Top 5 Rules for Using LinkedIn for Network Marketing

Have you ever attended a professional networking event and been overwhelmed with the number of people that you shake hands with and exchange business cards with?

Who hasn’t? That’s where LinkedIn gives you a professional network marketing advantage. You can research prospects and connect with new ones. Today, we have bring you the top 5 rules for using LinkedIn for network marketing prospecting. Click the image below to a see a larger version. 

Tell us how you’ve had success with LinkedIn in the comments below. 

5 Cool Places to Find Prospects

This month at Ambit First-Class Training 365/24/7, we’re talking about everything related to prospecting. And today we’re giving you five fresh ideas for cool places to find prospects.

A few of these places may seem obvious, but they can also spark some ideas if you’re struggling with that age-old network marketing question, “Where do I find new people to talk to?”

Let’s get started.

Cool Place to Find Prospects No. 1 – The Gym

This may seem obvious, and it’s a favorite of mine. Here are a few reasons why finding prospects at the gym can work for you:

1. Motivated people go to the gym, especially on their lunch break. You’re looking for motivated people.
2. People with goals spend time in the gym. If you’re looking for business prospects, you’re looking for goal-oriented people. This is a good place to start.
3. You’ll have a regular opportunity to talk with people when you attend classes. Attending a regular class can give you an opportunity to get to know others and start building rapport. Show up a few minutes early and chat someone up.

Cool Place to Find Prospects No. 2 – Look for Classes & Events on EventBrite.com

This is a directory of events happening all over the place. You can search in your local area and find free classes, networking events and other events of interest. The cool thing about this site is that you can usually see who the organizer is and get detailed info on who should attend and who will be exhibiting. If you’re looking for business contacts or people with similar interests as you, this could be a good way to research new places to find contacts.

Cool Place to Find Prospects No. 3 – Join a Book Club

Book clubs can be a great place to find new friends and build relationships. You can also get to know people on a more than social level as you learn more about their motivations and ideas behind the themes of books. This is a great way for an introverted person to get “out there” and meet new people.

Cool Place to Find Prospects No. 4 – Do Something Good for Your Community

Spending a little time giving back to your community (especially where you work on a team), can give you an opportunity to meet people outside your general social sphere and help you find a new network of motivated, compassionate people.

Cool Place to Find Prospects No. 5 – Join a Social Group

Don’t go with your same group of friends. Put feelers out that you’re looking for a new Bunco group or that you’re looking to meet new people in your age group. This works great for those of you new to a community. You can build relationships and rapport with people of similar interests and have fun doing it.   

Next Steps

I recommend working through Jackie Ulmer’s Meetup Magic for Network Marketers for more tips on how to find these groups and how to use these cool places to find prospects to expand your warm market.

What’s the coolest place you’ve ever met prospects? Tell us in the comments below.

What Ambit Consultants Can Learn About Fear From the Supersonic Skydiver

You’ve probably heard about Felix Baumgartner, the supersonic skydiver who broke the sound barrier by completing a sky dive from 23 miles up in mid-October. What you may not know is that he calls fear “a friend of mine.”

And that’s what Consultants can learn from the supersonic skydiver – how to use fear to their advantage. Let me tell you Felix’s story, and then I’ll share how Consultants can use fear to their advantage in almost any situation.

How a Small Fear Almost Derailed a Life-Long Goal

In a recent article from Wired, “Fearless Felix,” an Austrian who has completed more than 2,500 skydives as a professional skydiver, says:

“Fear has become a friend of mine. It’s what prevents me from stepping too far over the line. On a mission like this, you need to be mentally fit and have total control over what you do, and I’m prepping very thoroughly.”

And prep he did to overcome a very common fear – claustrophobia. Felix wasn’t afraid of the jump, but he was fearful of the suit he needed to wear to survive his 23-mile leap.

In order to help him conquer this fear, Red Bull (the energy drink company sponsoring the jump), brought in a sports performance consultant who specializes in working with athletes who perform “extreme” feats, according to the Wired story.

Where Does the Fear Originate?

Dr. Michael Gervais then evaluated Felix to see if his fear was rooted in the jump or in wearing a pressurized spacesuit for the first time. He found that it wasn’t the jump, but the restrictive movements of the unfamiliar suit that was causing Felix to experience panic attacks.

Sound a little familiar? The fear of the unknown scared him to the point of not achieving his ultimate goal. What Dr. Gervais says next is really important because it applies to 99% of the reason we let fear move us to inaction.

The doctor spent three days helping Felix figure out how to wear the necessary suit. And he found that Felix didn’t “have quite the right tools to manage his mind and emotions in the face of so great a risk.”

In other words, he was projecting the fear onto the suit. Instead of putting his focus on his real goal – “going somewhere no one has ever been before,” he was focused on the fact that he “didn’t have complete control.”

