Marketing
When Do You Mention Your Product/Service or Business Opportunity?
There are many answers to the above question and everyone has their own take on it, but this one has stumped beginners everywhere. And because so many people have confusedly asked me this question, I thought I’d share my answer.
Now let me say that my way may not be your way, but ultimately all that matters is what works.
In the attraction marketing business model, we are taught that to attract leads to work with us, we should always lead with value or information to draw targeted prospects to us where we can add them to our mailing lists and keep sending them more valuable information. So when do we send the prospects to the actual MLM or product/service we are supposed to be promoting?
Well, if you watch what other successful marketers are doing, you can see that they are not shy about announcing what company they are with or new revelations about their products, comp plans, promotions, or other exciting stuff that may make their followers jump at the opportunity to get in now.
But what they do that sets them apart is they provide enough value first that by the time you join their list, you already know that they know their stuff. The marketers will hold many webinars full of valuable marketing material before holding one designed only to sponsor people into their primary business.
There are some marketers online who do not follow this strategy. They have been such good students that they claim they will mentor you and never sell you anything. Similar marketers refuse to reveal the name of their MLM even when asked point-blank. Makes me wonder how they plan to make money that way.
Once you have been acquiring names and you have a list started that you have been providing with value, informational webinars, and free resources, it is okay to introduce products of your own, affiliate resources, your primary company opportunity, and other tools to monetize your list. The key is to sprinkle such offers throughout your e-mails that your followers feel they are getting more value than pitches. You don’t want them to ever think they are there for you to benefit from.
A good rule of thumb is that 60% of your communication should be free give-away information, 20% can be promoting the products, articles, or videos of other people, and 20% should be your own product, primary company, or affiliate tools. These numbers are subject to your own style and personality, but the idea is not to expect your list to hand over their money until you’ve paved the way with valuable content.
Find out more about attraction prospecting by subscribing to my free e-newsletter in the box to the right.
P.S. Comment and Share if you like it!
Getting Discouraged With Your MLM? Hear My Advice to A Fellow Networker!
I recently received a question from an online connection regarding ways to not get discouraged or burned out from working full-time or more than that and also working a network marketing business. This question touched home because I have felt much the same way in the past when spending consistent efforts marketing the business and building relationships, the time spent can be disheartening if you are not making the money to compensate.
I offered her my advice based on my experience and I will offer the same advice to anyone in the same situation. Building a network marketing business can consume a lot of time, but you also need to make sure that you are working smart, not hard. Here are some things to consider.
- Are you saving time by speaking only to the most targeted prospects? Spending more time actually qualifying a person instead of showing your presentation to anyone with a pulse actually saves you time in the long-run.
- Are you saving money by using online free methods of promotion? The toss-up here is that free marketing usually means more time spent, so you have to weigh the pace of your business growth against your budget and see if you can afford to pay a little more to advertise if it means more money in your pocket sooner.
- Do you have written goals and daily action steps written down to reach those goals? Statistics show that people who have written goals are more likely to achieve them and faster than people who do not. Put your written goals in a place where you can daily be reminded of them so you stay on track and focused during your hours set aside to work the business.
- How much time can you make per day to work on your business? Setting a daily or weekly schedule or target goal of time spent working on your business will keep your time focused if you have few hours to spend, make you choose your activities wisely.
- Are you only working on income producing activities during those times? Wasting time on junk that does not make you money or generate leads is not worth doing during the time you have to spend on your business. Of course, we all need time for self-development, learning, and administrative tasks, but keep the largest portion of your work hours on cash-increasing activities.
- Do you have a way to generate cashflow from your leads, especially those who do not join your business? This is critical. If you can keep the money coming in even when your primary business is not growing as rapidly as you like, you will still feel the sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep pushing on. It’s always better to have several sources of cashflow when business wanes. And several sources of cashflow may replace the income from a part-time job that was keeping you from spending more time building your business.
