Leads now cheap to free

To build a networking business you must talk to people. There are many trains of thought on who you should talk to. Your friends and family? Opportunity seeker leads? Network marketing leads? Total strangers on the street?

Friends and family (warm market) can run out pretty quickly. If our business is to grow we must turn to leads.

Let me tell you, in my networking career I have bought a lot of leads. Once I even bought 10 leads for $600! They were supposed to be pre-screened, top of the line, wonderful prospects. They were, in fact, ordinary people who did know you were going to call. We sponsored 3 of the 10. Most likely because we thought they were just waiting for our call so they could join. One was an older couple that couldn't use a computer. One was a college student who put her kit on her $500 limit new credit card (ouch), and one was an unemployed truck driver. We did not recover our initial expense for those leads!

I can't even begin to tell you how many leads we have purchased for $5 each. And then the calling begins. You have not a clue what to expect when the person on the other end says hello. I have been yelled at (even though I could clearly see they had asked for info within the last 24 hours), been given the run around (oh yes, send me some info even though I'll never answer the phone for you again), and occasionally enrolled someone.

The opportunity seeker leads are mostly desperate people looking for a job. They have no concept of what it means to buy and run a business. The networking leads are far better, but you do have to put up with a large portion of them trying to get you into their business.

I have sent out postcards. First there is the price of the cards. Then postage. Then the time to attach said postage to the cards. Then the wait for someone, anyone, to call back. We did 500 postcards twice. Out of each batch we got 3 call backs, no enrollments.

I have done fax blasts.

I refused to do email blasts because I always just delete those. I would question the sanity of someone who actually opened an email from someone they didn't know.

I know people who have paid big bucks to develop a website and a method of driving people to their website. Thank heavens I have never done that either.

Now, we have been introduced to a system of creating our own leads with people that we could possibly enjoy. We have learned to start a conversation with people we meet as we go through life. We only talk to people who look happy and positive. You can tell a lot about someone's character just from the first hello.

This kind of lead generation is cheap to free. If you just create a desire for them to find out about what you are doing and then offer to send them an email and call them back, you can gather their name, email address, time to call them, and phone number. You can write this info on any piece of paper you are carrying in your purse or wallet. That's a free lead.

If you give them a chocolate it increases your chance of them wanting to talk to you again. The chocolate costs you about $1.25. That's a cheap lead. It also makes your whole box of chocolates tax deductible, so for heaven's sake, give away some chocolates.

This is fun. Go make a game of it!