23 Ways To Get Business Opportunity Leads For Your MLM Business

Business opportunity leads are the lifeblood of your network marketing business. Without leads, you don’t have anybody to sell to or recruit for your business opportunity.

So naturally, every network marketer in the world is constantly looking for more ways to attract business opportunity leads so that they have more people to talk to.

So today, we’re going to discuss 23 strategies to find business opportunity leads and expand your contact list so that you’ll never run out of leads and prospects.

We’re going to divide the strategies into 2 main categories… offline and online.

Offline Business Opportunity Leads

Most network marketing companies will only teach you offline strategies to find business opportunity leads. 

In fact, some companies actually prohibit you from using the internet to market your business. But with the proliferation of digital technologies, most MLM companies are waking up to the fact that the internet is here to stay and that they have no choice but to accept that their distributors will want to use the internet to their advantage.

Anyway, let’s talk about some ways to find business opportunity leads using traditional offline strategies first.

1. Warm Market

When you first get started in network marketing, your business leader will probably teach you to make a list of 100 people or more. You will be asked to put everyone you know onto this list, including family, friends, coworkers, and any acquaintances that you have.

These people are your warm market. They are people that already know who you are so you don’t need to go through the process of developing a relationship before introducing your business or products.

If you want a fast start in your business, this is where you need to start. No matter what other strategies you choose to pursue in the future.

2. Buy Lists

There are many companies out there that sell lists of leads. The lists include names and contact information like phone numbers for you to call.

This is known as “cold-calling” leads. And it can be a very difficult way of building a business.

The people on these lists have likely been bombarded by other marketers already. They’re tired and almost certainly will not be very receptive to what you’re offering.

Additionally, cold-calling requires a very thick skin as you will likely face harsh criticism and rejection on a daily basis.

3. Networking Events

Networking events can be a great place to find business opportunity leads because folks at these events tend to be motivated and open minded to all types of opportunities. 

I would not recommend introducing your business opportunity at the events though. Instead, just collect business cards and follow up with them at a later date.

Meetup.com can be a great way to find local networking opportunities.

4. Referrals

Even though certain members of your warm market may not be interested in your business, they might know someone else who is.

Instead of just focusing on people that you personally know, you can get referrals and exponentially expand the size of your network.

5. Host Your Own Event

This may stretch you quite far out of your comfort zone especially if you’re new to the business. But it can be a very powerful way to find motivated business opportunity leads in your area.

Host a public seminar or event that’s free to attend and make sure the event features an entertaining and educational presentation that leads directly into what you’re offering.

The folks that attend the event have already made the effort to leave their home out of sheer curiosity. So if your event is done well, the likelihood of some folks taking further action is quite high.

6. Community Events 

Community events are another great place to find business opportunity leads. And there are way more opportunities to meet and mingle with people in your area than you might realise.

Such as:

• Community events
• Church events
• Charity events
• School sporting events

It simply requires you getting more involved in your community and building relationships with people.

7. Trade Shows

Trade shows can be a powerful source of business opportunity leads if you approach it the right way.

Instead of setting up your own booth (which I do not recommend), you could collect business cards and contact information from the people that are running the booths.

This is powerful because the people running the booths already have an entrepreneurial mindset and are willing to hustle in order to get what they want.

8. Local Professionals 

People who are accomplished professionals are often the most responsive business opportunity leads. They are go-getters, open minded, and not afraid to work hard in order to achieve their goals.

Don’t be afraid to introduce your business to local doctors, realtors, financial planners, business owners, etc.

Get creative with how you find professionals in your area. For example, you could collect contact information from realtor signs in your community and call them directly.

9. Cards On Public Boards

Pinning your business cards on public bulletin boards is really not a very effective strategy for network marketing.

Instead, you could collect the contact information from other people who left their cards on these boards.

These are obviously business-oriented people who have been willing to put themselves out there publicly to build their own business. You might find them to be quite open minded and receptive to what you’re offering.

10. Drop Cards

Using drop cards is really not a strategy that I’ve ever used. But if you get creative, you could potentially find targeted business opportunity leads who would be curious about what you do.

For example, you could leave your business cards in books or magazines at your local library or bookstore. Think carefully about the type of person who would stumble across your drop card… you might want to leave them in books about entrepreneurship or finance.

11. Bandit Signs

This is another strategy that I have never used personally. But in the past, this was a widely used strategy by network marketers to find business opportunity leads.

You might view this strategy as “tacky” and maybe it is. But it could be worth a shot.

12. Car Decals

This is another source of business opportunity leads that you might consider to be a bit tacky or weird. While I have never personally used it, I’ve certainly heard of network marketers using it successfully.

You could put decals on your car or even advertise with your clothing.

It’s not something I choose to do, but is certainly worth considering.

Online Business Opportunity Leads

While many network marketing companies have prohibited the use of the internet for their distributors’ marketing in the past, many of them are finally coming around.

At the end of the day, we’re living in the 21st Century. Digital communications technology is with us. And it’s here to stay.

With all of this powerful tech available to us, why not take advantage of it?

13. Social Media

Social media is probably one of the most powerful tools to find responsive business opportunity leads in the modern age.

No matter how old or young you are, you’re likely on social media and have probably bought something through a social media link or advertisement.

As a network marketer, you should certainly take advantage of this technology. 

It allows you to establish relationships and build trust with people you’ve never met. And you can reach people all over the world. All 8 billion of them.

But in order to use social media effectively, you need to use it correctly. Be sure to check out our detailed social media guide for network marketing.

