Let's explore a simple, but widely misunderstood philosophy and business model:

First of all, let me define what a marketing/prospecting funnel is.

Picture a funnel (wide at the top, narrow at the bottom). A prospecting or marketing funnel starts at the top - where prospects first come into contact with you. It's wide at the top and you should be attracting people to the top of your funnel using various forms or marketing.

Now, hopefully you know by now that your job is NOT to prospect. It's to MARKET, getting your stuff and information out to the public view in various ways and attracting quality prospects to YOU. If you are still trying to build your business prospecting people, cold calling, doing meetings, parties, friends and family, etc. - you need to read some of my older articles to get caught up with effective business building in today's market.

If you have passed that stage and are now on to more effective business building - listen closely because I'm about to share something with you that you most likely have never heard or have been shown before.

Most people place their primary network marketing business at the top of their funnel, and it is the first thing that their prospects see. Doing it this way gives you absolutely nothing else to offer or show your prospect if he/she decides not to get signed up in your company. That's it, you're done and that prospect no longer has a use for you.

Not only that, but since your first contact with your prospects is simply a pitch for your mlm deal, they see you as just another networker salesman who wants to get them sign up in some company - nothing more.

AND, if you are promoting your company first by trying to 'tell the story' or 'show the plan', you essentially are making yourself a non-important part of the picture. See, if that prospect truly wanted to sign up with or buy products from your company from the beginning - they would just call the 800 line and ask for a rep close to them. Why would they need you? What makes you any different than any other rep in your company?

See, anyone can 'follow the plan' and be a good little sheep and a clone of the company, but to be a true leader and a 'big dog' you need to be unique and give people a reason why they would even spend time with you if they can locate a rep right down the street from them.

Ok, back to the funnel!

So, if all you have in your funnel is some network marketing company that 10,000 other reps have as well - how is that really a unique advantage for YOU. and what can you offer prospects that anyone else in your company can't?

Solution?!:

First of all, you need to offer more in your funnel than other networkers do.

Secondly, and very critical here - you need to have those things in your funnel in the PROPER order.

If you have more to offer your prospects, they see you as a viable resource and not a salesman. Plus, it gives you a very distinct advantage over the rest of the distributors in your company AND the entire industry. It makes you unique, and it gives prospects a reason to do business with you as opposed to any other rep from 'XYZ Company'.

BUT, if what you have to offer is not in the correct order - it can backfire on you.

So; you don't have your primary mlm business at the top of the funnel and then other stuff after that. People will feel like you are just trying to make a buck off of them and they already signed up in your company, so they feel like you may be taking advantage of them.

What you do first, is you place high-quality free or nearly-free things at the top of your funnel to ATTRACT people to YOU first. Things like a free newsletter, free educational articles, blog entries, free reports, free ebooks, free cd's, free videos, etc. Something that has a real value to your prospects, but doesn't make them commit to buying anything yet.

Then, they can suck on that stuff and digest it as long as they want while they are now in YOUR funnel looking around and coming back to you for more (because they liked what you provided so far, and they are starting to develop trust in you).

After this, you place low-to-medium priced generic training materials, tools, resources, etc. below the free things in your funnel for your prospects. This will continue to provide your prospects with things that they are already looking for and need while furthering the trust factor for you AND allowing you to earn an UPFRONT retail profit BEFORE you spend any personal time with a prospect or whether or not they end up signing up in your residual deal (So, you still get paid). I personally use a few things that allow people to start small and then 'upgrade' when they are ready, as well as some high-ticket items that those who are serious that will take advantage of.

Then, your bigger residual program(s) is/are plugged in to the BOTTOM of the funnel, and you are then able to build it more passively than ever before. The goal here is to passively transition retail customers into a month;y autoship that somehow relates to what they have already bought from you. Since residual income is residual income - I recommend having a few GENERIC residual deals in your funnel so your market expands to the ENTIRE INDUSTRY, and not just to those in a particular segment like nutritional products, skin care, or whatever.

Remember, the goal is to brand YOU, not your company. What happens if your company goes under or makes a bad business decision, or gets raided by the FDA or the FTC? Are your people connected to you or to some company? For example, go type in 'Scott Rogers Network Marketing' in Google and see how much stuff I have out there - and then replace my name with your name, and then replace your name with your sponsors name. This will tell you how well you are marketing and branding yourself, AND how well the people you are following are marketing and branding themselves.

In conclusion, if you position your funnel in the manner which I have displayed - not only will you be very uniquely different, but you will make more money upfront to help you go full time quicker while your residuals build up, AND you will be able to more passively recruit business builders in your primary business, AND you will be able to help your organization to do the same thing and get them into profit mode quicker!

This is just like the business model of Oprah, Costco, HBO, Robert Allen, Tony Robbins, Rachael Ray, and many more - and you can learn it and start applying it right now: