No matter what MLM company you're working with, finding the right leads is crucial to your success. Connecting with leads and then converting them into customers and team members is how network marketers earn income.

Almost every network marketer has been told that the best way to get started is to share your opportunity with your “warm market.” People are taught to talk about what they're doing with their family, their friends, their neighbors, the guy walking his dog in front of their house, etc. etc. etc.

This often results in a bunch of ticked-off friends and family members who won't take your calls anymore.

Sharing your opportunity with people you know is a great thing to do — after they see the success you're having and ask you about it. The key here is they come to you.

Rather than trying to convince everyone you know to join you, start building your own warm market with the BEST marketing strategy.

The BEST Marketing Strategy

BEST is an acronym that provides a simple plan of action for growing your business.

Build your audience
Engage your audience
Sell to your audience
Transform your audience

Building your audience

There are hundreds – maybe even thousands – of ways to build your audience. The fastest methods for reaching a lot of people can be found online. Some of the most effective include:

• Publishing articles on blogs
• Video marketing
• Posting on Social Media sites
• Paid advertising

Provide valuable content that demonstrates your ability to help prospective customers. This could be related to your products and services, or it could be business-building content. For the most part, avoid mentioning anything about your Network Marketing company. The key is to build an audience of people who are interested in hearing from YOU.

In everything you publish, encourage people to follow you. Ask for Likes, Follows and Subscribes. Set up an email opt-in form so that people can sign up to your mailing list.

Engage your audience

As people start following you, interact with them. Respond regularly (and promptly!) to their questions and comments on Social Media sites. Send emails to your list that share information about you to let them get to know you and what you're all about.

Consider hosting live video events for your followers. With the advancements in Facebook and YouTube, you can launch a live broadcast in just a few minutes — for free! And you don't even have to come up with some amazing presentation. Ask your followers to send in questions that you can answer live, and respond to their comments while you're broadcasting.

Focus on giving great value that genuinely helps your followers.

Sell to your audience

You may have heard the phrase “people buy from people they know, like and trust.” In the home-based business world, this is 100% true. The more effort you put into building and engagement, the more likely it is that your audience will trust you.

Of course, being engaged with you audience doesn't end just because they've gotten to know you. At no point during a customer life cycle should you adopt the persona of the stereotypical used car salesman.

Approach all sales opportunities with one principle in mind:

Sales is service

The only time you should make a sale is when your offer has the ability to move the lead closer to their goal. Selling just for the sake of making the sale is not in the best interest of your prospect or the long-term health of your business. Your customers are not going to stick around if you're not taking care of them.

Transform your audience

Once a lead has made a purchase from you, they become your customer. But in reality, they are still a lead.

How?

• Do you want to sign more people up on your team?
• Do you want your customers to continue buying over and over again?
• Do you want to offer additional products and services over time?

If you want to build a real business that has actual growth potential, the answer to all of those questions should be a resounding “yes!” That means that every one of your followers is a prospective customer – first time or repeat – so you must continue to nurture that relationship.

Offering increasingly advanced products and services to your customers opens the door to real, lasting change. Network marketing has the power to transform someone's entire life, mentally, physically and financially. It's up to you to serve your customers by showing them the possibilities.

Set the BEST Marketing Strategy as the foundation of all of your marketing activities and watch your warm market consistently grow.