You have to use your hurdles and complications to fuel your WHY, but you also have to work smart at the same time you work hard. Otherwise you are working for less gain and more stress.
To Learn More about how I work smart, not hard, enter your info for my Very Free Marketing Training:
One Little Question That Will Immediately Qualify A Prospect
We as marketers have to know the fine art of conversation. Not just how to have one, but also how to spin one to go the way we want it to go so that the end result is positive for us and our business. And we have to know how to do all this without being insensitive or pushy to the person on the other end of the exchange.
Now we know that we will never know if a person is really a good prospect until we qualify them. That means we have to find out if that person has a use for our product or is looking to make a change in their life that may include our business opportunity. We need to uncover as much information as possible about the person to answer this question. So we start out by building a rapport with that person and asking general questions about their lives. “So, what do you do?” “How long have you done that?” “Do you like it?”
But to uncover their hidden motivations or needs, we have to stop the chit chat and ask the question that allows us to turn the conversation toward a solution for them and a sale for us. After you find out what they do and whether or not they like it. The next question sets you up to uncover their dreams and gives them a chance to explain why you should approach them.
Here’s what you say: “Have you ever thought of doing anything else?”
If they say no, then they are no longer a prospect. They must love what they do and that’s great.
If they say yes, allow them to expand on that thought to include what else they really wanted to do. Then introduce them to your industry and ask them if they have any experience in network marketing. Be very upfront. This will go a long way with your credibility and positive experience. This is not the time to be secretive and invite them to an undercover meeting with half-truths and decoys.
The same sentence can hold true with a potential product-only customer. Ask them what their experience has been with certain products and if they mention anything negative, ask them if they have ever thought of using anything else. Then introduce your product if they answer in the affirmative.
Let them tell you they are looking for something else before you approach them with a solution and your results will be proof positive that this approach works.
Use these questions on people you meet as you’re out and about, on social media friends and connections, and people you haven’t spoken to since high school. As long as you first build the relationship and then find out if there is a need, the conversation will not be not be met with rejection. They may even thank you for being so helpful.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and even your own qualifying questions that you use. Please share this content if you like it and remember to sign up on the right for more free marketing training for network marketers.
Gretchen
P.S. Here’s what I highly recommend if you are you still not sure what to say or need more quality prospects? http://bit.ly/EndlessFreeLeads
How to Really Get Noticed on Facebook & Generate MLM Leads
There are a ton of networkers on social networks like Facebook these days selling their products, services, and business opportunities. Many of them are spamming the status updates with their links, but even more are genuinely trying to provide value, but still not seeing the return on their time investment.
The truth of the matter is, it doesn’t matter how many friends or connections you have on a social network like Facebook, it matters if you are truly connecting with those people and finding out if they have a need you can provide a solution for. That requires that you spend time getting to know the people you have befriended. You will have to get out from behind your computer and speak to people via chat, the message system or by phone to get to know them better and see if you can help them in any way. So, how do find out which of your friends may make a good customer or potential business partner?
The first thing I do when I accept a new business-minded friend request on Facebook is to go to that person’s wall and leave them a free gift just for being my friend. Now your gift can be a free e-product, link to some great information such as a recent blog post, or other invaluable marketing material. The key is that it has to be free and should not require an opt-in or lead to a sales page for an affiliate or personal product. This gift is a free offering of value to create the expectation of more to come as they get to know you better. You will be remembered because of this first touch.
If you have created a group or fan page, you will also want to invite your new friend to join you there. This will immediately let you know if they are interested in following your messages and receiving more information from you.
Get involved in groups with like-minded people so you can not only see what they are promoting, but also promote your products or services to those groups through wall posts. Once you get a large number of friends, you will receive an exorbitant amount of group invitations, so only choose to join those that are going to serve your purpose the best or that you genuinely want to learn from. For instance, you may have better success promoting to a group with 2,000 members better than a group with 50 members. Once you have joined, post advertisements with links to affiliate or personal products to generate cashflow. You can also post links to blog posts to keep your name and face before an interested audience. You can also invite the group members to webinars or training sessions.
