This from Tom “Big Al” Schreiter”.  This certainly puts thing in perspective as to where most of our focus should be.

I was speaking at one of the sessions on the annual MLM Cruise. About 40 people were in this session.

I asked the question:

“How were you introduced to network marketing?”

I gave them some choices to choose from. Here are the choices:

A. Relative or friend.
B. Newspaper advertising.
C. A mailing.
D. An audio cassette or cd.
E. At a trade show.
F. Radio advertising.
G. The Internet.
H. By referral.
I. By a stranger at a chance encounter.
J. Saw a flyer.

Ten choices . . . 40 people. Well, these were not ordinary people, these were leaders.

So what would you guess? How many of these leaders were sponsored in each category? Do you think more were introduced to network marketing by advertising? More by relatives and friends? More by the Internet?

I am going to ask you to think about this for a moment.

Make your choices for what you think is the very top category or categories?

So how do you think most of the 40 leaders were introduced to network marketing?

. . . The answer might surprise you.

. . . And the answer might change how you go about finding new prospects.

So . . . are you ready for the answers?

Here are the results:

36 – Relative or friend.
2 – The Internet.
1 – Newspaper advertising.
1 – Radio advertising.
0 – A mailing.
0 – An audio cassette or cd.
0 – At a trade show.
0 – By referral.
0 – By a stranger at a chance encounter.
0 – Saw a flyer.

Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see a pattern here. Even in the age of the Internet, only 2 out of 40 leaders were sponsored because of an email campaign, banner ads, a cool web page, etc.

By the way, just so you don’t think that I am prejudiced about the results, I was the one leader that was sponsored by newspaper advertising. I answered a newspaper ad back in 1972.

So, I am not saying that these other methods don’t work. They do work.

I am saying that if we want to go fishing, maybe we should go to where the fish are. If 90% (36 out of 40) leaders are sponsored by a relative or friend, then why do we spend 90% of our time trying to find leaders through these other methods?

I know many distributors who try calling cold leads, buy lists for autoresponders, run newspaper ads, pass out flyers and they still haven’t contacted their warm market. Crazy, isn’t it?

It’s like trying to go shopping by driving down a deserted country road. It makes more sense to go shopping in a shopping mall.

So, if you have some new distributors who are struggling with these cold market techniques, show them this survey.

Show them that they are nine times more likely to find a leader with relatives and friends than all of the other methods combined!

Does Your MLM Company have A Product That Is Easy To Retail?

To Find out, ask yourself one question. Will I be able to successfully retail my product? Meaning will you be able to competitively sell your product to the man on the street based on competitive price and quality of product.

If you are going to have to go into too much detail about ingredients etc, to make a sale, you are going to struggle doing retail and the only people that will buy products for the long term, are going to be the one’s that are going to try and build a business.

Took 20 years for me for the light to go on. Now that I have a competitively priced product that works within 15 minutes, building a customer base is a piece of cake.

Building my leadership group is now simply a matter of taking the volunteers from the customer base. Simple, Easy, no pressure, very low attrition. No BS.