In sales (and network marketing is no different), a prospect or a lead is defined as someone that has expressed a need for your MLM product.  The key word there is “expressed.”

When you first joined your MLM program, you were probably told that network marketing isn’t “sales” and that everyone has a need for your MLM product.  If you have been in network marketing industry for any length of time, you know that that isn’t true.  Not everyone will want your product.  Even if they can benefit from using it.

So, instead of talking to everyone about your MLM product or your business opportunity and getting rejection after rejection, only talk to those prospects that have told you that they have a need for your product.

Now before you say “Amy, how will I know that someone has a need for my product if I don’t ask them?” let me tell you that there is a way.  You will know exactly who to talk to once you have identified your target market.

For example: you belong to a MLM program whose main product is a energy drink.  You may think that everyone could benefit from a little more energy but that wouldn’t be true.  There are some people that are perfectly happy with the level of energy that they currently have.

So, in this case, you will want to narrow your focus to people that have done something to tell you they want more energy.  If you aren’t sure what that something is, then you may want to make it a little broader by targeting mothers or business people that work a lot of hours.  You may find that your target market is of a certain age and gender or you may find that they are in a certain income bracket.  Once you know who your ideal customer is, you will know better where to find them.

When it comes to finding qualified prospects, you have a lot of options open to you.  The first thing that most MLM companies teach is to take some time and make a list of everyone that you know and then go and share with them what it is you are doing.  This network marketing method is okay for getting one or two customers but a business is will not build.

Once you have prospected your friends and family, you will have to look for other methods to getting qualified prospects.  This can be done both online and offline.  You will have to know where your strengths are before you go looking for your leads.  If you aren’t too good at using technology (the Internet) then you may want to focus on using offline methods for getting qualified leads.

The more people you get your message to the more chances you have to sell your MLM product.  The key to MLM selling is to get your message in front of as many people as possible.  And to do that you have to know how you want to deliver that message.  In order to make MLM sales, you first have to have people to talk to, that would be your target market.  The second thing that you have to have is the right message to deliver to your target market.  The more people you reach the more sales you make.  The more methods you use, the more effective you will be.  There are four main ways to deliver your message to your target market.

• Face to Face – this is the method that is typically taught by our MLM companies.  Of course, they usually have you starting out one-on-one with your friends and family.  That isn’t a bad method to use when you are first starting out in fact because you are talking with people you know, you will be more relaxed with your presentation.  But it isn’t very effective at reaching the masses.  You can reach more people using the face to face method by going to trade shows, giving seminars and so on, however, that can get expensive.  All in all face to face isn’t a bad way to go but it can be expensive and it can be slow at making those MLM sales. 
• Telephone – this method seems to scare off a lot of marketers.  I’m not sure why something like picking up the telephone can be so scary but it is.  I can relate because for the longest time, I didn’t want to pick up the phone.  I think it may be because in my first network marketing venture, I called so many people and heard so many “no’s” that I got turned off from using the phone.  However, the telephone is a great tool.  It’s cheap, effective, easy to use, and you don’t find too many people that don’t have one.  Win, Win, Win.
• Internet – the Internet has the potential to reach the most people in the shortest amount of time but it is the hardest to master.  It takes technical skill to be able to build a website and then drive traffic to that site.  Not to mention that you still have to be able to convert that traffic into MLM sales.  Using the Internet can also get expensive depending on the methods that you are using.  If you have the technical skills, I recommend using the Internet.  Even if you don’t have the technical skills, you could always hire it out for someone else to do.  But here is a word of caution: You do still have to have marketing skills in order for it to be effective.  This whole thing about “if you build it they will come” just doesn’t work.  This method is primarily about copywriting.  Delivering the right message to the right audience.
• Direct Mail – this method is flat out expensive unless you have the right mailing list and the right message.  Using this method is 90% about ad copy.  If you aren’t good at advertising copy, you had better stay away from this method. 

That’s it, you now know how to get your message to the most people.  I can’t tell you which method is right for YOU.  That is something that you will have to decide for yourself.  If you are having trouble, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email.  Until next time – I wish you great MLM Success.

• You don’t have to spend a dime on
• You don’t have to be a technical genius or even know what html is

 This MLM Secret Business Tool is Called – Blogging

 I guess the first thing I should do is tell you what a BLOG is.  A blog is a type of website where you can add regular entries.  Blogs started as a form of online diaries where people would keep track of their personal lives.  A friend of mine used a blog to track his weight loss journey.  It took him over a year to lose all of the weight he wanted and he kept track of his progress on his blog.  He posted weekly pictures of himself, how often he worked out, what exercises he was doing, what food he was eating, his struggles and his successes.

Today, blogs can be used for just about anything that you want.  You can use it as a place to put down the interesting things that your kids are doing so that out of state family members can stay up to date with what is going on or you can use a blog as a business tool for your network marketing business.

With a blog, you can share your network marketing product, your business building systems and/or your expertise.  Let’s say that you have a background in home security like I do.  You could build a blog where you share your expertise and help people with their security issues.  Here is the link to my other blog http://www.EasyDIYHomeSecurity.com.  It’s not in your traditional blog format so you may get an idea of how you can make your blog look like a regular website.

Benefits of Using a Blog for Your Network Marketing Business

There are a few benefits to using a blog for your network marketing business some of these benefits are:

• Search engines love content and they love websites that change often.  Blogging gives you a simple way to add content to your site.  The more content that you have the more the search engines will like you.
• Blogs are easy to build.  Really, you don’t have to be a computer geek to do it.  You don’t have to have any special software or know html or anything like that.   If you are a computer geek, then you can do some really cool things with your site but it’s not necessary to have a great website.
• Blogs give you a simple platform to share your passion, your expertise, and your network marketing product.
• You can make money with a blog.  There are a lot of ways that you can monetize your blog so that you can make money.  You can put Google Adsense on your site, sell advertizing space, sell affiliate products, etc.

I’m sure that there are more benefits to blogging than the ones that I have listed but you get the idea.  I happen to love blogs because they are so easy to build.  For example this site that you are on is a blog.  I used Wordpress to build it.  Now this site is one that I host myself and there are benefits to hosting your blog but it’s not mandatory.  If you are in the market for a good website hosting service, then I recommend Bluehost.  They are the service that I use to host all of my websites and they are very cheap (yes, I am an affiliate and that is one way that I monetize my site).

But if you are looking to have a free blog website then I would recommend that you use either www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com they both provide a great service and you can do a lot with a free blog.  There are some drawbacks to using a free service however.  Such as; your domain name will have an extension after it.  For example: http://howtobeonstage.blogspot.com/ , and you may be limited as far as the features that you site has but all in all they do a good job.

Well that’s it for today.  I hope you can see how having a blog can help your network marketing business.  It’s a great way to share your ideas, tips, and information about your network marketing product.  Stay tuned for more information about blogging because I will be sharing some things that your blog must have.