Time to kill the Myths about Recruiting in Network Marketing

Myths and legends about recruiting abound among many distributors in network marketing. They sound like great ideas to those who embrace them. They think “wow,” they’re going to make us rich.

A myth is a story which is untrue and immersed in fairy tales. A legend is a story which is true but embellished with the unreal. Becoming a millionaire in one day with network marketing is a myth. Becoming a millionaire within a year is possible and can be legendary but doing it without a great deal of effort is unreal.

Let’s sift the real and true from the urban myths and legends of recruiting.

Jill and Barry are a young couple who have a good deal of success under their belt with 100 distributors on their team.

One day, they get this great idea for recruiting more distributors. The unemployment rate in their home town is high. The unemployment offices are brimming with new clients.

Jill and Barry decide on soliciting distributors from the unemployment offices around town. They spend $500.00 on a nice brochure showing the benefits and features of being in business for oneself. They spend another $500.00 on ads in the local newspaper.

They get tons of people calling them. Their first week, 100 people call them. They’ve hit the jackpot. After three weeks of getting 250 prospects and spending time, money and energy, Jill and Barry run out of steam and patience. No one has signed up.

Their idea is one of the more popular legends about recruiting in network marketing which simply does not work. They adopted one of the urban myths and legends of network marketing that lead to wasted money, energy and time.

There are two types of people at the unemployment office: those who are there to collect unemployment and don’t want to work; and those who want to work and need money now. They are not looking to join anything, especially starting a new business. They need a job now, not a business opportunity that will pay off months in the future.

Jill and Barry learned a valuable lesson. Great ideas sound good on paper but die in practice. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Only the tried and true methods of recruiting work. Jill and Barry needed guidance from their sponsor to kill those urban myths and legends which impede success and set them on the right course.

Urban Myths and Legends about Recruiting

Libraries are filled with volumes of stories of myths and legends about recruiting in network marketing.

A list of myths and legends about recruiting prospects include:

1. Newspaper ads – help wanted
2. Newspaper ads – business opportunity
3. Employment agencies
4. Door-to-door
5. Direct mail
6. Telephone soliciting
7. Handouts and flyers
8. Grocery store bulletin boards
9. Fund raising

This article is written to kill these urban myths and legends which are harmful to recruiting and replace them with the truth.

1) Newspaper Ads; Help Wanted

One of the urban myths and legends of recruiting that seems popular among new distributors in network marketing is the “Help Wanted Ads.”

Mary places an ad in the “Help Wanted” section of the local newspaper. She spends $200.00 for a five-day ad. It reads:

BECOME A MILLIONAIRE!

If you are unemployed, this plan will guarantee you wealth, plus give you instant earnings of thousands of dollars per week. Qualify for a new car within your first 30-days. Vacations 6X’s a year fully paid.

Everyone qualifies!!

Why work for a living when you could be a distributor for me!

Call our “Get-Instant-Cash-Now-Hotline” new! 800-CashNow, night or day. Call now.

Talk about urban myths and legends, here is a doozy. This is one of those folklore legends for children.

Imagine an unemployed 17-year old boy reading that ad. No money, no car, just looking for a few dollars for his next date.

The problem with Help Wanted Ads is that you reach the unemployed who need money now. They can’t wait several months to build a business. They want to know how much salary the job pays.

The real people you want are those with jobs who want to build a part-time business. Since they don’t read the Help Wanted Ads, why advertise there?

2) Newspaper Ads – Business Opportunity

With this ad, you do reach those who are looking for a business opportunity. Most have the accumulated cash to hire managers to run a network marketing business for them. The problem is you can’t buy a network marketing business. It requires personal effort. This becomes one of those urban myths and legends which we can cross off our list.

(3) Employment Agencies

(refer to the “Help Wanted Ads”).

(4) Door-to-Door

One of the well-known myths and legends taken for being a true path to riches by many network marketers is door-to-door recruiting. This is for the faint at heart. You must be masochistic to do it, and most common folk won’t touch it.

