Have been taking a few days off this week to work on a BIG secret project (don’t worry, if you’re on my list I’ll email you and “spill” a bit later in the week, if you’re not on my list sign up on the right…hey, you’ll get a free bootcamp out of it too! )

The lead-up to Halloween has been so fun! I managed to get this quick video of my two year old daughter Darcy mere seconds before she pulled off the head piece, decided it was too “Scawy”, and refused to ever put it back on.

So today she’s going as a headless tiger … but she’s LOVING running around the house yelling “Tiger, Rarrrrrr”!  So much fun.

Working at home, enjoying these precious family moments is 100% my “Why”!

 Happy Halloween!!

MLM Retention should be a HUGE focus in your business.

If you’re focusing your efforts ONLY on growing your business through MLM recruiting and you aren’t putting any thought into your MLM retention rates then you’re doomed to failure from the start.  Anyone who only wants to focus on growth and isn’t prepared to help others become successful should go into a different field.

MLM retention is the key to a residual income.

All of the effort you put into recruiting someone isn’t worth it if they turn around two months later and quit your team.  You need to find a way to get people to stay in your team, and the real secret to getting them to stay is making sure they achieve some success as fast and easily as possible!  This doesn’t mean that they need to be in profit in the first 30-60 days, but they do need to have made one or two sales.

3 Strategies to Improve Your MLM Retention

1. Step by Step Approach

If you want high MLM retention rates you need to always make the next step clear to your new recruits!  You don’t want them to lose the momentum and excitement of signing up by simply not knowing what to do next.  A great way to do this is to supply a “Fast start” guide that tells them exactly what they need to set up and a strict timeline for doing so.  You will want all their systems and technical set-up completed in the first week.

The easier you make the first steps the better your overall MLM retention rate will be!  For example, my team uses a team blog for our content marketing which allows everyone to easily rank on the front page of Google as they are using the power of an established high-traffic site without having to build one themselves.  This means they simply have to insert their link into their articles and get marketing. (You can see an example of the presentation the team is all able to use by clicking HERE.)

Make steps that help people get wins under their belt fast!

2. Get Them Plugged into a System

Everyone is different and will have different skills, training, and capabilities.  Using a good marketing system levels the playing field for your entire team.  You won’t have to try to teach other people with different abilities if you plug them into a system that trains them for you and that allows them to pursue their own interest.

Let me let you in on a little secret here:

MLM retention is not about duplication!

You want people to have the same results as you, but not become you.  Not everyone can use the same marketing strategies.  They will need to find their own way.  But you don’t want people to wander off trying to find the right training. Plug them into a system that will train them, provide them EASY to use capture pages and copywriting, etc.  This way you know the system will train them and you simply have to keep connecting and ensuring that they aren’t feeling overwhelmed. (You can see a review of the top network marketing system here: My Lead System Pro Review)

3. Get them to Work for Your Help

Always be there for your team, without becoming their slave! A great way to do this is to get them to do something to earn your assistance.  Be willing to answer questions, but make it clear that you will help them more and more if they step up as a leader and take action to get results!

A great example of this is leads.  I’ve seen MLM leaders give leads to their team only to have the leads go uncalled because the team member was afraid and didn’t value the lead!  Tell your team members you will give them some of your leads to call ONLY after they’ve generated 1-5 of their own.  When they can come to you saying they’ve generated X number of leads and made X number of calls, start giving them some of your own leads to call.  This motivates them to step up and prove themselves to be a leader so they can get more of your help!

Give everyone the same opportunity to succeed, set them up for success and see the leaders float to the top.  Give them a fast start guide to make sure they’re moving forward, get them in a great network marketing system so they can learn the skills they need to market, and then help those who help themselves!

Remember MLM retention does not come from hand-holding your team or from harrassing them, it comes from fostering leadership and action!

MLM Sponsoring is About Leaders, Not Numbers

The definition of a Sponsor is: A person or organization that provides funds or support for a project or activity carried out by another, in particular.

What does this mean in relation to MLM sponsoring?  YOU need to provide the support and training for everyone in your team to create results.  Being an MLM sponsor is not about collecting someone’s money and then leaving them to fail!  It’s about helping others to be successful, and receiving the benefits of their success through your commissions.

This means focusing your MLM sponsoring on leaders. Trying to find people that are prepared to follow your advice and help and that are hungry for success.

A lot of MLMers start out simply trying to get anyone and everyone into their business.  While they are sometimes successful for a short time, they don’t tend to be successful in the long run.