Be very careful to not post to more than 20-25 groups at a time or Facebook may pause your account or delete your account altogether. You will typically get a warning message if you are posting content too quickly to groups.
Even from your very first friend request, connect with people you have befriended through the chat function or send them a message to learn more about them and why they are online. Only from initiating conversation will you ever find out if the other person is a potential customer, partner, or referral source. After you’ve asked the initial qualifying questions and decided you may have a solution to offer, ask the person if they would like to continue the conversation by phone. Most people would prefer to hear your voice and have a normal conversation. And you will know as soon as you make the call that this person is already an interested party and you can expect a rejection-free phone experience.
If you make contact with 5-10 new people per day using this method, you should be able to successfully speak by phone with at least 3-4 people. Would this be an improvement over the number of interested people you are speaking with daily now in regards to your business?
To fast-track your success, you can outsource your tasks on Facebook to free up your time to spend making contacts and communicating with them directly. The more people you actually talk to, the more people who are aware of what you are selling and the more people who buy from you or join you in your business.
For access to other social media strategies that actually generate leads, fill in your info below and enjoy my free training.
Mike Dillard’s 6 Steps to Success in Network Marketing
These days Mike offers lots of products to show you how to successfully build a network marketing business, but boil all that down and what do you suppose he actually did to be so successful? There had to be a time when he didn’t know what to do either; when he was trying to figure it all out and he developed his leadership skills in the same way we all have to. He started in the same place we have all been. But then he cracked the nut and figured out a plan to change his level of success.
Here are the six steps he followed right from the horse’s mouth:
1. He started treating it like a real business, not a hobby. He got committed. In other words, you have to do it every single day. Sporadic doesn’t cut it in the world of network marketing.
2. He increased his value to others by buying products and training courses on marketing and personal development. He used what he learned to turn around and give value to his downline and followers by sharing his knowledge.
3. He started selling himself and his other leaders, not his opportunity, which generated attraction. Then he marketed and sold his system to his prospects.
4. He led with this funded proposal in the cold market which targeted other network marketers and generated endless free leads of people attracted to a successful system.
5. He promoted his company’s product in his warm market which built a sizable customer base.
6. He developed an awareness for finding leaders in his downline’s warm market.
To me, this clarifies a distinction between the way a marketer should treat their warm and cold markets. He used his warm market to sell his products and the cold market to sell a marketing system that would increase their (and his) lead-flow and cashflow.
These steps also show the evolution we all can follow to increase the size of our own businesses. When we first begin, we must concentrate on increasing our value to others by learning everything we can about marketing and personal development. Then as we market our knowledge and our marketing system, we will grow a fan base of our own through which we can make upfront cash through the sales of the system, affiliate products, and ultimately our primary network marketing company.
Introducing our company to our family and friends just through a product-style approach removes the rejection and can increase our customer base while we sift through people they may know for people looking to make a change.
Mike placed the highest value on number three, which follows the general rule of thumb in business which is that the fastest way to get rich is to solve other people’s problems. I challenge you to commit to this 6-step plan and watch your business take off in the next 90 days. If you’d like to brainstorm ways to do this, please feel free to contact me.
7 Referral Marketing Tips Worth Remembering
As we spend our days chasing down new leads and driving traffic, managing advertisements and writing blog articles, we sometimes overlook the very valuable revenue source we have already cultivated- our current customer base, family, friends. co-workers and business associates!
Your biggest source of referrals will come from people who already know, like, and trust you, but who may or may not already be customers of yours. Follow these tips to maximize the exposure of your business through your network.
- Start asking for referrals from the very first day you start your business. Immediately let everyone in your closest sphere of influence, also called your HOT market of your closest friends and immediate family members, know what your new business is all about. The trick to this is to let them know up front that you are just spreading the word and there is no obligation to buy from you. Ask for their help in naming a few people they know who may benefit from your product or service to get you started. If these people love and care about you, they will be glad to help.
