Prospecting Manual 101 – Old school

I. Lead generation

• • Make a list of your friends and family

  • The 3 foot rule – (translation - anyone within 3 feet of you at all times is a prospect)

  • Drag ______________________(insert  neighbor, cousin, friend, etc….) to the Thursday night meeting.

  • Purchase a list of leads consisting of opportunity seekers and cold call them

Wouldn’t you rather get your teeth drilled than prospect again like that? Most of those methods went out with the days of peddling powdered detergent door to door.  They are just not very effective today. 

You see, even before the Internet, Web 2.0, and Facebook,  heavy hitters, the gurus of MLM, were using a whole different set of techniques to generate mlm leads than what is typically taught to the masses.  They used lead generation techniques that have built massive fortunes for those in the know, while Mom and Pop struggled to retail 2-3 boxes of soap per month because these techniques were kept hidden. 

The reason that  those techniques were and are not taught to the masses is because the techniques have not been easily duplicatable - until now.  These are techniques of lead generation that will catapult you and your business right to the very top of your company’s leaderboard. 

Go back in time a bit and check the Opportunity magazines of 20+ years ago.  There you will see huge full page ads along with smaller classified ads advertising MLM opportunity after MLM opportunity.  That is how the big money was and is made.  Those massive ads were used to attract prospective reps.   However, those ads have one serious drawback.  If you want to run ads like that you had better have enough money to bailout General Motors because they are insanely expensive.   That is why only the gurus ran them and not Joe and Suzy Average. 

However, the cat has been let out of the bag and the cat has a new name -

Photo by Dregsplod

 

  

How to use Attraction Marketing to build your own Sales Funnel…

Ok, I promised that I would give you the “nitty-gritty”, so here is your own step by step guide on how to set up your own powerful sales funnel for your own home based business.  However, it is a lot of information so that I am going to have to give it to you in parts.  This is part 1. 

Since this is Web 2.0, you are going to need a domain name and website if you don’t have one yet.  You can register your domain name through Godaddy for less than ten dollars per year, however I recommend that you do at least 2 years.  The reason for 2 years is that I read that Google looks at the length of your domain registration to help factor your quality score.  If you ever decide to drive PPC (pay-per-click) traffic to your website, your quality score will become very important. 

Choosing your domain name is starting to get tricky because a lot of what you may think of is already taken.  An excellent alternative  approach is to brand  your website with your own name (see my post on Brandingfor more info).  If your name or a variation of your name is taken, try adding “meet” or “whois” to your name.  For example, I have a domain name called “whoisKevinJohnson.com” (don’t go there, as it points to this website). 

After you have chosen your domain name, you now need to put some content up.  My recommendation here is going to be that you invest in a Linux based hosting package (mine is with GoDaddyfor about $6/mo) and install Wordpress.  If you have never done this before, don’t get intimidated here.  If you have trouble, the nice folks at GoDaddy support will be happy to help you 24/7.  You can even get someone else to set it up for you if you like.  Contact me directly or see my post on Outsourcing for great resources. 

The final step we will cover today is adding your plugins.  Wordpress plugins add additional functionality to your blog.  I am not going to give you a comprehensve list here.  That may overwhelm too many people.  However, I will furnish a few basic ,but essential, plugins to get started.  Over time, most folks will see more that they want to add.  Adding them is easy and 99% of them are free although some request a donation to help further development.  That’s a good idea, I think. 

Here is the list, in no particular order: 

1. Askimet – this protects your blog from spam, however I am pretty certain that it is installed by default.
2. Google Analytics for Wordpress – adds Google analytics functionality so that you can track where your traffic is coming from.
3. Google XML Sitemaps – puts a sitemap on your blog that the search engines read to index your content
4. Sociable – allows people to share your posts
5. Wordbook – I like this one because it automatically puts my posts up on Facebook
6. Subscribe to Comments – this one will allow commenters to receive an e-mail when their comments are updated.
7. Wordpress Stats – another stat engine, it is built in
8. All in One SEO Pack – allows your to customize titles, keyword and description data for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Google the plugin titles to get the download links.  Download them to your computer.  Make sure you remember where you put them (your Desktop could be a good place).  Installation is easy.  Rather than re-type them here, I found the link for you. 

Wew! – That was a lot for now.  Next time we will talk about probably the most important subject, your content.  Put your name and e-mail address in below to subscribe to this series and you will receive updates by e-mail to this and other posts here on the blog.  When you do I will give you 20 minutes of free consulting in your business.  That is a $30 value. Also, click on the book icon to the latest book by Ann Sieg that is turning the industry upside down.

