The Keen Marketer

There is a category of people out there that folks in network marketing and MLM seem to totally ignore.

These people have a lot to offer us as they are usually linked to many contacts around the country and also have existing clients.

They not only have experience in the marketplace but also have credibility and money to buy products.

So who are these people?  None other than small business owners.

Don’t think that because they are already involved in a business of their own that they wouldn’t be interested in something that could increase their bottom line.

They already know and understand what multiple streams of income means and quickly grab the concept of residual income as I’m sure many of them wished they could close up shop and live on what is coming in from their past efforts and that of others, not just from what they worked so hard to save up to retire on.

So how do you identify these small business owners?

Think about it.  Who do you buy your insurance from?  Who cuts your hair?  Where do you buy your books from?  Who pumps your gas?  Who manages your money?  Who owns your grocery store?  Who does your taxes?  Who writes your prescriptions?  And so on..

Everywhere you turn, there is a small business owner who have one thing in common and that is to multiply their profits.

Here are a few tips to keep your approach to buisness owners more manageable:

• try not to approach an owner with more than 20 employees
• ask for help from owners that you know.  Maybe your product could help improve employees lives.
• offer to do a seminar after hours

You might like to refer to this video I made a while back which can help you set up an interview with business owners whether you know them or not.

And if you feel like listening to an audio series by one of our top leaders you can download it here.

Here’s to great prospecting in 2009!

Qualifying your prospect in network marketing can be a time consuming operation if you let it.

Many people let the prospect direct the interview.  Not a good tactic.  Sure your prospect wants information but think of it this way.

They are at a job interview and you are the interviewer.  You have a position to fill and you are looking for the best applicant.

The best applicant for you will have to have certain qualities.  He/she must first have the desire to do this business.  It’s all very well to get someone who’s interested but will they be committed?

You need someone that will be coachable, even if they belonged to another network marketing company before.  The training you will be providing will be new in some ways to what they experienced.

You want someone that is sincere, honest and a leader or a would be leader just waiting for the right training to soar.

You must be able to dictate the terms of that application and yes you are willing to give that person the benefit of the doubt before you accept them as part of your team, but…

There is one question that can disqualify your prospect right from the get go.  This question will show you whether this prospect is just a casual looker versus one who is serious about starting a network marketing business.

This is a question I would never have thought of before had I not heard it from someone that I consider a mentor, even though he doesn’t know me personally, Mike Dillard.

And that question is, (drum roll please)  What are you currently reading?

That’s a silly question, you say?  Think about it.

Would you not rather have someone to work with that was interested in the actual business they are applying for?

There’s nothing wrong with reading fiction, but in order to grow and learn, a person must have interests in improving themselves or they will stay just the way they are, poor and unaware.

A little harsh you say?  Not really.  It’s the ones that go that extra mile that will succeed past what society would like us to docilely accept.  I guess I have always been a rebel at heart.

You don’t need someone who is just a casual looker waste your time.  So right off the bat ask that person what type of literature or videos or magazine they are readying or watching. Ask them if they have ever read books such as “The Millionaire Mind” by Harv Eker or taken self discovery courses with personalities such as Jack Canfield or David Wood or any of any type.

I know that I am constantly reading and attending seminars and intensives that will help me to grow first and my business second, because with growth comes increase and that translates into a bigger cheque at the end of the week.

That’s who I want to have as business partners.

It will happen at the very beginning of your network marketing carreer that you will have times when you just won’t know the answer to a question your prospect is posing.

Are you to panic and get bent out of shape?

Of course not!  Relax!

Ok, so you practiced all the different types of answers to objections you could get your hands on and you were ready, until that fatal question was asked and deflated your confidence balloon.

So what if you couldn’t answer the question?

Do you know everything there is to know about your opportunity?

Even the top earners will tell you that they are learning something new every day.

You will only feel that you are in a corner if you let it.  That is reacting in opposition to responding.  When we react to things, our emotions take over, our vulnerability will show and our prospect will pick up on it.

Thinking too much about what you should say will make you tongue-tied.  There really is not only one right answer.  Were you really listening to your prospect and what he was saying?

Asking yourself that question will steer you back on track.  After all, it really is all about your prospect and not about you.

If you can’t answer a question, simply respond to your prospect that you will look into it further and get back to them because you want to provide them with as complete an answer as possible.

This makes for a stress free, simple and natural process to move on to the next step of your information giving process.  After all it’s only conversation and nobody’s life depends on it.

Be good to yourself, you deserve it.

Whatever network marketing opportunity you have, the fuel of your business whether clients or partners, hinges on the leads you can attract.

