The biggest allure of recruiting nationally is that it’s the exact opposite of "warm marketing"! Since warm marketing was the very first method of recruiting used in MLM, many have tried and failed using this method. They have come to the conclusion that everyone wants to make extra money—so if they mail their offer to people interested in making extra money that they’d automatically successful. Right? Wrong!
Myth of MLM and the Mail

I’d like to start this article with a shocking statement:

"If you are planning to rely entirely upon mailing your way to riches in MLM you’d better stop now and save your money—because it won’t work!"

There has been a severe misinterpretation over the last decade about how to use the mail to build your MLM organization. Many people are under the belief (or the HOPE) that they can simply rent a mailing list, mail their offer and floods of people will join their MLM. The only people who make money in this transaction is the printers and the post-office.

The biggest allure of recruiting by mail is you don’t have to talk to anyone. I’m amazed even today with the people in my organizations who fail to even put their phone number on their ads, post-cards and mailers. When I ask them why, they say, "I don’t want anybody calling me". And they wonder why they’re not making any money! There is a HUGE difference between direct mail and recruiting people by using the mail. Let me explain.

Direct Mail
Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s a phenomenon occurred. It’s what I call the "information" era. Remember the book that made Joe Karbo famous? It was called "The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches". It cost around $10 and sold like hot-cakes! It mainly told you how to sell information through the form of a booklet in the mail.

Needless to say, that sparked a 15 year period where selling information become very popular. People even started selling information on how to sell information! I know, because I bought over $2000 worth of them in one year alone! What did I learn? That if you knew something about making money and could explain it in a book, you could become rich. I used this knowledge to kick-start my Printing Dealership idea. But, instead of selling a book about how to make money selling printing, I went a step further. I not only gave them the information in a booklet form, but I also gave them the source to get the printing done—me! I not only made money selling the information, but I also made money on the back-end with the printing sales.

So, don’t confuse recruiting by mail with direct mail. Yes, you can build a huge and successful MLM organization recruiting them through the mail. The difference is that when you "sell information" through direct mail you are asking for a one-time purchase commitment from $10 to $100. Kind of a low-risk venture for your prospect. Most people are willing to pay a few bucks to "learn" how to make money. But, when you ask someone to spend $50 a month on the "hope" of making money—you have just put your prospect into a different arena. It’s okay if they throw your $20 book in the trash after reading it—they just got $20 worth of knowledge and it’s over. But, in a MLM you’re asking them to spend or have their credit card or checking account drafted $50 or more EVERY month! This becomes a bigger obstacle for your prospect to overcome.

If they read your book and fail they’ve just lost $20, no big deal. But, if they join your MLM and fail they may have spent over $600 before they even know what has happened! See the difference? Not only are you asking your prospect to commit to $50 a month in product or service, they now have to fork over even more money on the "hope" of making money! This is why your response rate of recruiting through the mail is severely lower than just a simple direct mail campaign! So, don’t get the "WRONG EXPECTATIONS" when you mail your MLM offer to your prospects. Get the facts from your upline and ask them what kind of percentage return you should expect from your mailings. That way when you do a mailing and only get a 1% response but, you were expecting a 5% you won’t become disappointed and QUIT!

Why You Need Fresh Prospects Every Month
And How To Get Them!
The names, address and phone numbers of people looking to make extra money in MLM is as important to you as seeds are to a farmer. Without seeds to plant a farmer has no crop to reap. Without fresh prospects every month you won’t be able to reap a monthly check from your MLM program! If a farmer merely threw his seeds out the cab of his truck as he drove through the field how successful do you think his crop would be? Some of his seeds would indeed grow, but many would be blown away by the wind and the weather. But, if a farmer takes the time to till his fertile soil, and systematically plant his seed and keep it watered his chances for success are greatly enhanced.

The same goes with your MLM. Just having the names of prospects isn’t enough. It’s what you do with those names that makes the difference in your success in MLM. If you plan on folding your arms and simply mailing your offer to a cold mailing list, you should expect the same results as our wayward farmer who throws his seeds out the window—you’ll get very limited results. (I have found that mailing my self-mailers to a cold mailing list pulls from 1/2% to 2% conversion or sign up rate—depending upon the list I used).

But, if you take the time to learn your system, educate yourself where your mind acts like the fertile ground is to the farmer and then you call (or plant your seed) your prospect you’ll be more likely to succeed.

Prospecting is also like fishing. Your ad or your offer is your bait. Someone who responds to your ad or mailing is a "nibble". If you pull too early on your nibble (come off too strong early in the conversation) then you’ll loose your lead.

