Hey guys.. I have written this blog to help all of YOU get the most out of marketing your home based business using leads.

I get tons of questions every day on how to use leads for your business, so hopefully this blog will help!

KNOW THE RULES
Generally if the lead has requested to be contacted about the product or service you are offering it is appropriate to call and/or email them with your business information.

Most leads generated from online advertising will include an IP and time stamp.  This is PROOF that the person did in fact request to be contacted.

However, I am not the ultimate authority to advise on whether how you choose to market to your leads is legal, if you are unsure check with the following websites:

https://www.donotcall.gov/faq/faqbusiness.aspx – National Do Not Call Registry (Telephone Marketing)

http://www.ftc.gov/spam/ – FTC Can-Spam Laws (E-mail Marketing)

BE PREPARED!

Study the business you are marketing and learn from your successful upline!  The more you know, the better you will be able to answer questions about your business and be confident when presenting your business, and this will equal MORE SALES!

Study your companies training courses, listen to training calls, and read all training materials before you call your leads.

WHEN THE TIMING IS NOT RIGHT

Often, when dialing a list of leads, you will get the response “I am no longer interested” or  “I cannot talk now”.

When the person became a lead, at that exact time they were saying “yes” they were interested in a home based business. Now you call back three days later and they say no. What gives?!

Imagine for yourself, the situation the other person may be in at the time you call..  They may be making dinner for their husband, entertaining guests, picking up the kids from school, etc.  Just like yourself, you are probably quick to hang up on a telemarketer, when you are already busy and flustered trying to handle your daily activities.

To overcome this objection be professional and polite.  Let them know you are simply contacting them to provide the information they requested and be compassionate about their busy schedule.  Ask them when they will have a few minutes to chat and make a future appointment.    This will usually get you a positive response and an appointment to present your business!

I know many seasoned marketers that stay in touch with leads over days, weeks, or even months, before they make a sale.   A common mistake for marketers to make is to determine a lead is “bad”, just because they were not interested the first time called.

BUILD A RELATIONSHIP

Make small talk with your leads and show them you are HUMAN BEING, not just a robot telemarketer.

A few examples of things to talk about when making small talk to build a relationship would be talking about their location, the weather, family, what they do for fun, and their motivations for getting involved in a home based business.

Show your passion for your product and share your personal experiences.

PEOPLE MIRROR YOU

Be happy, friendly, upbeat, and your leads will often respond the same!

HAVE A SCRIPT AND POWERLINE READY!

The business you work with with may provide a telephone “script”.  This is a pre-written dialog of what to say when calling your leads.  Many teams and trainers within your business will provide this to you for free,
if you do not have one, start to ask around!

A powerline is a response to the question: “What does your company do?” Have your answer to this question memorized and ready because the leads are going to ask!

Imagine you are called by a telemarketer, and when you ask what the company does the marketer is stumbling over the answer, I think right then and there this is someone you are not going to feel comfortable doing business with!

HOW TO CLOSE THE LEAD

As explained above, try to follow the script and advice provided by the business or trainers you work with for best results.

Here is an example of how many home business marketers progress in closing their leads:

1) Start with a telephone interview when you call the lead.  Ask questions, introduce yourself, and build a personal relationship.

2) Try to place an appointment for an overview of your business.  Such as a live conference call, recorded call, webinar, or website tour.
Don’t waste your time trying to provide every single detail to every lead you talk to, often your business has already set up one of these options for you.

3) Schedule a follow up call to ask them what they liked about the business and ask them any questions they may have.  Remind them of their motivations they may have for wanting to get involved in a home business (you may have learned this during your initial interview).

If you have someone who is unsure, be sure to stay in touch with them, as they may be interested in the future.  Ask them if you can follow up in a few weeks.  You may also want to get your experienced upline on a 3 way call to better present the business if you are having problems.

EMAIL MARKETING

With the high level of spam we all receive today it can be nearly impossible to reach your leads at first contact by email.  Your email will likely get looked over as “spam” or “junk” and be deleted.   So if you purchase leads for telemarketing, use them for that purpose only.  After you have talked to the lead on the phone, it can then be a good time to send a follow up email to say thank you, provide your contact info, business websites, and confirm future appointments with them.

If you do want to try email marketing buy leads intended for email marketing such as autoresponder leads (often sold in bulk packages of thousands).
And if you want to send mass emails to leads you MUST have some type of autoresponder software, because free email accounts like Yahoo and Hotmail, will not let you send bulk mail advertisements to hundreds of email addresses at a time.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE PHONE

Remember:  Calling leads can be a numbers game.. the more “No’s” you get, the closer you are to the “Yes’s“!