MLM Sponsoring Done Wrong Will Kill Your Business

The “trying to sell” and say the perfect thing to get people to join will actually damage you in the long run for two reasons:

1. You will be tempted to say what people want to hear!

This means you might not be entirely open about what it takes to be successful.  You might start telling people it’s easy and they will be a success overnight, when that’s typically not the case!  People will be less likely to join if it sounds too good to be true, and those that do join will have unrealistic expectations.  So they won’t want to do the work or spend the time it takes to build a solid business.

2. You will sound unsuccessful. 

If you sound super excited, or go into sales mode people smell desperation.  This is when people start to wonder if you will actually be able to help them.  Even if they are excited about the business they are unlikely to join with you if they think you can’t help them.

Effective MLM Sponsoring

1. Be brutally honest!

You want to work with people that will WORK HARD!  You really don’t want to end up with a team of people that do nothing and then sit around and expect you to pull them along.  The more determined your entire team is to reach success the more quickly it will happen.  You will only find these people through honesty.  People that have a dream and are prepared to work for it usually just don’t know HOW to market.  They will actually appreciate someone who will say “It takes 1-2 hours every single day for 3 to 6 months to START to see good results.”

Most people want to hear that it will be fast (and you should try to get your people making sales fast), but they need to have a realistic idea of how long a full time income will take to build up or they wont be prepared to do the work.

2.  Tell People HOW to market

Your MLM sponsoring will become easier and easier if people can see what type of training you will be able to provide before they join you.  This is really easy to do if you use article marketing or some content marketing that allows them to see some specific marketing advice.  Again if you stick to the “how” and are realistic about what it will take you’ll attract people who are PREPARED TO DO IT!

Make your primary strategy really open and obvious!  For example, anyone signing up as a lead for my business would expect me to teach them article or content marketing because that is what I do and it’s what I write about ALL THE TIME!  They’ve gotten great tips about content marketing from me that actually work, so it helps them realize that if they want to partner with me directly in my MLM company they will get hands on help from someone who actually knows how to do content marketing!

3. Detach from the Outcome

This is that hardest part of MLM sponsoring.  If you desperately want everyone to join you will start trying to talk them into it!!  So you need to tell yourself that it doesn’t matter if this person joins or not.  There are two things that will help you do this:

• A great company presentation! People have no idea how important this is, but a really good company presentation will sell people for you. They will get on the phone asking you “how” questions not “why” they should join.  (You can watch the company presentation used by the biggest team in my company to see how to set up a great presentation and how to use Facebook for recruiting: Click here and Hit approve)
• A mantra.  This is a funny one, but find some phrase that helps you detach from the outcome of a call.  I like to tell myself that each phone call or interested person brings me one step closer to the next big leader in my team.  So I’m happy making my calls that, that leader is getting closer, but I’m not attached to it being the person I’m about to call!

These tips can turn around your MLM sponsoring.  When you are genuinely looking for leaders and trying to put off anyone that’s not ready to knock it out of the park people can tell.  They will want you to see something special in them and they will want to do the work to prove their leadership right away.

Help your leaders get started quickly with their own MLM sponsoring and watch your team grow big and fast!

Are you hiding your Network Marketing Business from your loved ones?

Countless people join network marketing businesses everyday, yet it’s still an industry that has a bit of a rocky reputation.  Many people are scared to tell their family and friends that they have joined an MLM or network marketing business because they simply don’t want to be judged.  Or they don’t want to hear the dreaded words, “Isn’t that a pyramid scheme?”

If you are too scared to tell your family you’re in network marketing you don’t have confidence in the business, and if you don’t have confidence in the business you are much more likely to fail!  You need to know 100% that you’ve joined an excellent company in an excellent industry if you’re going to stand a chance of getting other’s to join you.

Come out of the Network marketing closet!

I used to tell friends and family that I was working on a “business”, but would never tell them what it was.  This kept me feeling like I was doing something immoral or wrong, and made them think I was being a bit secretive.

Once you start to tell people, it’s fantastic!  It will boost your belief in what you are doing, your confidence in yourself, and your enthusiasm for your business.  And who knows, maybe the enthusiasm will catch and your friends and family will want to join you!

Tips for Telling People You’ve Started a Network Marketing Business

1. “Isn’t that a pyramid scheme?”

Don’t be offended by this question… many people are actually completely uneducated when it comes to home businesses.  I simply say, “Pyramid schemes are simply people passing money around in exchange for a spot on the pyramid, when it collapses the people at the bottom make nothing.  In network marketing you are selling products for a company and teaching others how to do the same.  People only make money by actually selling something.”

Don’t go into details about how this works or fast start bonuses, leader pools, etc.  Keep it simple and people always get it: Pyramid=money for nothing, network marketing=direct sales of PRODUCTS.

