Most people who join an MLM or network marketing company aretold by their upline to make a list of their warm market, everyone they knowand everyone they can think of from a ?memory jogger? list of occupations. Theyare then encouraged to get out and talk to people, go to meetings & invitetheir prospects along, maybe move on to doing home meetings and hotel meetingsthemselves. The next piece of advice is usually purchasing generic leads andcold calling them.



 

It is this cold calling that I want to address today.

 

It is important to understand that cold calling genericleads is not a selling process, it is a sorting process. The aim here is tosort the people on the list as quickly as possible into two distinctcategories, suspects and prospects.

 

To do this you need to develop in your mind, the type ofperson you think is best suited to your particular MLM opportunity, come upwith qualifying characteristics and ask questions that endeavour to qualify thelead. For example, the first thing you will probably want to establish iswhether the lead is still looking for a home based business opportunity. If theanswer is no, they are immediately discounted. A yes should be interrogatedfurther by asking how long they have been looking.

 

If they have been seeking a home based business opportunityfor more than six months, chances are they are looking for perfection or a getrich quick scheme, and are never likely to go from investigation to action.

 

You should ask why they are looking to become involved inMLM. If the reason is to make an extra $150 a month or come over a little wishywashy, you should consider whether this is somebody you want in your team. Ifthey are seeking financial and time freedom, want to give their family all thetrappings of a successful life etc, they are probably more motivated toachieve.

 

Qualify their commitment by asking how much time they cancommit to the business. It should be greater than 8-10 hours a week. If theysay 15 hours ask if that's realistic as this sometimes gets the prospect tore-evaluate their availability and the new figure might disqualify them fromyour plans. They need to know that success in network marketing requirescommitment.

 

Do they have the finance in place to be able to join and maintaintheir membership of your company?   

 

If at any time they don't pass your requirements, you thankthem for their time but explain that you don't think you have a match and youlet them go, so you can move on to the next lead.

 

If they do qualify, it's important not to chase them, but tosimply thank them for their time and let them know that they sound like someoneyou may be able to work with.

 

Find out if they have internet access and if so, ask howsoon they can get online. This is also a qualifier because you want to see somehunger and excitement. Hopefully they say now or tonight as soon as I get in.

 

Invite them to grab a pen and paper and give them yourcontact details. After you have given them the link to your company website askthem to read back the contact info. Be sure to say it's in case you gave itincorrectly rather than they took it down incorrectly.

 

This is another qualifier, if they didn't bother to takeyour details down, let them go. They certainly won't duplicate your business buildingif they can't even be bothered to take down your name and number.

 

When following up with the prospect, ask them what theyliked most about what they saw or heard. Get them to sell themselves by gettingthem to talk about the product, the compensation plan, the residual income thatMLM can generate etc. If you can, try to link what they liked about thepresentation back to the reasons why they wanted to join a home based businessopportunity in the first place.

 

When they have told you about all the stuff they liked,invite them to join by saying ?OK Name, it sounds like you really liked whatyou saw, let's get you started?

 

They will either sign up or throw you an objection. Theimportant thing is to reflect the objection back to them, linking in theirreasons why they wanted to seek out an opportunity, and then continue to askquestions, e.g. well how much time can you devote to building a business thatwill allow you to (insert their goal)?

 

A point to remember is that if you go down the route of coldcalling purchased generic leads, you are going to have to keep buying them,they are consumable, so have your budget in mind.

Be prepared for rejection and don't take is personally.

The same lead will have been sold to five or ten otherpurchasers, so there will be competition for them to join other networkmarketing companies.

 

Finally, if you're getting lousy results, don't just keepflogging a dead horse. Get with your upline and go through your technique, theymay be able to give you some real honest and useful feedback which will improveyour returns.

 

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