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photo by Rob Shenk

When something needs to get done in my life, for the most part, I have been a do it your self kind of guy.  In fact, I am the kind of guy who enjoys fixing things.  In a former career, I worked as a professional carpenter.  So I am pretty handy around the house.  When I first started out as a carpenter, a lot of people would ask me how I learned what I knew.  They were always surprised when I answered that I watched a lot of DIY TV shows and I read books.

Even when it comes to getting other types of things accomplished, I usually have tried to do things myself.  I am pretty good at reading a book and applying what I have read.  However, doing everything yourself has 2 very major drawbacks.

• It is very time consuming to study and acquire the skills necessary to do a job right.
• I will never be as good as the person that does what he does everyday, day in and day out.

Very recently, I have had a bit of a revelation in my life.  I have learned about the power of outsourcing.  Let me tell you, once you learn about what can be done with outsourcing today, a whole new world of possibilities can open up for you and your business.  I know that sounds like a lot of hype, but I am not exaggerating.

In the May 2009 issue of Success from Home magazine, well known author of Rich Man, Poor Man Robert Kiyosaki uses his Cashflow Quadrant to illustrate the 4 types of people that make up the world of business.  I am not going to go into great detail here, you can either read the article or pick up his bestselling book, Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant, for more detail.  However he states that the 4 types of people are usually:

1. Type E- employees, these people find safety and security working for someone else and building someone else’s dream.
2. Type S – self-employed or small business owner, these people have their own businesses but because they are usually uncomfortable delegating many tasks to others, they fail to grow.  Many times these people may be heard saying, “if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself”. Many of these people have simply traded employment for a job.  That means that even though they don’t report to a boss, their business still does not give them any time freedom.  So in effect, their business is a job.
3. Type B – big business owner, these people learn to develop systems to manage and effectively delegate tasks.   Because of their systems they can more effectively leverage their time and money to create large enterprises.  These large enterprises can then run on autopilot, rewarding the owners without their having to having to be there all of the time.
4. Type I- stands for the investor.  These people leverage their money to create passive income from real estate, stocks, and other direct investments into businesses.

Robert Kiyosaki recommends that you position yourself to become a member of group B or I.

Mike Dillard, a well known highly successful MLM’er, said recently that you should wait until your making at least $5K a month from your business before you do this, but I believe that you can do it sooner because it is so inexpensive.  I use a company called Odesk to find highly skilled people to help me (Odesk calls them providers), but there are several other companies out there that do the same thing.

Here are 3 things that I recently outsourced:

• I was running a marketing campaign recently that required funneling a high volume of calls to a voice mail service.  I did not have the time to collect the calls from the voice mail and weed out the tire kickers.  So what did I do? I hired a virtual assistant (VA) out of the Philippines to do it for me.  I paid around $2.00 an hour to get that done and the person did a fantastic job.
• Bookkeeping – I have always been the guy that waited until the last minute to do my taxes.  Throughout the year, many legitimate deductions were lost because they were never recorded.  Well I solved that problem by hiring a bookkeeper through Odesk for a very reasonable price.  From now on when tax time comes around it will take me about 10 minutes to get the report from my bookkeeper to my accountant.  In addition, I expect to save a boatload of money on taxes this year because all the legitimate deductions that were being flushed away because of my poor record keeping will get taken advantage of.
• Programming – this one was huge for me.  I wanted some pretty sophisticated changes made to some websites that I run.  In the past I might have bought the book and tried to do it myself.  But no longer, because I am a reformed (and smarter) man today.  I outsourced the work to skilled programmers on Odesk.  The changes were done in about 2 hours.  Now I can even think like the big boys because the way I see it,  if I want something sophisticated done I am only limited by my imagination.  The sky is the limit.

Those were just a few examples but you are limited only by your imagination.  Here are 5 more ideas for you:

1. Hire a VA to follow up on the leads that come into your business.  Think of the impression that your prospects will have if someone contacts them to follow up and says “Hi, this is so and so, and I am following up on an inquiry you made with Mr. Johnson’s business.  How can I help you?”.
2. Don’t like to blog, but realize the need for one?  Hire someone to write one for you.
3. Do you need an e-book written, perhaps as a give away to get people to opt-in to your list?  You can outsource that to a freelance writer.  Lot’s of people do that.
4. Do you need some SEO (Search Engine Optimization Done)?  Some people hire a small army VA’s to do nothing but write comments on other peoples blogs with links back to their blogs.  These trackbacks cause the search engines to pay more attention to you, pushing your site to the top of the organic listings.
5. Need to do the social media thing to promote your business on Facebook, Twitter and My Space, but don’t have the time?  Believe it or not, you can outsource that too.

