In my early beginnings in network marketing, I would spend most of my free time looking for potential MLM prospects in local shopping malls. Looking back, some ten years later, I have to laugh at myself. Although searching for MLM prospects in shopping malls is better than doing nothing at all, I still consider it a bad way to spend your time.
Let me ask you something for a moment. If you owned a traditional business would you spend hours on end looking for prospects at a shopping mall? I hope not. Instead, you would focus your reaching your target audience by using different advertising and marketing strategies. In network marketing, you need to do the same thing!
Most networkers are taught by their upline to pitch the business to everyone they meet. They’re taught to hang out a busy social places, such as bookstores, shopping malls and coffee shops and strike up conversations with people, in hopes of getting them to join the business.
Whenever I hear someone giving their downline that advice, I have to laugh. The major reason I laugh is because I know it won’t work. I used to spend six or seven hours each Saturday and Sunday “hanging out” in the mall starting conversations with everyone I met, hoping that even one person would be interested in my business opportunity.
Although I did sponsor a good amount of people, the return on my time investment wasn’t worth it. Most of the people weren’t in my target market and they definitely weren’t interested in getting bothered or hustled while they were spending some time with their friends and family shopping at the mall. I’m sure you can relate to that.
On a side note, I must admit that anyone who looks for MLM prospects in shopping malls is very serious about their business. They are hungry for success. Few distributors will ever pursue their business this seriously. And it’s sad that these most motivated distributors receive such horrible advice.
If you want to succeed in network marketing, you have to take a different approach. I think the ideal approach is to have 4-5 people contact YOU each day about your business opportunity (or products). To achieve this, you could advertise in newspapers, promote a website, post fliers and business cards on bulletin boards, use direct mail or a variety of other techniques. When people respond to your ad, you simply follow up with them. It’s that simple.
By following this approach, you have more time and money. And you will have a steady stream of people contacting you each day, asking you for more information about your products and/or business opportunity.
Before I close this post out, I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t talk to people at shopping malls, or anywhere else. By all means, if you meet someone sharp while you are out and about living life, talk to them. Ask them a few questions to qualify them and get their contact information.
HOWEVER, don’t intentionally go out prospecting people at shopping malls or anywhere else. Instead, just incorporate it into your day to day life. Focus on making 1-2 new friends each day, and spend the rest of your time advertising and marketing, so people contact you first.
If you would like to learn how to get people to contact you, check out Magnetic Sponsoring.
What do you think about finding prospecting for your network marketing business in shopping malls? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
I had to chuckle about seeing you walking around the mall “hitting people up” to join. My first thought is how they thought you may be a crazy person. I believe it would be much easier to have prospects come to you instead of “roping” them in the mall. By creating marketing strategies that teach the good points of your company, people will call or email to know more. Many are “turned off” when you just approach them out of the blue.
No one likes to be pitched to, or sold, or pressured. Study marketing and advertising and get people to come to you first.
When I read the title of this post I really thought you were going to give me some special hints on how to make mall prospecting work. It does seem futile and I really hated wasting materials on people who were literally throwing them away before they even got out of the mall. I love the idea of getting prospects to come to me. It is so that in the MLM community our training is a little backwards in this area. How many big businesses go out and ask people to come to their store. I think if we start modeling our efforts after the bigger successful chains we could really see some growth and success.
One of the best things network marketers can do is study successful people and businesses that are good at sales, advertising and marketing.