Four Ways Consultants Can Use Fear to Move Forward

Dr. Gervais shared these wise words:

“When we are in a high stakes or intense situation, it’s not uncommon for our minds to jump forward, going to the next moment and worrying about what happens when this moment doesn’t go well. What happens is we give 50 percent to something that doesn’t exist yet and 50 to this moment.”

Here are four simple techniques from Dr. Gervais that Ambit Consultants and skydivers alike can use in any unfamiliar situation:

1. Deep breathing – This step helps to calm nerves and refocus attention.
2. Positive self-talk – Being in control of thoughts and words about the situation (the jump or even a phone call).
3. A detailed plan of action – Felix worked with a retired skydiver who had once attempted the jump himself and a specialized flight team to keep his mind off the 23-mile ascent (which meant he would be in the suit for 3.5 hours up and 20 minutes down).
4. Full commitment to a vision – Felix wanted to jump from a place no one else ever had. You want to have a life like no one’s ever had. That vision can help you use the fear to your advantage instead of letting it cripple you.

So next time you find yourself in that frozen state of inaction, think about this four-step process. It helped a skydiving pro go where no one else has gone before. It can help you go where you have never gone before – forward in your goals, not backward.

Your Turn

Tell us how you overcame a big fear in your business and took the next step in the comments below.

Action Item: Still struggling with fear and communication? Check out our Brilliant Communicator Series and build confidence in your business and yourself. 

Why You May Need to Elect a New Prospecting Approach

Today is Election Day in the United States and one of the questions that’s been asked repeatedly throughout the 2012 campaign season is “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” 

I’m not going to offer any political advice other than it’s important to express your opinion in the form of a vote for the candidate that lines up with your values. In other words, your vote matters.

But that question got me thinking of a new question related to our Ambit Opportunity – “Are you better off since you elected the current prospecting approach(es) you’re currently using?” 

You may ask what I mean by that question. There are numerous ways to promote your business from calling on your warm market to attending networking events to buying leads as well as many others.

But what I’m asking you is simple – Is the prospecting approach giving you what you need – the opportunity to start conversations with people who need your help determining their needs, wants and don’t wants and potentially solving that need or desire with our service or business?

Is your approach working or is it time to elect a new approach? Here are a few tips on how to evaluate your prospecting approach candidates.

Are you comfortable with the prospecting approach?

Similar to the candidates for president, one of the factors to consider is comfort. Does the prospecting approach make you feel at ease?

For instance, do you feel comfortable calling on a person who suggested in an email form that they were interested in a home business opportunity? Or, do you need to change your approach?

Maybe the idea of calling these leads scares you to the point of inaction. You could just need a few warm up calls to make the approach work or some more training on what works when calling a prospect. I recommend a couple of resources in this case – Brilliant Communicator Series and the Effective Phone Messages portion of Hot Prospecting Tips. 

What’s the prospecting tactic’s track record?

Similar to the questions you have asked of your presidential or legislature candidate, what has the prospecting approach done for you? Where’s the track record? If you’ve used an approach for a while, such as a bandit sign with a call to action like “Call Sharon if you want to earn extra income working at home,” and you’re not getting any relevant calls, maybe it’s time to elect a new call to action or rework the sign.

For instance, if you have the call going directly to your phone and your prospect is getting the automated voicemail on your phone, “Please leave your message for 555-777-9311,” you could improve this approach in numerous ways. Here are two:   

• Make the call to action more specific. Something like, “Call 800-777-9311 to hear a recorded message about this opportunity.” This gives your prospect the opportunity to hear more without having to talk to you directly (or get that lovely automated voicemail message). It also allows you to screen prospects and be more productive in your prospecting.
• Offer a free DVD or Magazine if they call you. “Call today to get your free magazine and DVD.” This option gives them incentive to take action.

What are the pros and cons of electing this prospecting approach?

Before you spend money on a prospecting approach, it’s important to consider the costs involved and time required to make it work. Yes, you have to make a prospecting approach work in order to increase your number of conversations with people who want or need our service.

So, I recommend that you outline all the pros and cons of any prospecting approach before you cast your vote of confidence. If the pros outweigh the cons, then you should probably elect the approach for a specific amount of time. Then, it’s time to evaluate what’s working and what’s not working.

This election style process will help you determine where to spend your money and time – every consultant's two most valuable resources.

Action Item: Revisit the Inviting Formula in our Ambit Pro Inviter Series for a tried and true method of communicating with every prospect.

Recap of the Live Call with Jackie Ulmer on Meetup Magic for Networkers

In case you missed the live call Thursday night with Jackie Ulmer on her Meetup Magic for Networkers system, I have a quick recap of what you missed. If you want to listen to the call in its entirety, you can access it here.

