Network Marketing: Putting Your Prospects First

Jane and Mary are both in network marketing. (They're also both fictitious and are not intended to depict any real persons, living or dead.) For the sake of this story, we'll assume they both possess equal talent, resources, and motivation. However, their approaches to recruiting and business-building are quite different.

Jane is determined to enroll as many new business partners as possible into her organization each month. So far she's been pretty successful at it. In the last year, she signed up 300 people, averaging twenty-five new associates per month and even winning her company's "Top Recruiter" award.

In looking at her organizational charts, however, she notices that the great majority of her new distributors aren't doing anything, and quite a few of them have even resigned from the company already. She'll be lucky if she still has fifteen active people left in a few months. And she'll be really lucky if any of them are duplicating what she's been doing.

Oh well, she thinks. Most people are lazy. I'll just work with the ones who really want to improve their lives. Meanwhile - back to recruiting! After all, if the drop-out rate's going to be that high, I better get as many new people as I can to compensate for it.

Mary, on the other hand, has been averaging one or two new enrollments per month. She's been carefully screening and interviewing her prospects, making as sure as she can that they have the skills, resources, and attitudes they'll need to be successful. She takes the time to get to know them, learn what their needs are, and most importantly, find out if they really want to do what she does. Above all, she wants to make sure her opportunity will be a good fit for her new business builders.

She also expects to do a lot of training and hand-holding with each person she accepts into her organization - at least during their first few weeks. And she knows this will take time.

When Mary looks at her organizational chart, she feels very satisfied that nearly all of her recruits are still active.

In fact, many of them are successfully duplicating what she does and continue to enroll one or two qualified prospects per month. Consequently, thanks to the power of multiplication, her organization has grown in size to several hundred business builders over the last year.

It's quite clear in this story that Mary is trying to put her prospects' needs first, and Jane has other priorities.

Now please don't think I'm about to start preaching some goody-goody philosophy of network marketing. While I admit,I usually prefer kindness and generosity over greed while traipsing down the road of life, there's actually a very practical, down-to-earth reason for considering your prospects' welfare above your own...

It's good for your business.

After all, wouldn't you prefer to work with loyal, qualified people who stick with it? (Emphasis on the words, "stick with it.") It doesn't matter how many starter pack bonuses you earn in the short run, in the long run you'll never reach cruising altitude unless you have a lot of dedicated folks under you. And that doesn't happen unless you earn their trust and loyalty by showing them in a very authentic way that you care about their success. And of course, by teaching them how to be successful.

And admit it. Doesn't it make life a lot more fun when you build long-lasting personal relationships while you build your business?

Giving your recruits what they need and want, thereby reducing your drop-out rate, is also good for the network marketing industry. Just imagine how many disgruntled ex-MLMers there are out there, telling everyone they know that network marketing is a rip-off and that it's impossible to succeed at it. You know what a problem that creates. If you would seriously like to change that image, join the "Put Prospects First" movement.

In summary, here are four things you can do to accomplish this:

1. Find out what your prospects' needs are and help them decide if network marketing will help fill those needs. If it won't, let them go.

2. Get to know your prospects well enough to determine if they have the skills, resources, and attitude necessary for success. If not, steer them gently in another direction. You'll be doing them a favor, and they'll probably be grateful for your honesty.

3. Don't twist their arms or use any other form of manipulation to get them to sign with you. If they're not already genuinely enthusiastic, you've got a guaranteed drop-out on your hands.

4. After they've joined your team, take however much time they need for training and hand-holding. Commit yourself to their success.

By putting your prospects' needs before your own, you'll be building a stronger organization, giving the network marketing industry a better image, and creating some awesome friendships.