The 5Ws of Prospecting

Prospecting is an art. While you may be a natural at getting prospects for your business, it usually takes some time and practice to finally be able to find them for your business, and do the right thing once you've got them. To be really good at it will take some planning and preparation on your part, but once you've done it often enough, it will become second nature. You first have to understand the 5Ws, or the Who/What/When/Where/Why/How of prospecting before you can lead your prospects to success. What is prospecting? Prospecting is the art of going out and finding new customers for your business, and a new team for your downline. This can mean signing up people you know, or signing up complete strangers to your program, and then teaching them to do what you have done to advertise and expose your business.

Who are your prospects? Your prospects are people from all walks of life. They can be the warm market, or your circle of influence, meaning your friends, family, relatives, co-workers, and everyone you know that you already have a relationship with. Prospects can also be referrals, or personal recommendations from someone else. For example, maybe your friend knows someone else who may be interested in your business. They can come from your advertising efforts in newspapers, ezines, on your website, from your flyers, business cards, or internet banners. They can come from the cold market by approaching complete strangers in places you go every day or on the internet, and they can be bought prospects from lead generation companies.

Where do you find prospects? As mentioned above, prospects can be found right in front of you within your circle of influence - the people you already know. You can ask for prospects from both the people you already know, and also from the prospects who end up declining your offer. The people who turn down your business can be a good source of referrals. If they say, "No", then you simply say something like, "Thank you for considering this business. Do you know of anyone else who might jump on the opportunity?" Remember that if you never ask, you will never receive! Prospects can be found everywhere you go in a day, such as the gym, the coffee shop, the hairdresser, the mall, the grocery store, or the bank. You can get them online when they sign up on your lead capture page, or as previously mentioned you can buy quality leads.

When is the right time to gather prospects? Anytime! Okay, maybe not at 3am! Why? To build your customer base and your downline team and grow a business by teaching others to do what you have done so that they can also teach others to do what they have done.

How do you get prospects? This is probably the most important question of them all. As I said, prospecting is an art that takes practice, so it helps to start by setting goals that are measurable, realistic, and achievable. Know what you want and when you want it and do something every day to work towards getting it. Practicing means knowing what you are going to say to your prospects before it happens by using a script, and then eventually becoming comfortable and confident enough that you don't need the script anymore.

Once you've set your goals, you can give yourself an added edge by learning as much as you can about your business, your products and services, the compensation plan, and everything you possibly can. When your prospects have questions, you want to be able to answer them with confidence and ease. You want to listen to your prospects and what their needs are, and if you don't have the answers to everything, you want to know who your upline support team is and how to get ahold of them. This is part of what it takes to be a good leader. A leader has excellent listening skills. They mentor, train, support, encourage, and lead by example via conference calls, recorded calls, websites, on-one-one presentations, or audio and video presentations.

Finally, it's good to distinguish between a good prospect and a bad prospect. Good prospects are confident go-getters who can make a commitment to your business and to learning all they can so that they, too, can teach those below them. A bad prospect is one who is indecisive or just checking things out without being serious about the business. It is up to us to walk away from prospects who aren't really into the program. We don't want to beg or plead them to join with us - we want to grab those who are enthusiastic, ready, and willing to be on a winning team.