Lead Generation for MLM Product Customers
Read More: When Everyone Else Is Focused on Opportunity Leads, Learn How To Sneak In Under the Radar and Generate Rabid Customer Leads
Egotist, n.:
A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
About a year and a half ago, Raymond and I sat in front of our Martial Arts Master (a Yellow Belt and White Belt, respectively) in his office and offered to build a funded proposal for his martial arts school for FREE.
Why?
Because we wanted to test what we had learned from Mike Dillard with a "REAL Business" and see if these techniques would work.
So after a few conversations, Master Lee agreed to this experiment and so began our internet marketing consulting careers.
The result of it I think you are already familiar with -- Master Lee's recruitment sky rocketed, he became a media mogul on YouTube (search for "Hwa Rang Do") and the "experiment" has evolved into a business partnership with one of the world's top martial artists.
Something important we learned out of the funded proposal "experiment" for Hwa Rang Do, was how to actually market products and services, instead of just a business opportunity like we are taught in the MLM world.
Who is Susan and Why Does She Want to Talk to Me?
I didn't quite realize how valuable this experience for us had been until a woman named Susan sent me an email yesterday and asked to speak to me.
You see, Susan purchased tickets for our MLM Traffic Formula LIVE in Austin, TX next month.
She had some questions about the focus of the system she wants to create next month at the event, and she wanted to do some prep work before the event. She politely requested to have a brief conversation with me, because she was serious about making the most out of that weekend.
So I agreed to speak with her and scheduled a time to talk.
Trouble Recruiting for an Old MLM...
She called and told me that she wanted to create a product-based lead system for her Herbalife Business. She said she had trouble recruiting people into Herbalife, because it's such a well recognized brand and people immediately make assumptions before she has an opportunity to present her business opportunity properly.
Therefore, she very wisely has chosen to generate mlm product leads.
The reason this is a good idea is because most people generally want to believe that they know something about what you are talking about.
If they have any previous experience or knowledge of what you are presenting to them (no matter how inaccurate), they immediately draw from those experiences and make decisions based on that, NOT what you presented to them, (i.e. their listening is off.)
So leading with your opportunity when you are involved in older companies like Amway, Herbalife, USANA, NuSkin, etc is usually not the best approach.
Leading with Your Products
Aside from stability, the big benefit that these big MLM companies offer is that they are constantly producing new products for their distributors to sell.
So while the opportunity brand may be old and stale, you can still lead with a novel new breakthrough product.
In speaking to Susan, I suggested that she focus on one great product, with a nice profit margin and which can produce immediate effects for her customers. She immediately knew what product that would be.
I then advised her to come up with the top benefits of this product -- what pain does it relieve? what problem does it solve? what immediate results can people expect? What kind of person would need this product?
She would then use this information to craft her capture page at the workshop.
Writing Newsletters that Sell Product
Next I asked her if she was knowledgable about health and wellness and if she would feel comfortable writing about it? She said yes, she was.
So I suggested she write a few email newsletters providing free and valuable information on health and wellness.
But what I suggested she write her first few newsletters on was on how to solve or provide the benefits of her lead product, without them needing to buy the product.
"Huh?"
This might seem a bit counterintuitive, but that is exactly what I told her to do.
I explained that her email newsletters and lead system need to stand alone as valuable content and information. If you do this you'll accomplish three things:
- She'll gain the trust of her reader and build a relationship she can monetize over time via info product promos, affiliate programs, thus creating a second stream of income.
- If something were to happen to her Herbalife Business, her lead system could be easily be transitioned to promote other non-herbalife products.
- She'll have established a valuable brand and possibly a new company with more potential than any MLM business can provide -- YOU, INC.
When you deliver on your promises and blow people away with the value you have provided them, you become their new best friend and they will be more open than ever to any product recommendations you will make.
So the newsletter format I advised her to use for all her emails is as follows:
- Write newsletter content, which delivers as best she can, on what you offered on your capture page without them needing to use the product. Make it stand alone as valuable information.
- At the end of the newsletter, write something like "If you wish to enhance the benefits described in this newsletter, I highly recommend [product]..." This is where you could plug your product.
- Have an opt-in form where people can request a FREE personal health consultation on how to properly implement the advice you have provided in the newsletters. This would be an opportunity to examine their overall health needs, take orders and recommend other products.
Some MLM companies may prohibit you from having sales copy or links on any website or email promoting a product (especially a nutritional product), so in that case, you may want to skip #2 and make product recommendations part of your personal health consultation.
The important thing to remember here is that your goal is to become an authority/expert first! Avoid the temptation to pitch your product right off the bat.
Ideally, what you want to do is create a business relationship with them even before they've purchased any of your MLM products. This could be some kind of info product or affiliate promotion.
