Alright Team!
Since many of you are new to network marketing/direct sales lets start our lessons with a topic that is topmost on your mind:
"How can I position myself as a leader if I just started this business last week? Why would prospects want to join ME?"Lets separate these two questions. First we'll tackle the why, then the how.
Basically there are two main reasons why someone will decide to buy from you/sign up with you.
1) the customer/prospect feels a connection with you2) the customer/prospect sees you as a leaderConnectionCertain people want to be friends with you and not with someone else. Same way certain people will want to sign up with you or buy from you because they feel a connection with you. The most important thing is to relax and be natural. When talking to prospects have a plan in mind of how you want the conversation to go, but don't worry about the details.
Remember:
You can't say the right thing to the wrong person, or the wrong thing to the right person.
If the person you are talking to is ready mentally and financially to start a business, and they had a chance to look at the business and product overview, then you only job is to build rapport with the person.
Exercise:
Write down your ideal business partner (prospect). What is this person's career background? What is their current income? How much time does he/she spend on self development? What personality trait does this person possess?
This doesn't mean that you can't connect with and sign up other people, but it will just focus your mind on what sort of traits to look for as you interview your prospects. For example my ideal business partne
r is:
- young or mature professional
- calculated risk-taker
- self-motivated
- entrepreneurial
- sees the big picture
- has at least $2000 to start
- believes in self
- has desire to help others succeed
- skilled in internet use (some websites, google adsense, etc.)
- has some network marketing, direct sales, or telemarketing experience
- pursues self-development
- desires personal and financial freedom
- pursues goals/ achiever
- has already done research of available online biz opps and understands that what we offer is simply THE BEST.
Your list will look different than mine and thats great. Understand that you are never in competition with me or any other consultants of ANY company. You will attract the people that are meant to find you. Your job is to post lots of ads so that those people CAN find you. We will cover Marketing 101 in a future lesson.
LeadershipYou become a leader as soon as you start believing that you are a leader.
Exercise:
Begin affirming to yourself morning, daytime, and evening "I am the leader people are looking for."What is a leader?
A leader truly cares about the success of others. If you are looking to make quick buck this is not the business for you. Your prospects will feel that all you care about is getting the money and NOBODY will want to do business with you. Your prospects have to feel that their success is TOP priority for you.
You may have heard the saying "People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." Well its absolutely true.
Ask your prospects why its important for them to start their own home/online business. And then listen.
A leader leads by example.
If you start the business by making the minimum purchase - you need to ask yourself if you really believe that you have what it takes to succeed. Do you really believe that you deserve to succeed? Would you feel comfortable asking your prospects for the sale? Are you showing leadership and faith in yourself and your opportunity to your prospects? I don't think so. And your prospects won't think so either.
So a note to those of you starting with the minimum - think about upgrading - and see what sort of excuses your mind will come up with. Boom! There - you just found your block to success.
In his classic book "Secret of closing the sale" ...
(Now I know we say we don't sell - but that's just because selling has got a bad reputation because of unscrupulous salespeople. We do sell - we just don't sell "products" - we sell ourselves, our leadership, our commitment, our ability to help the other person reach his/her goals. And you can't be unscrupulous selling that - people will see right through you.)
So, in "Secret of closing the sale" legendary Zig Ziglar tells a story about his friend Bill who wasn't having much success selling cookware. Zig pointed out to his friend that it's obvious he doesn't believe in the product since he doesn't have his own set in the kitchen. When Bill related a story of woe about medical bills and car problems, Zig said to him that he can see how the scene plays out when Bill visits his prospects. They say the cookware is great, but because of this and that they don't have any money right now. so "You're going to sit there with a forced grin on your face, saying to yourself, 'Think positive now Bill, think positive, Bill!' But all the time, deeeeeep down inside, you're going to be thinking, 'Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. That's the reason I don't have a set of the stuff myself.'
Then Zig tells him "The smartest thing you'll ever do, even if you've got to mortgage your own furniture, is to buy a set of your own cookware."
