Your Warm List Warhead

Chapter 5 of Your First Year in Network Marketing by Mark and Rene Reid Yarnell explains “The Warm List Warhead.”   The thing that really speaks to me about this chapter is the subtitle – “Overcome your reluctance to offer a quality lifestyle to family and friends.” As was covered in Chapter 1 on rejection, friends and family are not always the biggest advocates when you get into network marketing. However, let’s say for giggles that you do stick with it and you become wildly successful in your MLM business. Aren’t you going to have to deal with the anger of those same friends and family who are now going to be mad at you for NOT making them get into this opportunity? I know, pretty much a catch-22, isn’t it?

With any network marketing company, the very first task that you are given by your upline is to put together “the list.” This list ranges from 200 to 2000 names of the people you know and who know you. The list needs to be written down. After all, if you have your list in your head, and you make your first three calls and all three of them totally blow you off, your motivation to continue greatly diminishes. If, however, you have a list of 200 people, you make those three calls and realize that you still have 197 people to call who haven’t said “no” to you yet. Psychological? Yes. Does it work? Yes!

There are lots of things that can sabotage your fledgling network marketing career.  A lack of conviction can make the warm list difficult to tackle. After all, you haven’t had dramatic results yet, so how can you convince your friends and family that they can be successful with this opportunity? Follow that with a lack of self esteem when it comes to being a business builder. In both cases you need to remember that your posture is going to improve as you grow in your own knowledge and expertise. (Every good network marketer was once a BAD network marketer!)  So how do you get around this?  Simply let your friends know that although you’re not an expert yet, you are committed to doing what it takes to be successful in your new venture. They can join you or not but you wanted to make sure you told them about it in the beginning so they’re not mad at you in a few years when you are enjoying the fruits of your labor and they are still stuck where they’re at.

Fear of losing credibility or having failed in another MLM are not excuses to avoid the warm list either.  After all, your credibility as a professional may give your friends the curiosity to find out more about an opportunity that has caught your attention.  If you’ve been successful in another line of work, they can believe that you will be successful in this as well.  

And just because you’ve failed in another venture makes it all the more reason for them to listen to you on this.  After all, you’ve made your mistakes, you’ve learned from them, and you’re moving on.  You’ve done your due diligence on the company, the management team, the compensation plan, etc. and you can share this with your friends, letting them know that you’ve found a company that is an ideal fit for you.

Your success in your first year of network marketing is going to be more dependent on your attitude than your aptitude. Your enthusiasm and passion are what’s going to have your warm list prospects take notice.  . When you tell them about it, they are either going to see it or not. If not, move on! If the timing is not good, ask for referrals.  You never know the quality of the people that you will come across and you will be able to successfully sponsor into your team unless you ask.

After all, you can’t say the right thing to the wrong person, and you certainly can’t say the wrong thing to the right person. So get out there and talk to people!