"Make a list of everyone you know - here's a memory jogger - be sure to get everyone..." Does this sound familiar? Personally these words send a cold chill down my back and make me look for the nearest exit even today. Warm market MLM leads were a nightmare it took me 8 years and a whole lot of lost friends and pissed off relatives to get over. But this isn't about me - this is about leads and how to stay on the free holiday dinner list.

For those of you who may be new to MLM I will define what I mean by the different types of lists. A warm List in MLM is a list of your friends, family, co-workers, casual acquaintances, delivery drivers, neighbors and their relatives, babysitters and anyone else you know at least the first name of that you might bump into sometime in the next year. An MLM cold list is a list that is usually bought from the company, your upline, or some other type of leads broker for anywhere from five cents to twenty dollars or more. The third type of MLM lead I call a positioned lead and will define in depth in a minute.

Warm Market Leads

Once upon a time this worked in MLM - or so I am told, I am not old enough to know for sure. I can tell you that this didn't work worth a hill of beans in 1995, 1996, etc. For 8 years I tried working the same MLM warm list, I guess you could call me stubborn. I feel they don't work because while you may have some influence with these people and they may even need your product or opportunity, the truth is that Aunt Sue still recalls what you look like without a diaper and your cousin Vinny remembers that lemonade stand you tried to start that never sold a single glass. Even Jesus couldn't get respect in his own home town so just give it up already.

Cold Market Leads

So that leaves you with buying the super duper, 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds, tire smokin', blow the doors off of your business, double opt in, triple verified and covered in gold MLM opportunity leads for $20 a piece right? I hope not. I have tried, much to my shame, the expensive MLM leads. They are just a faster way to spend yourself out of business. Even if your MLM opportunity has the commission and residual to make these eventually pay for themselves the distributors never stick around very long unless you can show them how to make money fast - like right now before they get the call from the next person in MLM who bought the same leads. I do buy cold MLM leads from time to time just for fun but I never pay more than five to twenty-five cents for them. I tracked the amount of people who said yes on the expensive MLM leads and on the cheap ones. With the cheap MLM leads I have to dial more numbers to weed out the disconnects, wrong numbers and other assorted junk but they end up netting me more people who say yes for less money. A lot less money. Besides what do you have more of when you are starting a new MLM business - time or cash?

Positioned MLM Leads

Some of you may be sitting there saying, "What in the world are positioned leads?" If so you are in for a treat. Positioned MLM leads are like warm market MLM leads on steroids. Now pay attention because if you have never heard of these before I am about to change the way you think about MLM leads forever!

Positioned MLM leads are leads that YOU generate yourself through a website, or written ad campaign of some sort that TARGETS people looking for the BENEFITS your MLM product has to offer and CREATES AN URGENCY TO BUY your product that leads to them calling and/or contacting YOU in some form.

That was a long sentence and it has 12 years of MLM experience and wisdom packed into it so read it again - and again until you really grasp what it says. Yes, it really is possible to do that and I do it daily. This technique is what separates the unsuccessful and moderately successful MLM distributors from the Gurus. Telling you this has probably gotten me black listed with at least a few MLM companies and there are probably going to be comments left for me but there it is. The whole truth of how Gurus do it in one sentence. A further explanation of how - exactly and step by step - to do that will have to wait for another day unless you would like to contact me.

To sum up my opinion on this subject:

Warm MLM Leads: Bad Cold MLM Leads: OK - as long as they are cheap. Positioned MLM Leads: This is where the real money is. It is beyond doubt worth any amount of time, effort and energy needed to learn how to do this. Be sure to read the follow up article: Positioned Leads - A Discussion Of How To Generate Them.

About the Author

"The Dysfunctional Home-Based Business Therapy Center" Lori Marton http://truth-about-mlm-revealed.com/

Lori Marton has over 12 years of experience in multi-level marketing and home based business building using the phone, written word and Internet.

She has been quoted as saying:

"True wealth is not having a lot of money. True wealth is knowing how to generate a river of income on demand with the resources at hand." -- Lori Marton