Top 10 MLM Cold Calling Tips

In today’s post, I’d like to share some of my favorite MLM Cold Calling Tips.

To be quite frank with you, I am not a big fan of cold calling. I don’t like rejection and I don’t like trying to “convince” uninterested prospects to join my team. Plus, I know how I feel when a telemarketer calls me, especially when I am having dinner with my wife.

With that being said, cold calling does work (in some cases). It’s not for everyone, but if you don’t have phone fear, and you can handle lots of rejection, cold calling people might be a good choice for you.

Top 10 MLM Cold Calling Tips

What you will see below are my top 10 MLM Cold Calling Tips listed in no particular order.

# 1: Don’t Read a Script

I am not a fan of scripts. Yes, they do work. I won’t argue that. I just believe it’s “weird” when I’m talking with someone on the phone and they are reading something to me.

My best suggestion is to write down a script, remember the key points, and use that as an outline for your conversation with your prospect. You want to sound NATURAL when you’re talking with your prospect. You want to put them at ease and be conversational in nature.

# 2: Don’t Give a Presentation

Remember, the purpose of your call is to find out if your prospect is interested in viewing/seeing additional information, not to give them a complete detailed business presentation.

Once you find out they are interested in getting more information you have two options. You can email them a business presentation to watch. Or, you can schedule a follow up appointment with them to do a phone presentation with them. But whatever you do, don’t try to explain your business to them in detail right then and there.

Your initial contact with your prospect is the “sizzle” and your presentation is the “steak”. Your job is to sell the sizzle and let the sizzle sell the steak.

On your first call, you should never attempt to sell.

Focus on information gathering. Unless you are selling something inexpensive that requires little thought, you want to interview the prospect by asking questions. Take notes and tell them you will come back to them.

Focus on building the relationship and coming across as friendly, genial and non-threatening. ~ Brian Tracy

# 3: Leave a Voicemail

If you call someone and they don’t answer their phone, leave them a quick voicemail. If they like what they hear they will call you back. If not, they won’t. This saves you lots of time and keeps you from playing phone tag with someone.

# 4: Be Friendly & Nice

Don’t come across as overconfident, rude or cocky. Be a professional at all times. Treat people with respect, whether they are interested in what you have to offer, or not. If people ask not to be called again, make sure you don’t call them again.

# 5: Qualify Your Prospect as Quickly As Possible

Another helpful tip is to qualify your prospect as quickly as possible. Introduce yourself, tell them why you are calling, and find out if they might be interested in what you have to offer. If they aren’t interested in learning more, end the conversation on a positive note and move on to the next call. This will save you lots of time.

# 6: Talk Less & Listen More

One of the best ways to control a conversation is to ask questions. Get the other person talking about themselves. Ask them provocative questions that relate to your products or business opportunity, and then be quiet and listen to what they have to say. When you ask questions, you are in control! Plus, it will help you identify a problem or need.

In the past, cold calling was about dumping as much information on a buyer as possible in a short period of time. But the best reps know that a cold call is an opportunity to learn about a prospect’s business and pain points. We’ve analyzed millions of sales calls here at ringDNA with our AI-powered tool. And we found that the most successful sellers don’t go on lengthy talk monologues. They pause every twelve seconds or so to listen to their buyers and learn from them. ~ RingDNA

# 7: Call High Quality Prospects

A lot of people wonder WHO you should call. I think you should call current and former network marketers and people who might be interested in using your products. You can buy lead lists from many different companies. You can also buy genealogy lists from defunct network marketing companies. Whatever you do, set a clearly defined target market, and focus on them. If you just call random people, you won’t get anywhere near the results that you could have gotten.

# 8: Be Consistent and Persistent

You won’t achieve immediate success by cold calling people. You have to work the numbers. Make it a goal to call 10 to 50 people a day, every day, for a year.  If you call 10 people a day for a year, that is 3,650 people. Call 20 people a day for a year and it’s 7,300 people. If you can stay disciplined and keep doing it every day, you will get pretty decent results. Also, as you make more calls, your confidence and phone skills will improve, which will help you convert more people into leads, customers and distributors.

