The MLM Prospecting Secrets Your Upline Doesn't Tell You

Often in MLM & home business, new distributors are taught how to follow a system in order to get them going. This can include anything from what to say to potential prospects on the phone to how to design a company-specific website. From my experience, one of the most rigid aspects of these kinds of systems is the concept of prospecting. When a new distributor joins a company, they depend on their upline or sponsor to show them how and where to find customers and recruits. And just like the rest of the "system" there are strict rules and guidelines that distributors are made to follow, all with claims of huge success so long as they keep in line with what they're taught. But there is much more to prospecting than most sponsors tell their distributors. There are specific actions and terms that often go untaught, but that can produce much more success at a faster rate than the prospecting systems of the old days. But it's hard to know what needs to be changed without knowing what's not working now. So let's take a look at the prospecting ways of old and the kind of results and behavior they usually led to.

Method #1 - The 3-foot Rule: This is a method that I've personally seen a LOT throughout my time in home business, and was even taught myself many years ago by a former sponsor. The idea is to venture out into public & highly-trafficked places (busy shopping centers or malls, grocery stores, even parks), and strike up conversation with literally anyone who came within 3 feet of you. This conversation was meant to lead into an explanation of your business opportunity. Now in my day, there was only one qualifying question asked: "If I could show you a simple way to earn $100 over and over, would it be work 15 min. of your time?" No other questions were asked, no attempts made to learn anything about the prospect (if you could call a mother in a grocery store an actual prospect). This method was eventually modified to include some small talk before anything business was discussed, but still there were no qualifying questions asked and no attempts to build any kind of relationship. The problem with these was that they alienated and assaulted the "prospect" on rather personal terms. Just because a person is at the grocery store shopping doesn't make them a good prospect for your health supplement business. And just because someone is working a job you might not want to work yourself, doesn't mean they're unhappy with that job or in a position to consider much else at the time. This method totally invaded a person's privacy and took up a valuable portion of time that they had already allotted to something else. Needless to say, I rarely ever saw success achieved with this one (through myself or others I knew).

Method #2 - The Mobile Presentation: I saw this one gain quite a bit of popularity a couple of years ago with the surge in new, portable technology. Distributors would head out into the world armed with their company presentation and opportunity overview audios, CDs or DVDs and a portable CD, DVD or MP3 player. They would then use the 3-foot rule to corner innocent shoppers and push until they'd convinced them to listen to their presentation. This was made even more popular with the introduction of pre-recorded overview calls that a distributor could simply dial into and have their prospect listen for about 10 minutes. At this point we'd gone past the invasion of privacy to outward rudeness as we wouldn't take no for an answer. Why not, we had the presentation right there after all. It wouldn't cost them anything to listen, wouldn't take up but a few minutes of their time, right? The problem with this method is that distributors could often bully prospects into listening, and maybe even into attending a live call. But out of everyone approached, these were the least likely to be good quality mlm leads or prospects. They were rushed into listening and making a decision without being allowed to research and form a healthy curiosity about the product or program.

Method #3 - The 3-Way Call: Probably one of the most popular prospecting methods. A lead or prospect is invited to lunch, or to participate in a phone call wherein the new mlm distributor's upline does all the talking. Not a bad idea for the new distributor who hasn't had a chance to learn everything about the business yet, right? WRONG! There are a few problems with this method. First off, all MLM sponsors don't have their distributors' best interests at heart. In many cases, sponsors are out to steal the glory from the very members they're meant to help. And because they're the "expert" (and the new mlm distributor isn't), prospects will sometimes feel more comfortable with the sponsor and sometimes even end up joining with that sponsor, leaving the new distributor in the dust. The next problem is that this method does nothing to help the new mlm distributor build their reputation as an expert in the field. In fact, it often causes distributors to get complacent and continue to depend on their upline to close sales!

See how these old-school methods are becoming useless in modern-day mlm prospecting? If not, then perhaps we should take a look at today's market and how much it's changed in just a few short years.

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