The moment we contact them, they’re going to sigh with gratitude, fighting back the tears of joy, prepared to  finally begin their life-changing journey and live happily ever after.

While, of course, this isn’t the case with every person on the list, certainly there must be one or two who will clearly see what a phenomenal opportunity we’re presenting to them, since we’re the only person who’s contacted them because we paid extra for the “freshest” leads available.  It’s a no-brainer.

…right?  Isn’t it?  Hello?

Ask yourself one important question:
Can you name a single person on the face of the planet who is NOT looking to make more money?

No, you can’t.  Why?

Because everyone is looking for an opportunity to make more money …Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, that homeless guy near the freeway… yes, everyone.

There are couple aspects that most people who seek these types of leads never consider.

First: A lead is not something that just arrived from outer space and made first contact with Earth.  A lead is the contact information of a living person.  Given this fact, we can extrapolate some statistical probabilities: they probably have an IQ of around 100, since by definition that’s the average …they are at least slightly overweight (we could add a dozen items, but you get the point) …and if they’re at least 18 years old, they’ve been pitched dozens of business opportunities.  There are no “fresh” leads in the magical land of business opportunity seekers.  Sorry.

Want fresh leads of people looking for an opportunity to make more money?  Open your local White Pages, scan it into a database, scrub it against the Do Not Call registry, and dial the remaining 370,000 leads.  Believe me, without a doubt, EVERY person on that list is looking for an opportunity to make more money …especially in this economy.

(Hopefully you can detect the sarcasm and absurdity of my suggestion.  Do not actually do this.  Read on…)

Second: Exactly WHO are these people and how did they get on this list?   There are over 2 BILLION web pages pledging the perfect opportunity for endless wealth.  Now, granted, they’re not all legit, but the mere idea that someone has the mindset of filling out a form to an unknown entity on the Internet because they cannot locate a business opportunity elsewhere provides me concerns on several levels, mainly that they can’t afford the $97 investment for what they found.  Don’t be surprised when they can’t afford yours.

Ask anyone who’s name is on one of these lists …they’ll tell you they deeply regret filling out that form.  Lead brokers sell these lists over and over again.  Literally within minutes of clicking submit, these people are called relentlessly for months by overzealous and inexperienced callers who believe they’re the first to call.

A business opportunity seeker lead should be more appropriately named: Saw an ad claiming to earn $10,000 per month, has no money and doesn’t want to work, but has to do something because their weekly lottery investment isn’t panning out.

Think about it.

Never buy leads for your business based on the opportunity to make money.  It doesn’t make sense and the people who are very successful aren’t doing this.

Instead, look for leads of people who are highly likely to have a genuine interest in your product or service.  If you sell high quality health products, look for leads of people who are highly likely to purchase high quality health products.  For example, maybe a list of gym memberships and live in an upscale zip code.  When they fall in love with the product, many will naturally want to do the business because they truly believe in the product.

Rest assured, the only people making good money from business opportunity seeking leads are the people selling them.

Mike Lewitz
Phoenix, AZ USA

Opt-in to my newsletter and discover more nuggets: www.mlmultrasecrets.com

Mike Lewitz is a professional marketer and international speaker who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners across the globe create abundance in their business through practical, proven marketing techniques. Mike holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Phoenix and is currently working on an MBA at Western International University.

This article may be freely distributed, copied and shared with acknowledgment.

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Of course, while this is certainly based on the best of intentions, we also know the road to hell is paved with the same. This scenario is no exception. …especially when it comes to teaching MLM techniques that have a proven and documented 98% failure rate for over 40 years.

Nearly all of the people I personally work with express to me at some point the incredible stress they eventually start to experience because their MLM upline is doing everything they can to strong arm them into doing things they do not want to do, such as MLM home parties or making a list of everyone they know to have their MLM upline contact everyone on that list “for them.”

Most people don’t feel comfortable handing this information over to these so-called MLM leaders. And, rightfully, you should NEVER do this anyway, in my humble and professional opinion. Not only is it highly likely to not make you successful in your MLM business, it’s a great way to destroy close relationships with important people in your life. Simply don’t do it. Period.

The short truth is: This is literally a case of the blind leading the blind.

