I have personally sponsored over 400 people into various organizations. I say this not to brag but just to point out that I have been there and done that with respect to MLM and internet marketing.

I have been the guy who goes across stage and speaks in front of the crowd. I have also been the guy that is totally broke because I couldn't afford to keep my MLM business going, because it was costing me more than I was making. Maybe you can relate?

The traditional model for MLM has never really seemed to work for me. 95% of all home based businesses fail. I believe that is in part to the fact that most people just do not have any experience in marketing themselves or their products.

When you add to that the complexities of the internet to someone that is already overwhelmed with their new business, it's no wonder that they just throw in the towel.

If you haven't figured it out yet, no matter how great your MLM is, you need a constant supply of paqualified prospects. Just getting a few, who get a few, who get a few, is ok... but we already know that 95% of them will fail. You are going to have to sponsor literally hundreds if not thousands to be successful. One person that I know had to personally sponsor over 600 people to reach his goal of 100,000 per year. He acheived it and is now retired. There are only 3 or 4 other people that I know that have achieved that level of income.

Your choices for building a business are... either approach your warm market, or you can figure out how to find qualified prospects on the internet.

The warm market approach has worked since the beginning of time. Problem is I just don't know enough people personally to keep ahead of the 95% drop off rate.

Finding people that are interested and qualified for your business on the internet is not as easy as it seems. To me we should just be able to advertise our website and people will come flocking with credit card in hand right?

WRONG… As a matter of fact most people think that it should be that easy.

Anyone that has truly been around in the networking business since the internet will tell you that internet marketing is actually pretty sophisticated.

Believe me when I tell you that I have purchased thousands of leads, made 10s of thousand of phone calls to those leads, and sent 100's of thousands of emails out.

The good news is that there are literally millions of people every day that are looking for some sort of home based business opportunity online.

The bad news is that there are literally millions of people every day that are looking for some sort of home based business opportunity online.

Remember our statistic of 95%. That means that most of the people on the internet are failures as well. So we have inexperienced failures, teaching new people how to be inexperienced failures… Sort of like the blind leading the blind.

There is a cure for the ignorance… It's called a funded proposal.

Let's say that we are looking for prospects for our home based network marketing business. In addition to talking to our warm market, we want to learn how to market on the internet as well.

In the online world one of those millions that are floundering about out there are called biz op seekers. Part of the problem with a biz-op seeker is that we really don't know anything about them other than they are some random person floating around out there that has at one time requested information. They probably have little idea of what they want or what they are interested in either. Again, just kind "out there" floating around in the ether of the internet.

This is what we don't know about them.

1. Are they serious?

2. Do they have the required funds to start?

3. Are the teachable and willing to listen and learn?

4. Do they have the tools (internet, phone, desk, etc?)

5. Are they willing to commit?

6. Do they have any experience with marketing, sales or the internet?

We could purchase these leads from a list broker. The more information that the list broker collects for us, the more the list broker will charge us for the lead.

Over the years I have purchased and worked leads that cost anywhere from .10 cents a piece all the way to 20.00 a piece. I definitely like the $20.00 leads better than the .10 cent ones. There is a direct correlation between how much you pay for the lead and the quality of the lead most times.

Problem is how many times can you spend 20.00 for a lead that only closes 5-10% of the time?

Depending on the opportunity that you are selling, you may not be able to afford that.

Purchasing leads from a broker can actually drive you to being bankrupt. I know people now that are spending $4 bucks per lead, and when they sign up a new rep, they make $15. Sounds good right?

WRONG…

The problem is that it takes ten $4 leads to produce one $15 sale. So this person is actually going in the hole by $25 every time they sponsor someone. (Not to mention the hours and hours of phoning people, voicemail, phone tag and unfriendly people answering the phones)

Tens of thousands of distributors across the country working for hundreds of different companies are doing the exact same thing.

They are living in what I call MLM DENIAL… They just can't admit to themselves that their business is a failure. They keep hoping that at some point in the future, that there business will take off and they'll make their fortune.

Unfortunately with the high drop out percentage of 95%, that day never really comes.

The Funded Proposal.

Keep in mind the characteristics that we didn't know about those people that were looking for a business.

1. Are they serious?

2. Do they have the required funds to start?

3. Are the teachable and willing to listen and learn?

4. Do they have the tools (internet, phone, desk, etc?)

5. Are they willing to commit?

6. Do they have any experience with marketing, sales or the internet?

If our prospects were able to answer yes to at least the first 5 of these 6 questions, then we would know that they are pretty good prospects.

A funded proposal helps us find the qualified prospects by having them go through some hoops, and purchase some item, before we approach them about primary MLM.

Here is an example of the steps that they would go through.

1. They would read or come across an advertisement that we did on the internet.

2. They sign up for a free report that we offered that starts to educate them on us and internet marketing.

3. They pay between $20-60 to get more intensive training on MLM, internet marketing, and maybe learning some sales skills.

4. They receive additional information and training from you (or your mentor) through autoresponders.

5. Through the quality of the information that they purchased from you, and your autoresponders, you have now established yourself in that prospects mind as an expert, or at least someone that they can trust.

This is a classic example of a funded proposal.

It helps figure out that this prospect is a good one, worthy of us taking our time to talk with them.

The probably do have some money because they already spent some. Seriously broke people have a bad mentality that is hard to work with, but temporarily broke people can find ways to come up with money if they need to. People that have no problem coming up with money in exchange for value are the type of people that we are looking for.

They are teachable, because they wouldn't have ordered the training, if they weren't open to learning.

They committed already with their wallet.

Now they have part of the training on the internet that they were missing prior to us meeting them in the first place.

Now they are actually more prepared to be successful on the internet because they purchased your informational product.

Now we can approach them about whatever opportunity we want. They are now ready.

The good news is that we made between $20-$60. By that person coming through our set up system, we made at least a few bucks, and that prospects made themselves more attractive to use, because they have spent money, stepped up, and have learned information that they are going to need along the way!!

At this point even if they didn't join our primary MLM, we have still made a profit on them, and we now have their information, so maybe at some time in the future you can work together again..

Remember the saying... the money is in the list

So instead of paying for a lead we know nothing about, we are making money, while producing a high quality lead for our primary business!!

I am aware of two or three such systems. Interesting thing is that it is sort of like selling picks and shovels to the ole 49 miners.

Back in 1849 was the great Gold Rush in California. 100's of thousands of people came out to mine for gold. Of course only a few people actually found enough to claim their fortune.

You know who did make a lot of money back them? The hardware stores selling picks and shovels, and Levi' strauss selling his jeans.

We have a similar opportunity here. The internet is like the gold rush... Everyone is trying to make money with it, but the people that provide the tools of the trade are the ones that just may make it rich...

Everyone that wants to be successful on the internet is going to need the tools of the trade.

1. Lead Capture Pages... These “capture” interested lead information<

2. Autoresponders... These are automatic email follow up systems

3. Training… Most people need to learn A LOT about the internet!!

4. Their own funded proposal program.

5. A website, and a domain.

By offering these things to people prior to us approaching them about our primary MLM, we can actually prepare them better for what is coming, profit from the entire prospecting system, and produce the best possible leads available.

Another key element of this process is that most of it is automated over the internet. Usually the only time you'll get a call is when someone is a “hot” prospect and needs your help to enroll, or has a "buying question" We don't mind those types of calls.

We usually don't call at anytime until they have at least finished the funded proposal portion of our program.

For additional information on funded proposals please see our website below.

As always, we would love to hear your comments, concerns or questions on anything that we write.