- Ask for a new referral every day from at least one person you meet or speak to. Come up with a quick question you can ask to virtually anyone to get a referral, such as, “Do you know anyone who would be interested in creating a new source of cashflow?” or “Do you know anyone who would be interested in a product that …?” (fill in the blank for the benefit of your product or service). They may surprise you with a name or even say they would be interested themselves. If they say no, then at least you asked. And most importantly remember that when you ask this way, you never get a personal rejection. They are rejecting the product, service or opportunity.
- Join a mastermind or referral group designed to specifically generate referral leads from the other members of the group. Such groups as BNI have been around for years helping entrepreneurs promote their businesses. But you can also create your own mastermind group with any small collection of business owners who intend to refer business to each other. You can each carry the business cards of the other group members and pass them out as often as possible. You must have faith in your group members, though, that each person is doing the same for you and that each person is sharing the responsibility. If they are not, do not be shy about asking them to leave the group.
- Spend time each week connecting with current or former customers to ask for referrals. Either by phone or e-mail, connect weekly with customers who would willingly share your product or service with their own network. Sometimes they will do this on their own and sometimes they need to be prompted by you to jog a name from their memory. Phone calls are obviously more personal and may put people on the spot to give you a direct answer, but e-mails allow them to ponder the question and respond at their leisure, even if it is many months later. You can also try a combination phone call followed up by an e-mail.
- Call or visit with your warm market directly and make a personal connection. Your warm market are acquaintances that you do not see often or would not call on the phone regularly to speak to, or that you know by name only. These are your kids’ friends’ parents, your insurance agent, your dental hygienist, the clerk at the store you go to all the time, you get the picture. These people can smell a sale a mile away especially if it comes from someone who they would never otherwise speak to. So, you cannot come on too strong. Asking for a referral is a great, non-threatening way to introduce your business and ask for their help at the same time. The most important thing here is to make the connection and learn something about them even if you don’t get a referral from them right away or ever.
- Ask for referrals from prospects who end up not buying from you. At the end of every sales presentation, you get to the point where the prospect has to say yes or no. If the answer is no, do not let that person leave without asking for a referral. Just because your product or service isn’t for them doesn’t mean that someone they know wouldn’t be interested. And if they were at all impressed by your presentation, they will gladly give you a name. This also lets this prospect know that there are no hard feelings, you respect their decision and you are ready to move on. You will not be waiting around for them to change their mind.
- As Nike would say: Just Do It! Referral marketing can help even the shyest marketer to talk to people directly without feeling like they are selling or “prospecting.” The worst that can happen is that the person won’t know anyone else who would be interested. The best thing that can happen is that they give you a list from their own network that makes you a lot of money. Is it worth the risk? You Betcha!
For more marketing strategies like this one, both online and off, make sure you’re signed up to get my free newsletter over on the right.
Internet Marketing Q & A: Your Questions Answered
I have come across many questions from people in the course of building a network marketing business online and I would love to share the answers and allow you to ask your own. Although I may never tout myself as a guru or expert, I have had many successes due to the lessons I have learned and the knowledge that I have about the industry and what works.
Q: Do I need to pay for my own website?
A: The short answer is no, you don’t have to, but it will definitely make your life easier in the long run to get started the right way. There are certain pieces of the website puzzle that must be in place first in order to run a successful online business. So unless you’re a marketing genius who has tons of time to write autoresponders and test conversion pages then it may be much simpler to pay a monthly fee for an all-inclusive website package that not only shows you how to set up your website (or system of websites), but also shows you how to market it.
Likewise, when it comes to blogs, you don’t have to pay for your own at first either, but I learned from experience that starting with a free site and then transferring everything to a hosted site can be quite the pain to do and if you use a different domain, then you’ve spent a lot of time generating traffic for nothing.
Q: How much money do I need to get started?