There are some scary myths and legends stories with door-to-door recruiting. Door-to-door recruiting has been reduced from a favorite among canvassers to a misnomer. Crime perpetrated on door-to-door canvassers has increased over the years. You certainly don’t want any of your distributors beaten, robbed or killed by some manic.

(5) Direct Mail

Direct mail is the unsolicited advertising sent to a prospective customer or prospect through the mail. Sending out cards and letters can get expensive.

When you send unsolicited emails, it’s spam. It will get your internet service flagged by your provider.

When it goes out through the U.S. Post Office, it’s junk mail. It goes into the trash before it’s opened. It helps support the U.S. Postal Services and drains your bank account but doesn’t do you much good.

Professional direct mail services are expensive and can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars with less than 2% response rate.

(6) Telephone Soliciting

It is 6:00 p.m. in the evening. You’ve just put the baby to sleep. You’re with your husband for a nice evening meal that you’ve slaved over most of the day. The phone rings. “Who could this be disturbing this nice meal I’ve prepared for my husband?” Your attitude turns from happy to disgust. A stranger on the other end of the phone says he has called to solicit you in becoming a distributor with his network marketing opportunity. You hang up in anger.

Telephone soliciting is one of those urban myths and legends which needs to be put six feet under. People are so inundated with telephone solicitors trying to sell them something or scam them, they refuse to listen to any stranger’s sale’s pitch. Give this one up for lent.

(7) Handouts and Flyers

Robert makes the perfect advertisement for his network marketing company. He creates the ad with a snazzy eye-catchy first sentence to explain what his company does and capture the hearts and minds of his town. He uses pop-culture slangs and terms to reach out to the millennial generation. He’s spend $600.00 getting them printed on the finest paper.

He needs help distributing the handouts. He hires two college kids to help him.

He and his college helpers get plenty of fresh air and exercise handing out flyers to passer-byers and putting them on cars and business windows.

What do people normally do with flyers and handouts? Like junk mail and spam, they trash them. Has Robert accomplished his goal from what he thought was the perfect ad campaign to recruit prospects? No!

(8) Grocery Store Bulletin Boards

Ask yourself this: “How many times have I personally stopped by the grocery store bulletin board to find a business opportunity?” Serious people looking for a business opportunity are not going to seek it out on some grocery store bulletin board – another of those urban myths and legends dispelled.

(9) Fund Raising

Old legends and myths never die. One such old legend and myth is the belief that you can find all your distributors through fund raising. Have one fund raising after the other and my worries are over.

No doubt fund raising is a good avenue to find prospects and distributors. Two problems exist. Once the funds have been raised, you are left with zero distributors. This is a hard way to build a solid organization. It is hard to convince an organization to use your products and hard to train them to sell them.

Fund raising is a one-time short-term benefit.

Solution to the Urban Myths and Legends of Recruiting

Surely, all ten of these urban myths and legends have some value to them? If you want to waste time, spend unnecessary money and expend energy, then by all means do them. You will get some results but not the large number of prospects you want.

There is nothing better than the tried and true system that your network marketing company has already created for you.

Deviating from the system can only lead to reinventing the wheel when the wheel does not need reinvented.

Do be careful about this: don’t follow what someone says because they were successful. Put them through the smell test.

Let me illustrate,

A young 18-year-old boy goes on stage at his company event and gives his story about signing up 64 new distributors in 90 days. He makes $7,200 dollars plus the monthly bonuses he generates off his team’s autoship. What he doesn’t tell you is his mother is the mayor of a small town and gets all the prospects for him.

Another illustration,

A woman tells her story of success helping a church raise funds through the sale of her products. What isn’t stated is that her brother is the minister of the largest church in town and gets leaders to sell the products for her.

Real myths and legends are not so real and true. They’re built on lies and unreal possibilities. Find the pitfalls. Seek out the good. Sift the chaff from the wheat. Urban myths and legends about recruiting in network marketing need to be dispelled and replaced with the tried and true systems of your network marketing company.