“Brad Boardman: Network Marketing and Lead Generation,” the logo says.
The Brad Boardman part is defined in the “Who Is This Guy?” section. ‘Nuff said.
Let’s talk, though, if I dare about that nasty thing: Network Marketing.
The term really has developed some bad connotations over the years as many of you know – and folks are absolutely correct to move forward with prudence when considering a company that uses a network for distributing a product, or any other type of company for that matter.
If you’re one of those people who have had a bad experience of some sort with a network (multi-level) marketing company, I encourage you not to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Certainly some companies are better than others.
Certainly, some products are superior to others.
Certainly, some companies should never have been in business in the first place.
The fact remains, though, that the MLM model defined below – as opposed to an illegal pyramid – has been useful for a long time, is sound, perfectly legal and when structured and used correctly is a powerful method for moving products directly to consumers.
“Multi-level marketing is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they personally generate, but also for the sales of others they recruit, creating a downline of distributors and a hierarchy of multiple levels of compensation.” – Wikipedia, on keyword “Multi-Level Marketing”
I happen to have been involved with a number of great companies that utilize a MLM-type delivery system. Each time I’ve had a degree of success, mainly because the quality of the product was top-notch.
I’m not afraid of work. Anybody who thinks they’ll succeed in business without a good work ethic is just kidding themselves. You have to be willing to get in and dig.
But historically, what I and many, many other people have not appreciated about traditional network marketing companies are those dreaded first three steps they each want you to take the moment you’ve paid for your distributorship:
Make a list of everyone you know!
Call ‘em!
Sign ‘em up!
As I’ve responded many times in many places:
No! No! And…uh… No!
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we should never share a successful business with those close to us. But why would you jeopardize those relationships trying to build a new business on the backs of friends and family, especially when it’s not necessary?
In order to create a success story in business, you have to have leads. You have to have prospects.
To create success in network marketing, you have to have lots of leads. At some point many of those leads have to become your customers and at yet another point a percentage of those customers have to join your team of marketers. They have to sign on to do what you are doing!
Hence, the need for Lead Generation.
You may never have heard this, but even in the very best network marketing companies, on average, a mere 1 to 3 percent of those exposed to your opportunity will ever decide to join you. Fact.
Since that’s a fact, in order to develop a large team or downline, you have to work your way through a huge number of leads. Even if you did make a list of all the people you know in order to get started, those would be just a small fraction of the number necessary.
So where in the world will you get those prospects to talk with about your opportunity?
The answer? From many places.
But the whole point of this post, indeed, of this website is the fact that there needs to be a systematic approach for finding folks who are interested in a MLM business opportunity, specifically yours! And not only does the approach need to be systematic, if you’re to keep from literally working yourself into an early grave, the system needs to be online!
After looking high and low for just such an animal, I finally found it some months back when I decided to get involved in marketing a great new product! More on that some other day.
But just to relieve your suspense, let me just tell you the online system is called My Lead System Pro or MLSP.
I’ll be talking a lot about it on this blog, but for those of you who just want to dive right in, you’ll find it right here in THE HOLD. Meanwhile, if you’d just like to get a taste of some the training it contains for FREE, you’ll find some choices if you Click Here Now.
Since we’ll have lots of future opportunities to look at the system’s various parts and to talk about them, I’ll sign off here for now.
But remember: Tenacity Trumps Talent!