MLM Recruiting Techniques - Why Traditional Methods Fail

The other day I was researching the internet for MLM recruiting techniques. I've been in and around this business long enough to know what the usual suspects were as far as recommended recruiting techniques are concerned, so I wanted to see what else has come along in the years since I was first introduced to MLM and techniques in MLM recruiting.

Much to my surprise and chagrin, I found that many of the MLM recruiting techniques were the same as they were over ten years ago, when I first got involved in the MLM and network marketing industry! Let's review just a couple of these techniques and break them down so you can understand why, if you are using them, you are probably not as successful as you thought you would be by now:

MLM Recruiting Technique #1: Warm market. Anyone who has been involved in MLM and its recruiting techniques for ANY length of time (and I do mean ANY, including only one day) knows this tired old recommendation. Make a list of friends, family and co-workers, and share your business opportunity with them. One blog I read stated the reason why this is so effective is that you have the benefit of pre-established trust. That, in my opinion, is the main reason it is not effective at all! You try to come across as wanting to "share" an opportunity with the ones you love; however, let's face it - the bottom line is you are trying to sell them on the business so you can make money. You have no idea if they are truly qualified to run a business such as this, and if they fail, your warm prospect will most likely run cold. I speak from experience; for a while after my first attempt at MLM recruiting, several close friends avoided me like the plague, or if they didn't, they had that blank, distant stare with the big wall up between us every time I struck up a conversation that wasn't completely personal and light-hearted. As I've mentioned before, I am involved in a few network marketing companies; with each successive one I joined, I've avoided this recruiting technique like the plague, no matter how hard my upline pushed me to do it.

MLM Recruiting Technique #2: Local prospecting, or cold market recruiting. This has to be by far the toughest and most ineffective, yet also most common method that has been passed down repeatedly throughout the MLM/Network marketing industry. In this MLM recruiting technique you are told to get business cards, carry them with you at all times, and strike up a conversation with everyone you come in contact with in the course of your day, from your bank teller, to the barista at your local Starbucks, to the gas station attendant filling up your car. Make it brief, don't tell the whole story; just pique their interest enough so that they want to learn more. Make yourself look very busy with not a lot of time to discuss it then and there, but set up an appointment when you can meet. Wow, where do I begin with all that is wrong with this MLM recruiting gem?!

First, they give you no solid guidelines for creating a business card. The stock models they supply you with violate all the rules of lead generation marketing; they are useless. They are nothing more than an image ad. We, as individual network marketers, do not have large enough advertising budgets like Nike, for example, to advertise only our image without any information offered or call to action for the prospect to take the next step towards becoming your customer or, in our case, a member of your network marketing downline. This type of marketing is extremely ineffective for our purposes.

Second, when actually recruiting for your MLM business, how many of you are truly an expert at opening up a conversation and finding out a complete stranger's deepest desires or worst problems that they need a solution for, within 5 minutes? If you are, are you also able to convince them that you are the one with the answer to all their issues in that same 5 minutes? If you do that regularly as well, are you able to set up a future appointment with them to tell them about the great opportunity you have before those 5 minutes are up? If you accomplish that on a consistent basis, please think about how many people actually show up for this presentation. Be honest. How well has this recruiting technique worked for you? I'm sure many people will say that this technique is their bread and butter, that is how they got hundreds in their downline, and that it works, to which I say, congratulations! It is not an easy task, and the average person cannot accomplish all those MLM recruiting steps with any solid repeatable significance. To those that do, though, I pose these questions to you: Is it really an efficient recruiting technique for your MLM business? Does it mostly depend on you and the time you spend with each potential downline member? If it does, how much time are you dedicating to this, and what is your conversion rate? Is it worth all the time you spend on it?

Once again, and this is my opinion only, but it bears repeating that those are two of the biggest MLM recruiting techniques which I see as an equation for failure. "So Denise," you ask, "what MLM recruiting techniques DO you recommend? I just don't know what else to do besides that, that's what MLM recruiting is all about, sharing the business opportunity with anyone and everyone!" Well, I'm glad you asked. In my MLM recruiting system, I remove myself from the equation until the right moment, when I know I will be spending time only with qualified leads. For the rest of it, I use automated lead generating systems that take me out of the equation and provide me with more free time to do other, more productive tasks, and/or spend quality time with my loved ones.

Which leads me to this wonderful news: there are better, more efficient ways to recruit for your MLM business. Thanks to technology and the internet, as I already mentioned, most of it can be completely automated so you are free to do other things, and I will be revealing the components of this automated system in future articles.

Stay tuned for other articles where I will point out the problems with MLM and Network Marketing recruiting and give you solutions so that you too can become a successful network marketer.

Learn more about MLM recruiting techniques by checking out what Denise Martino is doing. These valuable techniques are what enabled her to go from just a really loyal preferred customer in her organizations to an extremely successful network marketer. Follow her blog http://BetterMLMSuccess.com where she regularly posts content that will help you explode your MLM business!