Is it time to change course? Internet network marketing recruiting has become the norm for most new school network marketers.
Not sure on exact figure, but its safe to say (or is it?) that the majority of new network marketing recruits despise the fact of making a list of their friends and family and doing any type of marketing offline. This especially for us online addicts that live for online marketing strategies and avoid all one on one contact with our prospects.
Question is, are we leaving money on the table?
Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring fame dropped the bomb this week by announcing the complete unexpected. Mikes announcement stopped hundreds of internet network marketers dead in their tracks.
Mike Dillard, the master of attraction and internet network marketing, focuses on offline prospecting strategies for his network marketing business. This is a major paradigm shift for many.
In fact, a paradigm shift that will be responsible for a mind opening conscious awareness of untapped niche markets and somewhat forgotten marketing methods for some.
Mike explains that with the current state of the economy, there are more and more people streaming to the network marketing industry. Not just for extra vacation money anymore, but rather as a necessity to provide for their families and for pure survival.
There is the massive ‘baby boomer’ generation that is flocking to our industry and will be for the next coming years.
These are people with great communication and leadership skills that are not interested in creating a MLM Blog or learning how to market online.
They like their business to be done face to face, over the phone and preferably with handshakes.
It seems like common sense to have systems in place that cater for them instead of trying to enforce education of internet network marketing recruiting when they simply want to get out there and do business with the skills they already posses.
Mike confesses that this might not be his primary strength, but it is that of his long-time mentors, the one and only Todd Falcone.
Todd and Mike hosted a conference call on Thursday evening where Todd shared his secrets of ‘sponsoring up’ and restoring confidence and posture within yourself to grab the big fish from the big pond.
To clarify, that would be the choice of chasing after burger flippers vs going after real-estate agents in your local area. Not to discredit burger flippers of course, but it’s a job where income is dependent on hours worked and has no skills in common with the network marketing industry.
Real-estate agents on the other hand do what we do, they are just doing it somewhere else at this point in time.
Todd lives by this approach by not just teaching, but applying it in practice. Todd’s prospect list consists of real-estate agents as mentioned, retail business owners, mortgage brokers, sales professionals and baby boomers who have retirement funds to invest.
Within all that said, is internet network marketing recruiting dead? Of course not, but as professional all round marketers, should we ignore a huge growing market of potential MLM rockstars who are hungry for success?
So should we rephrase the question in the beginning to:
How much money are we leaving on the table?
I hate to say it but this was coming. Attraction marketing has became almost a cult.
The reality is that the internet is a tool (a great & fantastic tool) that can generate leads and help recruit a couple of people. But MLM is a people profession.
The web based heavy hitter is the exception not the rule. The top earners in most companies have large public profiles. They are out giving presentations and talking to people face to face. Trying to ignore the people right in front of you is silly.
To me the most most impressive thing about Mike Dillard is if you watch his interview with Eric Worre at NetworkMarketingPro.com before he hit the big time he worked several jobs that were all about building the sales skills to succeed.
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Well it may seem to those who are focussed on internet marketing that no one else is doing offline marketing. The truth of the matter is in fact that the majority of the big earners and their teams are doing a mix now.
If you focus on USA alone then there are lots of online marketers but if you look at Asian markets and many others where they can't even read Dillard's books you'll find the business is run face to face, and they have the biggest cheques!
Randy Gage has been teaching this all along as have most of the top leaders who actually have a business in an MLM company - not a direct sales company or an info marketing company.
All that being said I love working online and devote most of my time to integrating it with network marketing and showing people how to do it whilst still focussing on their MLM.
Thanks for the update George.
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Great post George.
Even though I continue to learn online strategies
for growing my business and my marketing skills,
I believe that network marketing both online and
offline will ALWAYS revolve around relationships.
Some will be relationships in your area and still
others will be long distance relationships.
Cheers
Steve
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@Bob The MLM Team Builder
Thanks for adding to the conversation Bob. Mike Dillard has certainly invested large amounts of time and money to develop skill sets that stretch far beyond online marketing. I think it's important for newcomers to the industry to know that the chances of building a 6-7 figure network marketing business are slim if you are not prepared to open your mind with what's out there.
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@Rachel Agreed. Now that I think of the excellent leaders I know from Singapore who are building huge businesses real fast are all done offline. But nevertheless, they still have their online presence. I say be open to anything and mix it up!
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@Steve Yes, and social media has definitely given us a new perspective of how we can develop those relationships. And you are right, as long we keep the 'relationships first' attitude, we are all on the correct path for success!
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I think that it is a growing trend to combine Internet Marketing with Network marketing. Today it is all about having a system in place to market your business. If you don't have a system, then your business will fall flat on it's face
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Hey Donny, Agreed! Thanks for your feedback.
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