10 MLM
Secrets: How To
Avoid Common Mistakes, And
Make More Money With Your Network
"MLM Secrets" #1: You
need multiple sources of leads.
Trees have multiple roots, buildings have large and deep foundations, and you need to have several ways to get clients. Not only does this multiply your home income over time, but it provides a safety net, should one of those sources dry up. The multiple ways include: business cards, the Internet, classified ads, flyers, free publicity, and other methods.
"MLM Secrets" #2: Be cautious with companies
that sell you leads.
It's easy to fall for these companies' claims that they will "flood" you with qualified leads, just dying to sign up with you. Just as with everything else, these firms run the gamut from legitimate, effective suppliers of leads...all the way to con artists selling you worthless names. How can you tell the difference? If you have a friend who's had great success with a firm, that's the best way. If you have no idea about the firm, then test small. Make them prove the quality of their leads. If they are legitimate, you'll no doubt send them plenty of business. If they are not, you haven't wasted much time or money. Do not sign up at first for any substantial commitment!
"MLM Secrets" #3: You definitely
need a website.
There are at least three reasons why you need a website for your MLM business:
- Credibility. If your prospects can find you on the Web, you come across as more established and legitimate;
- Leads. The Web is a great source of qualified leads, provided you don't listen to all the "helpful advice" people will give you (and provided you do follow the systems we talk about later). What's more, these leads will end up costing you much less than if you paid for them from some company.
- Information. By having a well-organized website with solid content, the leads you get through the website will already have pre-educated themselves, and pre-warmed themselves. Otherwise, they wouldn't be calling you.
"MLM Secrets" #4: Do NOT use a "cookie
cutter" website.
Some of that useless "helpful advice" that you'll get from other sources is to use the "instant website" that the MLM company is willing to give you. You are wasting your time and money! You will simply be like one Cheerio in a whole box of Cheerios. This is why:
The search engines have gotten pretty sophisticated. They also have enormous databases. When they see one cookie-cutter website after another, they generally don't bother to rank them at all. (Or maybe they're ranked 10,200 out of 55,400 websites, which is as good as not being ranked at all.) Search engines are looking for unique pages.
"MLM Secrets" #5: Ease into a dialogue
on your prospect's terms, not on your terms.
You have to ease people into the discussion, at their speed, not yours. Answer their questions in a non-threatening environment (web, prerecorded messages, leaving their name for free special reports). Not only does that separate you from the hucksters, and allows the prospects to get more comfortable, but it also removes the burden of traditional prospecting from you. They come to you, pre-warmed!
"MLM Secrets" #6: Don't expect to close
your prospect from the website alone.
The most you should hope for (and it's plenty good enough) is to get a call from a pre-qualified prospect who checked over the information on your site, and wants more information. You should welcome that chance to establish personal contact, and answer any questions or objections right on the spot.
"MLM Secrets" #7: Get your own
personality in there.
So much is pre-packaged and impersonal these days. Take a number, get in line. Most people try to look like mega-corporations with their websites and materials. That's the opposite of what customers want! Sure, they want you to be large and successful enough to have staying power. But they just as much want the human touch. Not the antiseptic, boring language that sounds like it was written by a computer.
Take the easier way! Take your hat off, and put your feet up. Talk to people as if you were chatting with a friend. They will instantly recognize you as an actual human being (not the "Press 1 for this and Press 2 for that" computer treatment). And they will respond.
"MLM Secrets" #8: Dump the high-tech stuff.
Review your site as if you are the guy who's using his daughter's hand-me-down old computer, with a dial-up connection, and Windows 95 on a small screen. At the very least, have a path through your website that works for this guy. For people who have faster connections (only about 40% have broadband so far), you can have the high-end, high-graphics presentation also as a choice (not automatic). But if you're going to have only one path on your site, make it the low-end one.
"MLM Secrets" #9: Use affinity groups
whenever you
possibly can.
This is very powerful! People for the last million years or so have belonged to groups. They identify with groups. They are alums of some school; they were in the military in a particular unit; they root for a sports team; they are nuts about some hobby. Most people identify with several groups, even if they don't formally belong to clubs.
You need to catalog these "affinity groups" you are part of. Then, using the vocabulary that most groups use among themselves, tailor a message about your product or service to them. They'll know you are "one of us", and you will have an instant foot in the door.
"MLM Secrets" #10: Give before you get.
You'll be miles ahead of most websites and MLM marketers, if you first spend your time talking about what they want, and the concerns they have, and not about your MLM opportunity. If you come across as pitching the same solution for all people and every need, then you'll justifiably be labeled as just another snake oil hawker. Establish a relationship, provide value, discuss multiple solutions, and watch their trust in you--and business with you--grow.
Jim Rohn, the well-known business philosopher, rightly points out that often the difference between mediocrity and success is only a slight change in approach. If you apply the tips we list above, they just might do the trick.
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