Is Trying Too Much to Sponsor People Sign People Up Causing Your Network Marketing Business to Grow Too Slowly?

All network marketing business builders hope to sponsor new downline associates who are enthusiastic and highly motivated to build a big business. I was fortunate to find an exceptional prospect like that about three years ago. Tom was not the usual business prospect. He was energized and determined to make money. His goals and dreams were big. He had an aura of "can't fail" all about him.

Tom showed a lot of effort and determination during his first year in business. He uncovered a lot of new prospects for his business, and worked hard to follow up and sponsor them.

After a year, Tom's work had not paid off. He wasn't building much of a business, nor was he making any real money. There were a couple things about Tom's work that were significant.

During his first year in business, Tom used a combination of co-op and pay per click advertising to generate a lot of new prospects for his business.

In spite of having such a large pool of prospects for his network marketing business, not many of Tom's prospect's joined.

Because of all the activity he generated, Tom's upline team was amazed at how few people he was able to sign up. After talking to him extensively, we felt he was doing just about everything right, so far as we could tell. Something was right, because few people had attracted as much interest and as many new prospects as Tom.

All of Tom's prospects went through the same automated online information and followup system that everyone else's prospects did. Somehow, the difference had to be in something Tom was doing.

The big question - what was happening?

After working that hard for a year, Tom became discouraged and decided to move on to something else. Once he let us know of his decision, we took the opportunity to contact some of his prospects directly.

Tom was a very friendly and affable person who started out with a strong desire to build a big network marketing business. After talking to some of his prospects, though, we started to understand why so few of them had chosen to work with him.

- he was promising great wealth and fast riches and exaggerating so much that he almost instantly lost credibility with prospects who were seeking a legitimate opportunity

- he was so intensely focused on "closing" and sponsoring his prospects that he actually came across as desperate - his prospects picked this up right away and were turned off

Tom, before he launched his network marketing business, had been active in direct selling. His background was in the type of selling that uses "one call close" techniques - the type of approach often used by in-home salespeople selling consumer products. You knew if you didn't get a sale on the first visit, you probably wouldn't. So, a big problem here was that Tom was approaching his potential business partners with a "one call close" mentality.

It isn't wise to try building a network marketing business with high pressure manipulative techniques. This isn't a business where you "close" a prospect then move on to the next one. It requires building a working relationship, and this doesn't always happen immediately.

Tom never realized that his approach was wrong, even though he had been coached on how to work with prospects who showed interest in his network marketing business. He chose to put all his focus on sponsoring prospects quickly, with a goal of sponsoring as many as fast as he possibly could.

What can we learn from Tom's story? Respect your prospects as individuals who have their own special goals and desires for what a home business can do for them. Don't push them and try to break all sponsoring records, but rather focus on helping each person find what your opportunity can do for them, and help them to achieve those goals and desires with your business.

This is one of the big reasons that a network marketing business has so much potential for so many - special selling skills are not required. You can learn to be a leader and coach, no hard sell required.