If someone is willing to give you money for advice, then they will definitely be willing to give you money for a product you recommend, which can potentially solve their problems.
I expect big things out of Susan and I want the same for you.
================Please Rate this Article===============
Ferny Ceballos recently ditched his very "cushie" and comfortable Aerospace Engineering job and is now devoted full-time to your success. To learn more about how he did it, visit www.AttractionMarketingFormula.com
Views: 1,900 | 
Comments: 15 WARNING: This is only for people VERY SERIOUS about becoming killer copywriters.
About the Author: Ferny Ceballos
Member Since: 10/08/2007
I'm a Distributor For:: PRO U
Other Company: Attraction Marketing Formula, LLC.
Industry: Consulting
Primary Web Site: http://www.NoExcusesSummit.com
Twitter: Ferny_Ceballos
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fernyceballos
Sneaky Sneaky SEO!
Hey Ferny this is a really cool article and it's funny that you should write about this very topic when something very interesting happened to me yesterday too!
I got an email from a lady asking me about what skin care products i recommend!
What the heck do I know about skin care? Not a lot actually but many many months ago before i ever heard of attraction marketing I wrote an eBay review. I just wanted to be found in the search engines and have an excuse to send people to my eBay store. I thought I might sell our skin care products on eBay. Not allowed as it turned out so i scrapped the idea.
But here's the thing--i did a little research and made recommendations about several aspects of skin care products.
I never continued down this path for one reason or other--but when I received that email yesterday from a woman asking me for a skin care product recommendation a lightbulb went on over my head lol.
Really great article teaching something that works!
BTW, do you have a solution for ACN people? I haven't been able to make a decent recommendation to them without being told crap about their company not allowing advertising like that lol.
Jim
5 stars. thank you. i just got a bunch of ideas, btw, congrats on your recent success @ firing your boss! :) johni myhappylaptop
ACN People Kinda Screwed.... ;)
ACN people are kinda screwed in this department, because I doubt there are many people seeking advice or looking for an authority on telecommunications.
It's been a while since I looked at the company, so this could have changed depending on their product lines today.
Basically, the bottom line is in order to sell something on a consistent basis, you need to become an expert on what you are selling and that particular industry as a whole.
If you are selling quality beer, educate people on the difference between good beer and bad beer and how good beer is made. BeerAdvocate.com is a great example of a beer authority.
If you are selling a financial product, become a financial expert and start a newsletter giving away free advice, then sell them on your products or consulting.
If you are selling high-end cars, become a car expert and start a newsletter educating people about cars, post reviews and then make recommendations.
-Ferny
maybe capture ACN leads like this
I wonder if there are a lot of people looking obsessively online for ways to save on their phone bill? LOL
Maybe the way to go about it with ACN is--for example--write a questionnaire on their phone use and suggest a phone plan strategy or bill budgeting.
For example, if they make phone calls most to a few relatives and friends, the response to that question may be to suggest they find a phone plan that gives them free or discounted rates for "favourite" numbers.
If they make a lot of toll calls, then make another suggestion.
If they make a lot of international calls then suggest they get on skype, and so on.
What do you think? The question is, do people search for that sort of help?
One could use wordtracker and the Google Research Assistant to find out what is the most likely problem communication related htat people want to solve. If there are a lot of people looking for phone budgeting and saving information, then we do the questionnaire to customise a report to help them get the best deals and suggest some services and providers. This would then get them inquiring about the ACN service.
What bothers me is that either their policy is REALLY strict or their reps don't understand them properly. They complain to me about all kinds of crap about not being allowed to get customers OUTSIDE their warm market. Don't you think that's a bit strange? Doesn't someone become "warm market" when you've warmed them up with a customised recommendation to help them save?
Jim
Makes Sense...
You definitely hit a great point. Learn your products inside out and write about their benefits and target that niche. What better prospects than those excited about the products and their benefits?
Good stuff man...
Warming Them Up...
Hey Jim,
Yeah, most companies have that issue (insecurity?)
I think a solution that everyone can follow is to
create a lead system, which is a separate entity or
business.
Like in the example of my article, becoming an
authority on health and wellness and turning that
into a business is the first step. Make it a
separate company too.
Then you can make recommendations for anything, not
just your MLM products. You can do affiliate products,
your own info products, etc.
If an MLM has a problem with that, just tell them
to go to hell and join a company who is open to the
idea.
The funny thing is that if you do manage to create
such a "stand alone" system, you can private label
the system for other MLMs and make a killing.
That's more on the level of what MLM System Formula
teaches, but the opportunity is there regardless.
You create the system and get it to convert, there
will be many companies scrambling to license or buy
it from you.
So even if your primary MLM doesn't like it, you're
still a winner.
