If you're currently involved with a network marketing company or if you've ever been involved with one in the past than I can almost guarantee you that you've heard this whopper of a lie at one of your Thursday night hotel meetings: "Everyone is your prospect!" Or maybe it sounded something like this: "Everyone wants this, they just don't know it yet!"

This blatant lie has some network marketers talking to everyone within a three-foot radius of them about their awesome business opportunity. Whether it's a college student waiting tables at The Olive Garden or if it's a middle-aged cashier working the register at your local gas station, they all want in on your business! Listen to that nonsense! And to think this hogwash is passed off as an effective recruiting technique by network marketing companies to their distributors.

People wonder why network marketing has such a negative reputation. I can't imagine why. Maybe it's because these pre-historic methods of recruiting have placed network marketers on the same level as that one bum outside your gas station peddling "real gold chains." It's hard to take him seriously when he's offering you a "piece of jewelry" for only twenty bucks. The same can be said for network marketers who try to recruit anything that moves and breathes into their down-lines.

Here's the truth of the matter. In network marketing, everyone isn't your prospect. This might be hard to swallow, but it's true. Everyone doesn't have what it takes to run their own business and be an entrepreneur, and some people just don't want to! Some people really enjoy waking up and going to work, and some people have all the money that they'll ever need. Whatever the reason might be, you shouldn't spend your time and energy trying to convince anyone to become involved with your business. Because no one is worth your time until they've shown an interest in what you're offering.

I can bet dollars to donuts that you've all targeted that "perfect mlm prospect." That special someone who upon joining your business will explode your downline. This person just got layed off, has tremendous social skills, knows all the right people, and would be an absolutely perfect fit for your business. Sure, you could potentially approach them, but they're not worth spending any quality time on until they're seeking a solution to their problem.

If you decide to approach your prospect this way, it shows them that you're the type of business person who isn't professional or successful enough to invest in some respectable marketing methods. You're advertising yourself and your business in a very amateur way. Again, this gets into the whole issue of all the negativity surrounding the industry, and why distributors aren't taken seriously by their prospects.

It really boils down to this. You can't chase down prospects, and give them a feverish sales pitch about your latest business opportunity. It just won't work, because this method screams desperation! Your prospects will view you as an unprofessional nuisance. In network marketing this isn't a good image to have. Who finds who first is very important. When your prospect finds you and seeks your professional opinion, you're viewed as the expert. Positioning yourself this way is definitely one of the keys to successful recruiting.

It just doesn't make any sense to headhunt and force-feed prospects who aren't the least bit interested in what you have to offer. (Crazy as that may sound) There are lots of people in the world that want to start their own business, and the people you should be spending your time with are the ones who go out of their way looking for a way to do this.