A. How much you have to budget is a personal decision. But I will say that if you are serious about any type of marketing business, then you will need to spend some money on marketing. Most everyone can find $100-$200 per month to get started with. And the money can be spent many different ways to help your business. It could be spent on straight advertising, outsourcing, or on learning resources. If you contact me personally I can give you a better idea of a dollar figure to get you started correctly.
Q: Do you advise against marketing offline?
A: No, I do not advise against advertising offline. Whether you are talking about newspaper and magazine ads or face-to-face marketing, only you can decide which methods make you comfortable and if they are within your budget. There has been a lot of talk in the industry about getting out of your comfort zone and that idea has a lot of applications. However, if you play to your strengths and your personality, you will see results faster.
Q: How long does it take to get set up and generate your first hundred leads online?
A: You can be set up and ready to generate your own leads in a matter of hours or a few days for the technically-challenged or less experienced. As for how long it takes to generate the first hundred leads, well that all depends on you. If you have a raging focus on lead generation, then you will get to 100 much faster than someone who is working sporadically or who has less time to spend on those activities. The most important factors to getting there are focus and consistency. Getting 100 leads could happen in one month or six depending on your focus and how often you are marketing. I have heard it said that once you have generated 1000 leads you will have created such a name for yourself online that your leads will grow without as much effort on your part.
Q: Where can I learn how about the best ways to market online?
A: That’s the age old question and there are tons of resources out there available to teach you. From a network marketing standpoint, though, you have to consider that if you have this question, so will every person you sponsor into your business and you have to be able to provide the answer for them. Otherwise, why should they join with you? So, the ideal would able to offer your team members a turnkey system to generate leads and learn how to market at the same time.
For more specific marketing techniques, sign up for my FREE e-newsletter in the blue box to the right there and see what I can show you that really works.
One Step to Viral Lead Generation: Is It Possible?
A friend recently asked me what was the biggest challenge I had with my lead generation and my reply was typical of anyone who is producing leads with a limited budget. We spend hours on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, we send out e-mails, we write articles, we bookmark, and we spend an exorbitant amount of time doing it. Yes, we get leads, but the amount of time spent to get those leads leaves little time for much else.
Then my friend said the most remarkable thing. He said, “You haven’t figured out how to get leads on virtual autopilot, yet?” Of course, I pride myself on staying up-to-date with the latest marketing tricks, but this one had me curious. So I asked him what he meant. And he showed me a tool that he uses to generate 80 leads per day.
I was skeptical at first and not just about trying some new thing, but also I was unsure how this list I was creating would integrate with the list I already had. I hate keeping track of several lists to make sure everyone stays on top of what I’m doing. So streamlining is the easiest and most effective way for any list-building tool to work. It really should add to your current list, not make a whole new one.
So, after asking a few questions, I decided to give this website a try. And now I can see why this thing is so easily viral (meaning that it is infectious, it gets around very quickly, and your list could quickly take on a life it never had before)!
And the best thing is that it’s not some new website to keep track of with a new list of people to e-mail, too. It actually integrates with your list you already have in Aweber so that your autoresponders are sent automatically to anyone who joins your list through this very cool tool.
In the interest of total honesty, the only thing I don’t like so far is that people who join your list are not given the option to leave their phone number so you do not have the opportunity to personally connect with them and get to know them, but hopefully your personal e-mails will do that through your autoresponder series or free newsletter.
So, you can’t stand the suspense any longer, huh? Then, I will tell you the website so you can check it out for yourself and make your own decision: http://www.TheViralSecret.com/14838
Please comment here and let us all know what you thought. I figured, it was free and it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot. It works for any type of list or any type of business, so it should work for you, too.
And if you like receiving these tools to create more leads and make more money, then make sure you get my e-newsletter which you can sign up for on the right. I look forward to sharing more with you.
Clone Yourself With These Top Twitter Tactics that Generate Leads and Money!