-Ferny
ACN Rep
Great article, I found it very informative. I am an ACN rep who also encounters some resistance when I lead with the opportunity from those who think they know the opportunity.
Just to bring you up to speed, while ACN's traditional product is the local/long distance phone service, they have within the last couple years added additional services. Such as reselling for all the major cell phone providers(Sprint,T-Mobile,AT&T,Verizon),digital phone service,broadband service and just recently able to market Direct TV.
The product/service that I am thinking is possible to lead with, as far as lead generation is the Video Phone, enabling one to not only make calls over high speed internet connection but to also see the person you are speaking with.
Does that product/service seem possible to market through lead generation?
James
Great Post!
Fernando,
I've done just that and it work great. Actually, the product I marketed was so revolutionary all I had to do was post some decent copy, a few video and testimonials and the sales started rolling in. I even got a 4% visitor to customer conversion.
One problem though... ;D
I thought I could outsmart the guys at my company. Big mistake... so now I'm back to square one... but after reading your article I am going to try your approach. I know this will work great since I won't actually be mentioning the product at all.
Thanks for your article!
Nathan V
http://www.NathanVari.com
The Official word from an ACN rep...
LOLOLOL I originally just wanted to wish Ferny congratulations on firing your boss! Then I could help but reply to this thread. I have been an ACN rep for almost 10 years 100% of my customers are my family or friends/their close family.
When I started to use research tools on what people who were shopping for telecomm service search for it was tough. Most people just go to the site of what ever well known phone company. Potential customers very rarely out in any outstanding keywords.
Because the offer highly competitive products like cell phone service and highspeed internet as a reseller unless your customers are from people who know you personally it's unlikely they will find your personal telecomm expert site.
This is why I decided to make my website theme about everything but telecomm. I do have other reps on my team that have picked a niche like mobile broad band cards: [url]www.mobilebroadbandreviews.com[/url] and this will be an important case study for us.
The good news is there is a unique product called the video phone which is powered by VoIP which is still in it's infancy so that would be a good niche for a rep to master.
The strange thing is you don't have to be an expert at all to recommend discount Directtv or cell-phone service...you just have to appeal to people who wouldn't mind saving a few bucks or just want to re-new their contract through you.
What i've had to do is develop other skills and become an affiliate marketer that make me more attractive to other marketers and business owners. Once you have a relationship it's an easy transition once they ask (and always do) what MLM I represent.
As far as recruiting other reps, I've found that the best target market are people who already have a decent size list. That way they could just simply send out an email with the link to the more info/ sign up page featuring a particular product like cell phones or videophones and get a bunch of customers that way.
ACN products/services is simply another way to monetize a list residually...
To answer your question Jim, I think many reps are just confused about the policies which don't matter anyway if your are branding yourself and not what ever MLM company.
By the way, If any of you want to add value to the business of any ACN you are consulting with tell them to go to linkshare.com and become a wirefly.com affiliate... they are a major competitor that is powered by the same company "inphonic" ACN uses but they usually has all the great phones for *free* and have a high upfront pay out even though they don't pay residual monthly commissions (which is ACN strongest selling point).
Malika
Awesome as usual Fernando!
Your a awesome asset to the community Fernando!
Solid Info!
Ferny,
Thanks for providing real, usable information. This is a SOLID post!
Rick
good info
you make a point ferny, if you have a lead system for health and wellness, you can work with almost any mlm and send those to hell who don't like your marketing approach.
but what if you're not in an industry so broad that you can effortlessly switch to a company that allows our type of marketing? let's say you're in tupperware. how many companies sell plastics?
i think the health and wellness industry is so big, that too many companies are tapping into this cash cow which makes it easy to find direct suppliers in this industry. other industries doesn't have this advantage.
i think a general rule of thumb should be to choose an industry that is broad enough that you can make a switch, just in case you run into trouble with your company.
Great article!
I have been thinking of doing something like this for my business using the information supplied in Building on a Budget, MLM Traffic Formula and MLM System formula. I am intimidated with all the technical stuff. Wonder where I should go for that help? Thanks!
Just what I have been wondering about!
I really have seen very little use of attraction marketing for anything other than selling attraction marketing and some business opportunity captures. I am really glad you brought this up and the ideas are great. Great ideas from the response messages as well.
Thank to all,
Fred Lacey
When the Student is Ready...
I've heard it said, when the student is ready, the teacher shall appear.
As I am re-building the infrastructure for my internet lead generation efforts, I've been racking my brain for an area of expertise that I can provide that is both relevant to my product and fresh enough to stand out from the crowd. Thanks to you, and to a private, ongoing conversation with Malika, it's coming together!
Allow me to add my congratulations on your 'promotion' to full-time entrepreneur.