Most upline distributors haven’t been in the business much longer than you, and, even if they have, they don’t know much about true marketing principles.

Here is what I tell everyone:

This is YOUR business, and your business is YOUR business. You are not obligated or required to listen to your upline or do ANYTHING they tell you to do. As long as you are not violating the rules and regulations of your company, you are free to market your business any way you want and grow it as slow or fast as you wish. Your upline is NOT your boss and you do NOT work FOR them. You work for YOU.

This becomes especially prevalent when people purchase my program and they begin applying the proven techniques they learn. When their upline calls to try to get them to have a ‘home party’ or start doing some 3-way calls and my student tries to politely give them the ‘thanks, but no thanks’ rebuttal, many upline reps start to become upset and frustrated at them because “they’re not doing what they’re told.” The MLM upline feels un-empowered and they don’t like it.

These incidences create some awkward tension. I hear many stories where the upline distributor will say their company is giving them all the training they need and they don’t need to look anywhere else for training and then comment on how well it works because they’ve been in only 2 years and already have 30 or 40 people. (Yet, the REAL leaders are doing those numbers weekly.)

So, the bottom line here is: If your MLM upline leader is pressuring you to do things you don’t feel comfortable doing, for whatever reason (likely it’s because your gut is telling you it won’t actually work when they insist it will), you have ZERO obligation to do anything your upline tells you to do. When in doubt, contact the customer service department of your MLM company and verify your legal obligations.

Listen to your gut. You can be polite and cordial and still stand your ground.

While this advice certainly has the potential to make your relationship with your MLM upline rocky, it will re-establish the proper boundaries that, while you may be in business “together,” you are still separate. If they were really concerned with helping you grow your business, they’d be out there with you trying to figure out how the top leaders are consistently growing by 50-100+ people per week.

Your friends and family are not there to be marketed to. Don’t let your MLM upline ever tell you different.

Here’s to your success.
Have an excellent week!

Mike Lewitz
Phoenix, AZ USA

Opt-in to my newsletter and discover more nuggets: www.mlmultrasecrets.com

Mike Lewitz is a professional marketer and international speaker who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners across the globe create abundance in their business through practical, proven marketing techniques. Mike holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Phoenix and is currently working on an MBA at Western International University.

This article may be freely distributed, copied and shared with acknowledgment.

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While it may by cliche’ …diversification is an important component of any business model. The more income streams a business has, the better off the company is likely to become.

MLM companies are businesses just like any other. Thus, they follow the same rules. Basically, a ‘product’ is anything the company produces that generates revenue. As such, the ‘company web site’ is just another source of revenue.

Consider…

If it were REALLY possible to build a successful MLM business by driving Internet traffic to the web site your MLM company sold you, why wouldn’t your MLM company just do that themselves?

…and then what in the world would they need YOU for?!?

Are YOU an Internet professional? Because…there actually are people who do that sort of thing, you know.

Despite what most MLM companies teach distributors about the web site they receive when signing up -being an MLM tool, the main purpose of the MLM business opportunity web site is NOT to grow the business. To use an old sales term I learned a long time ago… the REAL purpose of that web site is to ‘tuck in the sale.’

Allow me to illustrate exactly what I mean.

Each MLM business opportunity must not only recruit large numbers of people to buy and sell their products and services, but they must also KEEP those large numbers purchasing month after month …or, naturally, the company will fail. The web site that the MLM company sells to it’s distributors (anywhere from $9.99 to $29.99 per month) is designed to make the existing distributors view it and be ‘impressed’ with its fancy flash videos and spectacular graphics. They watch the cool videos and think, “Wow! This is a great site and a great company. I feel so good here. I’m in the right place!”

These company-replicated web sites have ZERO marketing merit.

Marketing is about being unique and different. Standing out from the crowd.

How is it possible to ‘stand out from the crowd’ when everyone in the crowd is doing exactly the same thing? Or, in other words…has the same web site?

They can’t.

Which is precisely why every MLM company-replicated web site (which costs the company literally NOTHING to operate and host) is simply NOT designed to grow a business. It’s meant to ‘maintain’ the existing business.

The ONLY way anyone can become successful in marketing on the Internet (or any other media, for that matter) is to create a unique message that catches your prospect’s attention with something they’ve never seen before.

