Old School MLM vs New School MLM Lead Generation and Business Building

Has your warm market been tapped out?

Are you afraid of joining the NFL (No Friends Left)?

Prospecting works if you will work it. Many of us were taught to speak to everyone that we come across, you know the 3 foot rule.(Basically, its a rude form of interruption marketing.) Some have had success with this, and most have not, for many reasons that we will go into as we explore the new school model of prospecting for your network marketing business.

Two words that I want you to pay serious consideration to: Social Marketing

What is Social Marketing? Some call it web 2.0, others just call it a new form of the internet. You should be proud, we the users influenced this shift to make it so anyone and everyone can benefit and be heard with this new model.

Basically, its a way to integrate many avenues online to market yourself as the expert that you are. It is a skill set that anyone can learn.

We are upon a new trend of network marketers migrating to the internet to generate leads that are chasing them, where you are perceived as an expert.

Get in front of this trend, capitalize on this shift and build a massive downline while the leads pay you to work with them.

Learn how to do this in Renegade University!

Before we begin, a little housekeeping...

We are going to discuss the ways that most MLM companies train their distributors or representatives to build there businesses. These concepts have been around for decades and haven't grown much to match the changing times. All I ask is that as this information is presented, keep an open mind. As the cliche goes, "The Mind Is Like a Parachute, It Only Works When It Is Open!!"

Let's get right into it.

When you get started with an MLM company, what do they teach you is your #1 Asset?

Method #1: Your List

While this true, no matter what model you are using to grow your business. Most people miss the magnitude of what the list can do. We are often told that we are 5%'s and the rest of the population are 95%'s.

We are told to make a list of 200. Somewhere, (according to my upline), there was a study done that covered the MLM Industry. Out of those that made a list of 200 people and followed through and contacted them all. 100% made a profit in this industry. 50% made over six figures a year. And 10% went on to become millionaires.

Wow!!

Well, that is easy enough right? Once I heard that, my list was well over 200 names and numbers. I contacted all of my warm market, (my list), and invited them to a home meeting (Method #2). The problem I had with this is that I lacked serious credibility (I'll explain how to overcome this in the next segment). Hardly anyone showed up and then they wouldn't answer my calls when I was following up with them...

Method #2: The Home Meeting

Now, don't get me wrong. Some people have very good success with the home meeting. I have even experienced this myself with my own downline. I, on the other hand did not. I made well over 100 inviting calls, had 27 confirmations and only two people showed up. One was my roommate and lived there with me. My two other roommates that lived there decided to go shopping for a fridge and wanted to bring it through the front door while the home presentation was going on. Believe me when I say, that I know your frustration.

Method #3 The Business Opportunity Meeting:

These can work wonderfully! If, you have credibility when you make your list, and your meeting has great energy. A lot of magic can happen here if you have a strong list and a strong upline. The beautiful thing about this method is that is takes the pressure off of you. As long as you can ultilize an effective inviting stragety. It comes down to this:

1. You invite
2. Your upline presents
3. Your prospects decide

These methods work great when you have a great, professional list. But what happens when your list goes stale?

Method #4 Cold Market Recruiting:

As I mentioned earlier, the people on my list were not answering my calls any longer. I was slowy becoming an honorary member of the NFL.

So I went back and started to build my list again. Using memmory joggers, address books, the alphabetical listing of the yellow pages, playing the who-do-you-know-game. Doing whatever I could and whatever my upline told me to do to create a bigger list.
I had some success, but not everyone had my commitment. My attrition rate was keeping up with my sponsoring. (no bueno)

Cold Market Recruiting is when you go out and troll the malls or any other high people traffic place. This is where the 3 foot rule comes into play. For those that don't know what the 3 foot rule is, its when anyone gets within 3 feet of you, you should talk to them about your opportunity. This concept does work for some. Others are just too scared of rejection to perform it at the level that is required to have success. It will help you develop thick skin, and I believe that it does have its place. But unfortunately, not everyone has the ability to do it successfully. I had some moderate success with this method, it definitely cycled, with more down time than up time. Let me give you some tips on this method.

--When you approach someone using the 3 foot rule, there is a certain psychology that comes into play. Let's call it CCIC.

C: Common. Find something in common with them. People are more likely to respond wih you if you have something in common.

