HBSA

I see way too many networkers fall for this pitch.

“Hey, come buy some FRESH, double-verified opportunity-seeking leads!  These people are VERY interested in starting their own home-based business.  They are practically ready to jump into the first business they see!”

Not true.

I’ll first explain why these leads are a pure rip – and then I’ll explain the proper way to grow your business with leads.

Because we’re not against lead-getting.  We love leads.  Leads are a very necessary part of growing your business.

But these lame-o opportunity-seeking gigs are not the way to do it, for several reasons:

1. Price

Most of the time, these types of leads are sold for $5 – $30 per lead.  If you are buying leads, you should never pay more than $0.25 per lead.  Ever.

2. Positioning

These leads have been generated by someone else – not you.  Which means that someone else is getting the positioning – not you.  Which means that these leads won’t convert as highly as your own positioned leads would convert.

3. Exclusivity

Most of these types of leads are sold – and resold – and resold – and resold again.  Each person that buys them is told that they have “exclusive” access to them…but not really.  By the time you get to them, the lead has been called by four other hungry marketers, all claiming that they have the BEST opportunity.  Now, you have to not only close your prospect on your company, but also un-close them on the other four opportunities that they just heard about.

4. Mindset

Allegedly, the mindset of these leads is that they are looking for a hot opportunity.  In reality, most are looking for a job.  They are wanting a way to earn money RIGHT NOW.  Network marketing is a residual-income compensation structure – which means you get paid tomorrow on the work you do today.

So what happens when you put a person who needs money yesterday into a program that is designed to pay out over time?  They quit. The result is that your downline becomes a constantly revolving door – new people in, old people out.  Not the best way to structure a long-term business.

I could go on, but you get the drift.

So how DO you grow a business with leads?

You either buy targeted leads, or you generate your own.

Let me ‘splain it you:

1. Buying Targeted Leads

You should first target your leads based on the benefits of your product/service.  Now, you may be saying “NO! I need business builders!”  Yeah, I know.  Of course you need business builders.  But you also need product users.  If you signed up 500,000 people, all of whom were just business builders who didn’t use the product/service, you’d have no residual income.

You need business builders AND product users, and if you lead with the benefits of the product/service first, then you avoid many of the pitfalls that befall motivated-but-uneducated marketers that get brainwashed into thinking they can build an empire with a bunch of biz-op seekers who have no interest in the product or service.

So list out the benefits of your product service – what does it do for people?  Does it:

Save them money?

Help their alopecia?

Let them communicate better?

Provide great travel deals?

Give peace of mind?

Alleviate joint pain?

Improve vision?

Remove wrinkles?

What does it DO?  The answer to this question will fill in the “what are my benefits” blank.

Now that you know what benefits you offer, you can then go find lead brokers who have leads that fit your profile.

Let’s run through a couple of examples:

Say you’re marketing a beverage that helps improve energy.  Your profile could be:

Men and women between ages 30 – 50, who have been diagnosed or sought treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome or depression, earn over $40,000 per year, have a credit rating over 650, and have inquired about a home-based business in the last six months.

This is a much more targeted profile than your run-of-the-mill biz-op seeker.  You know they have a need for what you have – and that they are actively seeking a solution.  You also know you can help them, and you can bet that if they love our product, they will probably be one of your best business builders because they are truly passionate about what they are marketing.

Let’s try another.

Say you market a telecom program – people sign up with your company, and they get to sell their products (including video phones).  A simple profile could be:

Men and women between ages 40 – 60 who have children that have gone off to college in the last year, earn over $40,000 per year, have a credit score over 650, and have inquired about starting a home-based business in the last 6 months.

Again – look at the targeting.  Now why would we want to target people who had kids go off to college?  Well, if you have a video phone as one of your products, then they’ll probably be interested in seeing their wittle Joey’s cutsey-wutesy face in between all his classes instead of just getting his lousy text messages.

The key is targeting based on the benefits of what you have.  Now, you can go shop some lead brokers to see if they can help you out.

When dealing with leadbrokers, you need to understand that their job is to sell you leads – as many leads as possible.  There are several snakes out there, but also several quality guys as well.

Here’s a couple of keys when negotiating with lead brokers:

1. Don’t pay over $0.25 per lead.

2. Buy as few as possible on your first batch. If they work out, you can always get more.

3. Have realistic expectations.  Some people think that they should sign up everyone on their lead list, and it ain’t gonna happen. The stats you are looking for are a 12% – 20% connect rate, a 3% – 15% response rate, and a 15% – 30% close rate.  It basically means you’ll be signing up 2 – 5 people out of every 500 leads you purchase.   That may not look great, but let’s look at the numbers:

At $0.25 per lead, you paid $125 for your 500 leads.

If your average commission is $75, that means you made yourself $150 – $375 in immediate commissions, not to mention the residual income.  It’s a profitable, sustainable way to grow a business.

For leadbroker recommendations, you can just Google “lead brokers” and interview them to see if they can help.

Here is a link to our lead broker – we actually buy them in bulk from our broker, and provide them in smaller buys.

What if you don’t want to buy leads from a broker?

No problem - just generate your own.

This strategy is about using targeted advertising methods to generate leads that are positioned for you specifically.  This is our favorite way to grow a business.  It’s predictable, simple, and fun.  I’ll probably write up a full post on this in the future, but for now, you can just go here and download our free report on the subject.  We talk about how to add 700 reps into a networking business, and doing it with targeted marketing methods and strategies.  Enjoy.