Create your own customized web site that addresses the value and benefits of your product or service, based on what your prospect wants, not what YOU think is great.

It’s not about you.  It’s about them.

Mike Lewitz
Phoenix, AZ USA

Opt-in to my newsletter and discover more nuggets: www.mlmultrasecrets.com

Mike Lewitz is a professional marketer and international speaker who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners across the globe create abundance in their business through practical, proven marketing techniques. Mike holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Phoenix and is currently working on an MBA at Western International University.

This article may be freely distributed, copied and shared with acknowledgment.

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Unfortunately, it’s a bad idea.

Duplication is taught because it makes sense logically to most of us. They teach us, “All I have to do find about 3 people myself, then help/teach others to do the same, then help each of those 3 do the same again, and eventually I’ll grow a large organization.”

We can see how the math works here. …and it looks great on paper (or on a PowerPoint). It makes sense to us logically, and then we can rationalize it out mathematically because that’s what works in manufacturing: Make 1000′s of widgets and ‘duplicate’ them to all be the same and perfect.

Then, we get excited because we see how this whole ‘Duplication’ thing works in network marketing, and we start thinking about the money, and this is where the whole ‘residual income’ concept comes from. We say to ourselves, “…and I’m gonna get paid from the activity of all those people!”

Duplication is an illusion. A fairy tale. It’s not real.

The entire Duplication concept has FATAL FLAWS:

1. Duplication is based on HOPE-marketing. This falls to several levels. First, if you’re new to network marketing, you have no personal experience even ‘getting one, who gets one, who gets one.’ So, your anticipation of getting three times that many is purely on, “I ‘HOPE’ I can get 3 people, and I ‘HOPE’ I can help them get 3,” and so on. Second, if you are experienced and have successfully recruited many people, that does not guarantee each person you recruit will, in turn, ‘Duplicate’ what you’re doing. Oh, sure, it would be fantastic if they did, and, in THEORY, it will ‘supposedly’ work out that way. But, again, if you’re experienced, you know this NEVER happens in real life. It’s a fairy tale. You ‘HOPE’ each person does the same. The reality is… most never will.
2. Duplication is the OPPOSITE of marketing. Marketing is about being unique, standing out from the crowd, and being different. The more different, the better! You get someone’s attention by doing/creating something that makes them stop and say, “Hey, what’s this?! I haven’t seen this before…” Duplication is copying what someone else is doing. If all 200,000 people in a small MLM business go out and put up that company-provided web site about making money from home, how do they stand out from the crowd? How is that different? It’s NOT. Do a simple Yahoo! or Google search for “make money” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. We’ve all been inundated with so-called ‘opportunities.’ It’s time for everyone to come up with a different angle. Be different. Unique. ‘Duplication’ is actually a VERY BAD idea in marketing.
3. The TOP leaders in any MLM company are not using ‘Duplication’ methods. Many current TOP leaders in any given company came from another company with a “book of clients” or a down-line they just moved over. This happens all the time. Open any MLM company-specific magazine and out of nowhere someone just appears with their picture at the top of the list. Outside of this, you’re being taught to do manual ‘grunt work’ marketing …bringing the leaders the names and numbers of everyone you know. Just ask the very TOP money earners who they used for 3-way calls when they got started …did they call the CEO with every new prospect they had. No.

Think about this…

If the idea of MLM ‘Duplication’ actually worked, everyone in the world would be an Amway distributor, nobody would be reading this article, and we’d all be sitting on our private beaches on our private islands.

So, what really does work in MLM? Something known as ‘Positioning.’

Positioning is a very powerful technique in marketing that separates you from your competition. Using proper positioning techniques, many people can be marketing the same products and services and never interfere with another because it incorporates the true ART and SCIENCE of marketing.

Please read my article on ‘Positioning’ where you will learn how to stand out from the crowd. Be unique.

Be different.

Mike Lewitz
Phoenix, AZ USA

Opt-in to my newsletter and discover more nuggets: www.mlmultrasecrets.com

Mike Lewitz is a professional marketer and international speaker who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners across the globe create abundance in their business through practical, proven marketing techniques. Mike holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Phoenix and is currently working on an MBA at Western International University.

This article may be freely distributed, copied and shared with acknowledgment.

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