Many readers of this blog are already in YTB, so I wanted to write on a topic that addresses the timeless question: "How do I build my business after I've exhausted my warm market?"
When I joined YTB almost a year ago, I started just like most people, excitedly telling my family and friends about my new business venture. It was such an easy concept- the product practically sold itself, right? Wrong. Turns out my friends and family wanted to see results before they leaped in head first, so I started looking for other answers.
This lead me to printing out "sizzle cards" that said "Tired of Living Paycheck to Paycheck?" and "Are You Making More Money Than You Can Spend" with my website address on it. Then I proceeded to blanket the city with my yellow "sizzle card". Gas pumps, bathroom stalls, inside books at the bookstore, on grocery store shelves, I left them for waitresses, bank tellers, you name it. I got some visits to my website, but pretty much everyone gawked at the idea of spending close to $500 to start a business.
Then I tried to print up pretty flyers, advertising a home-based travel business. I put these flyers on what felt like every apartment complex bulletin board in the city and on cars in strip mall parking lots. Nevermind that I was crazily blanketing the city with bright flyers in freezing temperatures- I was on a mission...one which once again led to people who were interested at first, but ultimately didn't want to spend the money.
I was tired of rejection, and spending my weekends strategically putting flyers and cards all over town. It occurred to me that maybe "selling" wasn't my thing...maybe I wasn't presenting the business right. My sponsor could do it, why couldn't I?
Determined to make the business work, I started looking for answers. I needed a way to build my business without cold-calling, sizzle cards, flyers and hotel meetings. I found a solution, one that surprisingly many people do not know about. It's called "Attraction Marketing".
Basically, I've experienced two types of marketing: "Attraction Marketing" and "Distraction Marketing". Anyone who has ever been shunned from activities with their family members and friends has obviously used Distraction Marketing techniques. Thanks to Attraction Marketing, the days of chasing disinterested prospects and cold calling are over...at least for me and Rich.
We now have prospects regularly contacting us asking us about YTB. We now have people who join YTB on our team, without ever speaking with us on the phone! An old school ,"Distraction Marketing", sales process typically goes something like this: You introduce your family members or friends to your latest business with a great deal of enthusiasm, which is likely to be greeted with a great deal of resistance about nine out of ten times.That is the ratio that you can expect when using old school network marketing techniques. One out of ten people you talk to will be interested in joining your business, maybe two out of ten, if you're really good. This ratio leaves you with eight or nine family members and friends who may want to avoid you like the plague for the next month because they don't want to feel pressured into joining your business, in other words they don't want to be "distracted" from their activities by your sales pitch.
"Attraction Marketing" offers a much different process and outcome. This type of marketing uses on and off-line strategies to build a constant stream of interested prospects. To implement this type of marketing plan, a network marketer begins by offering valuable information to their prospects, which lays a foundation to establish an identity as a leader.By making yourself an indispensable source of information, you will literally have people calling you with credit card in hand, ready to join your business. With attraction marketing, you don't waste your time bothering disinterested prospects.By implementing a system that allows your prospects to get to know and trust you, review your information, then contact you when they are ready, you are no longer wasting your valuable time dealing with people who have no desire to join your business.
Instead, the people you talk to are well informed and ready to move forward with your opportunity.Proponents of old school network marketing techniques often cite the fact that network marketing is a numbers game. Using the Internet to market yourself, enables you to sort through far more people than you could ever talk to personally, and with the right system, you can develop relationships with these people and build a duplicable business that will allow you to live the lifestyle of your dreams.
If you are ready to stop chasing family members and friends, and put away the cold-call lists, the following tips will help you get started on your Attraction Marketing campaign:1. Familiarize yourself with the marketing tools available on the Internet to learn more about how to promote your business effectively.
Look below to read Rich's full article entitled "The "Attraction" of Attraction marketing" and to see the tools that we used to learn about Attraction Marketing.
2. Create a blog that offers visitors valuable information about how to help them build a business, whether they join your business or not.
3. Visit web forums about topics that are related to your opportunity, and offer the members of the forum valuable information. These forums allow you to include a website in your signature file, which will drive traffic to your website when people read your posts.
4. Use advertising, traffic exchanges and articles to help promote your website and build your brand as a network marketing leader.5. Remember the importance of providing valuable information to your prospects, the more helpful your information, the more likely you are to attract people to your business.
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