What is your Primary Focus as an MLM or Affiliate Business Owner?

There are a lot of people who are getting involved in the home based business industry. There are thousands of companies out there that offer everything from educational products to juices. There is still, other of companies that offer an affiliate relationship whereby you get the right to market someone’s company and in return for a commission on all the sales that come from your marketing efforts.

These companies have their own way of explaining how and why their particular company is the latest and greatest. Some have elaborate presentations that are designed to get you excited about the opportunity that you are exploring. I find, though, that there are few companies out there that really explain what your job truly is as a mlm or affiliate business owner.

Let’s say, for a moment that you have found an opportunity that speaks to you. You sign up and get access to your own back office and website. You are very excited because you really are proud of the company that you represent. You’re ready to hit the ground running!

What do you think your job is now that you are all set up?

Many people believe that their job is to simply promote the business to as many people as possible. While the above statement is true, it is my contention that directly promoting your business or affiliate program is a secondary task. Your primary focus should be collecting the contact information of willing prospects that you will continually market to.

Here’s what I mean:

If you have unlimited sources of money, then directly promoting your business is not going to be a problem for you. All you have to do is flood your market with your advertising everyday, all day and night through all advertising mediums. You will develop brand recognition fairly quickly and if you have a great product, the rest will be history. But if you have limited funds, as many do initially, then you will have to shift your focus from promoting your business directly to building a list of willing prospects (those who’ve contacted you) or leads; as they are often times referred to in the mlm world.

What this means is you will have to devise ways to get people to come to you. Here’s an example: In my real estate business I needed clients. Sticking my face in the newspaper with every other realtor in my area was not going to do me any good. I was just one of many. What I did was offer a free first time homebuyer seminar. I rented a space and placed one ad in the news paper. I also hand delivered flyers to every apartment building in the area where the seminar was to be held. I had a raffle and gave away a free breakfast for 2 at a local restaurant and, of course, gave them great information on the home buying process and how they could best position themselves to buy a great home. At the event, there was standing room only!! The turnout was amazing. As people arrived, I had them sign in with all of their contact information. I then would periodically send them info on the local real estate market and offer them free resources to assist them in buying a home if they were still interested.

From that seminar, I collected 6 new clients who all purchased a house or condo. Of the six, 2 of them referred a friend to me who also ended up purchasing a home. So by not advertising my business as a realtor I closed 8 deals for a total of $70,000 dollars in commissions. I still advertise to the other 50 or so people who attended the seminar. And I know that they appreciate my contact because I still get response e-mails from many of them.

The lesson here is this: You may think that your product or service is the “Bees Knees” and just showing people what you’re selling is enough to make them want to purchase or sign up. The fact is, you have to build a relationship with people by either spending a lot of money and flood your market with your advertising or by building a list of leads that you can personally follow up with over time.

If you don’t have an unlimited source of funds then don’t waste your time advertising your business or product and how great it is. No one cares and most will think you are trying to scam them out of something. Instead, spend all of you energy in creating a system that will help build list of willing participants automatically. Once you have a substantial list and you have created a relationship with the members of that list, THEN you can start to promote your opportunity or product. That is your job as an mlm business owner. Without this list, you will have a hard time building your business and income.

Coming up next building a relationship with your prospects through the use of your auto responder.