I just got off a training call conducted by a respected, successful industry leader, and was surprised to learn that he in fact calls all his leads.
He joked, “You better call all your leads or you can be sure they will opt in to my list, and I will call them…and sign them up!”
That remark really got me thinking.
That you’ll generally see a higher conversion rate if you connect with your prospects on the phone as opposed to leaving the whole follow up to your auto responders (automated emails) can hardly be disputed.
Some people just won’t sign up for anything unless they get to speak to a “real person” first.
But is calling your leads always what’s most profitable?
Now before you accuse me of speaking with a forked tongue, hear me out:
I believe that every network marketer needs to earn the right NOT to call their leads. Until you get to the point where you’re producing 50 leads a day, or $10 000 a month in revenue, you need to call your leads.
Otherwise you’re leaving serious money on the table. Otherwise you aren’t maximizing your chances of seeing those leads convert to sales. (Not to forget, otherwise a certain industry leader will call your leads!)
At that stage in your business it’s not really an option: You gotta get your elbows greased. And you gotta learn to become comfortable talking to people.
But if you’re of the opinion that a person should always call their leads no matter what (as the leader insisted on his training) – even when they’ve established themselves in the industry and built a big downline – then you’re basically saying, “don’t scale your business”, “limit your income”.
Because calling leads and talking to prospects takes a heck of a lot of time.
And even if you work every waking hour of the day, your day still only has 24 hours.
What I’m saying is that if your business is set up so that in order to sign distributors and move product, you have to call every single person who leaves their name and phone number on your web site, then you can’t produce an unlimited amount of leads.
You can only generate as many leads as you can work it into your schedule to call.
And even with cool software like Phone Burner, which helps you with your dials, it’s still you that’s got to engage in the conversation once that prospect picks up the phone. And you are still only one person.
And you still have only 24 hours in your day.
Which means that when you’ve generated a certain number of leads, you’ll have to stop. Because that’s all you can handle.
Now since the number of sales a person will see is in direct proportion to how many leads they produce, limiting your lead flow means limiting your profits.
So what’s the solution, then?
You need to find a way to handle massive amounts of traffic, leads and prospects. One way to do this (the only way I know of) is to use an online marketing system.
A system that consists of landing pages, sales pages and auto responder messages.
A system that does the telling and selling, sorting and filtering for you, so that you don’t have to.
So that you only need to spend time talking to the individuals who have gone through a qualification process online and in essence proven that they are serious.
And the beauty of an online marketing system is that it works for you 24/7. Because the Internet, of course, never sleeps.
Which means you won’t have to limit your lead flow.
There are of course many, many network marketers who have built successful businesses without using a marketing system. Who are doing it the traditional way, making the phone calls and doing the one-on-one meetings.
I’m not saying that they’re wrong. There are many ways to build a network marketing business. I’m not saying that mine is the only right way.
I’m sure you can reach five-figures a month without using a system…and if $10K/month is all you’re after, and you also don’t mind calling leads, then great!
But if you want to reach a multiple five-figure, even six-figure, monthly income and at the same time have a life (i.e. you are not chained to the phone)…the answer is to automate your business as much as possible.
Ultimately it’s a matter of how you prefer to work your business, and of the size of your income goals.
I just thought it was a bit ironic when on his training call, the leader claimed you are leaving money on the table if you aren’t calling your leads:
It made me wonder if perhaps HE wasn’t the one leaving money on the table by having to limit his lead flow, and therefore also his profits.
Successfully,
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PS: Agree? Disagree? Feel free to re-tweet this post and/or to leave me a comment below!
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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Lead Generation, Marketing Strategies, Marketing Systems, Sponsoring & Recruiting, Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hi there to you, I received your write-up via my friend and she is true, your write-up is very fascinating and I used to be touch by every word you select particularly on how you engage them.
Hi Raymon. I appreciate your comment. All the best to you.
I’ve been receiving your emails up to 3/day and I do read some of them. As for the topic of this blog, I don’t think that everyone should be called back. I think that a personal response email is appropriate and necessary requesting a follow-up phone call. Let the prospective client make the decision as to whether or not they would like to receive a follow-up phone call or provide a toll-free number that they could reach you at. Many people, like myself, are struggling financially and cannot afford the burden of long-distance phone calls. Many are also searching for a way to generate an income from home but don’t want to be pressured into false hope. If it’s meant to be, it will happen! Patience is key. I am just starting my own business (partnered with a company) and I am doing ‘OK’. I am terrified of getting caught-up in something that is full of out-of-this-world promises. I have patience. Though I’d like to do well financially, I am not impressed with those that keep calling me stating that I “looked into this or that” online and then pressuring me to sign up quickly at a “low cost” to increase my sales and reps hence making thousands of dollars in the near future per week. What I am experiencing here with Lena, is ok. I get emails. They are informative but not aggressive and invasive. I can take my time to digest – to learn – to build a library of questions – to build my faith and trust in her. After 2 weeks now….I am ready for that phone call. I hope my comment makes sense and I hope that it is helpful. ~Chantal (stay-at-home Mama of 2 small children)