What is Meetup?

Meetup is an international website that helps you find people with similar interests in your local area. The way you can use Meetup in your business is to find people of common interest and turn them into warm market prospects in the long-term. 

“I probably get 1-2 recommendations for groups from Meetup each day (via email),” Jackie says. “Just in my region, there are 1,200 meetups. I use this as new way to find contacts.”

Can you go to Meetup just with the intention of making business contacts?

Jackie warns against this multiple times in the call. She says you can have the goal of building relationships with warm market contacts, but you need to be there to meet people first.

“You need to develop rapport,” Jackie says. “Unless they (a fellow meetup group participant) reveal ‘buying signals,” you need to develop the relationship first. However, if it comes up in conversation, you can start asking questions and get contact info.”

Is Meetup a business networking site?

Meetup is a site for groups of all kinds. It’s not only biz-oriented like Chamber, LinkedIn or BNI. There are business meetups, but it’s much more interest-based.

How do you get started finding Meetup groups to get involved with?

Take an inventory of your interests. Meetup will help you connect with groups based on what you tell it you like to do.

For instance, if you like eating good food, look for meetup groups that try different restaurants.

These social groups can naturally open doors for you. Jackie says she went to a small meetup – a Halloween tea last weekend and the question of “What do you do for a living?” naturally came up in conversation.

She recommends having a short statement that invites curiosity for openings in the conversation.

“At this particular meetup, the question came around to me,” Jackie says. “And I said something like, ‘I own an Internet Marketing company and work from home.”

She says that she never said anything about her product, “I put it out there and see what interest comes up.”

Does this method really work?

Jackie answered this simply – “If you’re there to meet people, it’s going to work.” She gave a few tips on dos and don’ts:

• Do create curiosity. Say a little bit about yourself and stop.
• Do give a little info if people ask about what you do.
• Don’t throw up on people. It’s the worst thing you can do. Don’t give them too much info.
• Do develop your networking skills. This is a big part of any in-person networking.

What MeetUp groups should we look for?

Look for groups that you enjoy. If you’re selling a product, see if you can find groups that match up, but it doesn’t have to be an exact match.

A couple of examples:

• If you sell a weight loss product, look for weight loss groups, fitness groups, etc.
• If you sell a skincare product, look for beauty, fashion groups, etc.
• Don’t eliminate social groups – Bunco, Sunday brunch, women over 40, etc.

Remember this; eight out of 10 people are looking for a plan B. People will give you clues. 

Do I have to leave the house?

Yes, you are going to have leave the house to make this an effective part of your business. Jackie says we’re in a relationship business. “Meetup is a site where people meet face to face. It’s designed to bring people together.”

What’s the time payoff?

A lot of it depends on you and the people you meet. It varies because you are building relationships.

Something to remember is that you still have to develop warm market skills and avoid the salesperson’s persona. Keep the mindset of meeting new people and making friends.

Once you find a group, are there criteria you should look for to prequalify people in the group?

I personally like the smaller groups because you can make better connections. It helps you remember them and it helps them remember you.

You can also interact with people who are in the group on the forum and on the RSVP list. You can make a comment before; get a few details on the people coming to the meetups through their Meetup profiles, etc.

You’re not walking in blind. One of the benefits of this strategy is that you know who to interact with at the meetups.

Your goal with going to these meetups is to make yourself unforgettable. The way you do that is to be interested in the other person.

“When you can engage people, you become unforgettable,” Jackie says.

How does this differ from fitness clubs, networking groups, etc.?

Jackie answered this with a simple question – How many times have you driven up and been scared to walk in? Meetup helps you to put names with faces and know who you want to interact with ahead of time.

If you’re not on Twitter, Facebook or don’t have a website, can this work for you?

You can learn this skill tonight and go out and use it tomorrow. You don’t need to have advanced social networking skills to make Meetup work for you.

You simply need to find a group, join it, RSVP for an event, research people and show up.

Should I start my own Meetup group?

Starting a Meetup is a big time commitment because you’re the organizer and responsible for promoting it. It’s an option if there are not a lot of groups in your immediate area, but there is a time commitment.

What about people in rural areas?

Expand the search to be more than 5 or 15 miles outside your zip code to see if more groups appear. If you’re in an area without many Meetups, it may be a good idea to start something up. You’ll build a lot of credibility by being the organizer.

Next Steps

I hope this Q & A helps you understand more about how Meetup can help you expand your warm market contacts. But as Rachel Embry (my Mentor's marketing director) said on the call, it helps to have a system for making this work.

