Network Marketing – Don’t Chase Family and Friends!
MLM should not be about going after your family and friends. Let’s start by stating the obvious (or what should be): Friends and family are by far the most difficult people to recruit in network marketing. And the newer you are to the MLM business, the more difficult it becomes to recruit this category of prospects. Consider this: the moment you’re trying to entice a family member or friend to join your business, the most natural question you get is “how much money are YOU making in the business anyway?”
If you are just getting started in your MLM business, there is no easy answer to that question. If you admit you’re not making any money on it, then how credible is the business if you’re not even making the mega bucks you promise others? And if you were to quote your upline rich person who is making a lot of money, that just makes you a guy (or gal) running around, just working to make someone else rich.
How about lying or dodging the question? Don’t even consider lying. The truth will become apparent very soon. And a shattered reputation is nearly impossible to rebuild. You also can’t totally dodge the question: People can see through half-truths.
There is a second reason why it is often difficult to recruit family and friends. Let’s say you’re luring them with profit potentials. Let’s say you are telling them what benefits they will get from using the products you are marketing, for example, weight loss products or multivitamins. And indeed, their products have a track record of excellent results.
Most outsiders will focus on the history of the product and want to patronize you based on that. But not your friends and family. They may have known that you are someone who shows little interest in fitness and healthy eating. So anything you say now can easily be dismissed as marketing gimmicks. In a way, you lack credibility in their eyes. Online prospects will consider your message on its own merits.
The third, and perhaps most important, reason why going after family and friends won’t build a strong network is that your business soon reaches a point where it couldn’t grow any further. Rumor has it that this was the cause of David Wood’s initial failure in network marketing. He was too focused on the “warm market” for him. Even when he changed companies, it soon turned out that the members of the “new” team understood everyone he had recruited at his previous company.
So making a list of friends and family and trying to market to them is tedious and a dead end approach to network marketing. There is a better way.
We hinted earlier that it’s better to start by presenting the benefits of the products you’re marketing than the f
financial incentives. What happens is that as people (in fact, including family members) start to see the benefits of the products, and that might move them to want to become an affiliate.
An African proverb says that a good product sells itself. In the case of a weight loss product, for example, by the time you drop 30 pounds and start looking several years younger, people are bound to ask what you’re using. You will have gained credibility in your business. And the money follows shortly after that!
Finally, generate your leads online. There is no end to the number of leads you can generate and market to on the internet. There are also many different methods that you can use to generate leads for your business through the net.
The bottom line is, get your leads online. Don’t waste more time trying to sign up friends and family than they’re worth. Make your money elsewhere. If your success eventually convinces them to join you, great. If not, there is not problem. You have the world to trade. How many are your friends and family anyway?