ARTICLE

The MLM Candidates
By Richard Brooke

Where do you find them?
How do you interest them?
Maintaining a constant source (or sources) of people to talk to about your opportunity is the weak link in most MLM leaders business plan. Finding a constant flow is the Holy Grail of business builders. If you can keep them coming to look you will find some that are ready to play. The key is to have enough coming to look. So how do you keep them coming?

There are two types of MLM leads:

One is the person you network your way into.
The second is one for which you pay.

The first type of leads are people that you either already know or are willing to meet and build enough rapport with so that you can invite them to take a look. A full 90 percent of successful MLM leaders were introduced to their opportunity by someone they know...hence the nomenclature Network Marketing. So as painful as it is, you have to ask: Who do you know?

A more expanded way of looking at it is not so much who you know, but rather who knows you? If you have any center of influence about you at all, there are more people who know you than people you know. Are you, or have you been, on any boards or committees? Have you ever held any kind of office? Have you ever written anything that was published for others to read? Have you ever had anything written about you? Think. Who knows you?

Who knows you?

You are most likely already teaching your new distributors to make a list. But do you have one? Is yours perpetual? Keeping an ever-expanding list of candidates is a must for keeping your pipeline full of possibilities.

Once in a Names List and Sponsoring training, I had a new leader who was only approaching one candidate a week. I asked him what was missing that he was not talking to a lot more people. I asked him how many people he had on his list. He had 12. He was only approaching one a week because he did not want to run out. (Reminds me of the guy in one of my Vision Workshops who wrote his vision to: “Try it for three months and if it doesn’t work, quit!”) Think about it. Think about the sense of urgency. Think about your sense of urgency if you have 12 people on your list versus if you have 1,200.

Spend the time to spend the money.

So how do you keep an ever-growing list of candidates that either you know or who know you? Dedicate time and practice to it. What if you scheduled 30 minutes a week to brainstorm names of people you can add to your list? The biggest missing piece for leaders to keep their list growing; they do not consistently dedicate time to do it. Spend the time to spend the money.

So what do you do with the time? Simple, interview yourself. Interview yourself using the same type categories you use with your new distributors. Who do you know that is a ___________? Go through the Yellow Pages or an online occupational registry and fill in the blank with occupations. It is the easiest way to trigger who you know. Combining these two pieces always results with the experienced, “thought they ran out of warm market” leaders to add 100 more names to their list in 30 minutes.

Try it. Take a group. Set them up with this training and a trigger occupation list. Give them 30 minutes in a live setting. Ask them to hit at least 100. Give a prize to whomever adds the most names to their list. Then let them talk about the experience. It works every time. Do it for yourself once a week and you will never run out of warm market leads.

Networking…expanding the circle of people who trust you and utilizing that network to produce intended results.

This is the core of our art. This is how you continuously add to the list of people that you know and who know you. Here are the steps to mastering it:

Make yourself visible, whether on the net, in person or in print. Join groups; be they Internet forums, chats, blogs or slogs. Join Toastmasters, the local yoga class or coach your kids’ sports teams. The best networkers are continually expanding their circle of influence by participating in groups.

One of my favorites is to read the daily paper and look for free presentations by experts; be it health, financial, real estate, etc. There are always events going on where like-minded people gather in the right frame of mind.

Make yourself attractive. Being around a group of new people will not support you if you are not attractive, interesting, curious and compelling. This is an entire sub-art of building your business but here are the highlights:

Look good. Pay attention to how you are groomed and dressed. People like to hang out with sharp looking people. Pay attention to your car. A soccer mom with a mini-van full of fast food cartons does not scream financial freedom. Manage your hygiene. Manage your image. Whether you are or not, act confident, warm, calm, intense, loving, interested, happy, fun and adventuresome.

Sound good. Ask questions. Be curious about others. Look for the “gold” in others and acknowledge it. Show enthusiasm, conviction and energy.

Listen well. Nothing is more attractive to others than someone who listens. Ask intuitive, esteem-building (for the other guy) questions…and listen to the answers. “So Mary, what do you think you did to become so successful?” Listen for what they are saying. Listen for what they are avoiding saying. Listen for what they want you to “get” about them. Listen to their heart.

Serve. Second to listening, nothing builds rapport faster than serving others. If this is not a genuine value of yours, make it one. Look for opportunities to network others together for their own good, absent you. Look for opportunities to support others in any way to further their goals.

