Someone must have recently added me to a list they are selling of people interested in home-based business opportunities. The emails I’m getting now are ridiculous. Stories of untold riches if I simply sign up for their opportunity.
In some ways I feel sorry for these folks. They obviously think I have some sort of interest in their spam.
But this leads me to my point. Don’t buy lists of leads, no matter how much you want to believe that the people on that list are interested in a home-based business opportunity. Leads you buy are not reputable.
If you want to develop leads online, do it authentically. If you want a level of automation, set up ads and adwords, and squeeze pages (not my favorite method) and collect your own auto-leads. Or, you can share great content online that people want to tell their friends about. You can write a great blog with content of interest to your target market. You can connect with people who have similar interests on social networks. You can be a real person.
Oh, and you can also do the OTHER stuff that works: book parties or appointments, network with people in person, etc. The core business that your company or your upline is teaching you.
Purchased leads are a lame way to try to circumvent the authentic system that works in direct sales. (There. I said it.) Don’t be lame. Put the work in. Develop authentic leads that require work, and may actually convert. Don’t spam people. When you do, you give the industry as a whole a bad name.
Your thoughts?
image credit: edkohler
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I firmly believe that Direct Sales is about relationship building. How can you build a relationship when you just through an email at the great beyond and expect people to follow you.
It’s important to me to get out there and network not only my business, but myself, both face to face and online and build my customer base (or TEAM) from there.
Catherine
Jordan Essentials
Director in Training # 3854
Dear Jennifer,
This is an excellent post. I suggest that you send it out at least once a month. I wonder how anyone believes that spamming is a good way to create business?
Many thanks for the quality of your posts. Your husband’s posts provide value also, and I have forwarded them to my daughter and other friends
with kids and grands.
Thanks,
Karen Bain
In TOTAL agreement!
Great post – and I totally agree. The direct selling industry on a whole has a hard enough time building and maintaining a positive reputation, and purchased “leads” used to spam people with get-rich-fast pipe dreams makes the challenge even harder.
I really feel sorry for these folks, they have no idea how to run a business and assume everyone will have some sort of interest in their spam. They honestly believe they can get rich without doing the work.
I’ve never purchased leads, some of my downline have and the results were dismal. One I talked with was convinced she had all the answers to guarantee success from her “mentor” who would provide her with leads (for a price). My gentle suggestions to point her in the right direction were ignored and nothing has happened with her business. I really wanted to scream, “No don’t waste your money and time with this guy! It won’t work!” But I couldn’t of coarse.
Love the title of this post, now if I share it with my team will they think I’m saying they are lame?
Hi Jen,
Agree 10,000%
Nobody cares about your money as much as you do. Who knows what you’re buying? In many cases it’s the crap you mention in this post. Spammy, weak, over-the-top pleas to buy a product or service promising you riches over night. Nobody buys this junk, and if they do it’s almost instantly returned, or the buyer complains, or labels the seller a scammer.
Desperation or Hype = Repelling Strategy.
Be authentic. Build your business the right way: be honest and transparent. Be approachable. Add value and make a positive impression wherever you are. In time you create a sort of momentum which brings leads to you with less and less effort. Call it attraction marketing, karma, whatever, it simply works as good as many lead generating method I know of.
It doesn’t take money to make money. It takes generating prosperous ideas to make money. Originate enough of these ideas and you move into appropriate actions which will prosper you.
Thanks for sharing your keen insight Jen. Have a wonderful weekend.
RB
Thank you for this reminder. Those folks who sell leads are great at making is sound so profitable. In the end, It’s a lot of money spent with no return.
I love the title! You had me at “lame”. Like Amy who posted here too…VERY tired of my inbox clogging with people promising me I’ll make $5000+ a day if I buy their leads, and the robocalls. Yuck.
Thank you for saying so! I get so tired of the emails and auto-dialers calling me trying to sell me stuff. If you want me to buy something from you, contact me and be sincere about trying to help me!