Should You Build Your Network Marketing Business By Recruiting or Sponsoring?
To build your network marketing business, should you focus on recruiting or sponsoring?
Network marketing maven Mike Dillard came up with an awesome respnose to this:
It’s an extremely important question, and over the past 10 years, I’ve come to my own personal conclusion on this topic.
The first thing we should recognize is that there is no ONE right way when it comes to sponsoring and recruiting.
Everyone has their own style and approach, and I'll share mine with you:
But first, let's set the stage…
I was as bad as you could be when it came to recruiting for almost six years.
Calling me shy would have been a massive understatement. The thought of picking up the phone and talking to a lead made me physically tremble.
I’d sit at my desk, staring at the phone for hours. I’d make endless trips to Office Depot to buy that one last supply I needed to ensure my desk was organized and ready for business.
I’d wait until I heard that next training call, or to make sure my sponsor was available for a 3-way if needed before my fingers every touched the dial pad.
It’s like trying to sum up the courage to call the girl you like in grade school – but now you’ve got to do it every day for a living.
I was my sponsors’ worst nightmare because they knew I had the talent and ability to achieve incredible things, but I always let my own fears and demons get in the way.
If you haven’t been in that position yet, where you just want to stick your hands out and shake someone senselessly because they just can’t snap out of their own mental prison… you will.
Everyone needs to be in a constant state of improvement, because if you haven’t figured it out yet, this industry is utterly ruthless and will expose every weakness you have to the world.
That’s the nature of entrepreneurialism.
Now for most people, prospecting and recruiting are completely emotional events driven by fear:
Fear of rejection… What if this person calls me an idiot, yells at me or hangs up? What if my friends make fun of me? What if I get my upline on the phone for a follow up call and they never show?
Fear of failure… I spent my last dime on these leads, what if I can’t sponsor someone? I told my upline I’d be his best distributor this month. What will he think of me if I don’t produce at all? I told my family I’d make it happen no matter what it takes… What if I fail them?
Fear of success… What if I do sponsor someone? I don’t know what to do with them and I could let them down. It would be all my fault. What if I build a large organization and they ask me to start leading people or speaking in public? What if my friends resent me for making more money than them?
Yes, this industry is ruthless. In the world of capitalistic entrepreneurialism, it always has been, and always will be the survival of the fittest.
Believe it or not, that’s one of the greatest gifts you’ll ever receive during your life.
The sky is the limit – IF – you’re willing to pay the price.
After graduating from college, I packed up everything I owned into a small pickup truck and drove from Texas to San Diego, California.
All I had was a dream and a successful upline mentor named Stu who was willing to show me the ropes.
At this point, I had been in this industry for five years and never sponsored a distributor or customer outside my family tree.
Now it was “do or die” time. School was over. I was on my own. It felt like my entire future was riding on this trip.
I found the only apartment in town that I could afford and unpacked the few belongings I had: my desk, computer, books, bike, bed, guitar, phone, and a lamp.
My sponsor and I had met a few days before and things were looking up. We had an incredible marketing plan in place and all I had to do is follow up with the leads it was going to generate.
A massive radio campaign had been produced, meetings were being held in town each week, and I had secured a strategic position within the group that had the potential to put me in the millionaire category within a year or two.
I fell asleep that night determined and confident. Things were going to be different this time. Little did I know we were hours away from waking up to a brave new world.
The date was September 10th, 2001.
We all know what happened next. Our big plans disappeared overnight, the investors left, and people did their best to deal with the massive question mark hanging over the entire world.
As you can imagine, it’s hard to sell optimism and opportunity during such tragedy. Business was the last thing on anyone’s mind.
I toughed it out working for $8.00/hr at Best Buy selling computers. The business never took off and I never conquered my fear of prospecting.
Four months later I packed everything up and moved back to Texas. I had failed myself on all accounts but one…
For some sick reason that most people, (other than you), will never understand, I wasn’t ready to give up. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life working for someone else, and still look at myself in the mirror every morning.
I had to conquer my fear of the phone and I had to do something different this time if it was going to happen.
I came to realize that people are funny creatures. Most of us are willing to do things for other people that we’re completely unwilling to do for ourselves.
If I hired you to call leads everyday for $30,000 per month, would you do it? Of course you would.
Then why are you still unwilling and maybe even afraid to do it for yourself right now?
Having a “job” or assignment takes the responsibility off of us. We’re willing to make those calls now because “we” are not the ones getting rejected… It’s the company we work for.
We can separate our ego from the process in a job.
I took advantage of that and made my first dive into the corporate world as a physician recruiter.
It was a strategic move…
My “job”?
Cold call 200-300 doctors' offices per day and try to get past the gatekeeper to speak to the physician.
I wasn’t able to make those calls for myself, but I made them for my boss.
Within five days I was a completely new person.
Months later I’d use the same tactic to conquer my fear of personal selling. I took a position as an outside sales person for a wireless broadband start-up.
My job was to get into the big Dallas highrises and knock on doors, starting from the top floor, working my way down until I made it through or was kicked out by security.
The plan had worked, and the old Mike Dillard was dead.
Months later I would meet my first real sponsoring mentor, Mark Wieser.
With Mark’s help, I would go on to build my first real organization, personally sponsoring dozens of distributors in months.
Mark’s expertise in this industry when it comes to prospecting and recruiting is unequaled, which is why I produced our "Black Belt Recruiting" course with him.
Anyway, I wanted to share my story with you for a reason, before we dive into the "good stuff" in the next part of this series.
It would have made a world of difference if I had known that the pain and frustration of learning these new skills and becoming a new person was normal.
If you’re in the same position I was, then I want to you understand that it’s OK, and that you’re on the right track.
…Check out the "Black Belt Recruiting" program I created with Mark.
But that doesn't surprise me. In fact, the information is so valuable, that it contains our highest level of guarantee…
Get new posts from New Success Online delivered right to your inbox: Subscribe to NewSuccessOnline by Email