2. Don’t view friends and family as prospects!

You will feel 100% more comfortable with talking about your business if you aren’t trying to sell it to anyone.  Your friends will pick up on it if you start trying to sell them your business.  Make a rule with yourself that if someone says they WANT to learn more about it, send them to an online presentation or get them to talk to your upline.  This will stop you from pushing them or putting a strain on your friendship.  If you urge them into it and they fail, you will feel terrible.  If they’ve made the decision 100% themselves you won’t feel responsible, except as their upline for training.

I explain my business to friends and family because they want to know what I do, NOT because I want to sell it to them.

3. The Soft Approach

Sometimes it’s easier not to announce your new network marketing business in person.  A bunch of negativity and questions can derail you.  Let people know via email or a Facebook update.  DON’T put a link to your site, if someone’s interested they will tell you.  Just tell people you’re excited about starting your new venture in the xxx industry (health, weight loss, education, etc).  You don’t even need to say network marketing, they can discover that later.

4. What to Do If They’re Negative?

Some people just won’t like it no matter what way you tell them!  Why??  Because you’re bucking the system! Most people seem to want everyone else to stay as miserable they are and secretly get jealous of those who are living their life on their own terms.  Don’t let these people drag you down.  And it could be anybody friends, family, partner, etc.

First, recognize that they don’t know more about the business than you do, they probably know less.  This means that you can discount their negativity as simply an OPINION.

Second, ask them not to talk about it.  If they don’t think you should be in business tell them you’ve already made the decision to join, so at this point you need to move forward.  Tell them that if they aren’t going to support you, you would rather talk about other things.

Third, get involved with members of your community who “get” what you are doing! Make some new friends, chat and ask questions online, etc.  Having a community behind you will be amazing for boosting confidence, and watching other people become successful will help you boost your belief.

Finally, READ!  I honestly think reading the right books is the solution to most people’s problems.  Read books about success by successful people and it will help you see yourself as a success.  You will know that you are on the path to greatness and the naysayers are just part of your success story.  When someone gets in your head putting down Network Marketing read Robert Kiyosaki’s book “The Business of the 21st Century“.  It will completely renew your faith!

The support and help of your family and friends could be invaluable to your business, but the most important thing is feeling like you are doing something worthwhile and admirable.  Tell your friends and family your goals so that you are more likely to stick to them and update them with how you are doing.  It’s INCREDIBLE how motivating the support and expectations of your loved ones is.  I find the more people I tell the more I push myself to succeed and do them proud .

Entrepreneurship is all about learning new skills and getting uncomfortable.  Take the first leap by coming out of the network marketing closet!!

Discover the Top Network Marketing System…

and how Top Earners are leveraging it to grow massive downlines and RESIDUAL income.

Don’t expect success in your new business unless you have found and implimented a strong network marketing system!  This business is all about working the numbers, not wasting time trying to learn every lead generation technique, or technical aspect under the sun.  You need to find a simple network marketing system that will allow you AND your team to achieve success quickly and easily.

Before you pick your network marketing system you have three questions to answer:

1. Will it make success easier for me?
2. Will it make success easier for my team members?
3. Is it scalable?

Don’t forget that the point of network marketing is to build a HUGE downline.  So you need to find a method that will work for others, help you train your team in multiple techniques, and will allow you to step back in the knowledge that your entire team has the tools they need for success.

Growing Your Downline with a Network Marketing System

Find a network marketing system that will generate capture pages for you!  You don’t want to use company replicated sites as you need to be growing your own list and building a relationship with your people.  But you also don’t want to get caught up trying to learn the technical side of things.

These days people want something specific in exchange for their name and email!  A good marketing system will have pre-made capture pages that offer a specific training (i.e. 60 minute webinar) or course on something your prospects need to know.  This means you can focus on sending people to the capture pages, not on making a course or training and designing your own pages.

Your focus should be driving traffic and following up with leads.  Let your network marketing system take care of the middle piece (creating capture pages, taking your leads through a sales funnel, offering solid training to your leads).

Once you’ve established a relationship create an easy way for your leads to look at your business (I use a simple Facebook App that allows them to look at the business and let me know if they want to learn more, without them having to reenter name and email, they simply have to approve the app.  You can see an example of what I’m talking about: Here.)

Getting Your People Started Fast with a Network Marketing System

If your new team members don’t make money FAST they will drop out and your residual income will suffer.  The whole point is to make other people successful.  Get your team members into a good network marketing system so they can get through the learning curve FAST without you having to hand-hold them through the process.

Your focus will still be on driving traffic and following up with leads.

Make sure your team members are getting good TRAINING through the network marketing system.  It should offer trainings in multiple kinds of advertising.  Don’t expect everyone to simply copy you!!  They might have different resources and skills that mean they will be more successful with a different kind of marketing.

Point them to the training in your network marketing system and tell them to pick ONE strategy until they are successful!