14. Blogging

A blog can be a fantastic way to build a large following of people that view you as a credible source of information.

The goal of blogging is to become a content creator rather than a content consumer. And your blog needs to be providing content that people are actively looking for.

You need to frame yourself as the expert. An authority figure. A thought leader in whatever niche you’re writing about.

When one of your readers is asking themselves a question as they’re trying to fall asleep at night, you need to be the person that comes to their mind as someone who could provide answers.

If you do this correctly, you will build a large audience over time that could be an excellent source of business opportunity leads.

Be sure to check out our full internet marketing guide here.

15. YouTube

The strategy that you would use as a YouTuber is almost exactly the same as blogging (discussed above). The goal is to build a loyal audience that trusts what you have to say and takes action when you recommend a product, service, or opportunity.

But videos are much more powerful than a text blog. It’s much more engaging and allows you to build instant rapport and credibility if done right.

Not to mention, YouTube is now the second biggest search engine on the planet… second only to Google itself!

16. Webinars

We talked earlier about hosting a live event to collect business opportunity leads…hosting a webinar is simply an online version of that.

A webinar is essentially a live video presentation that can be viewed by thousands of people all over the world. 

In your webinar presentation, you should not spend the majority of your time pitching a product or opportunity. Instead, provide education, entertainment, and value. Give your viewers what they want.

The trick is to tailor your presentation in such a way that your viewers will realise why they need your product or opportunity by the end of the webinar.

Which is where you give them the opportunity to learn how they can get signed up with you.

17. Forums

Forums and other online message boards such as Quora, Reddit, and even Facebook groups can be a great way to build trust and credibility with an audience.

To use a forum effectively, you will need to become extremely active and answer questions generously. Be the most helpful person on the platform to the most people, and you will build a large and loyal following that takes your recommendations seriously.

18. SEO

SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimisation, can be an excellent way to attract targeted business opportunity leads to you.

Whether you’re creating content on a message board, a blogging platform, or your own personal website, you can optimize your content in such a way that Google or other search engines will rank it near the top of their search results.

If done correctly, this strategy is extremely powerful, though it can take a lot of time and patience.

For example:

If somebody is Googling “how do I do network marketing?” and you have an article properly optimised for the search engines on this topic, the searcher might very well land on your article.

And if your article provides the answer the searcher was looking for, you’ve likely built trust and credibility with the individual.

Just make sure that whatever platform you’re using has a way to collect contact information so that you can follow up with your new lead later on.

19. Paid Ads

Instead of waiting for months or years for the search engines to find and rank your content, you can pay for advertising so that your page gets served directly to content consumers.

You can use PPC (Pay Per Click) or PPV (Pay Per View) advertising on platforms such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

There is a steep learning curve with paid advertising and you will need to learn how to carefully track your numbers and optimise your ads accordingly.

20. Solo Ads

Solo ads are a way for you to “rent” an email list from somebody else.

You would need to pay the provider a set amount of money in order to blast out a marketing email to his/her list.

In order for this to be effective, you need to have a carefully dialled in sales funnel that will allow you to collect contact information and recoup costs quickly to scale your solo ad strategy.

Be sure to follow up with the leads you collect. 

While I have used solo ads in the past to collect business opportunity leads, it is not a strategy I recommend for network marketing.

21. Buy Lists

There are thousands of providers online that sell lists of business opportunity leads. This might be something to look into, though I would not recommend this for most people.

Most of the lists for sale online consist of “burnt-out” contacts who have grown tired of marketing emails. And many of them are full of burner email addresses which are completely useless to you as a marketer.

22. Google

Google can be another good source of business opportunity leads… but maybe not the way you think…

Instead of using SEO or paid ads, consider Googling “your city name” professionals. For example: “your city name” realtors. Or financial planners, lawyers, salesmen, etc…

Then give them a call to see if they might be open to discussing an opportunity to build another income stream.

This will take guts, a thick skin, and probably a lot of practice. But it’s a creative strategy that I only recently learned about.

23. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing can be another way for you find business opportunity leads, though it can be a highly involved process.

Here’s what you would need to do:

1. Create a product
2. Find affiliates to sell it for you
3. Collect all the contact information of the people that your affiliates send to your product

You can then follow up with all these people and establish a relationship.

This is not a strategy I’ve personally used. But it’s certainly something I might consider using in the future. 

Not for beginners or the faint of heart though!

Converting A Lead Into A Customer

No matter how many business opportunity leads you get in your funnel, they will be useless to you unless you know how to convert them into customers or distributors for your organisation.

Converting your leads all comes down to building long term relationships.

If you can establish trust and continued communication with a lead, the likelihood of you recruiting them over time is quite high.

Treat every lead with respect and do what you can to add value to their life, even if they are not currently interested in your business. Because their life situation might change in the future and you need to be available when they are ready to get involved in the network marketing profession.

Lead conversion is not something we are going to cover in this article, but here are some of our top articles to get you started on your network marketing journey:

The MLM Business Model:

• What Is Network Marketing?
• Benefits Of Network Marketing
• What Is Bad About MLM?
• MLM FAQ

MLM Guides:

• How To Succeed In MLM
• Where To Find Prospects
• Build Your Network
• MLM Recruiting
• Duplication In MLM

Online Marketing:

• Internet Marketing For MLM
• MLM On Social Media

Have you ever used any of the lead generation strategies that we covered today?

Are there any business opportunity lead sources that you think should be added to the list?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Cheers!