Only Suckers Buy Leads....Right...Mike?

It seems that with all of the hype online of generating "laser targetted leads", buying leads has become almost a sign of dishonor..a signal, you don't get it, or haven't made it to a certain level. Yet, each week, thousands of people, who originally completed an online business opportunity survey, and are contacted by marketers, join various network marketing companies.  So what's the real story?

This questions comes up often. Typically your upline would recommend you start buying leads right after you told her you had run out of friends and family. Essentially, without people to talk to about your business, you are essentially out of business so their recommendation makes sense. But the answer isn't always that cut and dried, and depends upon several factors.

First, it depends on you.  Are you good at meeting people? Are you a member of various organizations, maybe sports, charitable or otherwise related where you can introduce your business? Are you proficient at getting people you don't know into giving your their contact information? If you are able to do this...you might not need to buy leads.

Second, have you built up a following?  Perhaps you have successfully branded yourself and are already attracting "red hot laser targetted prospects" to you and your opportunity. Of course, this generally takes a giant learning curve, an expensive branding course, quite a bit of time, and consistent effort before you actually see these "red hot" prospects. But, if this is the case...you may not need to buy leads.

Third, so far we have only talked about you.  What about your downline? Do all of them have more than enough people to talk to about their opportunity? Are they people who can generate prospects just from a visit to the mall, or are they like most people...once they have run through their friends and family, they don't know what else to do.  It has been my experience that most people within their company downlines buy, use and depend on leads to compliment their warm market contacts.  

So, here's my take on this: True marketers require a constant flow of leads..regardless of how they are generated.  Of course, the more targeted and qualified, the better the lead. Also, the more leads a marketer has, the more "posture" they develop, and the more conversions they make. How many of you actually have too many leads? And lets not discount the time factor for generating your own leads. The key is to be spending most of your time making sales. Now, ask yourself, where is your time spent? Even more important, where is your downline's time spent? Do you want them spending as much time as you did on building your branding system, or do you want to ensure they are making sales NOW?

If you have attained a level wherein your system is supplying you with all of the leads you need, and you are spending most of your time either selling or training, then, congratulations... you have reached what most marketers rarely do. Now, let's talk income.

So far we have just talked about leads as an expense.  After all, its a commodity, so we, or our downline, are typically paying out $100-$300 every month just to have people to talk to. Just another cost of doing business, right? Not necessarily.

There is a Lead program, where you have the opportunity to earn money as an affiliate down to 5 levels...that's as much as an 80% payout! In fact, using just the basic package, you could earn $700 month with just 20 people.  Just enroll 4 people, and train each of them to enroll 4.  Your downline is already buying leads...how easy is that for you to earn and give your downline the opportunity to earn as well? If you don't need the leads...use them as incentives for your team!  

Now imagine, everyone on your team buying and profiting from these leads...so much so, that you now have an overabundance of leads! A salespersons dream! Sure, teach them about branding and lead attraction, but think how much easier it would be for you and your team to sponsor and retain new people knowing that they would never run out of prospects...and always have that secondary income stream. 

So Yes, I admit it...I do buy leads...and feed them to my downline...and count the income generated, by their sales, and their retention.  I guess I'm just a Sucker!