Stay in touch. Communication will set you apart from others in the group. Take the time to communicate often and powerfully, always looking to serve. Of course you cannot do that unless you have their contact information. Return yourself to your “hunting and gathering” ancestors. Hunt for candidates. Hunt for opportunities to honor and serve them. Gather their contact information. Gather their interests, their values, their passions and their fears.

Make yourself a catalyst. Let’s say you meet someone – a barber, or a pizza guy, or an interior designer. You may see them as one candidate. In actuality, they are a window to hundreds – even thousands – of others.

Let’s say you were to ask the barber: “Who do you know that is a health food nut (aficionado)? Who do you know that is a chiropractor, a coach, a teacher, a plain ol’ go-getter? Who do you know that lives in Colorado, Florida, San Francisco? Who do you know that has a lot of pets or has had any kind of health problems lately? Who do you know that may not want anyone to notice, but would really love to lose some weight? Why do I ask, you say? Well, _________ are perfect candidates for this income opportunity I am taking advantage of and I am looking to work with someone like that. They tend to do very, very well.” Or: “My company is looking to expand in that location and we are looking for these kinds of people.”

In ten minutes, you can take one candidate and open their window to dozens more, each themselves a window to dozens. Let’s see, 12 who get 12 who get 12….

Make yourself into Picasso. It is all about motivation. Candidates take a look at our opportunity, get involved and make something happen for themselves and others when they are motivated to do so. Only about two percent of us wake up and stay motivated throughout the day…naturally, on our own.
The other 98 percent of us fall into two categories: About half are tolerant of the status quo, and only committed to maintaining it and making small gradual improvements. The rest are in a state of worry, depression, self-sabotage – on their way to a financial, physical and emotional meltdown. There is nothing we can do in short order for the later group. Steer clear of them. The group of “status-quoers” has possibilities. They can be motivated. All we have to do is paint them a picture.

Fortunately, we humans are teleological in nature. We think in pictures. If I say, "I am having a bad day today,” you will try to tune your TV head into what you think that might look like. You imagine what might be going on and you do it in pictures. Our “thoughts” start out as words, which we convert to pictures, which we then “get” feelings about.

Words to Pictures to Feelings. That is the process. If we are feeling bad, we get weak and sick, and we make weak and sick decisions. If we are feeling good we are strong and healthy, and we make good, powerful decisions.

Almost every candidate you encounter will not be (in the moment) thinking good, powerful, optimistic thoughts about how great a day, week or year they are having. Most will be “talking, thinking, feeling” just enough to get through the day.

As their Picasso, your opportunity is to paint them a picture of fun, success, freedom, abundance, honor, safety, community, creativity and a big check from your company next week.

Play Leapfrog with them. “Leapfrogging” is the art of jumping over your candidates fears, frustrations and limiting beliefs about what they can do, and paint a picture for them of what someone they know can do.

For example: I am talking to the barber. On a scale of 1 to 10, he is currently motivated to do something extra and extraordinary with his life...a 3. There is not much to work with there. So I ask him: “Who do you know that has a lot of pets they are always talking about?”

He replies: “Well, Mary has a bunch of whatevers and she is always talking about them. Why?”

I respond: “Because I am having a lot of fun with a second income program. People are earning some pretty exciting checks from this company I work with, sometimes within their first month. And some of the very best people earning the most are people who really love their pets and love to talk about them. I am looking to work with people like that. And by the way, this company will give you the opportunity to earn a great royalty on what Mary does just for introducing me to her. Could you find a home for an extra $1,000 a month?”

Make yourself their Leader. Leadership is simply the ability to lead people to do things, go places and become something they would not do of their own initiative. Most people you know (and will get to know) will not lead themselves into a great MLM opportunity. They misunderstand and mistrust the concept too much. You can lead them to discover it by taking a leadership role in the “Second income, back-up plan, residual income wealth building” part of their life.
You have the opportunity. You know it. You have the upline partnerships and the experience to partner with them to support them in building something substantial for themselves. You must see and feel yourself in this role and you must do it powerfully...not forcefully. Gracefully and powerfully. If this is not you, make it you. Pursue your personal development with a passion.
It is very easy to see how well this works to “open” people’s minds to not only the possibilities, but also the probabilities. It works. It works so well that if you decide to become a professional (one who makes money) in Network Marketing, you will never need to run an ad, accost people in the mall, do phony surveys, buy leads or harass your friends and family again. So although there are legitimate ways to create a cold market flow of leads, when you master the above techniques, you will not need them.

Rock on.

— Richard B. Brooke
www.RichardBrooke.com