When fishing you really don’t know what you got until you get’em in the boat and have a look at them. You might think you’ve got a big one on the line, only to find out when you pull them in that you’ve got a 6 ounce bass! The same goes with prospecting. You might hang up the phone thinking you’ve just sponsored the one person who is going to go out and tear this thing up and help make your rich. Then you find out 3 months later that they’ve dropped out! That’s why it’s important to continue fishing (prospecting) for your MLM—regardless of how successful you are. I continually place ads, send out self-mailers and make follow-up calls.

Why? Not only do I enjoy prospecting, I also know that I continue to build my organization I’ll make even more money. Do I work as hard as I used to? Absolutely not! I’ve learned to work about 15 hours a week—and it’s only when I want to!

One more thing about prospecting. When fishing have you ever had a few nibbles but caught no fish? Sure you have. Did you get discouraged and throw your pole in the lake and vow to quit fishing altogether? Of course not. You went home saying, "I’ll catch one next time!". That’s the same mentality you need when prospecting for your MLM.

MLM & Direct Mail
In a MLM, you’re not offering just knowledge that has some sort of monetary value to your prospect. Sure, joining a health related MLM will increase your awareness of your good health and you might even learn more about your body and how it works. But, 99% of the people I’ve poled join a MLM to make MONEY! They’re not really interested in learning how to make money, they just want to join and make money. Sounds pretty stupid when you read it. But, it’s true. Most people joining a MLM do so today on the shear desire to make money. They go in blindly hoping and praying that this will solve their problems.

Unfortunately, without learning HOW to make money in MLM they will inevitably become disappointed. Why is that? Because everyone has to change the way they think about making money. It’s like marriage. If you knew upfront everything it was going to take to make it work, you probably would back out! Or, you get married too quickly without getting to know the person well enough—and after you get married you find out you don’t like each other. But, with the proper knowledge of how to "give and take" in a relationship, you can have a successful marriage. Using the mail to build your MLM is the same. You need the proper knowledge. If you don’t, you’ll become frustrated because you’re expectations are not met and you’ll drop out!

What happens most of the time is you get married all "misty eyed" and find out along the way that it takes hard WORK to have a successful marriage. Marriage and MLM do have one thing in common though. The drop-out rate is over 50%! The expectation of marriage is that it will make you happy. When you aren’t happy after you get married you think about getting a divorce. The expectation of joining a MLM is that you’ll make money. When you don’t, you think about dropping out.

I use the mail every day to make money in MLM. Exactly how do I do it? Here’s a simple outline of how to effectively use the mail:

I run an ad in a magazine or card deck. When people respond to my ads I then MAIL them my information within 24 hours. In 5 business days I CALL my prospect and ask if they’ve received the information they requested on program x and do they have any questions? If my prospect doesn’t give me a phone number I mail them a personalized letter saying the same things I would in a phone conversation and I encourage them to call me so I can share my success. If they never call I don’t worry about it. The reason why I don’t look up their phone number or mail them multiple times is because I’m looking to make money NOW!

If someone fails to give me their phone number that tells me something about them. There either a "tire-kicker" and make a profession of just answering ads and never doing anything. Or, they don’t want to talk to anyone.

Remember, everyone is initially afraid of the phone. What I’m looking for in a prospect is someone who is willing to work through their fear in order to make their financial dreams come true. Someone who fails to put their phone number on their response to my ad is telling me they aren’t willing to work through their fear right now. That’s why if they don’t call me I don’t take the time to get in touch with them again. I just move on to another prospect—one who is willing to get started today and I don’t have to coerce them or pry them out of their comfort zone!

This is an invaluable lesson that took me 3 years to learn in MLM and the mail. Everybody wants to make extra income. Most aren’t willing to do what it takes to make it though! This is a common thread in today’s society. If it’s going to take some work, most people pull away and keep looking through countless magazines and card decks for something "easy" that they can make money at.

The Secret To Making Money In MLM Is WORK!
MLM works for those who work it! The reason I am so successful in every MLM that I join is that I WORK HARDER THAN ANYONE IN MY ORGANIZATION—INCLUDING MY SPONSOR! Nobody works harder than me in my organization. And because of that I make the most money than anyone else in my organization—I wonder if that means anything?

I just got off the phone with a gentleman while I was writing this article. He had called the week before in response to one of my ads. I had sent him my self-mailer and he was calling back to ask me various questions about the program. He asked how much money I was making and when I told him he said he wanted to make that much or more. I told him in order to make that much money that he had to work 10 to 20 hours in the evenings building his business and that it would probably take at least a year to reach the income level he desired. I also told him he had to be teachable and be willing to duplicate my efforts exactly—or I couldn’t guarantee his results.

