Posts Tagged ‘mlm tips’
MLM Secret – Limitations of Traditional MLM Marketing Methods
Monday, January 4th, 2010When 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.
MLM Secret – Stop Doing What Your Upline Tells You to Do
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009Here is the awful truth that your mlm companies hope you don’t find out. There is a 95% failure rate in the network marketing industry. All the best mlm companies know it and now so do you. But even though you may not make a dime in growing your home based business, most people who sign up with a network marketing company will sign up on average 2 people before they quit and even though you may quit working your business you are 16% likely to continue to use the network marketing product or service offered by your network marketing company.
So what does all of this mean for you and your business. Listen; there are plenty of people that make it in their network marketing business. But I guarantee you that the leaders, the so called heavy hitters, of the best mlm companies are not using the same strategies and methods that they teach. If you want to make the big dollars in your home based business, you had better get the skills that are needed to get the job done.
What skills you ask? Sales and marketing skills. There are some people that are natural born sales people and then there are people like me that have to learn the art and science of marketing. If you really want to grow a huge downline and actually make money with your home based business, then you had better learn the skills needed and master the tools that will get the job done.
If you continue to do what your upline tells you to do, your mlm company’s business will continue to grow but will yours? Think about this, would you go looking in the classified ads for a sales job that you don’t have any experience in doing? If you were an employer, would you hire someone for a sales position that doesn’t have any experience?
Then I ask you, why do we join a network marketing company where the money is in selling a product or service. And why do we ask anyone and everyone with a pulse to join our business without any sales experience? Because that is what our upline is teaching us to do.
Stop doing what your upline tells you to do and learn the art and science of marketing. Learn how to systematically add reps into your network marketing business. Once you learn how, you can grow any mlm business that you want.
MLM Secret – 3 Way Calling
Monday, December 14th, 2009When you first get started in network marketing, you will more than likely be taught to do 3 way calling to grow your business. I’m about to let you in on a little MLM secret about that particular method. First let’s look at…
What is 3-way calling?
Basically, it is a tool that you can use with your phone. First, you have to make sure that you have that feature on your phone plan before you can use it. What it does is it allows three people to talk to each other on the phone.
Three-way calling is used in network marketing because it is supposed to help you to: build credibility with your prospect; validate you and your MLM products or service; and let someone stronger than you to do the selling and telling; and finally it is used as a training tool.
How does 3-way calling help?
Let’s look at building credibility first. What does it say to your prospect when you have to get someone else on the phone to close the sale? Whose credibility does it build? If I have to ring someone from my upline in order to tell my prospect about how good this MLM opportunity is, then that just tells the prospect that I don’t know what I am doing and have to run to the expert for help. Why would the prospect want to join with me?
Does it really validate you and your MLM product? Well, I don’t think that it validates you at all. You have already proven that you don’t know enough to build your own home based business. Does it validate the MLM product? Maybe, if you can actually get your upline to talk about something besides the business opportunity.
What about letting someone else stronger that you to do the selling and telling about the MLM company and products? Actually, 3-way calling will do this for you. That is if you can get anyone in your upline on the phone. However, you are telling your propect that you aren’t a leader. I ask again. Why would the propect want to join you in your network marketing venture?
3-way calling used as a training tool. Okay, I’ll give you this one. If you have a new MLM distributor that has no experience in network marketing, then having them listen to you make prospecting calls and do close attempts is a very powerful training tool.
Why is the 3-way calling technique used in network marketing?
Most of us get into network marketing thinking that all we have to do is share our product or home-based business opportunity with all of the people that we know. When we are getting starting, no one says anything about having to do sales. So, I think, that the 3-way calling techniques was brought into network marketing in order to soften the blow.
Many people aren’t comfortable asking for the money and therefore shy away from doing sales. I have to say that if you don’t have good skills in sales, then asking for the money may be difficult for some to do. But getting the skills is way easier and a whole lot better for your home-based business than relying on someone else to close the sale for you.
Be the leader your prospect is looking for.
No one likes dealing with the trainee. In network marketing, you are the owner, the sales force, the manager, the bookkeeper, you are everything. As an owner, you have to treat your home based business as such. Don’t give your power away willingly to someone else. Become the expert that the prospect needs you to be.
If you don’t have all of the skills needed to run your home based business successfully, then go out there and get the skills. Pick up the phone and call me if you don’t know where to go.
Audio – How to Blog Your Network Marketing Business
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(57min 46MB)
A couple of weeks ago I was conducting a class on how a blog can help your network marketing business. I made a recording of the class and I am now making it available to you to listen to. It was a pretty intense class where I gave up a lot of MLM secrets that I hadn’t planned on sharing when I was preparing my training materials but as you know, I don’t hold anything back.
If you have been thinking about setting up a website for your network marketing business but aren’t sure just how to get started, you may want to consider blogging. It’s a great platform to share your expertise and it’s pretty easy to set up and maintain. Listen to the audio above and discover:
- How to set up a blog for your network marketing business for FREE
- How to find the right keywords to use in your blog posts to get more traffic to your site
- What 3 things your blog should have to make the search engines happy (ie. Google)
- How to monetize your blog easily
- What to write about so that you become the “go to” person for information about your MLM product
- What to put on your blog to attract more traffic
It really was an intense hour of training about blogging. I was asked some very good questions and was all to happy to answer them. Check it out for yourself and if you come up with some additional questions, I would be happy to answer yours as well. Just leave a comment with your question and I will respond.
Note: On the audio there were a few sites that I mentioned and here are the links to those sites so you don’t have do the typing:
Test Blog for OSM – This is a blog that I set up so that the folks on the call could follow along.
Aweber- an autoresponder service that I use to create the data capture boxes on my blogs so that I can build a list of people that are interested in what I have. An autoresponder is a must have for anyone that is using the Internet to market their network marketing business. If you need an autoresponder, you can get a free trial by clicking on the link that I created for you.
Easy DIY Home Security - This is one of my other blogs that I did and it has a static home page. Meaning the main page always looks the same. Most blogs have the latest post on the main page that is always changing.
Wordpress – Blogging service that I use to create my blogs. It is pretty easy to use and has a lot of cool features. They even have a free version that you can try out.
Wordpress Themes/Plugins - Different themes and plugins were discussed during the class and you can look at those here.
Blogger – Another free blogging platform that you can use that is easy.
