I had a disturbing call recently with a prospect and I simply felt compelled to share it. I was speaking with a relative newbie the other day. I asked her what her struggles were with her Network Marketing business. She responded, as many do, that getting leads was a struggle.
She’d hit that oh-so-familiar position that many of us do when we are starting out and have no marketing training. The one where you’ve hit the NFL Club. NFL = No Friends Left. You’ve tried prospecting all your friends and family and now they avoid you like the plague.
What now? Where do you get fresh leads?
So, I was answering that question for this newbie marketer, giving her strategies on how to generate her own leads for free on the internet, etc., when she told me a disturbing fact.
I asked her what kind of training her upline was giving her. What did they tell her to do to get leads? She took a big sigh of frustration and told me that she was unhappy with her upline. They weren’t doing what they’d promised to do.
What, pray tell, was that?, I wondered.
It seems her upline had promised her that if she signed up at the highest level (read: most expensive level) in this company, that they would populate her downline with tons of reps for her. They would be her own personal downline builder. Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.
This kind of thing makes me crazy! There are some unscrupulous marketers out there that, in the interest of signing up anyone with a pulse, will say whatever the prospect wants to hear in order to get them IN. Cha-ching.
My point here is this: MLM is not a get-rich-quick scheme. There is no magic formula for INSTANT success. No shortcuts. You have to put some time and effort in. This is a business. Can you imagine starting a brick-and-mortar type business and expecting a line of customers lined up around the block the next day. No way. You know that building that kind of a business takes time. Why would a Network Marketing business be any different in that regard?
Yes, there are ways to shorten that time significanly. Learning how to leverage the internet is one of them. And that takes training. And commitment. You can build a HUGE Network Marketing business online (or offline) with proper marketing and recruiting training and a commitment to be serious about it. A commitment to treat it as a business and not a hobby. Remember, a business pays and a hobby costs.
The lesson here is this… If you are being told that someone else is willing to do all the work for you, and you just have to sit back and collect the enormous checks, you’re being taken. If you’re told that all you have to do is sign up 2 or 3 reps and then just sit back and watch that matrix fill up, you’re being fooled.
Wake up and smell the cappuccino. Don’t allow yourself to be seduced into this kind of thinking.
If you’re serious about really building a Network Marketing business, make sure your company provides training beyond “Make a list of 100 people that you know and start calling”. Make sure before you sign up with a Network Marketing company that they give phenomenal training on offline recruiting skills as well as online lead generation skills and most of all, marketing.
But most of all, make sure that your upline is giving you honest information on what it takes to build a successful Network Marketing business. A good upline will recruit you, not because you have a pulse, but because they see a leader in you and they will help you bring that out and give you the skills and tools necessary to be a major producer.
So, trust your instinct. There are many amazing opportunities out there… Many ways to make a 6 and 7-figure income in Network Marketing. Find a proper mentor who can show you the way, and you will have the prosperous business that you deserve!
To Your Abundance and Prosperity,
WOW that's a story. Awesome Post Amy!!!
Thanks Ty. If I could save one Network Marketer from this issue, it would make my day!
I agree on the topic that you have touched about “no easy way” to just jump into an MLM company and expect those 6 and 7 figure incomes. I also sympathize on the topic regarding uplines saying whatever they have to say in order for them to close a sale. Whatever business that you may be in, there is always going to be good work ethics that you have to bring forth in order for you and your business to be successful. The difficult thing about generating those free leads that everyone keeps telling you about but not actually showing you without a price tag attached to the punch line is that there are so many ways to generate free leads, but the sites are so over-populated that the tactics are no longer working. I have put in long hours of surfing the web to find new hot spots of generating free leads that are from new and upcoming traffic exchanges/generators at ground level that are guaranteed to work and develop quality prospects. You can find this information on my page at http://www.coinsfromnumis.com. I hope this helps with your downline. Sincerely, Dorian Twyman TWYMAND29@yahoo.com (540) 414-6839.
Trust is the hardest thing to learn in this industry. You have to find what you are good at and master it. Great tips Amy.
Amy Jo – You hit the nail on the head!!!! I have seen too many times the network marketer newbie who has been lured in by the promise “we will build your downline” only to sit in limbo with no downline, no income and no idea of what to do or where to go! Thanks for your honest words of advice!