There are some basic success secrets that will insure your success:

• You have to know what type of lead you are looking for and make sure your lead knows what type you are looking for.  You do that by qualifying your lead on 5 different traits.  The first one is friendliness.  If your lead has  a sour puss of a personality.  They surely would not attract others to them.  The second has to do with their desire to do the business.  There is nothing wrong with being ambitious.  That is what is driving you to succeed and that is also what should drive them too.  Being a positive person is also a prerequisite.  The glass should be half full! The fourth and fifth go hand in hand.  The person should be a leader as well as a good communicator.  Although these traits can be developed in depth, the person should at least be able to express themselves clearly and have leadership qualities.
• Setting boundaries during your call is a must.  The person should not feel coerced into the interview and should always feel like they can stop it at anytime.  It’s to your advantage to let them know right from the start that if this is not for them that they can end the call without you feeling put out.  After all, you are in information giver.  It is either received or not. It’s not about you.
• I’ve talked about “asking questions” a lot.  This is crucial.  It’s all about your lead, not about you.  One sentence that disarms is “Tell me about yourself?” Your prospect has to feel that you are not out to just prospect them but also to get to know them as a person, their wants and their needs.
• I’ve also mentioned connecting with your prospect before and making them comfortable.  How do you expect to have someone receptive to what you have to say if you are not attentive enough to hear them first?
• Let your prospect know that you only need 1 minute of their time.  Too often, they are kept for longer periods that can run way past their tolerance level.  This will make them impatient and you are going to be let down with a negative reaction to your request.  It’s easy to say “I really need only a minute of your time, as I’m not sure if this is something that will work for you or not” .  If they are being quiet and you are looking for a response, you can also add ” is this making any sense to you?”

Achieving success when contacting a lead is not difficult when you know what to look for and ask for.  That where a good training system and trainer can make all the difference in the world.  Make sure you are part of a winning team.

You wanted to make money and that’s why you joined a network marketing company.

But your’e finding that in your search for prospective buisiness builders such as yourself, you often lose that prospect.

Why is that?  Could it be because you are marketing your compensation plan in such a way that loses the prospect?

If so, then what do you do to change that?

Let me suggest a very simple strategy. Don’t get too complicated or technical during your presentation.

The greatest way you can market your compensation plan is to paint a picture. Your prospect has no idea what a binary, team, matrix, unilevel, leg etc means.

Explaining the very specifics will lose your prospect right from the start.  But you can paint a picture that will capture your prospect’s imagination.

There are 4 basic ways you can do this no matter what type of comp plan you have.

1. The first area is simply explaining the opportunity of retail profit. Tell the prospect a little story.  Show them that when in  a retail store, the store buys at wholesale and sells you the goods at retail.  They are making a profit.  Let your prospect know that they also can earn a 30 to 50% profit on products depending on the markup set by the company. The prospect will easily identify with this as shopping is something we do every day.
2. The second area is team overrides.  Just like a mortgage , insurance or real estate broker, you can develop a team of reps and help them become successful and get paid a certain percentage of override off of their efforts of volume.  We know insurance brokers since most of us need insurance to drive our cars. Well, these brokers have agents that go out there selling policies.  These agents make a commission on the sale while the broker also makes money every time agents make a sale.  If there are a lot of agents out there then the broker makes a team override bonus leveraging all of their efforts to be translated into cash for them.  That’s what network marketing is really about.
3. The third area has to do with leadership bonus.  You get paid for developing leaders and get an additional override or bonus on their sales.  This happens when building deep into the organization.
4. The fourth area is rewards. These can be in the form of trips, cars, etc. that the company offers as incentives to motivate leaders.  Many people work harder for the rewards than they do at other things in their lives.

The key in all of this is to paint a picture that will captivate your prospects imagination.  Just make sure that it relates to every day things.  In other words, keep it simple.  What is simple is duplicatable.

Asking for the order is a gradual process and for you to be successful, you need to follow certain steps that will naturally bring the conclusion to a yes decision.

Most times closing is not done correctly but these 5 rules, if followed will help you to close properly:

