I was talking to my better half last night about how far our business has come and some of the absolutely insane, moronic, pig headed, dumbass choices we have made while we have been a part of this industry.

Still thinking about it this morning, I figured that admitting to them in this post would help someone else avoid my same mistakes.

So here is my Tonight Show David Letterman style Top 10 List of the worst MLM mistakes I have made.

Ladies and Gentlemen here is tonight’s top 10 list…

Spending hours, days, weeks learning everything there is to know about my company’s products.  Knowing the exact ingredients in our shampoo did not make me a millionaire.

Stop wasting your time pouring over the latest DVDs, PDFs, CDs and whatever else your company is cramming down your throat.  The only thing you are doing by being a product know it all is proving that this is hard work for the next person you introduce this to!  They want to know they can do this too and memorizing a fact sheet word for word is not everyone’s strong suit.

Penning the infamous Friends and Family List. And worse, actually thinking that I could find an uncle on my mother’s side twice removed or cousin of a friend of my babysitter’s when I was six to first listen to what I had to say and then join me.

These people are not qualified or interested in your business!  Plus, you don’t have the skills when you first start to explain it anyway.  Get in front of people who are actively looking for what you have to offer, those are the ‘right’ people to talk to.

Marketing a company replicated site.  WOW- this was a BIG one and I did this for a really long time.  DUMB!

Company replicated sites promote one thing- the company!  Not what you offer as a leader, what makes you stand out from the crowd, why you are different than anyone else in your company and how you are going to help the person looking at the site make this business work.

Replicated sites- STINK!

Pitching and selling to anyone within earshot.  If you had a pulse and got within 3 feet of me, I had just what you needed and wasn’t afraid to tell you all about it while your ice cream melted in your grocery cart.

Again, these people are either not qualified or not interested in what you have to offer.  Plus- you know nothing about them and their needs.  How are you supposed to say the exact right thing to a person you just met waiting to pay for a latte?  Don’t open your mouth about what you have to offer until you understand if the other person needs it or not first!

Begging people to join the business.  “Please oh pleeeeease with sugar on top join me????  It’s really fun and great and I need you to get in and we’ll make loads of money and well, pleeease?”

Not sure this one needs much explanation.  When you do desperate things, you get desperate results.  No one wants to join someone begging them to get involved.  Could you see Oprah begging people to watch her show?  Or Martha to buy her new sheet set?  Or Donald Trump to get someone in a real estate deal with them?  Act like a leader and you will attract the right people, beg and you will get scraps.

Buying products for people to get them into the business.  “If you sign this, I’ll buy your products for you…”  I know, this smells of desperation!

If someone isn’t willing to fork out the measly amount it costs to start their own MLM business, do you really think they understand the potential of what is in front of them and will take advantage of it?  Do you think they have what it takes to win when 97% of people fail?

Joining too many lists and getting information overload.  When I finally did clue in that my F & F list was not going to pan out, I scoured the web for any info I could get my hands on online.  In my quest I joined list after list from every “guru” out there and ended up with an inbox full of spam and product pitches, no time left and the need for glasses from the endless reading.

Learning is VERY IMPORTANT! Listening to sales pitches on the latest- greatest thing, system, tool, training is not!  Get on lists that increase your knowledge.  Those are the kind of people to follow and learn from.  If it’s all about ‘buy this now…’  get off that lists and get off fast!  They will suck the life out of your business and you will waste countless hours sifting through the junk mail.

Putting faith in systems and joining everyone of them looking for the magic bullet to make the business easy and work.  I am so amazed at how much time I wasted trying to find the one system that did the work for me.  It’s sad really.  I wish someone would have told me to suck it up, stop spending money on crap and start working!

Let me make this really clear- THERE IS NO PERFECT SYSTEM!  Anyone telling you that theirs is- is trying to sell you a pipe dream.  This is about finding the best system you can and working hard for your results.  You want it easy, then you better start buying a whole lot of lottery tickets!

Building a list for other people and the company itself instead of my own.  The old “We’ve got a built in autoresponder service for you to use in our system…  We capture your leads for you…”  was a simple play to get me to build a list for the system owner or the company I was part of instead of figuring out what I wanted to say and start my own list.  Thousands of hours spent at the computer so that someone else could market their products endlessly to the leads I generated.

Your list is gold… but it’s up to you to build your own.  Get a lead capture form and build your own list.  Then it’s yours, you own it and can market whatever you want to the people on it.

Only marketing my primary business opportunity instead of building a sales funnel.  This was definitely the fastest way to go broke and I did it for years.  As I write this, I wonder why my husband kept me around in those days- must have been my winning personality because it wasn’t the income I was bringing in for the family.

Combine that lead capture form with some outstanding affiliate offers, training and information that will help promote yourself as a leader, bring you upfront sales and will fund your marketing efforts and your primary business.  It is the secret to not going broke in this industry.

Remember, we had to get past these mistakes to get where we are today and I would love to save you a lot of time, money and effort.

Don’t make the same ones I did!

Learn from leaders who have been there and know the answers.  Believe me, it will save you a ton of headaches!

Fill in the form below and get some FREE training.  It’s not rocket science but it will take some work.  We’ll show you EXACTLY where to start!

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So that’s my Top 10 Biggest MLM Mistakes.

Now that I’ve spilled my guts, what about the rest of you?

What is on your Top 10 Bonehead MLM Moves?  Leave us a comment below…