# 9: Track Your Results

Another good thing to do is track your results. As you are making your cold calls, keep track of how many people you call, how many folks you talk to, how many appointments you set, how many presentations you give, and how many people join your team. This is a great way to monitor your progress and find out how you are doing.

Tracking your cold calls will also help you get an understanding on how many calls you need to make to talk to a prospect, book a meeting, close a sale. This in conjunction with your current accounts will help you understand and play how you can grow your sales and territory. ~ Quora

# 10: Educate Yourself

My final tip on my top 10 MLM Cold Calling Tips list is to educate yourself. There are lots of books and training products in the marketplace about cold calling. I suggest you visit your library or local bookstore so you can learn more about it. It’s not rocket science, but you can really improve your results if you study people who do cold calling for a living.

Alternatives to MLM Cold Calling

If you decide cold calling is not for you, that’s okay. It takes a “mentally tough” person to succeed with cold calling. Here are 10 simple alternatives to MLM Cold Calling.

# 1: Postcards

Mailing postcards is a simple way to grow your business without rejection. I mail postcards every single day. On average, I pay about 44 to 45 cents per postcard when you factor in printing, the cost of the lead and postage. People who get my postcard in the mail who are interested and want to learn more simply check out my website, email me or call me.

# 2: Warm Market

Network marketing has always been a warm market business. It always will be. I don’t recommend cold calling or cold market prospecting until you have gone through your ENTIRE name’s list. And, your name’s list should have at least 2,000 names on it.

# 3: Drop Cards

Drop cards are similar to a business card, except they are more generic. They have your marketing message on it. You can hand them out while you are out and about running errands and living life. Interested prospects will get in touch with you.

# 4: Referrals

Referrals are the best leads. Whenever you talk to a prospect, a team member or anyone else, ask them for referrals. Be specific and ask them questions such as:

• Who do you know who buys CBD?
• Who do you know who has done network marketing before?
• Who is the most ambitious person you know?
• Who is the most successful person you know?
• Which of your friends has the biggest following on Facebook?

Or any similar question.

# 5: Classified Ads

Classified ads still work. You can place them in your local newspaper or you can even post them on Craigslist. Get creative and test a few different ads in a few different classifieds. You never know what type of results you will get until you try.

# 6: Work in Depth

Working in depth is a great alternative to cold calling. For example, if you have 50 team members, and they each know 2,000 people by name, that is 100,000 potential prospects for your business. You could never get through all of these people before you have a big business.

# 7: YouTube Videos

YouTube is a great place to meet people. You can publish a video that generates you traffic and leads for many YEARS. Produce high quality content, or entertaining content, and let people know what you do. Be sure you include your link in the description.

# 8: Facebook Live

I’m a big fan of Facebook live. You can post videos about your company, its products, the industry, working from home, or even entrepreneurial related topics.

# 9: Paid Ads

I build my business almost exclusively with paid advertising. I really like postcards, solo ads, and pay per click advertising.

# 10: Live Events

You can set up at live events such as in home parties, flea markets, job fairs and networking groups. You can have your own booth of visit the event and connect with the vendors and attendees.

Final Thoughts

In summary, these are some of my favorite MLM Cold Calling Tips. While I don’t believe that cold calling is the most effective way to build your MLM business, it can work. And it’s a lot better than doing NOTHING.

Many successful distributors purchase leads and call them to share their products or business opportunity. Just make sure that you don’t violate any of the “do not call” laws. If you’re buying leads, make sure you verify each number with the “do not call” database before you call. Finally, make sure you have a game-plan and be sure to track your results. Within a short period of time, you can develop great skills that will help you with your MLM Cold Calling.

What are your thoughts? If you have experience with cold calling I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below to share what type of results you got and any good tips you can offer our readers.

Sincerely,






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.