It's time to take your business at home to the next level. You have decided to start a marketing campaign. Now the decision comes down to what to do, the answer, you have to prospect.

Now it's time to decide who you are going to prospect. Prospects are everyone you come in contact with. But finding those who are open you will need leads.

Narrowing down leads can be very simple. Leads are your "warm market" and your "cold market. These are both people you know and those you have never met. Some like to label leads into many categories but these two are what I'll discuss.

Who You Know:

Your warm market is made up of those people you know. They could be your closest friends or just some one you see at a local shop. Most companies will tell you the first place to start marketing is with your warm market because there is a trust factor and they are more prone to listen.

Making a list of your warm market leads will be easy at first because it is people you know very well and can easily remember. But you need to brainstorm to come up with the names or descriptions of all the people you come in contact with.

Your warm market list is one you have to have to jump start your new business. This list should be done very thoroughly and complete to give yourself the greatest advantage.

Your warm market is the one you hold closest to your heart because it is people you know. You have a new business that has potential to create a terrific income for you and those who come in under you. Your family and friends need to be the very first ones you contact for that reason.

Now For Those Leads You Don't Know:

Eventually you will need to turn to new prospects, people you do not know. Warm market leads are the very best but to maximize your new business you will need to share with people you have never met. These are your "Cold Market" leads.

Although you may be scared to death of approaching strangers with your business you know it is something you must do to grow your business. The only problem you have is where do you get the names for your list?

On occasion I will search the net looking for places to buy leads and there is always more than I could ever use. These companies sell leads for many different prices. If you want the freshest leads possible you could easily pay up to $300. For a list of 20 names depending on how they were marketed and as little as .49 cents per name if they are older than a month or two.

Lead quality is what you need to look at when deciding what you want to pay. Older leads come with some inherent problems. First they may have stopped looking for a home business because they no longer have the need. Secondly they may have signed on with a company when they first started looking and lastly they in all probability have been called by several reps before you got their number.

Hundreds Of leads For A Low Cost:

A big mistake made by most marketers is to try and hit the leads with their main sales page or their longest sales pitch usually thinking 1 in 100 will respond. Sadly that is usually the wrong approach to take.

When I first started my web site I purchased huge numbers of visitors to my web site hoping I would get at-least one buy in a hundred. It never did work that way because most were not interested in a new home business. Most were just surfing and stayed less than 30 seconds. It was a little shocking and eye opening realizing they were not in the market for what I was selling.

Most of the high volume leads like these are people who through some web site clicked a link that dropped them in on my site totally unaware of where they were headed. Needless to say they did not stay long. They simply were not interested in a Home Based Business.

After learning the hard way these people would not buy from me directly and were not interested in my offer I came up with another plan. Every one likes getting things for free. So I created a short simple web page that could be read in just a few seconds and gave away a freebie of some sort. This freebie related to what I was offering so it created a link. By giving their names and email addresses I was able to build an email list who I could market my business to.

When dealing with the older leads or the purchased site visitor list it is much better to give them the least amount of information you can at first. Simply give them enough to give some thought. Then as that seed of thought grows you can gradually build on it providing more and more information.

Fresh High Cost Leads:

The more you pay the more you get is true with these leads. Most often they have been captured through a landing page promoting a specific type of opportunity. These can cost as much as $12.00 a lead. But, these leads are primed and you want to be ready to give them your best sales pitch and to spend some time with them. They are not the best for the inexperienced because of the cost.

When paying top dollar for a lead you can expect and even demand the most information possible. Often times you will get how much they have to invest in a new business, how much time they have to spend working it, and how much they want to make. What you get is specific information you can use to market to the individuals name. So not only are they looking for your opportunity and anticipating your call you know how to approach them to meet their individual need and desire. This gives you the advantage 100 fold and increases the value of these leads tremendously. As their value increases so does their price.

Because these people are actively searching for a home based business wait could mean your loss and another persons gain. It is very possible they have signed with another opportunity giving you no chance to discuss what you have. Attempting to market them through email campaigns or news letters would be the worst you could do. These people need to be contacted right away.

Providing you are confident with your approach you can expect to recruit a couple people for every 20 names you contact. At times the number can be more and it can easily be less. Often these people are searching for information and need time to sort through all the information they have gathered so they can decide on the company they want to go with.

You will approach many different types of people as you begin to go through your leads. You will have the easy ones, your family and friends and the tougher ones, those you have never met. The main point to remember is how you are going to approach them. The most important part of that approach is your attitude and confidence. Being confident, positive and having a good attitude will do the most good out of evrything you could try.