The majority of people who join a network marketing company are fairly quickly introduced to the concept of leads. A “lead” in this context is usually defined as a name, and some contact details, of someone who may be interested in joining your business.
Some MLM companies will encourage you to buy your leads, others will have a system in place that helps you generate your own leads, and there are even some companies which will leave the lead-generation in your hands entirely. However, you will most likely be told that without leads, you won’t be successful.
Quite apart from sounding like something that belongs in an electrician’s toolbox, there is nothing personal about a lead. It ties in with the mentality that your success in network marketing is wholly based on numbers, and each lead is therefore only a tool that could potentially grow your business by one. I hesitate to use any word stronger than potentially, because if you maintain a numbers mentality, you will find that most of these leads lead nowhere near the business-growth (or success) you are expecting.
What helps people, helps business. – Leo Burnett
Perhaps if I compare a network marketing business with a different kind of network, it may be somewhat easier to see my point. In a network of computers, the leads are what connect the computers. The computers are what ostensibly do the work, and produce the results. The fact that the computers are connected to each other enables more complex problems to be solved faster and with more impressive results. In this case, the leads are simply acting as conduits for the information passed between the computers.
In a successful network marketing business, we have people. These are real people (not just numbers on someone’s balance-sheet) who are determined to be successful. The people are connected to each other via a network of communication devices, and these connections are vital for the network to function. The people in the network must be able to communicate with each other, and assist each other. A network without this element of personality and communication is really just a bunch of leads – leading nowhere.
Once you have built a solid network of people (not numbers or leads), who communicate with each other and assist each other, you have the perfect foundation on which to grow a business, where you can potentially market anything you desire. In other words, you have the foundation of a successful network marketing business.
The single biggest problem in Communication is the illusion that it has taken place. – George Bernard Shaw
And how do you build a solid network with people? It is really very simple. Everyone, without exception, wants to feel special and wants others to listen to them. If you can be the person who listens to them and makes them feel special, then you have taken the first step towards building your network.
If you are going to be perfectly honest, you will never listen to a lead. Remember that a lead is just a number, and as such what they want is immaterial to you – unless they want to join your business (and even then, you quickly get their signature, add one to the size of your business and move along to the next lead).
When you listen to someone, you will find out what they are interested in, what they want out of life, and how you may be able to help them. Whether they join you in your business or not is irrelevant, because simply forming a solid connection (based on listening and understanding) will enrich your life as well as theirs.
A home-made friend wears longer than one you buy in the market. – Austin O’Malley
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Even if you are involved with a company that revolves around the concept of leads, as being numbers, you can try changing the way you think about them. Think about each one of your leads as a person – an individual – that you are forming a lasting mutual relationship with. A small mind-shift along these lines will dramatically change the way your business is going (or, rather… the way your business is growing).
Of course, we can’t form long-lasting mutual relationships with everyone we meet, because when all is said and done we are all different. However, it is also true that you will never form a long-lasting relationship of any kind with someone that you treat as a number.