C: Compliment them, people like to be complimented, it brings walls down.

I: Introduce yourself. Let them know who you are and, WHO, you are involved with. Notice that I did not say what you are involved with. This is key! People are very quick to judge a company or a product, but a person, they can't judge into they meet them!

C: Get their contact information so you can follow up with them later.

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An example: You are walking in mall and you see a very successfully dressed man. You approach him. "Excuse me sir, I noticed that you are dressed very well, may I ask what it is that you do?"
"Why thank you, I'm a realtor, why do you ask?"

"A realtor huh?, I have some friends that are realtors, great people!" "Hey listen, my name is __________, and I'm working with a company out here in a gentleman by the name of _______, his company is expanding heavily right now and we are looking for some sharp people to help us with the launch in this area. I don't know if this is for you or if you even qualify, but you seem like a sharp indiviual. Are you keeping your business options open? I can't promise you anything, but there is some serious money involved. Let's exchange numbers. If I could get you on the phone with ______, would you be open to hearing about his company that is being launched out here?"

Exchange numbers and let him know that you can't promise anything but you will pass his number onto _____.

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There have been dynasties built this way but it takes a rare individual and times have changed. I promise you that you will face countless rejection and will have to learn not to take it to heart.

Most people can't do that. Hence the high attrition rate in network marketing.

How my mindset all changed!

I was becoming frustrated, just like I'm sure, many of you out there are. Thinking that there must be a better way. I believe in my company and I believe in myself, but when am I going to get the results that I want so badly?!

So I went on a hunt. One night I was surfing the internet looking for lead generation and I stumbled across a few books and my mindset hasn't been the same since.

    

Let's talk about Method #1 again.

Your List:

This is actually one of the most important things that you could ever learn how to do. Your list is your inventory. This is the same whether you use the old or the new methods. The difference is that in the old model, once someone was on your list and you contacted them. There was really only 3 options that they had:

1. Join you in your current business.
   
2. Become a customer with whatever product or service your opportunity provides.
   
3. Just say no to the above two. (Ouch!)

The last one hurts a little bit, but happens the majority of the time. Let's be really conservative, and say that it happens about 80% of the time you show your opportunity to someone on your list.

With the old model, this 80% of your list was discarded and you were taught to just go out there and talk to more people.

Well, with the new model, it is recognized that your entire list has value, not just the ones that join you with your current opportunity. In fact, you don't even lead with your opportunity with the new model. You must first give something of value. Share a little of yourself, to attract people to you. Once you do this, you will have earned credibility with them. Then as your list grows, you continue to offer value through additional information.

Now, remember how we discarded 80% of our list with the old model? Well, with the new model, you want your prospects to buy into something that you are offering first. This pre-qualifies them, and they have expressed to you through their actions that they like what you have shared with them so far.

Once you have your list, you want to monetize that list to its full value. This can be done in so many ways, but instead of you losing out on the people that downright said no to what you were offering in the old model, here you increase your chances that you offer them something that they would like. Ann Sieg goes into a lot more depth explanation in her book and she has a system in place. I personally didn't know where to begin with her system until I discovered Mike Klingler and his Renegade University. The University will show you step by step, click by click, how to implement the process taught by Ann Sieg in The Renegade Network Marketer. Learn more at www.AttractSponsorSucceed.com

There is no right way or wrong way. It does seem that the internet is forcing us to play a hand, that the MLM industry is learning how to target market and individuals are able to create qualified leads or prospects like never before.

At the same time, the old model still does have merit. And with technology becoming more widespread and easy to use, a lot of organizations are having webinars allowing one to plug their prospects into a meeting or presentation no matter how far geographically people are from one another.

So what I propose is this.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF BOTH SYSTEMS!

• Generate leads online and...
• Make sure that you still talk to your complete warm market list. (People still deserve the chance right?)
• Monetize your list from your online resources to generate extra cash flow to allow to come from a place of abundance instead of desperation.
• People that you meet throughout your daily routine are more likely to want to do business with you, since you will now have control over your business and your posture will show this.
• Have fun and give of yourself to help others along the way and you too will be successful.

If you need any help email me at ritchie@ritchieinman.com or call me on my cell at 623-533-1673.

See You At The Top!