So in conclusion, the best piece of advice that Ican give you is to not wait, and to outsource what you can now.  It will free your time up to do the more profitable tasks in your business, like marketing.

If you need a link to Odesk, click here.

If you like what you read here, please use the comments section to leave a comment.  Thanks.

Here are 5 simple things to help you get started:

1. Register a domain name .  There are many domain registers, but a lot of people like Go Daddy. The big question for most people is, how do you pick a domain name? One method that I like with Go Daddy is to first do a massive brainstorming session and  put all the possible names into Notepad. Then use Go Daddy’s bulk register feature to see what is available.  Be sure to setup your e-mail for your the new domain you just purchased.  It is a lot more professional to use an e-mail address that says yourname@your-domain.com than one from Yahoo or Gmail.  That helps establish your branding, something that we can cover later.
2. Start doing some reading.  There is a ton of information out there and you will never get it all.  However, one of the best resources that you can start with is free.  If you have not yet done so, pick up your free copy of Anne Sieg’s “7 Great Lies of Network Marketing“.
3. Get around some good people.  If this is not your first foray into the world of network marketing you know that back in the old days if you did not get your infomation from your upline or the company, it was rejected.  People were kept pretty insulated from the outside world as far as marketing goes.  Well this is truly now the information age.  People from other companies are sharing information on what works best.  One of the best places I have found to get this is a site called Better Networker.  Go over there and join the forums.
4. Get on Facebook.  Did you know that the fastest growing demographic for Facebook is 35-54 year olds?  Right, behind them are the 55+ year olds.  I don’t care whether you are old or young, Facebook has become a prime meeting spot and it is essential to be a part of it if you want to develop an online prescence.  Once you join, start joining some of the groups on there related to network marketing.  You will find them when you do a “Group” search.
5. I saved the most important thing to do for last.   Invest in yourself and get some online training.  I recommend Renegade Professional.  It’s $49/mo.  The first month there is no questions asked money back guarantee so that you can try it without any risk.  Believe me, the value of the information that you receive is worth well over $49 because it will save you a lot of headaches.  You can use this link.

This list is just a starter list.  However, if you have any problems with any of the steps send me a  private e-mail and I will see if I can be of some assistance to you.

Of course, I am joking, but with all of the emphasis on on-line marketing using attraction marketing techniques, marketers have forgotten about offline techniques.  However, we must not forget that there is a whole world of people that desperately want what you can offer them, financial freedom, more time, and control of their own lives.  If you check some of the network marketing magazines out on the stands, you will find large ads being taken out by even some of the biggest names that you know are marketing online.  That is proof that even the big leaders that market online recognize that they can’t neglect the offline world.  There is a huge opportunity there.

If you are not yet a huge online leader and taking a full scale ad in an industry magazine is not yet in your budget, how else can you efficiently reach all of those people sitting at the coffee tables right now wondering how they are going to break free and create financial freedom for themselves?  One thing that you can do is call them.

Now you are going to say wait, “Kevin, I don’t want to use the phone, I don’t want to face all of that rejection  I don’t have the time”.  If you said that, I would agree with you.  But, what if I told you that there was a cost effective way to call thousands of people a day and create 30-50 interested prospects every day for your primary opportunity?  Does that sound interesting?

Here is a secret that you probably did not know.  Back before the worldwide web, the thing that your upline did not tell you, the thing that you really needed to do to succeed in this industry was to cold call people on the phone.  The way that many of the big fish in this industry started out and built massive organizations in this industry was by buying lists of leads and cold calling them.  They just did not want to tell you that because they knew that Average Joe was not willing to do that and if he heard the truth about what it took, Joe would not join him in business.  Now, for you there is a tool that will make those calls for you while you are out at the movies with your family.  Imagine what it would be like to soar to the top of your company’s pay plan with hundreds of interested people to talk toand you did it all using the phone while everyone else was competing online for ads, e-magazines, and blogs .

The system is called Phone Broadcast Club.  It is an auto dialer and it has worked great for me.  It has a one time cost of just $100 plus my dial time.  I just load it up with some minutes (costs less than 1.5 cents per call) and some leads.  In your back office they even give you leads (they are little older) or of you can buy fresher leads if you prefer.  Once  I start the system, when I come back I have 30-50 interested people to talk to.  People who are looking for a home-based business.   I love it and if you want one too, check it out at www.fastphoneprospector.com