MLM Success Tips for Building Your Downline FAST: Qualify Your Prospects
As a counselor for network marketers in all types of MLM organizations, I have found that building a strong and viable downline fast can be the difference between great success and tiny MLM bonus checks. Additionally, I have found that the overwhelming reason for those that are successful is that these MLMers have taken the time to qualify their prospects prior to making their opportunity pitch. Qualifying is a fantastic way to save your time, your money, and your sanity, so that you can focus on what really matters in your MLM organization.
What does it mean to “qualify?”
The term “qualify” as it applies to network marketing refers simply to the process of determining whether or not the prospect is a good fit for your organization. On one level, qualifying is listening to the prospect to identify his or her needs and desires. It is discovering whether the prospect is truly interested in your opportunity, and, if so, what the prospect hopes to gain from participation. On another level, qualifying is identifying the prospect’s readiness to move forward. It’s determining whether you have a potential “eager beaver” or merely a tire-kicker. In short, qualifying is determining what category to place your prospect in, and you will see that this will have a great effect on what you do with the prospect from this point forward.
Why does it pay to qualify your prospects?
Prospecting is the single most important part of building your network marketing organization, and if you’re serious about building your downline fast, you will spend more time prospecting than any other active task you complete. Therefore, it makes the utmost sense to become efficient at prospecting so that you don’t waste your time. What do I mean by “wasting your time?” Here are some activities that, unfortunately, many network marketers continue to engage in that produce very little return on investment:
- Distributing flyers in public places
- Cold-calling random people using the phone book
- Pasting leaflets on car windshields
- Calling multiple family meetings to pitch your MLM opportunity
- Spamming your online social network friends with links to your MLM opportunity
If you are engaging in this type of prospecting, I urge you to cease and desist! Not only is it annoying to the people you come in contact with, it is absolutely a waste of your prospecting time and efforts. The people you come in contact with while engaging in these activities are not qualified in the least, which means that your chances of actually sponsoring these folks are slim to none. You are going to work extremely hard for little to no results, and your plan for building your downline fast will go right out the window. On the other hand, if you focused your efforts on targeting only the people that are truly interested in your opportunity, your chances of building your downline fast improve exponentially.
Qualifying is also about being a great salesperson. Let’s face it people. If you are involved in network marketing in any way and you intend to rise in rank from bottom feeder to top dog earner, chances are that you are not going to get there by simply sponsoring or selling to your friends and family members, so you had better become a good salesperson. The best salespeople use qualifying questions to learn more about the prospect so that an effective sales pitch can be created, and an effective sales pitch is one that presents the prospect with a product or service that will solve (or prevent) some problem the prospect has. Yet how can we show the prospect that our wares will help them if we do not understand what will motivate them to buy? We learn this through qualifying, because many of our best customers eventually become our downline reps.
Your chances of getting a "yes" are higher the deeper the prospect is.
Finally, it pays to qualify your prospects because a qualified prospect is further along in the sales funnel. As network marketers, we have a higher probability of making a sale or getting a sign-up the deeper the prospect is within the sales funnel because the prospect (by now, he or she is a “lead”) has already let you know that he or she is looking for what you have. You spend less time trying to convince the person to sign up, which frees you to recruit and train more and builds your downline fast.
How do we qualify a prospect?
Qualifying is done largely in part by asking the right questions. What are the “right questions?” The right questions are those that help you identify interested parties so that you are only pitching to those who are “ready to buy” so to speak. Remember to remain focused on the end result, which is showing your prospect how your MLM opportunity solves his or her problem. But be careful that you remain easy-going and allow your conversation to flow smoothly; otherwise, you run the risk of sounding like you’re gathering information for a survey (and survey-takers are not very endearing!).
The bottom line is this: qualifying your prospects is an excellent tool for building your downline fast. You make easy sales, get easy sign-ups, and create space for a positive experience for everyone involved. But as usual, don’t just take my word for it…take it for checking!
Tagged with: asking questions • build downline • build your downline fast • building your downline fast • convert prospects to buyers • Downline Productivity • Leads • MLM • MLM Biz Op • MLM Success • MLM Success Tips • Multi Level Marketing • network marketer • Network Marketing • Prospecting • qualified leads • Sponsor More Reps • Targeted Leads
Filed under: Easy MLM • MLM • MLM Success Tips
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Hi MLM RRR, I LOVE your website!! I’ve been in Amway (back in the 80′s-90′s, and I am still using products that I have left over, honestly!). A word about your assessment of Numis (of which I’m part of now)I don’t think anyone looking seriously at the Numis opportunity is going to consider the “spot price” of silver, gold, platinum, copper or any other commodity. In fact most people will never look at the “value factor” when considering ANY network marketing opportunity. I have seen people pay way above the “spot value” for all products in their networking opportunity. I loved AMWAY products, but was always aware of the price premium of the products. I had friends in juice marketing that knew they could buy a product close to theirs for much less. They still joined. And at the end of the year they had a lot of empty bottles (and quite a few full ones) and they still stayed in. Vitamins, same thing. At least with gold or silver you will at least have SOMETHING left over of value at the end of that year, even if the “little coin in the plastic package” is only worth the spot value at that point. The point is; people follow people that they feel can provide them with something they don’t believe they can do themselves. The opportunity makes little difference. I fully understood your post about Numis and the “spot price” because I’ve also collected coins for over 30 years. I for one did not look at the “spot price” when joining Numis. I looked at the upline support, the potential for growth, the ease of explaining the whole business and several other factors. And you have to admit that at least the potential to gain in value exceeds the potential for an empty bottle of juice or used up soap box/vitamin bottle to gain in value! Other than that personal observation, I have to say again, I LOVE you website.
Hi Marco,
Thanks for the kudos. You bring up some excellent points with regards to people’ s pre-sponsorship investigation. The average person absolutely does not look into all the angles when joining an MLM. But it is my opinion that people should look into it. Obviously, I am a proponent of network marketing. But we should be making informed decisions about joining so that we have realistic expectations. MLM is such a great way to build skills and an awesome income opportunity, but the vast majority of us fail to capitalize, largely in part to pie-in-the-sky dreams.
Thanks for understanding that I’m not dissing the Numis opportunity. As MLMs go, it seems like a pretty decent one, and you sound like you have great upline support. Good luck with your business building, and please let me know how I can be of help to you in the future.
The ORIGINAL Rat Race Refugee!
I forgot to say, My girl is in FHTM so that is another deal!!!!