Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) home based businesses have very little to do with the selling of products. The very reason they are called MLMs is that those levels are what makes all the difference. The difficulty with MLM schemes and home based businesses is the building of as big of a downline as possible.
Downline members are basically people who you refer to become part of the MLM sales team below you. These members then have to do the same, with more members in their downline, and each member in the downline at that level have to keep doing this before profits really begin to look like profits. One way to find prospective downline members (or recruits) is lead generation. This is not as simple as it sounds and needs some amount of planning.
Naturally, it is not going to be as easy as people seeing the advertisements about your home based businesses, its products and getting excited enough to sign up instantly. There are millions of MLM home based businesses out there with the same products and payouts. Most people considering joining an MLM scheme will have questions. At the very least, you should be able to answer all of these questions without repeatedly emailing backlinks to a FAQ page. To that end, you must familiarize yourself as much as possible with the MLM distributor, the products, and the compensation plan. You have to have a comfort level with the knowledge about your own home based business so that when you talk to people it shows through.
You might generate a ton of leads but if your answer is not satisfactory, chances are you will not convert most of those leads. Some sort of appointment calendar or planner should also be kept diligently so that follow-ups are not missed. It can take several callbacks before people will be willing to invest in your MLM home based business. You are basically selling, and selling can take convincing many times over. So once, you know everything about your MLM home based business and you have the few basic sales tools in place it is time to start generating leads. To begin with, make a list of everyone you know, friends, acquaintances, relatives, anyone with a computer and an internet connection that could be a prospect.
Start with these people. If you make mistakes in your sales pitch, they will forgive you and since their answers will be more candid, this will make good practice for later on. One important thing to do upon discovering that someone is not interested in your MLM business is to ask him or her for a few names of people who might be. This way you can build a healthy network of contacts. Sometimes they may hesitate to give you the names, so just ask politely for only the names of the people they feel they can give you without any trouble. Start collecting business cards, email addresses, and phone numbers.
This is for the purpose of making cold calls because you never really know who might be interested. Cold calling is one of the most difficult things to do for any fresh salesperson. It might be uncomfortable in the beginning but keep at it. All it needs is confidence. There is no trick to it. Then there are the MLM trade journals, another good lead generation source for home based businesses.
People considering MLMs are already reading these journals. Sometimes it is a nice touch to include a press release, along with your advertisement. Naturally, the first rule of advertising is that your ad should be unlike all the others in order to get attention. Most affiliate programs will have a hidden cost for those who don't know better. That is the purchasing of MLM leads. The trouble is there are probably dozens of people out there with the same leads and the competition gets tougher.
A lot of companies will have a list of emails and phone numbers for people who in the past might have shown interest in MLM opportunities. Purchasing leads for MLM home based businesses is finally a matter of how good you are at converting those leads. There are a lot of people out there and a lot of websites that are in the business of nothing but selling leads. Therefore, before buying leads for a MLM home based business make sure that the leads are relevant and that a genuine company of good repute is providing them.
A list of emails and names can be sold many times over, make sure you are getting fresh leads only. Do some background research on the company selling leads. The Do Not Call registry has phone numbers that you should not buy.
Checking for those numbers is up to you. The company selling you the numbers is not required to do this.
Alvin Blacknall's a successful network marketer that's helping others achieve financial freedom. Discover how you can join a successful team of entrepreneurs. www.cashingin4success.com