So Bill did just that. The exciting end of the story is that the additional sales that Bill made that week completely paid for the cookware, because everytime someone said "I can't afford it" Bill could look them in the eye and say "I know how you feel, but I know from experience it's worth the sacrifice."
So why do I tell you this story? Well, it's not because I want more money from you. If that thought came up for you, you might want to rethink your trust issues. I tell you story to provoke you to analyze YOUR potential blocks to success. If you are confident of my integrity (thanks! *smile*) but still feel that you don't feel comfortable making a bigger financial commitment to this business, then you need to look at why YOU don't believe YOU can succeed.
You investment will be paid for with just TWO sales. TWO sales. If you don't believe you can produce two sales then you need to G-R-O-W yourself as a person.
Remember:
Your income can only grow to the extent that you do.
You have to keep up with the money - the money has kept up with you.- T. Harv Eker
A leader makes himself/herself valuable to others by constantly upgrading skills.In the past 6 months I have spent close to $1000 on seminars, books, audios, videos, and internet courses. I have read many more marketing and selling articles, newsletters, and library books. And every week I find resources whether paid or free to increase my knowledge of this business - MY business - because I treat it like a business. And because I can then pass the knowledge to you. Your success is my success.
And this is what you should be doing as well.
There are two main skills that our business requires - marketing and mindset. I will address each one in a separate post. For now let me just say that the next time we talk on the phone I am going to ask you what you are reading. And you'd better be reading 2-3 things from my recommended list. *smile*
A leader inspires people.
Being able to inspire people with your results is nice. But when you are just starting out you can inspire people with your CONVICTION. Quote the success of your upline (*smile*) or others in the company and let your prospect know that success is where YOU'RE going and that you will take them there too. If you established a connection with the person then he or she will "buy" into you as someone who can take them to the promised land.
In a future post I will write up how to make quick money online to fund your advertizing. Then, even before you make any sales in your primary business you can truthfully tell prospects that you have started to successfully make money online and are very optimistic about future growth. (And you will be, because frankly $240 for 4 hours of work is damn good money. Do the math.)
A leader sets and keeps appointments.This one is about respecting your own and your prospect's time. It's about holding your prospect accountable to their word. It's about weeding out the wishy washy ones from the winners. It's about holding YOURSELF accountable to YOUR word. And finally, unless you are used to making appointments in your former job, it's extremely difficult to do. And therefore extremely important - for all the above reasons.
It takes time and effort to train yourself to set appointments with your prospects. First you need to remember to ASK to set an appointment. You MUST agree with your prospect on a date and TIME. If you agree to talk sometime monday afternoon then you don't have an appointment.
To be honest I'm still working on this one. (Gosh! And you thought I am perfect!) Nope. I am working on my skills everyday just like you. And I can honestly say from experience that you will get better with practice.
A leader assigns tasks.One of the surest ways to show leadership is to assign tasks. That is, you need to tell your prospects firmly exactly what you want them to do. "Look at my site and then CALL me."
One way to trail close prospects is to ask them if they are close to their computer and then say "Let me GUIDE you through the set up process."
Use a call to action!
One final reason that your prospects will want to join you and maybe not the company's top producers is that the top producers maybe sometimes hard to reach. If you prospect feels that they will not get as much one-on-one time with a different sponsor, but they feel they need that one-on-one training and guidance and you are willing to offer it, then the prospect will sign up with you. I am speaking from personal experience here.
So there you have it. You can now talk with complete confidence with your prospects on the phone. The right ones will find YOU. Meanwhile here's a thought:
Some will. Some won't. So what? Next!I care about people. I care about the individuals that I talk on the phone with. But I am not emotionally attached to each particular individual's decision to join me or not. I know where I am going. I know that I will get there no matter what - with or without this particular person.
And that should be your attitude also.
Which bring us to the next topic:
Abundance mentality = lead prosperityBut as it's 3:20 am E.T., it will have to wait until the next day. Or rather night.
Well here's the absolute proof for you that I love you all and care about your success immensely. I work on my business during the day, I spend time with my son and daughter in the evenings , and I write training materials for you at night because I seriously want you to succeed.
Ah, but what am I saying! You already know how much I care! *smile*
