How to Choose a Sponsor Using "Energy"

This post is for folks who have found a great product or service to market but are looking for the “right” sponsor. It is also for people new to network marketing who aren’t sure which team to join.

Many people would agree that having a sponsor who is already earning a ton of money in network marketing would be an asset. There is no doubt about that. But that isn’t all there is to choosing the right sponsor for YOU. And sometimes, your best sponsor might be someone who is isn’t the top income earner (I’ll tell you why in a minute).

I’ll dispel the belief right now that just because your sponsor is a “winner” it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be successful too. I was once on a three-way call with a business friend of mine who convinced me to talk to her new upline, an MLM guru. The guru was great to talk to and my friend was doing the right thing getting us on a three way call.

The guru, of course, ended up with thousands upon thousands of distributors in his downline (he’d been doing network marketing for many years so it didn’t take long for all his colleagues to join him). My friend, however, decided after a few months it wasn’t for her and quit. Me, on the other hand, decided after a year of buying the product, that it wasn’t good enough for me to continue getting it, so I let my account lapse.

It’s not that my friend was necessarily a “bad” sponsor, just an inexperienced one. She just had too many irons in the fire with her other businesses to really put attention into her network marketing business.

So here are a few questions you may wish to ask your potential sponsor:

• Have you ever done network marketing before this opportunity, and if so, for how long? Chances are, the longer he or she has been in network marketing, the less likely they are going to quit on you or expect instant “results”.
• Have you ever quit a network marketing opportunity before? and if so, why did you quit and how long did you stay? You may wish to assess whether this potential sponsor is one of those “the grass is always greener” people who jump from opportunity to opportunity looking for the best one, rather than realize that they are the ones that need the upgrade. In other words, do they have tenacity and the ability to continue grow as a person and as a marketer? Ideally, you’re looking for someone that has stayed in a particular business for at least a year, preferably more.
• What different kinds of marketing training do you or the company offer? What you’re looking for here is whether you will be trained on multiple marketing methods and will be able to try ones that are best suited to your natural skills and aptitude rather than boxed into (and forced into) doing it just one way. The old days where your upline tells you you have to cold call 30 people a day to do the business properly are over (thank goodness!). A good upline will help guide or train you in several different methods of marketing and it is your job to choose what resonates with you.
• What marketing methods do you use to grow your business? Here’s where you get an idea of what your sponsor has been doing. If all they know is doing big live presentations and you can’t stand speaking in front of a crowd, then you’ll have to ask how he/she will support you if you don’t choose to do presentations.
• Who else is on the team and who can I call when you’re unavailable? A good sponsor realizes that being successful in network marketing means having a great team. Your potential sponsor should be able to give you the names of some upline success leaders who you can have access to if, and when, your sponsor is unavailable.

Even though it may be tempting to ask, “how much do you make?”, just realize that their monetary success may have nothing to do with yours. It would be more useful to get a handle on what they actually do each day/week to expand their business.

Despite everything I’ve written above, there is one sure-fire way to know whether the person you’re interviewing should or shouldn’t be your sponsor. Here it is: ENERGY.

What do I mean by energy? Well, I’m not talking about someone hyped up on how much money you’re going to make and how great the company is. No, that’s not what I mean.

What I mean by energy is this:

When you are in the presence of potential sponsors, either in person or by phone:

• Do you feel energized by their enthusiasm or drowned by their sense of urgency?
• Do you feel privileged rather than pressured into joining the team?
• Do you feel peaceful and positive around them?
• Does your body feel open or are you feeling tight and contracted?
• Do you get the feeling that it doesn’t matter one way or another whether you say yes or no, they will still like and respect you?
• Do you get the feeling that they really want the right “fit” for their team and they aren’t just going to accept anyone with a pulse?
• Do they seem calm, self-confident and generally happy?
• Do you feel genuinely interested or are you getting bored or impatient with them?

The reason you’re evaluating ENERGY is that you want someone who you can resonate with. The easiest way to evaluate that is by how your body feels when you’re around this person.

The most successful members of my team are all like me: bubbly, enthusiastic, tenacious, kind, patient, helper-healer types, self-confident and most of all, loving (yes, I said loving. I know this is a business blog, but I believe in the power of love). This is no accident. Whenever I interview a new team member, I’m primarily feeling for their energy! Now you know my secret.

To Your Success,
Dr. Karen Kan
P.S. if you’ve found this post helpful, please comment!