Scaling up a Network Marketing System

You want a system that will continue to train new people many levels deep in your organization.  This means that your team is constantly receiving up to date training.  They will be more successful, more quickly and your income will become more and more residual.

In most network marketing companies when you stop training, you stop earning.  So if you ever want to take a step back you need a system in place that will keep your team going and growing!

What to Look For in a Network Marketing System

1. Capture pages! Remember it must be scalable and work for people at different skill levels! The system will need to offer premade capture pages (that send people to a SPECIFIC training) AND give you the chance to edit and make the capture pages entirely your own!
2. Training.  So overlooked, but I can’t stress enough how much having SOLID up-to-date training will help your team to grow.  The more you learn the more successful you and your team will be.
3. Income! Make sure that you can make some money off of the system.  You need to make sure you are growing multiple streams of income, and this should be one of them.  It also means a second stream of income for your team members, which again, will keep them around longer!

The only network marketing system I know of that offers a solution for all these things is My Lead System Pro.  Learn more about My Lead System Pro by clicking here.

Implement a solid network marketing system over a period of time and success is virtually guaranteed!

Free MLM Leads Are The Highest Quality Leads You’ll Find

Now obviously I don’t mean the free MLM leads you get in a list from some company that is trying to get you to BUY leads, because those leads are complete crap!  I mean the free MLM leads that you generate yourself!

These leads typically have come to you in such a way that they know who you are, they like the information they have already received from you, and you have some kind of established relationship.  When you pay for your leads (through PPC, paid ads, etc)  you tend to get people who are simply curious.  When you generate free MLM leads you get people who are interested in working directly with you!

So how do you get these free MLM leads?  Here are 5 simple ways to generate your own high quality leads.

5 Ways to get Quality Free MLM Leads

1. Content Marketing

All good free MLM lead techniques start with Content Marketing.  This could be making a 5 minute video or a 500-700 word article on a topic that your target market would be interested in.  This is usually on how to make money online, work from home, advertise an MLM, etc.  You can build this on your own blog, on a team blog, or use free sites like Youtube and GoArticles.

You need to have some way to capture your leads so you can continue to contact them and build a relationship.  The more they see your CONTENT the more they view you as a leader, not a salesman.  They will eventually want to see what business you are in out of curiousity.  I like to use a team Facebook app to make this easy for them.  They get to see a presentation on a site they already know and trust (Facebook), and if they are interested they will be receiving a call from someone they know and appreciate (You!)  You can see an example of how this works: Click Here.

2. Blogging

Starting your own blog to post your content to is a fantastic way to generate free MLM leads.  Having your own professional looking website makes your leads take you even more seriously.  It also gives you a place to send them back to, to help grow the relationship.  When you get leads from any source you can use your emails to send them to your blog, so they interact with more of your content.

Use the blog to link to your Facebook presentation or some kind of company funnel.  This way when they become curious about your company they can view the presentation without you having to call them and set it up!  Just make sure that you capture the names and email of the people viewing the presentation so you know what works!

3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Getting traffic directly from the search engines is a fantastic way to generate free MLM leads.  This is because you are in front of people at the time they are looking for information!  You simply have to provide it.  Once you have answered a question for someone they are more likely to come back to you looking for more answers. Make sure you give people a reason to sign up as a lead.

SEO can be fairly simple, but it does take a bit of work.  Check out the MLM Blog Training on simple SEO to learn more about how to apply it to your site.

4. Facebook

You can post links to your articles and videos up on Facebook.  Try to make friend connections with people who might be interested in your content so you aren’t just blasting it to friends and family.  You can find people in special interest groups.  When you send them a friend request MAKE SURE you include a personal message telling them you share a similar interest and are looking to connect.  Don’t add more than 20 people a day or Facebook won’t like it!

5. Social Syndication

This can both help your SEO and drive traffic to your site.  You can blast your articles and videos to Twitter, Digg, Google+, etc.  If you’ve grown networks on these sites it’s an easy way to get a quick boost of traffic and get fast free MLM leads.  Use a service like Onlywire to do it automatically for you, so you don’t have to spend time going to each site to post your link.

When to pay for Free MLM Leads

You will find that building up a list of free MLM leads takes some time and a bit of work.  Consider getting one or two tools that will help you automate the process and generate leads more easily.  Wait until you have done a bit of work so you know what tools will actually help you.

Why are Free MLM Leads better Than Paid?

They know you, they trust you, they see you as a leader, and they are happy when you call.  People can tell the difference between a salesman and a leader.  So make sure you are a leader for people.

Learn EXACTLY how to set up your own sites and follow a simple plan to have your systems up in less than a week and to be generating LOADS of your own free MLM leads in 90 days by taking the lead generation bootcamp at the right of this page, it’s free!