Prospecting is the single most important task that a network marketer engages in; success in MLM absolutely depends on it. Prospecting, or sponsoring reps into your primary business opportunity, is the way the industry’s top earners build their businesses into residual income empires that provide financial security and stability for their families.

The debate comes in when one tries to address the proper way to prospect. Let me try and explain.

There are some MLM professionals who have been involved in the industry for years, even decades. These folks run their organizations the old-fashioned way – they tap their “warm market.” They prospect largely from their own personal contact lists, sharing their business opportunity with family members, close friends, colleagues at work, fellow church parishioners, social groups they belong to, and fraternities and sororities, to name a few. These MLMers hold home meetings or parties a few times a week, and regularly attend company conventions and other large events.

Contrarily, there is a group that many refer to as internet network marketers. The main factor that separates this group from the first is that these people do the vast majority (or, in some cases, ALL) of their prospecting using the internet – in other words, they tap their “cold market.” They advertise their business opportunity on internet forums, social networking sites, and on the major search engines like Yahoo and Google. They may also engage in other cold market prospecting, like purchasing lists of potentials and then contacting them by phone or e-mail. Some of these folks are completely closed to the idea of prospecting their friends and family, while others simply don’t give it much thought or focus.

Here’s the argument: The old-school MLMers insist that prospecting from friends and family is the way that network marketing has always been done, and many large fortunes were created by sharing household cleaners, cosmetics, and such, on a person-to-person basis. Also, the old-school folks insist that this method is highly duplicable, and duplication has traditionally been a huge selling point to illustrate that “anyone can do this business and be successful!” (I’m sure you’ve heard this just as much as I have!)

Conversely, the internet money people assert that prospecting friends and family is the formula for network marketing disaster. They cite that leads generated from friends and family members are untargeted (meaning they may or may not be looking for what you have to offer), and they do not convert into successful business owners or loyal customers. Additionally, the internet MLMers note that prospecting becomes a serious problem once a business builder has gone through their entire list of potentials and there are no more people to sponsor. According to the internet marketers, internet prospecting solves these problems by targeting people that are actively looking for a business opportunity and providing a virtually endless list of leads using the world wide web.

So which method is the best?

BOTH!

Okay, people, let’s use some common sense here! It’s pretty hard to argue with a person who made his fortune in network marketing by signing up friends, family, and acquaintances. And let me tell you, there are lots of these folks out there! However, this is the 21st Century, and we are in the Internet Age. And there are many folks out there that are running incredibly successful empires by marketing themselves to people searching for a MLM opportunity. The trick is to successfully marry the two philosophies so that you’re “showing the plan” to as many people as possible.

The bottom line: Combining both warm and cold market prospecting techniques is a great approach to expanding your MLM organization. This way, your business doesn’t have to die when you run out of friends and family to prospect (and you don’t have to continuously bug the heck out of them either!). You also don’t have to remove the “network” from network marketing by automating the entire process. (After all, the “networking” is the part of the business that offers one of the best personal growth opportunities.) But as usual, don’t take my word for it…take it for checking!

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In my previous article, I discussed the inherent problem with the whole idea of “attraction,” and introduced the Law of Being as an alternative means of experiencing what we want.  During a recent conversation with one of my down line distributors, we uncovered another LOA fatal flaw.

Here’s what typically happens when trying to apply the law of attraction:

1.     First, we become aware of how our thoughts create our reality.  In other words, when we think of lack or abundance, we experience lack or abundance.

2.     Then we expand on the above idea by having our thoughts “attract” what we want.  The premise behind this idea is that our thoughts seek out the things that share its congruent vibration, and that thing subsequently shows up in our lives.

3.     Assuming that we experience some success up to this point, we carry on with life, ecstatic because we found our happy thought and wonderful experiences show up to support us.  We begin to think, “Wow, if it was this easy to manifest 100 new down line distributors, I wonder what else I can do!”

4.     Now, we get REALLY excited and start making lists of all the things we are going to work on next—the perfect relationship, an end to joint pain, the horse ranch in Montana, …and on and on.

And then…it happens.  The one thing that you feel will put an absolute END to your momentum just happened.

You had a negative thought.

Oh, boy.  Now you’ve done it.  Just like Linus saying the word “if” in reference to the Great Pumpkin appearing in HIS pumpkin patch.  You just blew it.  It’s over.

And why?  Because the main tenet of the law of attraction is that your thoughts create your reality.  So now that you’ve had this negative thought, shouldn’t you expect to experience some negative stuff?

But just like Linus, you vow to try again, resisting the negativity, applying the same concept, getting great results (you have 53 down line sign-ups in one day!), and then…uh oh.  More negative thoughts.  And you go back and forth with this a few times, creating wonderful (sometimes miraculous) experiences, only to have them implode upon themselves.  What the heck is happening?

