Were going to be covering some vital information here today. If you caught the first installment of this 10 part series, I gave a little background about my self, and my involvement with Network Marketing. To recap, you need to know that Im not anti-MLM, or anti-home business. I think that the home business is the very definition of Entrepreneurial Capitalism, and I absolutely love the idea of a person embarking upon a venture, starting from scratch, with a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, and turning that into a fortune. Im Pro-Home Business.

However, Im Anti-B.S. It absolutely disgusts me the amount of bad information that exists in my industry, and I am convinced that people involved with home businesses fail not because they are stupid, not because they are lazy, but because home-business training and education is of pathetically low-quality. I believe, 100% without doubt that if home-business personnel received the training and education they needed and deserved, that 90% failure rate would flip to a 90% success rate. But enough about that, lets continue on.

HOME BUSINESS LIE # 2: TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS, MAKE A LIST OF 100 PEOPLE YOU KNOW, AND TALK TO THEM ABOUT GETTING INVOLVED IN YOUR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Folks, this is the lie that absolutely makes me sick.

Seriously, Im puking in my trashcan right now.

This is the lie that causes MLMers and Network Marketers to become completely ostracized by their friends and family, and eventually leads to a reputation on par that of the lowest caste in our society. It is this strategy that will ruin more relationships in a faster amount of time than you believed possible. This warm-market marketing is, strangely, a marketing model propagated by nearly all Network Marketing manufacturers to their distributors and consultants, and nowhere else in the entire business world.

Sure, some businesses rely heavily on referrals and recommendations, but the bottom line is that you just dont hear of McDonalds or Avis Rent-A-Car asking their employees to bring their friends and family to their establishment so the manager can get a paycheck. Just doesnt happen.

OK, we got the reality check out of the way, you ready for some good news? Here it is: There exists a better way. But first, you absolutely have to be objective about the industry that you are in. And here is what an objective view offers: it offers the perspective that every other profitable business in the entire universe looks at their TARGET MARKET as the primary focus of their marketing campaign, not the personal relationships of their employees. So what is your target market? Good question, it depends on the product or service. Start with what you are offering: What group of individuals would elicit the largest demand for your particular product or service? As a distributor, finding the answer to that question is 50% of your only real responsibility in prospecting. To clarify, as a distributor and business owner, your mission during prospecting is:

1) Find (and develop) the right message. You have to craft the right message, the message that adequately offers a compelling and benefits-based reason for your prospect to take advantage of your product or service (not your opportunity). Look, everyone is an opportunist, so the opportunity should never be your lead in any marketing campaign. Always lead with the product or service.

2) Find the right audience. Folks, the right audience is your Target Market. This is the group of individuals that will most positively respond to the product or service that you are offering.

So here is what happens when you put all the pieces together: you are leading with your product or service, offering a compelling message to a group of individuals that already have a need/want/desire for what you have (your Target Market). That way, you attract product users to a solution that you are offering, bringing value to the marketplace. Since everyone is an opportunist, you also show your product users a way to get the product for free, or even make a profit by doing what you are doing, so that you will build a sales force that is truly passionate about the product, simply because their encounter with you and your business started as a solution to a problem and ended with an opportunity to subsidize their usage of that solution.

Doesnt that sound better than trying to convince your co-workers to join your team? Or recruiting at the local coffee shop? Or handing out business cards and flyers at the mall? Dont worry; you dont have to answer that. Just answer this: how long would it take for Wal-Mart to go out of business it focused all of its time and resources attempting to recruit all their new shoppers from the bloodlines of their employees?

Take it from Wal-Mart: the Target Market is where success resides.

I, J. Andrew Fuson, accept full responsibility for these words. If you have any questions regarding this material, you can contact me directly at my home office at 719-302-4045. Copyright 2006 Fuson Enterprises.