Prospecting in the network marketing world is most likely the biggest problem area that we face. From the beginning we are taught by our ever loving up-line the wrong thing. They tell us to go out and talk to everyone within three feet of us, talk to our family and friends; unfortunately even if we had all of our family and friends we would not make large monies. In fact what we are taught turns off our friends and family and eventually us to the whole idea. But just before you decide to "cash" it in, pun intended, read on and find out that it is all not dome and gloom; we have just been taught incorrectly.
So who is our prospect really? The opportunist who is just looking for that next big payday, the upset employee who is tired of doing his/her job? Actually none of the above, first and foremost our prospect is someone that we can connect with. Within the first few seconds of a phone call or face to face interaction we can tell if this is someone who we can work with. Can they relate to the small talk, the weather, sports or politics whatever ice breaker you may use? For me a sense of humor is not a plus it is a must. So if I make a small joke on the phone or in meeting someone and they have a no response or say "What's this all about!", I move on. Yeah they could have been the greatest net worker since time began but I chose someone else. Now there is a caveat here, some of my students have indeed surprised me. They have that demanding side and then they lighten up after explaining what this is all about. And I am talking one or two sentences not the whole presentation. The bottom line here is that we are in the people business and we can directly chose those who are directly with us, so chose wisely you will be working with these people a long time.
So we have made the initial connection great, now do they really want what we have? What do we have? What we have is a product not an opportunity. So let’s make sure we are looking for people who truly want our product. We are looking for the pain and/or the need that we can fill. If we are marketing weight loss, sure it makes sense to reach out to people who are a little on the heavy side but do they see an issue. Just because you see over weight does not mean that they feel over weight. So in talking to them you might say "I see we are both people who enjoy good health" and what we are looking for is someone who says "Yeah, that would be great if I could loose some weight", quite frankly any other answer is likely not our prospect. But instead we as network marketers are looking to build grow etc. Problem is that we really should be looking to eliminate and create. We have to learn to eliminate people in our network growth. So far we have to ways to eliminate people personal connection and need. Are we ready for number three?
The final piece to this elimination process is can our product meet their need. Notice I said product and their need, not opportunity and our need. If they want to loose weight but are allergic to chocolate and we only have a chocolate product we have eliminated them. This is why we must know our product and the benefits within. Can the product really help our prospect? The last thing we want is a big unhappy down-line. A big unhappy down-line becomes a small down-line real quick and you become an outlaw and out of business even quicker. We are eliminating our unhappy people; we want a happy down-line consuming product.
I know that elimination sounds terrible and that your up-line would kill you for uttering these words but folks if we look at this as an elimination process we are going to be so much happier and grow so much faster than your up-line could ever imagine. I know this is a big mind shift and it was for me too, obviously since I feel compelled to write about it, but a huge part of this network marketing game is all mental. If we can adjust our thinking to a more reality base we can succeed in our business.
Just keep in mind in our elimination process we have three things to look for: connection, need and our ability to fill that need.
Thanks for spending a little time with me, please check the author's box for more information and have a great day in building your network marketing program.
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