Do not get frustrated my friend, for what you have experienced is quite typical of the law of attraction’s Fatal Flaw #2:

The Fear of Having a Negative Thought.

Here’s why I call this fear a flaw:  resistance leads to persistance, and negativity is not what you want if you’re into “attracting.”  However, you MUST have negative thoughts and experiences when you make adjustments to your BEINGNESS.  After all, these negative thoughts are auto-pilot programs in the subconscious (where you can do nothing but respond to them).  How else can you release these programs unless they come up from the subconscious into your conscious waking life?

For example, let’s say your goal is a down line organization of 100+ productive distributors, but your current organization has only 6.  You implement some techniques, and voila!  You’ve got what you wanted.  Then you lose 23 people to another opportunity!  Did the law of attraction just fail here?  Not really – it’s just flawed.  Did the Law of Being fail?  Absolutely not!

See, if you were trying to “attract” 100+ productive distributors, this situation would seem like an absolute fiasco!  (Notice I said “attract,” not “retain.”)  But if you have DECIDED to BE the leader of a 100+ productive distributorship, this is just a clearing out of the pretenders.  Negative thoughts are nothing to fear or resist; they are merely the remnants of old paradigms clearing the way for a new reality.  You can allow those distributors to go as they please.  Your BEINGNESS is steadfast and unaffected, and your results will reflect that.

The bottom line: There is nothing to “attract” and nothing to resist.  The negativity that arises following your new paradigm shift is akin to your son asking to be excused from the dinner table.  Let him go, he’s no longer needed.  And as always, don’t take my word for it, take it for checking.

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Any individual that is serious about building a sustainable residual income using network marketing (or MLM) should evaluate a prospective company according to some basic criteria.  In my previous article, I discussed start-up costs.  In addition to evaluating the opportunity’s start-up costs, here’s another important item to consider:

2. What types of products are being marketed?

I listed this item as #2 on the priority list because I feel that it is one of the most important factors in determining the viability of your prospective MLM opportunity, as it WILL play a major role in how hard you will have to work in order to be successful.  There are three key factors (minimum) to consider when evaluating an MLM company’s product line: a) product replenishment, b) supply and demand, and c) product availability.

When you are marketing a hot product, the chances that you will be successful naturally improve.  For example, from 2000 through about the 3^rd quarter of 2005, real estate prices in the United States were absolutely soaring.  Back then, it was a fantastic time to own a real estate brokerage firm (I bet you didn’t know that real estate brokerage firms are considered multi-level organizations!).  Many agents that worked for brokerages at this time made a lot of money with relatively very low effort.

Unfortunately, products like the one is this example are flawed when in comes to building residual income.  Housing is, for the most part, a one-time purchase.  The average couple may move two, maybe three times in their entire lives.  So if you sell that family a house, you get paid once, and maybe again in 7 to 10 years when they’re ready to move again (assuming that the family chooses YOU as their realtor).  So in order to sustain a decent income, you have to keep finding buyers for your product, and this can translate into a lot of time, effort, and expense.

Here’s a more viable alternative for the beginning MLMer:  Look for a multi-level company that markets consumable or renewable products.  These are products that must be replaced or replenished periodically (like foods and beverages, household cleaning items, subscriptions, and health and beauty products, to name a few).  These types of items do well for MLM because you enroll distributors or customers once and get paid residually for as long as they maintain the membership.

But there’s another factor that must be considered—market demand.  It’s not enough to belong to an MLM organization that markets consumable products if those products are not in demand.

Continuing with the above example, the current credit crisis has effectively brought the U. S. housing market to a virtual stand-still.  The average American who, just five short years ago, could qualify for essentially any loan they applied for now cannot even open a charge account at Macy’s.  So the demand for housing is negatively disproportionate to the available supply.  If you were a realtor, THERE GOES YOUR INCOME!

But rather than give up completely on multi-level marketing and throw away years of solid networking and relationship building, consider this alternative:  Look for a company that markets a product that is in high demand.  One good resource for evaluation is the Inc. 500 list.  Each year, Inc. Magazine makes a list of the top ranked companies in terms of growth, industry, and revenue.

Finally, look for a company with an exclusive product that cannot be purchased EXCEPT through that company.  Let’s face it.  Realtors are a dime a dozen, and you don’t even NEED a realtor to purchase or sell a property.  There are many MLM companies that have specialized vitamins, juices, skin care products, and other items that cannot be purchased in retail stores, making those distributors the exclusive retailers of those products.  Try looking into products with this characteristic.

The bottom line: real estate brokerage firms are EXCELLENT multi-level organizations; but if you are a beginning MLMer looking to leverage your time and financial commitments, today’s economy dictates that you look elsewhere for a residual income opportunity.  But don’t just take my word for it…take it for checking!

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