Prospecting For Home Business Leads

It doesn't matter if you are In Shaklee, Xango, Herbalife, Quixtar, Unicity, Natures Sunshine, Melaleuca, or Mary Kay, or have some other form of health and wellness home business, we all need customers and new distributors to grow our business. Prospecting effectively is the key but may not be the only way open to you.

Chances are, if you've been in your own health and wellness small business  for a while, the subject of prospecting new customers probably crosses your mind on a fairly regular basis. You are not alone. No matter how big a business you may be, you are either growing or dying. Usually this depends on how much prospecting for leads the marketers are doing in order to show the product or the business opportunity. Growth is always the favoured direction and prospecting is the key. That's why Pepsi and Coke continue to spend mega bucks on advertising even when just about everyone on this Planet recognizes their names and some even buy their products.

So while everyone may think their particular product is the best in the World and "sells itself" or they may think they've got the greatest system or pay plan for success, the bottom line is this: every business needs prospects but most of all every business needs customers. By the way, I've yet to see a product pick up the telephone, talk to a customer or transport itself to a store or a person's house. People move products, products don't move people or themselves. People move people. The purpose of prospecting is to find new customers.

Finding Customers: Types of Leads

Problems and Issues: Warm Market Leads

If you are part of any typical network marketing company or direct sales organization, it will always recommend you talk to your family and friends first about the business opportunity or products. (Sadly, this is the beginning and the end of their lead generation system.) This is called "warm" market prospecting because these people already know you and will sit down with you to see what you are offering. Often the company will tell you stupid stuff like "everyone gets in" but the reality is some might, but often they won't. They will say something like: "They might get in some time in the future, after they see how it's working out for you" This may sound reasonable to them but it really means "no way I'm doing that". You on the other hand, are left to wonder about all your lack lustre friends and relatives who sounded so smart before you got in your own business. It also may dawn on you that you can't build a business if no one gets in because they are waiting to see you become successful before they join. Oh. I am not suggesting that you can ignore friends and relatives but don't expect very much from them especially at the beginning. After you develop an awesome story, they may come looking for you.

'Warm" leads suggests something like "warm and fuzzy" which is often not an accurate description of what actually happens. These friends and relatives can also be the most opinionated, rude and downright hurtful about your new venture. I sell tons of bread in my traditional distribution business, Bread Roots and not a single loaf is sold to a friend or a relative and never has. In fact, my business is hardly never discussed among this group because there is no interest. So why should it be different for my other business interests or your other business interests? The truth is all business is built through strangers or new customers.

It's this "everyone get in" sales pitch that gets brand new prospects really excited the first day they get in. That tied with the "product sells itself" and let the "cd" do all the talking sounds just great. You can excuse the new prospect for thinking "this is going to be easy". That's what they have been told. So when a brand new person eventually finds out that the marketing people have embellished reality a bit, they quit the business. They rationalize this decision by saying something like "well that didn't work for me. I guess it's just not meant to be" The real truth is that in any business, the success is in the numbers. Prospecting habits are the answer. How many people you talk to, how many listen to a business opportunity presentation, how many get in, how many get in and actually buy something and how many get in and actually do something? It's also calling on all the "no's" and "laters" you met the first time round. I believe the fundamental flaw in many network marketing companies is that they don't tell people the real numbers. People join and quit based on wrong information. Great.

Those new prospects who follow the advice of their "business mentors" will contact all their family and friends and some will have great results and others will have nothing to show for it except they learnt a whole lot about what doesn't work. Of course, that's when "the Upline" throws in the story of Thomas Edison on how he found 1000 ways to make a light bulb that didn't work before he has successful. Having contacted everybody on his list the new recruit is basically out of business until he finds a new prospect. Besides hanging out at the Mall, Farmers markets or Flea markets, there are very few places to meet new prospects other than joining the local social and business clubs so the issue of buying leads often arises.

My Leads System

After trying several different online approaches over the past few years I am now using a 3 part leads system to build my home business.

It all starts with a prospect, lead or customer. I have a two part strategy for leads, buying them from Key 2 Net  (ybltd user name)and generating leads my self through this website and others as well as Veretekk Traffic Portals. See Veretekk Lead Generation page on this website. Veretekk has an excellent support system through numerous online webinars, a weekly company wide webinar and a 24/7 support system using Skype

Key 2 Net has been in business for years/. There is a live person , Richard Brewster, you can talk to and the leads are reasonably priced. The Key 2 Net Website offers a lot of information about dealing with the leads once you download them. You will note that they also recommend Veretekk as one way to broadcast your message.

The 3rd part of the leads strategy involves creating a relationship with the prospect. I do that via My Tool Biz. My Tool Biz is a system using both online and offline tools to convert leads into customers or prospects for your business. My Tools Biz has regularly scheduled webinars to teach you how to use the system. In fact, the whole MyTools Biz is a very comprehensive teaching program covering most, if not all, of the steps in building a home business. The owner Steve Gotberg is very available by phone and email. My Tool Biz offers a free 10 day trial whereby you can view the whole system to see if it will work for you.

 My Tool Biz Lead Capture Website: http://colm.mytoolbiz.net/info

My Tool Biz Webpage about tax savings as a result of having a home based business http://colm.mytoolbiz.net/tax

My Tool Biz generic home based business opportunity website http://colm.mytoolbiz.net/main

My Tool Biz presents  Tim Sales and "Brilliant Compensation" and "What the Wealthy Buy on PayDay" http://www.colm.mytoolbiz.net/ts

My Tools Biz 24/7 Toll Free generic opportunity call (one of 5 choices) 1 866 552 4257 Code=91

These websites and toll free number  are all tied into an sophisticated contact management system and an email autoresponder system which you use to follow up with prospects.

None of the above systems promote any particular opportunity or product. They are all generic so they can be used by anyone. The main focus is to find people to take a good look at your opportunity once they qualify to look.