MLM Training- Business Building Blocks II

Unfortunately, many people who favorably view direct selling’s income potential often fail in a few key areas.  Recruiting in the cold market and a failure to consistently create leads combined, lead people to failure.  I believe a shift in self perception is necessary.  Increasingly, it is becoming obvious that highly successful direct sellers view themselves jointly as direct sellers and as lead generators.

 

Without a lead there is nothing to sell, right?  So the game becomes one of systematically creating consistent lead flows.  The rule of thumb in the lead generation business is simple.  Few leads and high conversion rates equate to profit and high quantity leads and low conversion rates equate to profit.  So, the level of importance must be placed on creating high quantity lead inflows, as leads drive the direct selling business. 

 

Your lead generation focus needs to be placed first on lead sources.  Advertising and effective marketing create leads as do publication subscription lists and email subscription lists.  If your service or offering is niche specific, publications which serve those niches are also excellent lead sources, but may be most effectively marketed to initially as retail prospects with a strategic goal of conversion once the relationship has been established and quality of offering has been validated.  Keep in mind, retailing provides immediate income.  There are several list brokers to choose from, and you can locate them with a simple Google search.  Often, you can select filters such as age, income and geography to narrow your focus which will create a better return on your investment.  There are many direct sales focused periodicals to consider, I would propose calling each for their list marketing possibilities. 

 

LEAD SOURCES:

 

Direct selling periodicals include:

 

Network Marketing News                                          Networking Times

The Trendsetter                                                           Network Marketing Business Journal

Network Marketer’s Resource Center Ezine              MLM Insider

SalesDoctors Magazine                                               The Network Trainer

The Entrepreneur Network                                         Network Marketing Lifestyles Mag.

The MLM Times                                                         Upline Magazine

Entrepreneur Weekly                                                  Cutting Edge Opportunities Mag.

Small Business Marketing News                                Opportunity Magazine

Advantage Networker                                                            Home Business Magazine

The Telephone Selling Report                         Network Marketing Today

Entrepreneur’s Home Office Magazine                      Entrepreneur Magazine

Network Marketing Connection Magazine

 

List Brokers Include:

 

www.vendorseek.com – Exchange service to identify best list pricing.

www.buyerzone.com  - Exchange service to identify best list pricing.

www.allbusiness.com – Exchange service to identify best list pricing.

www.listareus.com – Traditional List Broker

www.martinworldwide.com – Traditional List Broker

 

Your personal research will yield results specific to your offering, product and service.

Direct sellers who have retired or who have left the industry are also excellent lead sources.

 

Internet marketing, called web 2.0 has evolved to create a highly profitable lead generation strategy that is cost effective.  The cornerstone of your web 2.0 strategy is your web site.  Comprehensive internet marketing strategies also include blogs, free offers, social networking sites and joint ventures.

 

Effective web sites must be content rich, include search engine optimization and need to include a free offer in exchange for name and email.  Creating a content rich site is imperative as search engines will have multiple keyword hits on each page which will boost your ranking on Google and increase quantity of traffic.  Remember in the lead generation business, quantity will compensate for quality.

 

Blogging in multiple arenas will generate credibility and if configured properly will service as an onramp to your website.  Duplication is critical, which means it is prudent to set up multiple blogging sites through wordpress, blogger and squido.  Our goal through blogging is to create brand awareness, (you are your own brand) and to create credibility through the content you create. 

 

Another piece of the puzzle, is to begin to leverage your blog content into articles.  Your goal in writing articles is to further cement your credibility and your brand to cultivate an expert level status.  Importantly, your articles direct interested readers to your web site.

 

Now that traffic is arriving to your site your goal is to direct them to enter their name and email address in exchange for a free offer.  Perhaps it is a product sample or perhaps a free report or a free course.  Whatever it may be, by capturing interested prospects’ email, you can begin to market to them consistently via an auto responder.  Technology costs are rapidly coming down and that means for under $100.00 per month you can create your own leads consistently.