Most business owners know that they need a Twitter account, but they also know they don’t have time to be on there every day several times tweeting about what’s going on in their lives or their business. So how do the “experts” manage to be on Twitter and make the very most use of their time without actually spending all their time?
Twitter is a massive stream of conversation and if you are not consistently involved, you will be left out. And if you do not have something to say that stands out, you will be skipped over. So, you must tweet something either personal or business-related every day, multiple times of the day to stay in front of your target audience. The three best times of day to tweet are the times most likely to be seen by your audience. They are first thing in the morning at the beginning of the work day, around lunchtime, and at the end of the work day.
So, you now need to tweet one to two times per day at least in order to stay in the forefront of your target market, but you don’t have time to stay on twitter all day to post messages. Then use a service such as FutureTweets.com or Twuffer.com to schedule your tweets ahead of time. You can schedule posts months in advance for as many per day as you want to make sure that you are covered even when you can’t actually be there. FutureTweets.com can also help you to streamline your social media presence by simultaneously posting your tweets on Facebook and LinkedIn as well.
What is appropriate to post? It’s great to post a shout-out to your family or converse on personal details of your life, and you should do those things to relate to your audience, but let’s face it, we’re on here to generate leads and make more money. Every day should include a lead-generating tweet. What I mean by a lead-generating tweet is one that includes a call to action. A call to action is leading someone to click a link back to your website or asking a question that generates a response. You want people to start to communicate with you outside of Twitter in order to make a sale.
In addition to just tweeting about personal and business stuff, you also have to know when someone is talking about you and respond to people that contact you or strike up conversations with people discussing your subject of expertise. Tweetbeep.com is a service that will notify you, hourly even, if someone mentions a keyword of your choice. That could be your name, your company name, your product, your website, niche search terms, or anything else you choose to set. This way you can quickly respond to anyone who is talking about you or the subject area you serve. SocialOomph.com is another service that will help you to manage Twitter effectively by not only tracking keywords, but also controlling your followers, direct messages, tweets, etc.
Twitter can be a large time investment, just like any other social network, but it can also be an excellent source of leads. With so many websites available to help manage and automate the process, it just gets easier to make Twitter part of your marketing plan.
For more social media and free marketing strategies, make sure to subscribe to my free e-mail training on the right of this page.
The 3 Quickest FREE Marketing Methods to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Most people who are starting out in a business get a website to draw visitors, share information, and increase sales, but they still don’t have the extra cash for advertising that website. So they fall back on ways to send people to their website for free- that’s what we internet marketers call driving traffic.
There are 3 basic ways to drive traffic to your website for free that are the easiest for beginner online business people.
1) Article Marketing- writing simple articles that showcase your expertise in your area is a powerful way to exhibit what you know to your consumer. It also wets their appetite for more information enough to gently guide them to your website to see what you have to offer. The resource box or bio is the most important part of your article because this is where you get to introduce yourself and give your website for readers to visit.
2) Web 2.0- This is just another term for social media such as MySpace, Facebook, Plaxo, and all the other networking sites where people connect with friends, family, business colleagues, old classmates, etc. On these types of sites, it is important to make sure your profile is updated to include a photo for personalization, a website url, e-mail address and a short bio of what you are doing online. Then, most importantly, be patient and let people come to you as you interact normally within the network. Share value, but do not constantly thrust your business into the conversation.
3) Video Marketing- anyone with a webcam or a video camera can produce their own video which can then be uploaded to YouTube, Google Video, Viddler, or other social video sites. The video does not have to be professionally done or flawless and it can still send traffic to your site as people search video sites for specific keywords and come across your video. In fact a video with errors is more likely to lead to visitors who can identify with you more and feel more confident that they can do what you have done.
Use these three free methods to send traffic to your website and watch your numbers grow.
Learn more free marketing methods to drive traffic your way today!
Subscribe to My Free Marketing Training Here:
Must Have Tools & Resources:
Theme By Rankerz SEO Company
