There are only two ways to get new customers or new recruits to grow your network marketing business and that is through prospecting and/or marketing.

Prospecting and marketing are twisted together when it comes to Network Marketing and MLM. They are used interchangeably when talking about lead generation and how to get marketing leads for your business.

The major problem is that most network marketers don’t know that there is a huge difference between them. This is why most people are stuck in their business and understanding the difference will definitely help them.

What is Prospecting?

This is when you reach out to someone and invite them to take a look at your business opportunity presentation or speak to them about your product. You go out and approach prospects either online or offline and directly ask them if they are interested in your product or business opportunity.

– With this way, YOU are in control of the process. You determine your pace, and you are not waiting for anyone else.

– You can start prospecting on Day 1 of starting your business. You don’t need any special skills. You can prospect via Facebook messenger, Whatsapp, Phone, face to face or any mode you choose to have the conversation. Talk/text, listen/look out for problems and ask if they are open to taking a look or learning more.

– You should be prospecting EVERYDAY. Prospecting for business opportunity leads is still an effective strategy to use. The difference is, they are not coming to you asking about your service or product. Instead, you are approaching them! Some people have a fear about approaching prospects to talk about their business opportunity, but it is a skill that can be worked on and will be very beneficial to the growth of your business.

What is Marketing?

Marketing is putting out valuable content in a video, blog post, Facebook status update, tweet, Instagram post, etc. where the content helps solve a problem of your target audience. The goal in marketing is for an un-named individual to respond to your post… whether it is to get more info, join your business, or buy your product.

Simply put, you hope that someone will come to you and take action.

– With this way, you are NOT in control. Marketing gets a little more complicated and you might need to understand human psychology a little bit more.

– This is the SLOWER way to build. If all you do is hope someone will ask you something or raise their hand, you are limiting yourself.

Prospecting vs Marketing: Which should you be doing?

Both are equally important but you need to apply the 80/20 rule if you want to get the desired results. 80% prospecting and 20% marketing.

If your time is limited, prospecting for sure. Prospecting is YOU taking charge to build your business.

However, I also recommend you put a piece of content into the world (aka Marketing) daily. This doesn’t have to be complicated.

The bigger approach? A combination of both.

You put a piece of marketing into the world every day, and then reach out to those who react and prospect them. BOOM. If nobody reacts to your marketing, then you cold message or cold call someone. Not super difficult.

People think that Marketing is the easier of the two, because they really don’t have to put themselves in a state where they could have somebody say NO. But….that’s insane. Asking someone a question is SO much easier than waiting for someone that may never come!

If you have a home business and you are NOT prospecting, then start small. Start with 1 person per day and see what happens. If they say NO, simply move on to the next person. Remember, they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting the business opportunity or product.

Hope this helped!

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