Because we are globally-connected, you are bound to become involved in long distance sponsoring.

Embrace the opportunity to recruit beyond your city walls. You never know if – in a city a thousand miles away – long-distance sponsorship will be your most productive downline.

Like everything else in this business (in life); however, there are right and wrong ways to go about long distance sponsoring.

In a Business Start-Ups magazine interview, a national developer and producer of marketing and training materials for MLM companies and distributors, notes that “a conscious game plan may make all the difference in effective long distance sponsoring.” The interviewee points out that the helter-skelter approach to sponsoring (“go wide and see where it goes”) won’t necessarily yield the best results for your time and effort. Using this approach, he says, people are told to sign up anyone “as long as they breathe.”

Like any other important financial decision, the interviewee goes on, give it thought. “Just because you know a guy in Ohio, doesn’t mean you should sign him up, particularly if he is going to do nothing in your organization but draw on your time.”

This approach may support a few heavy hitters at the top of a network marketing organization, but not the average distributor. The interviewee points out that the top people in a network organization always try to put active, motivated people on their organization.

Here are 10 tips to help you when it’s time to cash-in on long distance sponsorship:

1) Know your craft: Before you start sponsoring long distance, make sure that you’ve mastered sales and recruiting in your own locality. The interviewee advises, “Know what you are doing and what you are going to teach.” Be a deal closer!

2) Choose wisely: If you want to increase your chances of success in long distance sponsoring, look for people who are “wired to win;” independent people with a track record of success. In fact, the further the distance, the more independent and reliable that person must be. The interviewee parallels the long distance sponsoring relationship to that of a long distance romance, saying, “If I am in LA, can I have a successful romance with someone in NY? Perhaps if I choose wisely.”

3) Create a system: You should start off with a comprehensive plan of attack and communicate it to your downline distributors so that you are all singing from the same song sheet. This is best accomplished at the beginning of the relationship by emailing them your proposed plan of attack.

4) Agree on responsive commitments: When you first establish relationships with long distance recruits, take some time to qualify the candidates. You need to talk to them, says the interviewee, and determine what they want, how much they are willing to commit in time, money and resources, and in what timeframe. Although you are all operating independent businesses, you are somewhat dependent on one another. Once you find the right person, develop an agreement that details your respective commitments – at the very least – in an email dedicated to the subject of business goals and plans.

5) Establish a long distance sponsoring budget: You have to spend money to make money. Long distance sponsoring is going to create expenses you don’t normally have when you sponsor distributors locally. To determine whether it will pay off for you, you’d better understand the costs involved. The first obvious expense is of calling charges and data rates on phone plans that don’t have unlimited data. Are you going to be mailing support materials to downline distributors? Plan on postage and mailing expenses for communication and shipping expenses for support materials. Are you planning on flying out to meet your downline or join an event? Plan a travel budget to support your downline group. This is obvious, but must be mentioned anyway: Make use of free technology (email, Skype, messaging services, etc.) to cut down on your long distance communication expenses.

6) Get some support from your company: If it looks like long distance sponsoring will be a real winner for you, you should take a close look at the multilevel marketing company you are working for to see if it has systems that will work to support your efforts. These may include voice messaging systems, national conference call service, digital communications and documents, email services, distributor website, as well as engaging materials to support retailing and team building.

7) Make sure the company training program supports long distance growth: Although this has been a problem in the past for some network marketing companies, many MLM companies today are developing new systems to support essential training for long distance recruits. Just take a look at their marketing materials.

8) Build your downline in geographical areas supported by your company: When you build your organization long distance, try to build in areas where the company is supporting growth through tours, rallies, events, and training. It’s much easier (and less expensive) to arrange meetings if most everyone in your downline is located around the same regional area.

9) Focus on areas where other successful distributors are located: Geographical areas where there is an infrastructure of successful distributors should be your first focus. It is particularly helpful if you can develop a reciprocal relationship where you support distributors of long distance recruits in your city in exchange for your distributors being supported by successful leader outside your city.

10) Provide the personal touch: The interviewee suggests that “training is everything and three-way calling is the name of the game in long distance sponsoring.” Be sure that you are on the phone with the first 10 contacts your new, long-distance distributor calls. This bonds potential customers to your organization from the very beginning. And also – when your distributors contact their potential customers – your new recruit will have the opportunity to listen to your presentation, gather information, learn how to overcome resistance, learn how to close the sale, and begin to build their own successful business.

In network marketing, long distance sponsoring opens a world of opportunity. If you’re willing to do it right, it can be an extremely profitable world. Remember, it takes time. It take a lot of effort and patience. And, above all, it takes determination.

Learn more about recruiting from Attorney Jeff Babener!

What is the benefit of recruiting experienced distributors? Video!

What’s the difference between sponsoring and recruiting? Video!

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A simple Google search results in articles that attempt to convince entrepreneurs to not start the network marketing company of their dreams for one vague reason or another. Or, an online search results in a plethora of articles that are generic and are not written by experts in the direct selling field.

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1)      The first step to starting any company is investing some time into research and education. There are many articles available online that will allow you to better understand the complexities of starting and running a network marketing company. For instance, the article “Starting Your MLM Company”, discusses how successful operations depend on product demand, a compelling compensation plan, and the corporate leadership of the company, as well as how intangible considerations, such as psychology and trust, are important aspects of company success.  The article series titled “Corporate Startup Essentials” goes to great length to outline the importance of capitalization, recruiting, legal, trademarks, expert advice, software/technology, industry experience, product/service offered, international markets, compensation plans, outsourcing, agreements between owners, and corporate attitude. The blog post titled How do I Raise Capital to Start My MLM Business? delves into detail on funding and raising capital to start your network marketing company. The blogs at both www.mlmlegal.com and www.mlmattorney.com contain great posts for startup direct selling companies and MLM executives. The article “Starting a Network Marketing Company?” outlines ten important points to consider when creating your network marketing company. And, the article “The Hallmarks of Legitimate Direct Selling/Network Marketing Companies” details ten aspects of successful network marketing companies. In addition, there are over 70 videos offered at MLMLegal.com that address various aspects of starting and running a direct selling company.

2)      Secondly, it is always important to gather materials that you can turn to when you come across an unanswered question. One good resource for this is the Starting and Running Successful MLM Company manual. There are also several books and brochures available at Legaline Publications that are compiled by experts in the network marketing industry.

3)      The third step, and frankly the most important step to help you understand if your company is legal, is to contact a MLM lawyer to read your materials and advise you in your marketing, FDA and FTC work, trademarks, regulatory issues, international expansion, sales tax, and distributor and vendor relationships, to name a few. The current and easiest way to do this is to visit the page of our Innovation Campaign. The February 2014 Innovation Campaign enables network marketing company owners the ability to receive two free tickets to our next Starting and Running the Successful MLM Company Conference in Las Vegas (a $345.00 value!). All you have to do is fill out a brief survey at our sister website: www.mlmattorney.com, and we will contact you right away to confirm your free tickets to the event. Attending this event will give you direct access to several MLM industry experts, including compensation plan consultants and MLM legal expert, Jeff Babener. Visit our Innovation Campaign page for complete information about the conference, including the topics that will be covered, the speaker list, videos, and much more. For additional questions call 800-231-2162.

Starting a network marketing company can be a complicated process without industry experts guiding you, but we believe this article will help you in the initial steps. For more information on how to build a legal direct sales company, visit www.mlmlegal.com and www.mlmattorney.com.

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Our next Starting and Running the Successful MLM Company Conference takes place February 27th & 28th, 2014 in Las Vegas. Call 503-226-6600 or 800-231-2162 to register.

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