He said he couldn’t do that because he worked all day and when he got home at night he wanted to "relax" with his family. I said that was fine, but that he’d never make any money "relaxing" at home. And in 20 years he’d wish he would of done otherwise. He was shocked to say the least. He said, "I thought you’d try to sell me a little more on your program". I replied, "you asked me an honest question and I gave you an honest answer. It seems to me you’ve been mis-informed about how MLM works." He hung up on me!

He wanted my income, but he didn’t want to do what I did in order to get it. I’m sorry to say, but this is typical of over 50% of the people I talk to today. There attitude is, "Sure I’d like to have a few extra bucks, but I really don’t have any time to do anything about it". And with that attitude they never will have any extra time.

Why? Because they’ll always be working for someone else building their dreams, not their own. The simple truth of the matter is NOBODY HAS ANY EXTRA TIME—THEY CREATE TIME!! I was working 70 hours a week at my printing company when I started my first MLM program. Yet, I found the time to work it in. The fact that I was working 70 hours a week is what drove me into MLM in the first place! I wanted to work zero hours a week and I knew if I kept doing what I was doing, that I’d never have the time, money and lifestyle that I wanted. I saw the writing on the wall—I was just "getting by" and unless I did something different, I’d never ever see my dreams come true!

Some people will never get it. And in order to be highly successful in MLM it is important to realize that everybody wants to make extra income, but only a small percentage are willing to do anything about it! I call it "the get rich quick mentality". It’s out there—so be prepared—you’ll never know when it’s going to strike!!

The sooner you realize that you’re going to have to work at making money in MLM the sooner you’ll start making some money. It may take you 2 years before you actually make a profit. Are you the kind of person that is going to jump from program to program in that 2 year period, or are you going to "stick it out" in one program and take the time and effort necessary in order to lay a solid foundation for your lifetime residual income? This doesn’t’ mean mailing out 500 post-cards one month and then waiting for the 5 who did join from that mailing to make your rich. This doesn’t work and NEVER will! Instead, you need to get on a steady diet of mailing and calling, mailing and calling.

MLM and the mail is a easy way to generate a large number of inquires about your MLM. The key to converting these inquiries into distributors depends upon 6 very important things:

How soon you respond to their request.
If you make a follow-up call in at least 5 days after mailing.
The quality of the literature that you mail.
The quality of the questions you ask your prospect and how well you know your program.
The number of people you contact EVERY month.
Your ability to get those who do join to duplicate your efforts.
You’ll notice making money wasn’t included in my 6 keys in being successful in MLM. It is impossible for you to make money your first month without sponsoring someone first. You have to sponsor first, and make money second. That’s why it is so important to use the credibility of your upline early on in your recruiting. Then when you start making money you can be the same credible person to those you sponsored like your sponsor was to you!
Having consumable and attractive products is another easy way to sponsor people. If you have a great product, that is in demand, and it is competitively priced, and their is a realistic way of making money when they join, it will be very easy for you to sponsor people—even if you aren’t making any money yet!

Remember, using the mail is a very effective way of contacting hundreds of people every month. How well you follow up on these leads and the more you do so every month, the more successful you’ll be using the mail.

Do some people join a MLM even though they’ve never been called? Sure they do. But, I wouldn’t expect more than 3 or 4 to join out of every 1,000 pieces of mail you send out. If you call your prospects I find that I can increase my percentage of closing to 75 to 100 out of 1,000 pieces mailed—a HUGE difference. I recommend you mail and call for the maximum return on your dollar.

The Major Disadvantage Of
Building Your MLM By Mail
A high drop-out rate is one of the major pitfalls of building a national organization entirely by mail. I call MLM and the mail a "revolving door". A lot of people get in the door, but only about half get out on the other side. Sure, it’s easy to sign up people by using the mail. But, you’ll also find out in a few short months that they drop out as easy as they got it.

Why? I have found there to be several reasons why people jump in and jump out in their first 90 days. One reason is because it is so inexpensive to join a MLM that a large majority can afford to get in. But, the biggest reason is they got in to make money. If after 90 days they aren’t making money they drop out. It’s just that simple.

That’s why it is so important to get someone off to a quick start. Remember this very important point: Over 90% of your prospects join on the hope of making extra money. They expect it. When they are disappointed, they drop-out. It’s your job to get them off to a fast and profitable start.

If you stay in your MLM long enough you’ll run into this other type of person. They ask a million questions, listen very carefully, hang up the phone and do nothing! Here they are, armed with the proper information to build a profitable downline, yet they can’t even get out of the dugout to walk up to the plate! Fear of failure or even fear of success stops them even before they get started. You can’t do anything for this type of person. Your job is to arm your downline with the tools and information they need to go out and build their own business! It’s not your job, though, to build it for them. If they don’t have a big enough reason to get out of their comfort zone and do the things necessary to recruit others, who do the same, you can’t help them.

