A lot of people are cutting costs and cutting back during this recession, which can make it harder to recruit the right people. 2009 can be a time of famine, drought, and scarcity in your Network Marketing / Direct Marketing / MLM business, or it can be the year you get stinking rich.

But first, we need to agree on one important thing, and that is that this is not a time to recruit desperate people. They say, “Desperate people do desperate things”, and that is true. You want to be recruiting successful, influential, Centers of Influence.

Recruit Leaders

When you recruit a Center of Influence correctly and manage that relationship, you will be amazed at how you can rocket your Network Marketing through the roof. They can sign up their leaders and use their existing communication and resources to build your business.

Follow Through

Most Network Marketers drop the ball after signing up a Center of Influence because they’re too obsessive, desperate, and self-interested. They follow what they are taught by their company, and they forget about the fact that they are, in fact, involved in a Joint Venture.

This is the difference between what you will learn from DollarMakers and what you will learn from your Network Marketing company. I have been recruited to join Network Marketing companies as a Center of Influence myself, and I have also recruited Centers of Influence, and in most cases I made a lot of money, so I know whereof I speak.

What is a REAL Center of Influence?

Now there is a reason why you haven’t recruited a Center of Influence before, and if you have, why they’re not performing. We’re not going to discuss that here. What I want to discuss is HOW to recruit busy people who have access to many other people who will do what that Center of Influence suggests they do.

• A Center of Influence is someone who influences many people who trust, respect, and like them, and who follow their suggestions.
• A real Center of Influence communicates regularly with his or her people.

Just to be clear, there are a lot of people who SEEM to be Centers of Influence and CLAIM to have large databases, but usually those databases are simply people who once opted into their database to get a free gift, and they don’t even know who the Center of Influence is, much less open his e mails or read them or follow his advice. I’m talking about a real Center of Influence

• who cares about her people and has a relationship with them.

Your Approach Must be Based on a Relationship and Reciprocity.

The Joint Venture Mindset that we teach through DollarMakers is that you should build business based on a relationship and reciprocity. I don’t do business with people I don’t know or respect, and who haven’t built some kind of trust relationship with me. I don’t even consider promoting people or products who have not contributed to DollarMakers or been involved with us. It is dangerous to work with unknown people.

This needs to be remembered when you approach a Center of Influence.

• You have to earn the right to talk with them or pitch them.
• You have to show them that it is in their own best interest.
• First, you have to know what they want, and what their “Hot Button” is.

Remember, Centers of Influence are being pitched almost daily by MLMers who do it all wrong. If you do what everybody else does you’ll have what everybody else has. Using the Joint Venture approach, you can differentiate yourself from all the others.

Tips for Top Notch Recruitment

In a nutshell, here are the simple points to follow in order to recruit a Center of Influence into your Network Marketing business:

1. Earn the right. Create reciprocity. Build a relationship. Contribute. Become known and respected. You have to put wood on the fire before you get the heat.
2. Position yourself. Look and act successful. Dress and groom yourself appropriately. Package yourself for success.
3. Find out what the Center of Influence’s Hot Button is. You need to understand his pain, problems, challenges, hopes, dreams, goals, and secret wishes. This takes work and research, but it’s well worth it. Be clear about what he wants, so that you prepare the bait / prize / incentive correctly.
4. Prepare your offer properly. Customize your presentation and be sure that it’s all about the Center of Influence to show her how she will benefit by joining you.
5. Make your offer in such a way that it is hard to refuse. Remove time, money, risk, inconvenience, and irritation, and add massive value and substance. Push the Hot Button effectively.
6. Close and sign him up.
7. Follow-up and management – this is the most important part. If you stop putting wood on the fire, it will go out, and you will be replaced.

Finally, remember this:

The Center of Influence you are going to recruit is not going to be doing your business on a full time basis – she already has a successful business, and you are simply an add-on. By neglecting this fact and assuming you and your products or services are the center of the universe, you will very quickly lose the relationship and commitment of that Center of Influence.  That’s what DollarMakers teaches.

If you want to acquire the Joint Venture mindset that will make the above possible, I suggest you join DollarMakers, get involved, and learn from about reciprocity, value, commitment, wealth, and Joint Ventures from us.