Sponsoring the Right People

Sponsoring the Right People

Having started with your home business, your next step should be to start networking. You would want to have good people working with you. The whole process of sponsoring has to be carried out very scrupulously. Often we come across networkers who complain of non performance of their team. This could happen either because of their members’ incapability or non-seriousness towards the business itself.

HOW TO SPONSOR?

The process is not so different from that followed by a manager in an organization. You must assess the person on his commitment and seriousness levels, ask why he wants to move into home business in the first place. Never portray yourself as if you would sponsor just anyone you come across, instead convey that he or she has to qualify to be in your team.

It would be worth mentioning here, that the nature of your home business should be one deciding factor about the type of people you need as your team. So, if possible, sponsor people who have worked in similar or almost similar industries or areas in the past. Though, at the end of it, what is more important is their willingness to learn and earn in the whole process.

While you go gung ho about your company and its products before your prospects, it is advisable to portray the right picture. Unduly trying to impress your prospects would only make them join you for reasons that don’t exist. Convey enough information about the background of the company and the scope of its products or services. Do not make tall claims, be realistic. A good clarity about the compensation plans is always appreciated.

Look at the market potential of your product. If you feel it doesn’t have much acceptance beyond a particular territory, sponsoring people there would only be a waste of time and energy. Mostly, that happens because of the difference in the tastes and preferences of inhabitants in that region.

YOUR APPROACH

Looking closely into the methods, there is not just one approach to make people join you. Broadly speaking, the following would be worth mentioning:

Presentations

Till date, one of the most widely practiced tool by networkers. Schedule presentations at different locations in your territory to like minded individuals who have shown initial interest. You may organize these either at your own home or a public place for that purpose. The objective should be only to introduce your business and not trying to overzealously recruit.

Social gatherings

If you want to make the whole thing informal, meeting new people at gatherings could be the best way to go about it. But be careful of not offending people and barging into their privacy. In fact, your approach should be rather slow paced here. You may do well not to talk of your business initially. Get friendly with people, try understanding their interest areas and tell about yourself only when you are asked. Only then you should briefly introduce your business and your ambitious plans to grow it. Your prospects would certainly ask more questions if interested. In any case don’t forget to exchange business cards. You can follow up with them later to talk in detail.

People around you

The good old method of doing business with people who you often meet and greet is still very effective. Sweep your eyes around and you would find so many eligible people who you otherwise may not consider; for example your own club members, colleagues if you are still doing a day job, your retired uncle who hates sitting idle at home and is desperate to utilize his time doing something productive, your entrepreneur friends or relatives who already have that business acumen in them and would take your proposal as another opportunity to earn more money.

But here’s an advice for you. Never take liberty of your friends and relatives who aren’t able to say no to you. But they honestly may not want to do home business! So don’t just get stuck in your old circle. You would only become loathsome to them that way.

Print advertisements

Advertising in the local or regional newspapers can generate quick leads, though most of them could be only initial queries to know more, with no intentions to move further with you. But many could be genuinely interested in moving into home business, only that they might not be sure which business to join. You have a fat chance with such prospects!

Internet

The web revolution has given a new dimension to home business. If you have your own website, you can generate leads faster than you would otherwise do. No other channel can reach out faster to your prospects. And at the top of all that, it’s so cost effective as compared to the results it can produce! Techniques like SEO & PPC can boost traffic on your site that results in faster lead generation.

Email campaigns

That’s something you can start doing right away. Create an impressive sales letter and shoot it to all your prospects in the database. But remember to send it as a personalized mail and not as a one-to-all, or it would be taken as a spam and would be blocked by the receivers’ mailing systems. Also, write a catchy three-four word subject that triggers the receiver to click the mail open and read. Refrain from using subjects like ‘A lifetime opportunity’ or ‘Become rich in six months’; only immature or weak minds open such mails and the rest only delete them without reading.

Print letters

Letter sent by you through emails could also be sent in print by post. That way you would also cover people who are not so net savvy or dislike sitting before their machines on a regular basis. Mostly, such people are retired or in their old age who would prefer reading lying in their beds or basking in the sun in their gardens. This category is a huge market for many network marketing entrepreneurs, considering the deluge of health & wellness products in this industry!

Leads

If you think you would rather not spend on advertising – offline or online, there’s another source that promises genuine leads. There are agencies and websites that just do that – they provide leads for your home business, and that too at very reasonable rates! You can go to www.GoldenMasterMind.com where you can get quality leads from Jeffery Combs and Erika Combs. Also, it would be beneficial to log on to www.cuttingedgemedialeads.com to have access to more leads. At www.thescriptbook.com, Dani Johnson can give you valuable suggestions on lead generation.

More has to be done after sponsoring capable people in your team. And that is, training them. Though most of it is done by outside parties nowadays, as a leader you must impart your learning and experiences to them and encourage them to participate as much as possible in the seminars and training sessions.

‘Entrepreneurs should sponsor and not recruit’ is what mega leaders of the industry say. In other words, sponsoring in home business means guiding people to get the right training and skills, and mentoring them in a way that they become self-reliant. Recruiting, on the other hand is just about having as many people aboard as possible and hoping they would make fortunes without proper guidance!

Sponsoring would only develop a long term relationship with your people. You may get in touch with them once again when you join a new company after some time. That would save you a lot of time and effort to go through the same cycle of approaching new people, developing relationships and sponsoring them.