But to be able to do so you must decide who you want to attract, what these people need and how you can fill that need.

If you’re in network marketing, you obviously want to attract people to your opportunity  as well as sell your products.

Does this mean you will be jumping on every person you meet to see if they’re interested?  Of course not!  That’s not how you attract these prospects to you.

You must first ask yourself what kind of person might be interested in joining your business or buying your product.  It’s about knowing the kind of things these people would be interested in , their problems and how you can help solve them.

Why?

You want to give people what they need and want before you get what you want.  So you have to get to know them, their hopes, their dreams, their wants.

But you want to do all of the above without running after your prospect.

You  must first start with asking the right questions before even looking:

1. Who is your target market?
2. What do they look for, talk about or think about?
3. What are some of their problems?
4. Can you help them solve these problems

These questions can be asked without even having met anyone yet. Because if you don’t know who your target market is, how do you expect to market to them and give them value.

So “who is your target market?

Let’s say you are selling weight loss products.

You are looking for people who first of all want to buy, but you can’t do this unless you know who you’re selling to.

So for a weight loss target market, would you not say that it would be people who are overweight, first?

But don’t stop there. You have to get more specific:

• people who have purchased products before
• people who may have family members that are overweight ie: children
• people with their own unique concerns, such as baby boomers dealing with weight related problems

The above is just a simple list which can be further dissected to really focus on a specific niche within the weight loss industry. It’s up to you to think about what these people are feeling, thinking and wanting.  It’s all about them and what you can do for them.

Thinking about your target market in this way will keep you focused and the leads you will generate will be better qualified because you will have done part of the work yourself.  Then it will be more likely that these leads can be lead to buy your product or opportunity in the future.

To learn more about identifying your target market check this out.

So if you were told that having a network marketing business is the key to fulfilling your dreams and that anybody can do it, you would believe it. Right?

Well, you would be right in believing it, because network marketing can be done by anyone who wants to.

There are, however, 2 very critical aspects that a person needs to be able to do so.

Number one, you must have skills.  Now skills can be learned by anyone who applies themselves.  Most network marketing companies have training where you will be able to learn these skills.

It takes determination, application and practice.  A good training program should teach you all the aspects of network marketing the old way.

Why do I say that?

Well we know that network marketing the old way, where you approach family and friends and do cold calls, does work.   And that may be how you would like to run your business. So you need to at least know that this type of network marketing is what is generally being taught.

If you choose not to go that route, you will have discovered the most talked about aspect of the “new” network marketing strategies on the net, that of attraction marketing.

That’s what I chose.

And that brings me to the second aspect I wanted to bring out here.  Your MLM business will be a great success but you will need to have customers and business builders.

You attract customers by applying the concepts learned in attraction marketing.  You attract business builders by showing them a system that eliminates cold calls and uncomfortable approaches the old way of network marketing relies on.

This relationship starts to blossom and creates confidence which then leads to you generating the leads you want for your network marketing business.

It isn’t very complicated.  With skills and an audience, there are no limits to what you can do to be a great network marketing success.

But you must have the desire to never stop learning.

Basically you will meet 4 types:

• Those that are motivated by money. This type of personality knows that network marketing can be a really good place to make money.  They’re not interested in earning just a couple of extra bucks a month.  Rather, they are looking to make the biggest amount they can. In order to attract these types, focus on the compensation plan and its benefits.  Talk about fulfilling dreams.

• Those that like to have fun. This type of personality is the social butterfly.  They love to meet new people, love the idea of network marketing as a business model, love the events and the energy of success.  As long as the process if fun, they will stay for the long run. To attract this type, talk about how the events will motivate and energize them. Talk about the high profile leaders they will get a chance to meet.  Pick one leader who has really focused on making their business a lot of fun.

• Those that are motivated by knowledge based in facts. This type of personality is an analyzer and a thinker. The more factual data you can provide them with, the better. For example, if your product has studies that prove the results are true, you will see these prospects just gobble it up. Therefore, having a lot of factual data resources is an ideal bait for this type.

• Those that need a great cause to motivate them.  Why? Because this personality type wants to help others whether by helping them make more money, get healthier or better themselves in some way.  As long as your product addresses that need in your prospect, you will see them easily join your opportunity.

So developing great content based on the type of personality you want to attract is just great marketing.  When you know what need to fill, the rest is easy.

Horrors, all those beautiful cheques you were getting will soon be history.

What is a person to do to insulate themselves from just such a scenario?

The funded proposal is the life line and savior of all smart network marketing entrepreneurs.

With a funded proposal you market a product related to what you may be selling.  For example , you are selling some kind of juice that helps people have more energy.

You could create in informational product teaching people how they could gain extra energy by doing “3 Simple Things To More Energy” and offer it free.  It doesn’t have to be a report, it could be an audio by an expert in health and energy or even a video.

You will be collecting leads generated out of  interest in the niche you are specializing in. These will be primed to hear more of what you can offer even if you have to switch company in mid-stream.

In simple terms, the funded proposal is a method used by savvy marketers to generate leads by offering something that will help them improve their lives or business.

A person may have several funded proposals to generate extra income.

How can this save you from your company’s lawsuit and possible closer?

You may be losing all the perks you were getting from your company but you won’t be losing what you have built, a targeted list with people ready to listen to what you have to say or offer.

Just make sure you have something of value to share.

That’s why, when I wanted to know the ins and out of buying opportunity leads, I went to someone who has been there and done that.

According to Mike Dillard, “there are several challenges that come with purchasing and using business opportunity leads to build a network marketing business.”

These next points should be considered:

• where are your leads being generated from? If they come from companies that offer incentives to entice people to become a lead, these leads would not be of the best quality. However, if the people have actually requested information about working from home and filled out a survey, these leads are understandably of a much better quality
• guaranteeing the quality of the leads you get, makes for a good lead provider.  It’s not fun to get invalid phone numbers or contacting people that didn’t request information in the first place.  Moreover a good leads provider will guarantee replacement of a bogus lead at no cost to you.
• will you be purchasing leads that have already been sold? Most leads are sold 4 to 5 times so if you’re #5, your leads may already have bitten someone else’s line and not interested in hearing anything you have to say.  A remedy for this problem would be to make sure the vendor never sells your leads to more than one person in your business opportunity. And once you have those leads, the faster you reach them the better.
• Your number one best leads should be verified leads. These are identified in 2 ways: 1- verified leads of people responding to an ad and having been pre-interviewed by a call center. 2- these leads may not have been verified but you receive them live, meaning that as soon as they have filled out a survey, they are assigned to you and if you conatct them quickly, you should get a better response.

So wha’ts the worse leads you can buy? These are what is called “aged leads”.  These leads are weeks or months old and buying this kind of lead is just throwing your time away, unless that’s what you want, because these leads are really cheap.

As we all know, or should at this point, that the best leads we can get are those we generate ourselves.

That’s why learning how to market yourself using a step by step formula is so effective because you make those leads your friends.

For more information, tips and strategies on leads generation go see here.