science of marketing.  And since I provide that sort of thing I should give her a call to see if I could be of any assistance.  Of course, she doesn’t actually leave any contact information on her website so there is no way to call her to even buy her product if you were so inclined to do so.

What Did Marcia Do Right

I don’t want you to think that Marcia totally missed the mark when she sent out this email to me and I can only guess to how many other people in similar groups.  Here are the characteristics of a typical Mahjong player:

  • 3 out of 4 will be women
  • Typical age will be 40-65
  • Most are or were blue collar workers
  • Most have children

For the most part there are very few men in our group and you know what happens when you get a bunch of women together in the same room.  Yep, they talk, share ideas, secrets, good books, recipes, and how they lost a bunch of weight.  So, Marcia wasn’t completely wrong to think that Mahjong players might be her target market.  However, she went about it all wrong.

What Marcia Did Wrong

It’s a lot easier to fix something when you know what went wrong, so let me share a few things with you that you may want to consider if you are looking for free leads like my friend Marcia.

  • Share your MLM product and your expertise only with people that are actively looking for a solution to a problem
  • Design a marketing strategy with your target market in mind (if you are targeting Mahjong players, then your strategy should be based on a face to face meeting while you are playing the game)
  • Make sure that your prospect can reach you for more information or to purchase more of your MLM product
  • Don’t lie or stretch the truth in order to create “hype”

Prospecting lottery by talking, emailing, calling random people is inefficient, unprofitable and frustrating.  Talking to people that have either asked you for more information or have done (or bought) something in the past that lets you know they may be interested in what you have is are far more effecient use of your time.  Trying to build your lead list with random people that don’t even qualify to buy your product is not a good way to build your network marketing business.  Remember, you can always make more money but you can never make more time.

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Amy Howard, July 13th 2009 | Tags: , , , ,
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8 Days To MLM Sales – Day 2, Identify Your Target Market

On Day 1 we talked about choosing just one mlm product to market.  If you haven’t decided on just one product, then I urge you to review Day 1.  If you decided on your mlm product, then it’s time to identify your target market.

Why Identifying Your Target Market Is So Important

If you want to be able to get more customers, then it is crucial that you identify who your target market is.  Once you know who you are marketing to, you can better understand them and deliver the greatest value.  You will serve your customers better if you know their specific needs, wants, and desires.  The goal is to really understand who it is that buys your mlm product or uses your mlm service.  If you want to motivate someone into making a purchase, you really need to understand who that person is. 

This step is very important because it will help on Day 3 when we look at creating a prospecting script, Day 4 when we work on creating a presentation, Day 5 when we create a closing script that eliminates objections, and also on Day 7 when we work on getting leads.  So as you can see, identifying your target market is really the key ingredient to the rest of this process.  It doesn’t matter if you are marketing online or offline, you want to know your market inside and out.

Let’s get to it – who is your target market?

It starts with the product that you have chosen.  Take a look at the product, what are the benefits of using the product.  Sit down and list 5-10 benefits that people receive when they use your mlm product or service.  I want you to be as specific as possible.  I want you to take notice that I said to list the “benefits” of your mlm product and not the “features” of your product or service.  There is a difference:

  • A feature is about the components or the functions of your mlm product or service.  For example: let’s say your product is something that helps increase gas mileage and it comes in pill form.  Having the product in pill form is a feature.
  • A benefit is something that your mlm product or service will do for your prospect to somehow offer a solution to a problem.  So if your gas saving product comes in pill form that saves you 30% on every fill up, then you have yourself a benefit.

Now that you are have a list of benefits, it’s time to sit down and see who would enjoy those benefits the most.  That will be your target market.  Now before you say that everyone can benefit by using your mlm product or service, let me just say that you may be right but if you can narrow down your market even just a little, you will spend more time closing sales and less time prospecting.  (Did you catch that – that was a benefit right there)

How To Identify Who Buys Your MLM Products

One thing that you can look at is the demographic and/or statistical data about the people who buy your particular type of product or service.  You may be able to identify a particular age group.  You might know the income, hobbies, or even what magazines they read.  Your product may be best suited for a particular gender (wrinkle cream comes to mind as an example for women only).  Whatever the case, you want to know everything that you can about the typical person that buys your type of mlm product or service.  Do they have a computer, did they go to college, have kids, pets, are they married?  You get the idea.

Okay, so let’s look at our gas saving pill again and our number one benefit is that it can save you as much as 30% on your fuel costs.  We probably don’t want to market to people that drive a hybrid vehicle because they already increased their gas mileage when they bought the car.  We don’t want people that just own a moped or motorcycle either because their tank is so small.  But what if we went to the other end of the scale as far as how big of a gas tank our prospect has.  What if we targeted SUV owners? 

Picture this -  an owner of a SUV goes to the gas station to fill up with gas and because of today’s gas prices, they spend anywhere from 60-100 dollars.  What if you could show them how to put $20-$30 in their pocket every time they went to the gas station?  What if you could show them how to get their gas for free?  Do you think, a few of those prospects might be interested in what you have?

We just identified our target market – SUV owners.

Get To KNOW Your MLM Customers

Once you have identified who your target market is, then it will be easier to get to know who your potential customers are.   I mean really get to KNOW them.

  • What keeps them awake at night?
  • What are their fears?
  • What or who are they angry at?
  • What trends are occurring that will affect their lives?
  • What do they secretly desire the most?
  • Who else is selling something similar your mlm product or service?
  • Who else has tried to sell them something similar, and how did that effort fail?

Once you know the answers to these questions and you can help them with their problems, you will be making more mlm sales than you ever thought possible.  Connecting the mlm product benefits to your prospects wants, needs, and desires is extremely powerful.

I hope this helps you to identify your target market.  It is the critical piece to the network marketing puzzle.   Having taken the time to identify your target market doesn’t mean that your product won’t have people outside of your target market buying your product.  But it does mean that you can focus your attention on the group of people that have proven to be your core customers and build a strong business around that.  You can always expand from that.

If you are still struggling with identifying your market, then please give me a call or send me an email.  I want you to be able to grow your mlm business and I am here to help you.  Until next time, have a great MLM day.

8 Days To MLM Sales

Day 1- Identify Your MLM Product

Day 3 – Create A Prospecting Script
Day 4 – Prepare A Presentation That Converts Prospects Into MLM Customers

Day 5 – Create A Closing Script That Eliminates Objections

Day 6 – Warming UP, Why Practice Makes Perfect
Day 7 – Getting Targeted Leads
Day 8 – Putting It All Together For MLM Sale

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Amy Howard, June 12th 2009 | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in "8 Days To MLM Sales" Course



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