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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How MLM Companies Grow Their Businesses

If you have ever been frustrated with how slow your home based business is growing, you will want to pay attention to how your MLM Company is growing their business using your hard work and money.

First, I would like to say that this is not meant to bash any MLM Company.  I have been in network marketing for quite a while now and even though my first networking venture was a complete failure, I love this industry and the potential for regular everyday people to make a 6 figure income from home using the multi-level marketing platform is huge. 

One of the things that attracted me to network marketing was that I could own my own business without having to have a lot of start up capital and I also loved the idea that my MLM Company was going to provide me with all of the training that I would need to succeed.  There is only one problem.  The methods and strategies that your MLM Company trains you to use will absolutely grow their business but they may not grow yours.

Why Your Network Marketing Business Will Fail But Your MLM Company’s Business Will Grow

Your MLM Company is supposedly giving you all of the training that you need to grow your business to a level where you are making money on a part-time basis from home but their methods only work for about 2% of the people that get involved in network marketing and here’s why…

MLM Company Training Secrets Exposed

Here is a list of  some common tools, methods, and/or strategies taught by every MLM Company that I have seen and why they work for your MLM Company but don’t work for you.

  • Make a list of friends and family – In order to grow your business you will have to talk to people and who better to prospect than your friends and family.  Most people can sit down and make a list of about 100 people that they know and when they contact all 100 people and share their home based business opportunity, on average the network marketer will get 2 people to sign up.
  • Pass out free samples of your MLM Product – This method is often used to get people to at least try your MLM product.  The idea is that if you can get a prospect to try the product, they will love it and want to buy more.  The problem comes in where, one little sample of a MLM product that will need to be taken continuously for 2 or more weeks before the prospect will see any results can’t be done from one little sample.  So, the prospect takes the free sample and tries it and when they don’t see any results from taking it just one time, they decide that it just doesn’t work.  Here is where it works for the MLM Company – the sample is free to the prospect but the network marketer has to pay for them.
  • Pass out CD’s or DVD’s – This method is often used to get people to look at your business opportunity without having to apply pressure.  The marketer simply buys a bunch of CD’s or DVD’s from their MLM Company (who makes money selling them) and they just hand them out to everyone they know or come into contact with.  All the prospect has to do is plug in the video or audio to see how great the MLM Company is and how much money they can make from home.  If even 1% of the people actually look at the information, you would be lucky.
  • A replicated website from your MLM Company – Everyone wants to be able to market on the Internet these days so MLM Companies are providing their distributors with replicated websites.  The marketer has to pay for the website and it’s supposed to make your home based business explode.  I guess by magic or something because the MLM Company won’t show you how to effectively drive traffic to that website.  The reason they don’t train you on how to use the Internet to grow your MLM business is because these replicated websites are NOT a good tool to use to sell your MLM Product or the business opportunity.

Have you ever used any of the above tools in an attempt to grow your network marketing business?  Let me save you some time and money, STOP USING THEM.  With the exception of making a list of your friends and family, these methods don’t work for 95% of distributors anyway.  Even then, making a list of your friends and family only works if you haven’t pitched them on all of the other network marketing ventures that you may have joined.

The reason these methods work so well for the MLM Company is because they know for every free sample they sell to you to pass out, a certain percentage will buy the product.   They know that for every CD or DVD that they sell to you to pass out, a certain percentage will sign up as a distributor and get on auto ship.  The percentages may be small but since it’s the MLM distributor paying for the stuff that gets passed out to prospects, they have nothing to lose and their business continues to grow while your bank account gets smaller.

So, if you are part of the 2% that has used these marketing methods and you are growing a home based business, I say good for you.  Keep up the good work.  If you are like I was and spent more money on the tools than I could ever hope to make on bringing in a distributor, just know that you are not alone and please, QUIT DOING THOSE METHODS.

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Amy Howard, July 27th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , ,
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8 Days To MLM Sales-Day 1, Identify Your MLM Product

Because my passion is helping network marketers to grow their business, I talk to many that just aren’t where they would like to be with their home based businesses.   A lot of times I hear that MLM’ers just aren’t getting any kind of support from their upline leaders and sometimes I hear just the opposite.  The marketer is getting all kinds of support but nothing is working for them.  I thought I would give my readers that are struggling in their network marketing business a way to increase the sales of their MLM products or services in just 8 days.

Now I intend to give you enough information so that you can be making sales in as little as 8 days.  Of course, you may take longer (I had a learning curve too) but everything I am going to share with you when put together will help you to sell your MLM products or services.   If you read this and say to yourself that Amy has lost her mind because she is showing you how to make sales using “old school” techniques, then keep reading because everyone has to start somewhere and I would like to see network marketers make more money than they spend.  That’s why I will explain the why and the how of the techniques that I use and teach.   So, let’s get started shall we?

Day 1- Identify What MLM Product You Want To Sell

Most of the MLM companies that we get involved with have more than one product or service.  For example: Pre-Paid Legal has both an Identity Theft protection service as well as a pre-paid legal service.  Now luckily with PPL you really only have to choose between the two MLM services but there are other companies that have dozens to choose from.  Let’s take ACN for example (I have a lot of students in this MLM company) ACN has phone services; VOIP,  Cell Phone, local and long distance plans, and the much wanted Video Phone.  ACN also offers a satilite TV service, a burglar alarm service, and Internet services.  Now that’s a lot of services to choose from.