Remember your ultimate goal? You’re looking for eager beavers just like you who’ve had it with their current financial situation. They’re tired of being broke and are willing to do something about it. These people want to be in control of their day. They want to wake up and look at the boss in the mirror every morning. Maybe they like to sleep ‘till noon every day—or play golf every morning. It doesn’t matter what they like to do. But what is important is you find someone who WANTS to do something instead of the 9 to 5 routine.

You’re not looking for "customers" disguised as downline members. You’re looking for downline members who want to own and operate their own business—on their time table and terms. YOU can’t do that for them. They must have this drive in them to begin with—or develop it along the way. I call the latter "incubators".

An incubator is someone who gets in, does nothing for a while, then out of the blue, takes off and starts sponsoring people like crazy. By creating an environment that allows all the different types of downline members you allow those who are semi-interested to join and get started when they are ready. It is important to remember that your job is to arm your downline with the information, be supportive, but you must also move on and sponsor more. Don’t "camp-out" on your downline. This only frustrates you and runs them off. You’ll find that people reveal their true intentions with their actions. Most often than not, it’s on their time table—not yours!

Here’s what’s attractive about sponsoring
long distance through the mail.
Years ago I felt I had found the answer to all my money problems. I received a letter in the mail stating that if I only mailed $5 to each of the 4 people on the list, request their "report", substitute my name in slot #1 and mail out the same letter to a few hundred people, I’d be flooded with envelopes containing $5 bills for the same reports. Ever seen that letter? Sure you have. Go ahead and admit it. You’ve tried this stupid game just like I did. Or, you at least "thought" about it!

If you haven’t, consider yourself the wiser. Millions of dollars have been spent with printers, mailing list companies, and postage in order to fulfill financial dreams through the mail.

It seems like it should work. But it doesn’t. Why is that? The mystery of mail order lies in the prospect's head. You must have an offer that motivates them to take action, and to do it NOW. You must provide a product or service that gives them a desired benefit. Although alluring, the $5 letter lacked believability.

Out of 500 letters mailed by me in early 1982, I received only one $5 bill. I even had an edge on the rest of the world. My family owned and operated a printing company. I went in on my own time on a Saturday morning and printed and folded that magical $5 letter. I even used "scrap" paper so the only cost was my "time". Postage of $115 was my only expense. I only lost $110 on that one. Not bad, huh?

Don’t let the offers that flood your mailbox about making money in MLM entirely by mail fool you. Although I’ve talked to some people who "claim" that made their fortune in MLM by using only the mail. When asked if their downline was able to duplicate their same success, they answered "NO". Sure there are those who do make money just using the mail. But they mail so many thousands of letters a year that the average person can’t duplicate their efforts. So whatever program you join, make sure the costs of mailing your package are such where almost anyone can afford it.

A monthly budget of at least $100 a month is sufficient to start your MLM business. Any less and you’ll become frustrated and quit within 3 months. The exception is if you don’t expect to be making a lot of money in three months then you won’t drop out. I currently spend around $1,000 a month promoting and maintaining my residual incomes. I didn’t start out spending $1,000 a month because I didn’t have it to spend. But, what I did do was "bank-roll" my income as I earned it. If I spent $100 one month and made $200 then next I spent that extra $100 on more ads, postage and phone calls. It took me over a year to actually make more money than I was spending.

Are you willing to be diligent for one year before you see any profits? If you aren’t, then don’t expect to be highly successful in MLM. You have to learn to be patient. I didn’t have the luxury of having a profitable upline in my first few ventures. I had to learn the hard way how to make it. Talk with your profitable upline and get a sense for how much you need to be spending a month promoting your MLM and how long it should take for you to start seeing some kind of return. This way you’ll be prepared for those $32 dollar checks right after you’ve spent $200 on your first ad!

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About The Author:
Robert Blackman is President of Diversified Enterprises Inc. A printing and Direct marketing company. He is also President of The Profit Network, a Voice Mail & Fax-On-Demand MLM company. Not only is Robert successfully making money in 7 different network marketing ventures, he also provides a discount printing, writing, designing and ad placement service!

Want to know how to make money in any MLM? Now you can! Robert Blackman's two cassettes & book entitled, "How To 100% Absolutely Guarantee That You Make Money In Network Marketing & How To Sit Back & Get Rich In Any MLM" is now available. For complete details on how to get them today; contact Robert Blackman via email at: robert1mlm@aol.com or call him at: (918) 335-3726
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