Part of the guide: Network Marketing Lead Generation
Vision.
When I got started in my network marketing business, I was literally in the dark. The funny thing is, for some crazy reason, I just wouldn’t quit. I got started with the same advice that most of you did – and it goes something like this:
“Make a list of EVERYONE you know, call them up, and persist until they either join or refuse…”
Lol.
Ok – maybe it wasn’t that bad – but it kind of was. For some reason, for the next five years, I hung around in this business and just kept on doing the same thing over and over again – wishing it would work.
Five years later – it didn’t work any better than it did when I started. It’s funny how we get into this industry and try to do things that massive companies with huge advertising budgets do. Small business is not large business, and it needs to be treated differently.
So what’s the difference between marketing for a small business? What you do has to be created with one goal in mind – responsiveness. How does the right market respond to what you’re doing – and does the response end in profit or loss?
Looking at it as an intelligent business person in a ‘for-profit’ enterprise, network marketing really only has three goals:
- To sell products, services, and marketing tools.
- To recruit distributors to sell products, services, and marketing tools.
- To help your team sell products, services, and marketing tools.
That’s really it. So rather than sticking to one particular strategy, why not just look for the most effective, efficient way to make that happen?
For example, with the ‘friends and family’ approach, it just begs the question: Do friends and family respond well to home meetings – or not? If not, then why bother?
What I’ve found is that home meetings work well in some markets and not in others. Certain people have spheres of influence that respond well, and others don’t. A lot of people with a non-responsive sphere of influence keep hammering their relatives repeatedly.
The reality is that in network marketing, you have to move a massive number of people to action to create any kind of sustainable, big result – so why play small, anyway?
I remember when I got into this industry, they told me to sponsor two people a month to go diamond in 2-5 years. Funny enough – there’s almost no one in this entire industry that worked with such tiny numbers to create any kind of massive leverage. Most network marketing leaders making six-figure residual incomes have sponsored well over 100 people, some have sponsored 200, 300, or even 500.
The fact is that rather than persisting with small, ineffective approaches, and when something doesn’t work, just smashing your head against the wall harder, doesn’t it make sense to find out what works, stop doing what doesn’t, and stick with what’s effective?
I started this article off with one word – vision. Funny enough, though, that is not what is going to make the most difference in your business. You can have huge dreams and still beat your head against a wall. The thing that is going to make the biggest difference is learning the simple actions that work to create the results that you want – and then having the vision to follow through with them.
Your vision will keep you around and motivate a team once you get one – but if you want results – you’ve got to learn the skill of direct response marketing, and you’ve got to think like a small business entrepreneur who only has time to do something that’s going to create and increase bottom-line profits.
What do we make money for in MLM? Selling, recruiting, and our team selling and recruiting – that’s it. Let’s not make this industry mysterious, because all of those things are easy to learn when it’s all you focus on, and you look past the hype.
One more story and then I’ll let you go. I had a team member just the other day who told me that they had to unsubscribe from my emails because they get anxiety every time they go to their inbox. They said they never know if there’s going to be an emergency get-together, or some kind of promotion, or what’s going to be there. (I cycle through periods of promotion and value).
It kind of made me chuckle – because for me – I’m only doing things that work. If that kind of email didn’t make massive amounts of sales, I wouldn’t write it – and if you’re not in this to make sales and profits – why are you doing this at all?
Just make sure that you keep focused on what matters in your business – to your business, and you’ll be off on the right foot.
P.S. Leave me your thoughts, comments, and questions below!
Comments
Michael, August 10.
You have been paid late before
You have watched the number on the dashboard not match the number in your account. What is different now is simple: it settles on a public contract you can check yourself, not a dashboard I control.
Read the contract →Most participants earn little to nothing. No income is guaranteed. You can verify every payout on the public smart contract.
I’ve been in network marketing for years, and what you’ve shared resonates deeply. It’s amazing how many people overlook the basics. Thanks for the insight!
Susan, August 15.
This post makes so much sense. I’ve always struggled with the traditional methods, and your approach is a breath of fresh air. Do you have any resources or examples to back up the claims?
Alicia, August 17.
I absolutely loved this post! Your insights on focusing on what works and ditching what doesn’t are spot on. Keep up the great work!
Greg, August 18.
I’m skeptical about the results you’ve mentioned. Could you provide some concrete examples or evidence to support these claims?
Elena, August 19.
I found this article very informative, but I’m curious about how you balance promoting your products without overwhelming your audience. Any tips?
Brian, August 19.
While I appreciate the points you’ve made, I think some of your strategies might not apply to all markets. Have you considered the cultural differences in various regions?
Linda, August 20.
Hey David! It’s been a while since we last connected. This post reminded me of our old discussions about marketing. We should catch up soon!
Rafael, August 20.
This post hit home for me. I’ve been struggling with getting my business off the ground, and your advice about focusing on what works is just what I needed to hear. Thank you!
Jasmine, August 21.
I recently came across a tool called “Lead Booster” that automates lead generation. It might complement the strategies you’ve discussed. Worth checking out!
Samantha, August 22.
Thank you for this insightful post. I’ve learned a lot about the importance of direct response marketing, and I’m eager to apply these strategies to my business.
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The line about home meetings working in some markets and not others is the one part of this I can actually confirm from my own spare room. I ran a dozen in year one, all invite-only, all friends of friends. Most drew nobody who wasn’t already there as a favor to me. The few that worked were the ones where I’d stopped inviting family entirely and started inviting people who’d already asked me a real question first. Responsiveness was the whole difference, exactly like the post says — I just had to burn a year to learn it.
Kelsey, twelve meetings is a big ask when I already know everyone I could invite. My sphere isn’t non-responsive, it’s just small, and no amount of vision fixes that.
Sorry if this is obvious, but how would you know your sphere is ‘responsive’ before you’ve already spent months testing it on them?
One correction worth making: the post treats persistence and direct response marketing as interchangeable skills, and they aren’t. Persistence is temperament. Direct response is a measurable discipline — you test an offer, read the response, and change the offer. You can have unlimited persistence and never once test anything, which is precisely the trap this post is otherwise warning against.
Priya, that distinction is one nobody told me either, in six years of building a team before I walked away. I persisted for most of that, in the sense the post describes — same list, same script, same emergency-sounding emails when momentum stalled. What I never did, until near the end, was actually test whether a different offer got a different response, which is the direct response part you’re pointing at. I don’t think the post is wrong about vision keeping you around. It kept me around longer than the results justified. I’d just tell anyone reading this to separate the two things early, because persistence alone will make you feel busy for a very long time without ever telling you whether the underlying approach works.
I think what’s being missed in some of the reactions here is the point about the three goals — sell, recruit, help your team sell. Stripped of the vision talk, that’s just an honest description of the job, and I don’t think it’s dishonest to say it plainly. What I’d push back on is the idea that responsiveness alone tells you whether to keep going. A market can respond well and still not be sustainable once you account for the actual hours it costs.
Ade, ‘responsiveness’ is doing the same job here that ‘engagement metrics’ did in every meeting I sat through for twenty-two years before I left my corporate role. Everyone measures it, nobody agrees what a good number looks like, and the person presenting it always frames it as obviously actionable. The post’s version is honest about testing your own sphere before repeating a strategy that doesn’t fit it, I’ll give it that. It’s just recycled the same vague metric my old employer used to justify whatever the plan already was.