Jackie Ulmer’s Meetup Magic for Networkers is designed to do just that – give you step-by-step instructions on expanding your warm market. Get FREE access to the complete system until 11:59 Central on Friday, January  25^th, which a day before our Ambit Simulcast. Simply attend our webinar in it's entirety and at the end a special link to the complete system will appear. There you learn the whole system. 

Are You Hanging on to Dead Prospecting Tactics?

I have a question for you today. Are you hanging on to dead prospecting tactics? Is it killing your business or are you getting zero results doing the same old same old?

I really want you to think about those questions for a minute because when you can honestly answer yes, you’re taking the first step toward success.

Prospecting can be tricky for two main reasons – 1) You have so many avenues and some are more costly than others; and 2) It’s hard to know if a promotion (marketing) tactic will work until you execute it.

So, how do you know when it’s time to hang up an prospecting tactic? Here are a few ways to evaluate a tactic before you retire it. 

1. How much time and money are you putting into a tactic? What’s your return? To determine this, you need to look at a few numbers: 
   
   
   • Cost of tactic/No. of leads developed = Cost per lead
   • Time spent on tactic ÷ No. of leads developed = Time per lead
   
   The first question leads you to the real numbers behind a tactic and your time spent. If the numbers don’t add up, you may want to consider something new.  
    
2. How long have you given a tactic to work? If you just started a lead calling campaign and you’re only 20 names into a list of 200, you won’t know the results until you finish that list. You’ll want to evaluate the returns mentioned in the first evaluation factor before you purchase new leads. Expect to get a 1-3% (1-3 appointments out of 100) success rate with a lead list. If you average that, it’s probably a good tool to keep.
    
3. If you find you’re losing money on a tactic, it may not be worth your time or money. Especially if it’s time consuming – like a networking group that has a required meeting schedule. If you’re time-strapped and money-strapped (who isn’t when they are starting out?), then it’s time to consider whether it’s worth your time, energy and money.
    
4. What is the learning curve? For instance, I received an invite to connect on LinkedIn with a guy from my local area. He runs a nonprofit and has a network marketing business. I usually accept LinkedIn connection requests (if we know someone in common or have a shared group). Well, about two weeks later, I got this message via LinkedIn: 
   
   Subject: Hello there
   Personal invitation to my networking event, sponsored by [his company name] Oct 25@7:00p, Thurs and/or Oct 27@4:00p. Door prizes, free refreshments. Bring business cards and friends. RSVP by email or call XXX.”
   The lesson of this example is that the guy misused the tactic. LinkedIn is a professional networking site. That means all communications need at least three elements: a personal greeting, context to how we know the person and a personalized invitation. Not just the words “personal invitation,” when it’s clear you’re sending this to a list of people. This borders on spam.
   
   And it contains a great lesson: If you’re not going to use the tactic properly, you’ll get ignored, or worse, reported for abuse. So, unless you’re willing to take the time to learn a tactic and its best practices, it’s time to hang it up.

Before you get frustrated and say nothing works in the Ambit Opportunity, I urge you to go back to business basics: Look at the numbers, time and learning curve. When you analyze your promotion tactics, you’ll see which ones can be killed off and which ones to focus on.

Your Turn

Did you ever have a promotion tactic that was just draining your bank account or energy level? How did you deal with it? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Where to Start with Finding Prospects

Here's a brilliant question from Chester:

”Where do I start with finding people to talk to about the business? How do I advertise the business to obtain qualified prospects?”

Thanks, Chester, for a valuable question. It’s our most common question and one that needs constant revisiting.

The thing I want to focus on today is the first part of your question – “Where do I start?”

The first thing you need to do is sit down and figure out “who wants or needs our service” and “who wants or needs your business.” This is a step every business must take – even those outside Ambit & network marketing.

In order to let people know about your business, you must first find a need that your business fills for an individual, whether it’s the service or business opportunity.

I recommend you spend a little time with our company information and figure out what the unique selling propositions (USPs) are for our service (HINT: FREE Energy) and business opportunity. Then, put yourself in your customers’ and potential team members’ shoes. Think about why they would need our service so much they would be willing to trade money to fill that need in their life.

Once you’ve figured that step out, it’s time to figure out where you need to promote your business. I have a number of resources including our free training blog and my lead program source (where you buy pre-qualified leads) to get you started.

You may also want to check out my new webinar & training system – Meetup Magic for Ambit Consultants. I host this webinar with my special guest Jackie Ulmer. Jackie has developed a large downline and starts with finding people who she has something in common with through groups at Meetup.com. In-person networking is my favorite way to find prospects because you get to see them and build rapport.

However, there are numerous ways to find prospects, but you must first understand how our service/business work and how they help a prospect. You need this valuable info to get started on the right track. I know you can do it!

Your Turn

Give Chester some ideas of how you first started promoting your business in the comments below. What worked? What didn’t?