1. You have to move past the word close and move up to a higher perspective of what it really is.  Closing is not done as effectively as it should by most people.  People resist it subconsciously.  But what if you were in the business of collecting decisions?  Already there has been a shift.  So in your mind it’s really a matter of getting the decision.
2. Never close or go after the decision too early.  You have to give your prospect time to connect to you and feel comfortable in the process of conversation.  If you rush your prospect into a decision, it may not be what you want to hear.  I had a prospect that during my ignorance on fire stage, I innocently pressured into buying my product.  Well, it was a total disaster.  My prospect did not get the benefits I  hoped for and my hope for future follow ups were dashed.  Take your time!
3. But don’t take too much time.  All right.  I’m telling you to slow down but now I’m telling you to not go too slow.  You must strike while the iron is still hot so that your prospect doesn’t cool off and become a lost prospect.  That’s why getting back to the prospect within 48 hours is  so crucial.  You are not forcing them in any way but you are impressing upon them that you are serious about your offer and you at least need an answer of some kind from them.  It’s not something they can put on the back burner and forget about.  This is important to you if not to them.
4. Zero pressure. You don’t want to pressure your prospect and then come across as desperate and amateurish.  Tell them “I only want is what is best for you and your family and whatever decision you make is alright”
5. Care about the person not the results.  Don’t be too emotionally attached to the results.  You are not in charge of the results, but you can get better at getting the decisions.  That’s where excellent training will make the difference.  Role playing is especially important here. Once you get an answer from your prospect you then look at the next name and call them because you are looking for someone that is ready now, for your products and for your business.  Keep focused on getting the decision that is right for the prospect.  All you worry about is who to call next.

All I have to remember is that I’m only 2 persons away from achieving untold success.

Having a daily prospecting formula is a mandatory strategy if you are to reach possible prospects and make new customers.

You know that network marketing is an occupation that certainly won’t kill you but that does not mean that you don’t need body armour.

The  armour I’m speaking about is the kind that protects you from bullets of rejection and negative thinking that surrounds you.

But  when you use a 3rd party recruiter to work for you, these rejection bullets get diverted away from you.

So how does this work?

Well, it’s a matter of rating and separating.

You rate the ones whose interest is high and separate them from product purchasers.

This 3rd party recruiter is all about the tools you use.  This can be a CD, a brochure or whatever tool that tells the story you want your prospects to hear.

I really like to use audio CDs and video DVDs.  By first qualifying your prospect, you will be able to decide which one is best to use.

So you hand out your tool to at least 2 persons a day.

Ask them if they have a few minutes and that you want  to share an idea  with them that has really helped your life.

If the prospect is one to whom you would give an audio CD then say something like “Do me a favor and put this in and listen to it while you drive home.”

Give them a day or so and then call them back and askthem what they liked best about the CD.

If they tell you the CD message was not for them, then that’s OK.  They are not rejecting you.

This is called rejection proof prospecting.

But this gets better.

You can fail 80% of the time and still create a solid business with prospecting tools.

It’s all about the numbers. It revolves around sharing your CD or brochure and you this 2 times a day with someone new.

Let’s say you have 5 people who are willing to hand out 2 CD’s a day.  This makes 300 exposures a month which equals 3600 exposure a year.

Now let’s assume 2 out of 10 purchase some product.  That’s 720 new customers and that out of every 100, 5 enroll as new distributors and start doing the same.  You’d have 180 new distributors.  Now out of those 720 customers, if all they gave you were 2 referrals each that would mean 1140 referrals a year.

And of that is for failing 80% of the time.

All you do is hand out 2 prospecting tools a day.  How simple is that?  It is very duplicatable and leads to multiplication.

So it’s not all about talent but about the tools. What better way to never feel the pain of rejection again.

You might think that making a connection with someone is as easy as pie.

Well it is unless you are totally devoid of any social skills.  If that’s the case, you can learn the skills but you most likely won’t be doing network marketing in the first place.

Your posture says it all.  If you are self-assured, have a smile on your face and look openly at people, you will attract others to you.

Ok, so not everyone looks like that.  I know people who always do.  I’m a little more reserved but nonetheless am open and inquisitive.  I just work at it a little more.

But you can learn to enhance these skills through role playing.

Asking questions of your prospect is always a good opener.

“Hi there, how are you?”  (always be ready with sales tools and samples so you can share with others your meet)

The person will likely say hello and ask you how you are too.

Say something like” I’m celebrating today”   WAIT for a response in the form of “what are you celebrating or something like it”.

Respond with “Ive just released 15 pounds and 25 inches of fat and I feel great.”  Wait for response which could be “how did you do that?’

” I did it through a nutritional body cleanse and the best part of it, I got to eat chocolate while doing it.”

Wait for a response.  “How’s that?”

“Tell you what, I have a sample right here.  I don’t have the time right now to chat but because I want to know what this chocolate did for you, I’d like to give you a call tomorrow.  What time would be best for you?” (make sure you offer choices of time) ( get the contact info at this time)

“Tell me, what is your downtime of the day?  Most people say it’s around 4pm.”

Wait for a response.

“This chocolate is no ordinary chocolate and if you take it around that time, it’ll boost your mood and energy.  Here’s a brochure so you can learn more about it.”

Of course, the above is a very simplified scenario, but it should give you an idea of how things work no matter what your product is.

Your goal is to create curiosity and being yourself is very important but most important is for you to have fun, use the tools and get the contact information.

Remember you don’t have a prospect until you have their contact information.