Luckily for me when I first got started in network marketing, my company only had one product.  However, instead of being taught to market that product, I was taught to push the opportunity.  The thing about trying to sell the opportunity is that there is always a better opportunity.  So, even if you do find someone to join your business, they will leave in about 3 months when they aren’t making the 6-figure income your upline leaders and MLM company said they could be making.

So, how about we actually market the product instead of the opportunity.  Besides, can you really say that you are an expert at making money from home when you haven’t made a dime?  You can, however, be an expert in your product.  You have used the product, you know the benefits of using the product, and you know what the product can do for people.

Why Choose Just One MLM Product

The main reason that I want you to choose just ONE product is so that you can focus on just the one thing.  Once you have this one thing mastered, you can introduce other products.  The best way to sell your MLM product is to be an expert in that product.  By focusing on just one of the products that your network marketing company offers, you can know everything there is to know about that one product.  You don’t have to be an expert at everything all at once.  Don’t worry about the compensation plan, or the business builders that everyone says that you must have.  Just worry about being the expert at one thing and that is just ONE MLM product.

The product is what you will be selling and it is selling the product that will make you the money.   All the other stuff will come after you master this one.  I am a runner and I have ran a half marathon but I can tell you right now that I don’t like to run, I do like to eat though so therefore I run.  Do you know how to run a half marathon?  I didn’t either at first.  I first had to learn how to run one mile before I could run 13.  That’s what I want to teach you how to do.  Sell just one of your mlm products, become an expert at selling that one product, then you can do another and another. 

Once you start making money by selling the product, you will be amazed at how many people will suddenly want to know what you are doing.   Think about this.  If you got involved with your MLM company because of the money making potential, did you see that potential from an associate that hasn’t made a dime or were you looking at the heavy hitters at the top and saying to yourself that you wanted what they have?

How To Choose Your MLM Product

Hopefully, you see the benefit to marketing just one of the products that your network marketing company offers.  Now you may have a really tough decision to make.  How do you choose which MLM product to market?  They are all good.  I’m going to give you a few tips that you can use to narrow down your choices.

Tip #1 – Does your MLM product have exclusivity?

It doesn’t have to be so new that no one has ever heard of such a thing.  You don’t have to be first or even one of the first. If you choose a MLM product or service that has never been done before, you actually have a lot more risk than when you have a product that has been proven.  If you have an older proven product with a new twist, well then you may have something.  What I suggest avoiding is a product that everyone seems to be doing.  Of course, if everyone else is pushing the business opportunity, you may be the only one marketing the actual product. 

How do you know if you have exclusivity?  Do an Internet search.  Put in your what your product is (ie, skin care, phone service, greeting cards, etc.) and see what comes up.  Count how many ads come up, that is your competition.  The more people marketing your product, the less exclusive it is.

Tip #2- Does the MLM product have something to do with health, wealth, or love?

Is it something that a prospect would seek you out for or do you have to do a lot of explaining to get the prospect to understand?  There are primarily 3 product categories that you can base your business on; Health, Wealth, and Love. Products that fit into the health or love categories are easier to sell because they are emotionally based. People will buy them because they want better health or more love. The wealth category is going to be your toughest sell.

Tip #3 – Do you have a passion for you MLM product?

Is it a great product?  Did you get amazing results from using the product.  If your passion is more about the opportunity than the product, you may want to find another product. You should be passionate about your product because it works not because it makes you a ton of money. If you have the passion for the product, your prospects will also have a passion for the product and it will show up in the form of good commission checks.

Tip #4 – Is your MLM product affordable?

You don’t want to choose to market something that no one can afford to buy.  I don’t want you over analyze the price too much.  People do buy luxury cars and spend a lot of money to do it too but you don’t see the masses going out to buy them either.  If the benefits of the product outweigh the cost, you have made a good choice.

Tip #5 – Is there a demand for your MLM product?

You can have everything else but if there isn’t a demand for your product, you won’t make any sales.  How do you know if there is a demand for your product.  One way to know is to do an Internet search.  Put in your what your product is (ie, energy drink, legal service, vitamin supplement, etc.) and see what comes up.  If there are a lot of choices, then the chances are pretty good that there is a demand for the product.  Remember though that you don’t want so much competition that everyone is fighting over the few customers that are looking for the product.

Tip #6 – What is the commission on selling the MLM product?

It really doesn’t make sense to go through the marketing process, if there isn’t enough profit in it for you.  You are in business to make money.  Your compensation should be at least 20% but not so much that you begin to wonder why they are paying so much.  You want your MLM product to be legitimate and if a MLM company is paying something like 70% in compensation, then you may want to ask yourself why.  If they are paying just to get the lead, it may be okay.  I see a lot of affiliate programs that pay out huge commissions because they want the lead so they can make money on back end sales.

Okay, I’m tapped out of tips on how to choose a MLM product.  That’s it for Day 1.  If you are involved with a network marketing company that has a bunch of products, you will have some homework to decide which one you want to market.  If you only have one product, then you will be all set for Day 2 for our “8 Days To MLM Sales” course, where we will be discussing how to identify your target market.

Day 2 – Identify Your Target Market
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 4th 2009 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in "8 Days To MLM Sales" Course
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