This October marked 14 years (2004) since I entered the network marketing arena and my life took a crazy detour into the world of entrepreneurship, deep personal development and experiencing more negativity than any human should have to endure.
The good news is that my story in this industry has a happy ending.
If you want to start recruiting on social media properly, just like I did, then read on ….
My journey however was not without many fumbles, embarrassing moments and more prospecting faux pas than I care to share and I hope my friends, family & the countless strangers I attempted to prospect have long forgotten the things I did. LOL
But here’s a few, so you have an idea…
Have you ever trawled through your phone contacts and old emails from like 10 years ago to let those “friends” know that you “have something they may be interested in?! *hangs head in shame* I have.
Have you ever tried to prospect your waitress, because she has been “so helpful”! I have.
Here’s a good one… have you ever taken your business cards with you on a night out “just in case you meet the perfect team member when you are out” Yep… didn’t turn out well.
There are so many more … but I have to stop, because I’m starting to get really depressed remembering all this right now. Ha ha ha…
The point is, I’m about to cast some heavy stones at some network marketers, but I just wanted to let you know that I’ve made mistakes too… heck that doesn’t mean we should be going easy on those that are committing some MAJOR prospecting mistakes when recruiting with social media though.
Luckily, back when I started, most of my fumbles happened offline and there is thankfully no record.
Unfortunately, today…
The Internet Never Forgets and It’s Ruining It for Everyone Else
They say that success in business is all about ‘time’ and ‘place’. Well, as a professional network marketer, I would add ‘message’ into the mix as well.
Unfortunately, network marketers today are being taught online recruiting methods, which include the wrong message, at the wrong time and most definitely in all the wrong places!
Here’s the truth!
‘Disposable distributors’ tasked with the job of spreading the word about their company’s products or opportunity, at the expense of the individual’s reputation and risking the suspension of their social media accounts.
Just recently, I asked some members of my team to share examples of the WRONG WAY to go about recruiting online, by sending me screenshots of the cringe-worthy messages they receive every day…
The WRONG Way to Prospect and Recruit
There is a VERY fine line between recruiting with social media and spamming people. I’m sorry to say that there are too many network marketers giving the rest of us a bad name because their upline and company leaders have taught them the wrong way … Internet marketing is a passive strategy, which works, even when you are not.
Successful entrepreneurs and networkers alike eventually learn the true secret to success and it becomes the foundation upon which their entire prospecting, recruiting and business building strategy is founded.
That secret being:
“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care” – Theodore Roosevelt
The screenshots above are weak attempts from people recruiting with social media…people who haven’t yet figured out that building a business is not about tricking people or finding the right copy/paste FB messages to send to strangers.
It’s actually caring about people, becoming a person of value and being someone uniquely positioned to help someone with their problems.
That last one is critical “uniquely positioned to help someone with their problems.”
Any idiot can copy and paste a message into the Private Message function on Facebook.
So, what sets you apart from all of those desperate reps filling people’s inboxes with their new “ground floor” opportunities or cash programs?
Now this doesn’t mean, prospecting online doesn’t work. I know some very skilled recruiters who are excellent at online prospecting, but just like offline prospecting, they’ve devoted the time and effort to learn this very difficult skill and have mastered it. And if that’s the strategy you want to deploy, you need to do it right or else!
But if you’re still a little fuzzy on whether you are a spammer or not, here’s a guide of sorts…
Top 5 Warning Signs That Your Prospecting Efforts are Actually SPAM
1) Your first private message to a stranger on social media includes a link to join your opportunity.
2) You get angry replies via private messaging and/or you have been reported as a spammer.
3) You post links to your opportunity or website in the comments section of other people’s social media posts
4) You compulsively want to talk about your company or products, without anyone asking you to share.
Finally… this one is the most important one…
5) You engage in interactions online, with a hidden agenda, hoping to transition the topic to something that would get people interested in your opportunity, without caring about knowing the other person.
This last one for me is a big one but could also be controversial.
After all, #5 is the very definition of prospecting (online or offline), which even when done right… can still feel awkward, result in people getting angry at you and very unleveraged, which is why I eventually decided to stop prospecting all together.
But here’s the interesting thing…
“When I Stopped Prospecting People, My Business Started Growing!”
I can’t tell you how relieved and at peace I felt, when I once again, was able to go out with my friends, visiting a family member’s home or be in a public place without having to think about prospecting anyone.
Just enjoying being normal again, was incredible, after years of being taught by my upline that “everyone was a prospect” and approaching every conversation with a hidden agenda, I was free!
That’s because it wasn’t until I STOPPED prospecting, that my business actually started growing!
Weird, right?
At this point, you may be asking, “then how on earth did you grow your business?”
Well before I answer that, I have to say that there are people who are very skilled business builders who completely disregard the issues I mentioned above.
They are quite happy to approach every interaction with a stranger as a prospecting opportunity.
Getting yelled at or sworn at by prospects is no big deal, as long as some people say ‘yes.’
And just like there are ways of doing it right offline, there’s a way to successfully do it online as well. After learning and becoming very good at prospecting, I decided that I didn’t want to build my business this way.
For me, the problem with prospecting in general, as it’s normally taught, is that the mindset going in, is still about what YOU want people to do and about manipulating people into doing what you want them to do.
In other words, it’s about YOU, not them. I didn’t like that, but I still did it for a little while… until I did find a better way.
The Better Alternative to 1-on-1 Prospecting, Which Won’t Make You Feel Like a Cheap Sales Person
Now, I am not trying to be high and mighty about all this prospecting stuff, because I’m not.
If it came down to feeding my family with ‘stone cold’ prospecting tactics or my kids starving, I choose stone cold prospecting every time, without remorse.
But the reason I was able to quit prospecting was because, with the help of some extraordinary mentors, I eventually discovered an online recruiting strategy, which…
Enabled me to recruit more people in 1 Day, than the most skilled recruiter in the world can do in 1 month I was able to passively generate leads, customers and new team members – even when I was out having fun with friends and family.
(Hence why I didn’t have to worry about prospecting them!)
Rather than spending hours spamming or private messaging people on social media, I learned how to legitimately get Facebook and other social media platforms to actually help me attract the people who are most interested in what I have to offer, using their ads platform! (i.e. doing it the right way!)
This strategy is called ‘attraction marketing’, which is an internet marketing strategy designed for networkers and people in direct sales!
You see, if your business depends on you being on social media, sending private messages or commenting on people’s posts all day, you are NOT doing internet marketing… despite what you may have been led to believe.
Online prospecting and internet marketing are NOT the same thing!
If you want to learn how it works, I actually reveal the entire strategy that I was taught by my mentors and now use exclusively, in a free 10-Day Online Recruiting Bootcamp available here.
There is also details of an ebook written by my fabulous mentor Ferny Cebellos, which is goes into the nuts n’ bolts of recruiting & selling online using this strategy.
Now if traditional prospecting online or offline is your thing and you want to stick to that, by all means, go for it.
There are many top trainers and earners in this industry that focus on cold market recruiting skills…
(And they do ‘attraction marketing’ too!)
They just weren’t for me, I just didn’t want to live my life like that, I wanted to be there for my boys and that was more important.
I would much rather make a a huge success of my business first and then have my friends and family beg me to tell them more about it, than damage those important relationships by begging my friends and family to join a business which isn’t making any money.
Which would you prefer?
Exactly!
Emma
Click here for more info on my FREE online recruiting boot camp!
Excellent article. I certainly appreciate this
website. Stick with it!