Today, I’m going to talk about what I believe is the best target market for network marketers. This is something that took me many years to learn. My hope is that you will take this advice and apply it in your business immediately.
Every business has a target market. This is a group of people who are the “most qualified” to be a customer.
For example, McDonald’s target market is people who want food fast and cheap. On the other hand, Ruth’s Chris steakhouse’s target market is people who want high quality steaks, great customer service and fine dining.
Smart businesses focus exclusively on their target market. They don’t believe that “everyone” is a potential prospect. Instead, they take the time to identify their “best customers” and they have a laser-like focus with their marketing efforts to attract these people to their business.
The Successful Realtor
I know of a successful realtor in a small town in western Ohio. This guy sells LOTS of single family houses. I asked him his secret to success and this is what he told me:
Before I ever show a home to someone, I pre-qualify them. I make sure they have APPROVED financing and I make sure they really have the desire to purchase a home. I ask them a lot of questions to find out exactly what they are really looking for. This saves me a ton of time, because I do not want to waste my valuable time trying to sell a home to someone who doesn’t have the approved financing and doesn’t have the desire to buy a home.
This realtor has it figured out. By putting in a little extra time in the initial conversation, pre-qualifying people, he saves himself lots of time on the back end of his sales process.
The Successful Car Salesperson
Successful car salespeople take a similar approach. Rather than trying to make a pitch to everyone and anyone who walks onto the lot, they PRE-QUALIFY people first. They make sure the prospect has a good enough credit score to qualify for a loan. They find out what the person’s budget is and what type of car or truck they are looking to buy first, and then they go into a sales pitch and show the person their different options.
This is much smarter than wasting hours and hours of your precious time trying to sell someone a vehicle, only to find out their credit score is so bad they can’t qualify for a loan. Or even worse, they’re just window shopping. Make sense?
The Professional Basketball Coach
I want to share this analogy with you, to help you understand what I am talking about. Let’s suppose that you are a professional basketball coach. You lead a team. In the off season, two players are traded, one retires and another gets injured. That means you have four positions to fill on your roster.
To find these four new players, would you put an ad in the local paper that you are looking to teach four adults how to play basketball? Would you visit the local job fair to find people? Of course not. You want adult men who are very talented basketball players. You could either draft them in the yearly draft or you could shop the free agent market.
More than likely, if you have even 1% common sense, you will shop the free agent market to find people to fill the vacant positions on your team. On the other hand, you would not randomly go out and pick four people who have never played basketball before, and try to train them to be a professional basketball player. I’m sure that makes sense to you.
If you want to work smart, you should apply this same way of thinking in your MLM Business.
The Best Target Market for Networkers
Successful network marketers take a different approach to their business than amateurs do. While most people in our industry claim that everyone is in your target market, successful reps know otherwise. They are very selective about who they focus their marketing and prospecting efforts on.
In network marketing, you really have two target markets, one for your business opportunity and one for your products or services.
While anyone MIGHT join your team or BUY your product or service, certain groups of people are MUCH MORE LIKELY to do so. These are the groups of people you want to focus on.
When it comes to your business opportunity, your best target market is people with network marketing experience. This includes current or former network marketers. These people are already pre-sold on the industry and most of them have already been trained to some degree. You won’t have to convince them that what you have is a good deal.
Sure, other entrepreneurs, salespeople and folks looking to change their life for the better might still join your team and do well. You should not ignore these folks by any means. BUT, if you are marketing and advertising your business, and using paid strategies, I highly recommend focusing on recruiting other network marketers. It’s just good business sense.
Where do you find these people? They are free agent network marketers everywhere. Companies close their doors. Companies change their deals and distributors leave. By no means should you go and “poach” people who are happy with what they are doing, but you should ALWAYS have your ears and eyes open for free agents.
When it comes to your product or service, your target market is people with the money and desire to buy what you are selling. Normally, this would be a group of people who are already buying similar products or services.
For example, if you sell a weight loss shake, your target market is NOT people who need to lose weight. Many people who need to lose weight have no desire to do so or do not have the money to buy weight loss products.
Instead, you are looking for people who are already buying weight loss shakes (or weight loss products), going to the gym, hiring a personal trainer and already spending time and money to try and lose weight. These are the people who are most likely to buy your products. Make sense?
Common Mistake MLM Reps Make
Some of the most common mistakes network marketers make is focusing on the wrong prospects. Rather than approach other network marketers, other successful entrepreneurs, and people with the money and desire to buy their product or service, they focus on anyone and everyone.
They focus on prospecting their broke Uncle Ricky. Or, they approach their unemployed neighbor. Or, they approach the government worker who only wants a pension and job security and health insurance. Or, they approach their lazy friends and family.
Folks, you want to focus on your BEST prospects. Would you rather recruit 100 non-serious people who will do very little and and most likely quit the business or would you rather recruit two to five leaders and professionals? I already know the answer to that question so you don’t need to answer.
Recruit up. Focus on people sharper and more successful than you are. Focus on the target market for network marketers.
Make a Decision
Starting today, make a decision to focus on your target market in your MLM Business. By all means, you can also talk to other sharp people that you meet and come in contact with. Just focus most of your time, money and energy on people in your target market, because these are the people who are MOST LIKELY to make a purchase or join your team and actually do something with the business.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, now you know the target market for network marketers. I hope you found the information helpful and I hope you will apply it in your own business starting today. What are your thoughts about the target market for network marketers? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
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 once had another network marketer contact me. I just wasn’t in a place that I wanted to switch to another company. Besides he just got on the phone and started selling me his opportunity because he found my business card somewhere. I think that if his approach were about how I could be more successful in my business and giving me that type of information he could have gained my trust. This tip is great, people using it have to be savvy about getting to know their targets.
I always tell people who try to recruit other network marketers to lead with a training program, leads, tools, or a system first, NOT a business opportunity.
Wow! I had also learned to make a list of friends, family, co-workers, etc. when becoming a distributor/representative for a company. It always seemed like family members would grudgingly help out, and I’d slowly generate leads. Mike Dillard’s advice on knowing your target market makes perfect sense! These are the people who are interested in your product/service and have the money to pay for it! Knowing your target market can save a lot of time and money. I’m going to think about the target market for my small, home-based service and advertise accordingly!
Without focusing on your target market you waste a lot of time and money. In MLM, I think it’s best to focus on people who would use your products. And then you can upgrade your happy customers into distributors.