You've heard it before - The Fortune is in the follow-up. But with all of the advances on the internet now, what sort of follow-up is most effective and is it really necessary to call your prospects any longer?

The first thing you need to understand as a Network Marketer is time is money. You need to develop an effective campaign in your business to leverage your time so most of it is spent on one thing - taking orders. Too many times we all get caught up in "organizing" rather than "doing". Organizing is great and it is necessary to keep things in line but is it producing any income? Yet, statistics show that 90% of most home business owners spend their time on "busy work". Work that will lead to one thing - failure in your Network Marketing business.

This is where effective follow-up comes into play. The money in Network Marketing is actually made during the "follow-up" - a follow-up e-mail, a follow-up telephone call after a presentation has been given - this is when you actually take an "order" either electronically or "real-time" over the telephone. So it would make sense that the more follow-ups you have, the more orders you will be taking and the more money that will flow into your business. Pretty cut and dry yet so many Network Marketers fail to realize this one crucial element of business.

WHICH TYPES OF FOLLOW-UPS WORK MOST EFFECTIVELY?

There are basically two types of follow-up - Active and Passive.

Let's examine both a little more closely.

• Active Follow-Up

Active follow-ups consist mainly of making personal calls to your prospect or customer. These are people who have already shown an interest in what you do or what you offer and have voluntarily given you permission to contact them about these offers.

So before you actually pick up the telephone and speak with them, they have already been exposed to your marketing materials - either through content you have written, newsletters, materials you sent out to them through the mail - regardless of how they received the information the key here is they have given you permission to contact them.

Most of the leg work should have already been done before you actually actively follow-up with them via the telephone. This way you are not in a "selling" mode when you speak with them, but rather a sharing mode because you have already built a relationship with them. They are now ready and open to hear what you may have to offer.

• Passive Follow-Up

Passive Follow-Up is where you can leverage your time and efforts by building a relationship with your prospects via e-mail.

E-Mail autoresponders are an incredibly powerful tool for building a relationship with your prospects or customers while leveraging your time very effectively.

Autoresponders enable you to stay in contact with your prospects or customers over an extended period of time, all the while building a relationship with them. It is leveraging time at its best and is a very powerful tool in your Network Marketing Business.

The best autoresponders should be e-mails which are personally written and filled with value for your prospect or customer.

Each e-mail should do three things:

1. It should position you as a leader and an expert in your field
2. It should provide real value to your reader
3. It should have an action item - i.e., what do you want the reader to do next?

Positioning yourself as a leader isn't as difficult as it would seem. All it takes is teaching your readers something. It doesn't matter what it is just something that you may know that they don't. Ask what their challenges may be. Have you been in Network Marketing for a while? Then you must have stories or lessons that were learned. Share them with your reader. GIve them useful information about pitfalls to avoid if they are looking for Network Marketing Opportunities. Indirectly elicit a phone call or e-mail from them by offering a free consultation or marketing tip.

Alert them to events or trainings (recorded or live) that relate to their particular area of interest. Share pictures, stories, anything you may have learned along the way. Then direct them to their next step. It may be to read your newsletter or an article you may have written about Network Marketing.

Give them resources or tools that they would find useful - a good book or website that will help them.

The best way to ensure your e-mails are opened is to offer them VALUE. Every communication you have with a prospect or customer should be designed to generate attraction by using Demonstrations of Higher Value. How? Teach them something. If you know something that they don't, share it with them. Provide a simple marketing tip. There has to be dozens of tips you have gathered along the way in your Network Marketing career. Share those tips with your reader.

In summary your e-mail should accomplish the following:

• building a relationship by offering value
• positioning yourself as a leader
• offering next steps

So back to the original question - which works best? The bottom line is you need to do both to have an effective and lasting relationship with your prospects or customers to truly have a successful Network Marketing Business. Sending out e-mails is powerful and can build a relationship while leveraging your time but eventually you need to pick up the telephone.

Some people argue that with the new methods of generating attraction it is no longer necessary to pick up the telephone and talk with a prospect or customer. Social Networking sites offer the ability to network on-line and chat through instant messaging, facebook, twitter, etc. These are very effective marketing and networking tools but they are only the "networking" portion of your business.

To be truly effective and successful in prospecting or selling you need at some point to contact that person via the telephone. People need to know that there is a real person behind the curtain - someone they can rely on to coach them and help them to be successful.

Remember, people join you and not your business. This is the premise of generating attraction. People are attracted to you and they need you to guide them to where they want to go.

This is a business of marketing and all of the time and effort and money will be meaningless if you don't have an effective follow-up strategy. DON'T be caught up in the 90% failure rate.

There is fortune in the follow-up. Try it and you will see.

Leverage your time and start doing the activities that will pay dividends to you for a lifetime.