My favorite advice I ever got about marketing an MLM opportunity I learned from Mike Dillard in Magnetic Sponsoring. He didn’t come up with this on his own, Perry Marshall said it, and he’s not the only marketing expert that uses this example. The idea has been passed around between marketers and is a fundamental lesson.

“Nobody who bought a drill actually wanted a drill. They wanted a hole. Therefore, if you want to sell drills, you should advertise information about making holes. – NOT information about drills!”

It’s so simple it sounds like a riddle and doesn’t make any sense at first.

Think about the purchases you make.

If you want to get somewhere faster than what it would take driving, you buy a plane ticket. You don’t buy it because you want to sit in a plane for a few hours.

If you want to be a lawyer you get a college degree. People don’t go to college because they like sitting in long lectures.

If you want to hang a picture, you buy a hammer and nails.

You get the idea.

These purchases are a means to an end. They are “tools” to get the end result that we want.

Did you really join your MLM business opportunity because it had the best product or the best comp plan?

You may have joined it for the extra money. But it wasn’t really for the money either was it?

You joined because you had dreams about what you could do with that money. You have big dreams, hopes and a vision.

You want to provide a lifestyle for your family and give back to your community. Along the way you’ll be able to have an awesome house and car and whatever else you desire, but you have a dream of being financially free without stress and without worrying about bills.

The list goes on, because everyone’s idea of a dream is different.

You might want to be living in a huge lodge on the side of a mountain. Or to be sitting under a palm tree drinking out of a coconut. Or starting a community housing project. Or sailing all over the world. Or maybe you want to do what I do and have a martini while watching the sunset on the water any night I feel like it.

It doesn’t matter because there are as many dreams as there are people.

The point is people don’t join MLM opportunities because they want a business. They join because they have a dream, and you are providing the tools.

As MLM marketers we are truly the marketers of dreams.

Dreams of being free of a boss and stuck in a 9 to 5 job. Unlimited income potential. Taking command of your career and life. What we do beats any other occupation hands down because we change lives. Your job is to build a strong organization and build strong relationships, deliver what you promise and stand behind what you deliver and it is fueled by desire.

This means you had better be able to deliver an MLM opportunity that will be the tool to get to that dream. You had better deliver the tools, such as training, books, videos, marketing systems that will fuel that MLM opportunity to success.

As a marketer in an MLM opportunity you have a responsibility to those you sponsor to provide the tools to get the to their dream. A car dealership doesn’t sell a new car with an empty tank of gas! What good is the car if it can’t be driven off the lot.

Realize the dealership doesn’t teach people how to drive, there is some responsibility on both sides of the deal. There needs to be commitment from both parties involved in the transaction. Dealerships check driver’s licenses before handing over the keys. Are you making sure your prospects are qualified?

Hear Mike Dillard’s full version of the drill story here.

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