People often ask me how I recruit so many people into my network marketing business and affiliate programs.
Let me start by telling you I did not start out as a good recruiter. For many YEARS in this industry I couldn’t recruit ANYONE. I didn’t have the right skills, strategy, mindset, daily habits, or self-discipline.
However, I knew the industry worked and I wanted to be successful. I scoured books, videos, seminars, and podcasts to learn everything I could about selling and marketing. I wanted to become a top recruiter and I believed I could. I just didn’t know HOW!
It wasn’t until I stumbled across Dan Kennedy that I had my big breakthrough. If you haven’t heard of Dan Kennedy before, he is not a MLM guy. He is a marketer. Most of the top marketers you see online were taught by Dan or taught by someone Dan taught.
Dan Kennedy taught me how to recruit and sell, in a low-key, strategic process. He taught me a simple process that worked great for me.
In a nutshell, this is what he taught me:
1. Identify your target market.
2. Give away free information.
3. Focus on generating leads.
4. Follow up FOREVER.
5. Wait until people are pre-sold and contact you.
I’ll cover these steps in more detail below, so you have a better understanding.
The 5 Steps to Recruiting
1. Know your target market.
Every business has a target market. Your network marketing business is no different. Your target market is a group of people MOST LIKELY to be interested in your product or service.
What most people do is assume everyone is a prospect, so they target everyone and anyone. This is a recipe for disaster. Why? You can’t sell steak to a vegetarian! Rather than target everyone, you should use a sniper approach and target the right people.
Take the time to identify your BEST PROSPECTS. What do they have in common? What do they look, sound, and act like? What’s important to them. What problems do they have? Where do they hang out? What do they do for a living? Take the time to answer these questions. The more you know about your target market, the better. The more targeted you can be, the better. Use the sniper approach rather than the shotgun approach.
In my business, we sell natural and organic products. I realize my target market includes people who already buy natural and organic health products, people who care about their health, people who understand product ingredients matter, and people who have the MONEY to purchase these types of products. I don’t target people who don’t take supplements, nor do I target people who buy their supplements at a big discount store or dollar store.
When it comes to my business opportunity, I focus on people who already believe in network marketing and have done it in the past. I do not go after employee minded people or industry critics. I focus on free agent prospects, with experience in the industry, who are actively looking for a company. These people are much easier to sign up and close because they already believe in the industry. Make sense?
Now, you don’t have to pick the same target markets I do, but you MUST have a target market identified for your products and business. Focus is key!
2. Give away free information.
In most cases, never lead with your product or business opportunity. Why? People don’t care about your products or business!
Instead, offer something of value for free, ideally free information. More people will respond to that than you trying to sell them something.
For instance, you could offer a free sample, a free consultation, a free gift card, a free eBook, a free coaching session, a free video series. You could offer just about anything free, IF it has a high perceived value with your prospect.
Rather than you selling your prospect on your products or business, you give them the FREE information and your free information does the selling for you. How awesome is that?
Let me tell you why this works. If you advertise your business or products to 100 people, you might find 3 to 5 people who are in the market TODAY for what you are offering them. However, if you offer free information to those same 100 people, you will more than likely get 25 to 40 interested people. With a good follow up, you could eventually sell 10 to 20 of those people. See the difference?
3. Focus on generating leads.
Once you know your target market and have your free giveaway, advertise your free information in places where people in your target market hang out. It could be a website, pay per click ads, newspaper ads, magazine ads, postcards, etc.
A lead is someone who responds to your ad or content and requests the FREE INFORMATION. Not every lead will buy or join, but some will. When you generate a lead, send them the free information rather than pitching them on your business or product line. Remember, your free info should do the selling for you. You offer the free info and your free info sells them on your products and business (while also providing valuable info).
Your goal is to generate as many leads as you can each day, rather than focusing on sales. A good starting goal is two to five new leads daily. As you learn and grow, scale that up to 50-100 leads daily. The more leads you generate daily the more sales you will generate daily.
When you generate a lead, they enter your sales funnel, which is normally an email auto-responder with a bunch of pre-written email messages. It could also be a direct mail sequence, a texting sequence, or a combination of these strategies.
4. Follow up forever.
The fortune is in the follow up. The average prospect will need minimum seven to TWENTY follow ups before they buy or join. Patience is a virtue. I follow up with people until they buy, die, or ask me not to!
When it comes to follow up, it should be automated. The purpose of your follow ups is not to sell. Instead, it is to educate and stay in touch. You want to provide valuable information about what you do, so your prospect can pre-sell themselves on what you do.
Ideally, you want to follow up every three to five days FOREVER. I do this via email because it is simple and automated.
People keep receiving your follow up content. Some unsubscribe. Some buy. Some do nothing. Some do this right away while other people can take months, even years before the decide.
If you don’t stay in touch every 3-5 days FOREVER, you will miss out on at least 99% of your sales! Chew on that. The average person I sign up takes 20-30 follow ups over the period of three to nine months before they join or buy.
5. Wait until people contact you.
This is the step most people mess up. They get a lead and they get so excited they start calling, texting, and annoying the person. Basically, they are chasing their prospect away.
Never do that. Do what I do. Never call any prospect. Instead, wait for them to CALL you. If your follow up sequence is set up properly, people will contact you first. Some prospects might call you after they receive the initial information. Some will take a few weeks. Others might call you after 9-24 months.
When people call you first, you are in the driver’s seat. The person receiving the call is in the position of power. They have the control and power in the conversation.
Interested prospects will call you. When they do, you simply answer their questions and guide them. In most cases, they’re already pre-sold and are ready to join.
Key Point
90% or more of your time, money, and energy should be spent on LEAD GENERATION. If you have a good freebie and a good follow up process, those things will be automated and not require any of your time. You just focus on generating more leads which you know will result in more sales!
Final Thoughts
This is all I’ve done over the past five years to recruit thousands and thousands of people personally. I’ve never called someone. They always call me. I never use pressure or hype either. I just answer questions and point people in the right direction.
You can do the same thing if you choose to! Now you know. Follow these steps and you will be well on your way. What are your thoughts?
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
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