Is A Funded Proposal Going To Cost You More Time, Money And Energy?

Everybody knows that building a downline is hard work and that steady residual cashflow is not immediate. It may take months to years of dedicated work in building strong relationships and sponsoring people to eventually generate enough income so you can walk away from the daily business building activities and retire to the MLM lifestyle.

In the meantime, networkers must spend a lot of time, money and energy promoting themselves, and their "solutions" to attract the right prospects. For most people, money is the major issue. They need money to pay for their monthly autoship, for advertising, for the long distance phone calls and other overhead.

So what's the solution to this money problem? Is it the "Funded Proposal"? There are quite a few people who say that it is a great way to generate "instant" cash and even make a substantial profit while you build your network marketing business for leveraged income. But is this really true?

There are ALWAYS two sides of the coin...

For those who are not familiar, a funded proposal in the "attraction marketing" circles, is the front end sale of a low cost generic "how to" information product that will benefit the people in your target market.

The best target market for a network marketer are other people already in network marketing or are familiar with the concept. That's why you'll find a lot of network marketers on the internet selling, or trying to sell information products (in the form of books, ebooks, audio or training videos) or generic lead generation systems to other network marketers.

I do believe in the concept of the funded proposal. Used effectively in your marketing funnel, the leads who purchase the information product you're selling are potentially the best prospects you can get, because they are seeking your solution on how to be more profitable in building a business from home. Plus, it puts a bit of money into your pocket to cover some of your recurring costs.

When you get a prospect who purchases your information, the next step is to pick up the phone and see how you can really help the person on the other end of the line and establish a trustworthy relationship. That's the only way you can sponsor people into your business.

Here's my concern about how some people are using (or abusing) the funded proposal concept - the other side of the coin...

Funded proposals are causing people to lose focus. They turn their focus away from building relationships and sponsoring people, and instead they put a lot of time and energy into promoting several affiliate programs. Instead of picking up the phone and calling their leads, internet networkers are simply bombarding their list with promotions.

What this means is they're trading long term leveraged walkaway residual income for short term profits. Affiliate programs don't provide you with leveraged residual income like that of downline, even if it's a monthly subscription that you're promoting. To make more money, you always have to keep finding new customers.

I don't know about you... but I've found that marketing affiliate programs on the internet is pretty hard work. Especially now that "everybody" is doing it, which means you have to work harder to differentiate yourself from the multitude of novices spamming the internet with affiliate products.

You could spent a lot of time, money and energy promoting multiple affiliate products and not get any return. Wouldn't that wasted time and effort be much better invested in developing relationships with people in your target market? After all, your business IS relationships.

I can hear you say "There are people making tons of money promoting hundreds of different affiliate products!" Yeah, there are those people. But let me ask you this: "How's that working for you?"

People join REAL people in this industry, not some marketer that just wants build a huge list, stay at arms length and shove more "how to" information down their throats. Nothing wrong with that, but it's NOT network marketing.

Your best bet is to focus on your long term success. Use a well chosen affiliate program as a funded proposal if necessary. But please, get on the phone and build relationships.

Don't get caught in the great myth of the funded proposal.

Wayne teaches network marketers how to brand themselves and generate an endless flow of qualified prospects with powerful, low cost marketing. To learn how you can make money in less than one year in MLM, visit The Profitable Networker.