Here’s something to think about: appointments are the yardstick to measuring effective activity in a multilevel marketing business. That’s a great quote from Tom “Big Al” Schreiter. What I want to do in this post is tell you what this quote means to me and to share some of my insights about it.
Everyone in the network marketing industry wants to be successful, yes most won’t. I truly believe that happens because most people are only kidding themselves. They THINK about their business all the time, and what it would be like to be successful, but they never actually DO THE WORK it will take to BE successful.
One of the most important activities in network marketing, if not the most important activity, is setting appointments. You need to prospect and generate leads so you can pre-qualify people and set an APPOINTMENT with them to show them the plan. The purpose of talking with a lead is not to sponsor them or tell them everything about your business opportunity right at that moment in time. Instead, your real purpose of approaching a prospect, or calling a lead, is to set an appointment with them, so you can show a complete presentation.
The quickest way to know if someone is successful or not in MLM (or will be) is to look at their calendar and see how many appointments they have scheduled each week. Show me someone who can consistently set 5-10 appointments or more per week, for a period of months, and I will show you someone who is VERY (or will be) successful in the industry. On the other hand, show me a distributor with no appointments set for the week and I will show you someone who will quit the industry in no time.
If you can get good at prospecting, generating leads and setting appointments, you will naturally sponsor a lot of distributors, get customers, build a team and MAKE MONEY. And if you can’t set appointments, NOTHING good will happen in your business.
So learn the art of setting appointments. Teach your team how to call prospects, pre-qualify people, and set an appointment with qualified prospects. That is one of the greatest skills you can learn to do yourself and teach your team.
What are your thoughts about this? Leave a comment and let us know.

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.
This is excellent advice! Like you say, its all in the follow up. You can meet and talk to hundreds of people, but it does nothing for your MLM business if there is no follow up! Even for someone just starting out, they start small with a couple of appointments a week, then one every day, then two a day. Great post!
Yes, you definitely need to follow up.
This sounds like it all goes back to motivation and hard work! Generating leads within MLM is so important, and I tend to think about that a lot. What I haven’t pondered is how many appointments can a person set up within a week. Leads – appointments – success…in that order. Tom Schreiter has some great advice!
Anyone can generate a lead. That is just the starting point. It’s your ability to lead your lead through the sale process, to get an appointment, show a complete presentation and then close the sale that really matters most.