Archive for the ‘Prospecting’ Category
MLM Secret Revealed – Does Cold Calling Work?
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010MLM Secret – What Makes a Lead Qualified?
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009Before you can make your first MLM sale, you have to have people to talk to. Those people that we talk to are called either a “Lead” or a “Prospect”. For the most part, network marketers will use them interchangeably. Before we talk able what makes a qualified prospect, let’s first talk able what a lead actually is.
In sales (and network marketing is no different), a prospect or a lead is defined as someone that has expressed a need for your MLM product. The key word there is “expressed.”
When you first joined your MLM program, you were probably told that network marketing isn’t “sales” and that everyone has a need for your MLM product. If you have been in network marketing industry for any length of time, you know that that isn’t true. Not everyone will want your product. Even if they can benefit from using it.
So, instead of talking to everyone about your MLM product or your business opportunity and getting rejection after rejection, only talk to those prospects that have told you that they have a need for your product.
Now before you say “Amy, how will I know that someone has a need for my product if I don’t ask them?” let me tell you that there is a way. You will know exactly who to talk to once you have identified your target market.
For example: you belong to a MLM program whose main product is a energy drink. You may think that everyone could benefit from a little more energy but that wouldn’t be true. There are some people that are perfectly happy with the level of energy that they currently have.
So, in this case, you will want to narrow your focus to people that have done something to tell you they want more energy. If you aren’t sure what that something is, then you may want to make it a little broader by targeting mothers or business people that work a lot of hours. You may find that your target market is of a certain age and gender or you may find that they are in a certain income bracket. Once you know who your ideal customer is, you will know better where to find them.
When it comes to finding qualified prospects, you have a lot of options open to you. The first thing that most MLM companies teach is to take some time and make a list of everyone that you know and then go and share with them what it is you are doing. This network marketing method is okay for getting one or two customers but a business is will not build.
Once you have prospected your friends and family, you will have to look for other methods to getting qualified prospects. This can be done both online and offline. You will have to know where your strengths are before you go looking for your leads. If you aren’t too good at using technology (the Internet) then you may want to focus on using offline methods for getting qualified leads.
What Makes A Good Prospect
Monday, September 14th, 2009Whether you are in your first year network marketing or you are a seasoned MLM’er, you have to be able to sell your network marketing product if you want to succeed in business. A common mistake that many network marketers make is believing that everyone wants or already uses something like their MLM product. I don’t want to burst your bubble but that just isn’t true. Not everyone wants your product. I don’t care how great it is.
If I had a dollar for everytime a marketer told me “it practically sells itself”, I would be as rich as Oprah.
Network marketing is just like every other business there is in at least one area – you have to make sales if you want to make mlm income. I’m going to let you in on a little MLM secret – if you want to make mlm sales, you have to know what makes a good prospect. Here’s why:
Knowing what a Good Prospect is will save you TIME and MONEY
The best way to know who will make a good prospect is to know who your target market is. There are two key things to know to determine if someone is a good prospect for your network marketing product:
1. Your prospect has a WANT or a NEED for your network marketing product. You can have the best product in the world but if no one wants it or needs it, you won’t be making very many sales.
For example, I was talking to this network marketing not too long ago that was looking for more information about how to make more MLM sales and they were in Enagic. Enagic is in the business of filtering water. The marketer that I was speaking to (the one that was looking for more information on how to make more MLM sales) tried to tell me that their business was about to take off because everyone drinks water and needs to filter it. Obviously, this network marketing was notready to hear about my MLM training program. My guess would be that this marketer hasn’t been with Enagic for very long and they don’t have very much experience in sales either. If they did, they would know that not everyone cares about the water they drink, in fact, I know quite a few people that just don’t like to drink water at all.
I know, I know, it’s because they aren’t drinking the right kind of water. If they tried the water after it’s had all the harmful chemicals filter out, they would definately want to drink more water. Yeah, my husband also knows that he shouldn’t drink so much diet soda either but he does it anyway. Which brings me to the second thing that a good prospect has:
2. The prospect has to want a solution. I’m sure that you know people that, for whatever reason, don’t see the answer to their problem even when it’s right there in front of them. If your prospect has given up all hope of fixing their problem, then there isn’t anything that you can do for them.
Let’s say that your network marketing product is the water fitration system like what Enagic offers. Everyone may NEED water but not everyone knows or even cares about all of the chemicals that can be found in ordinary tap water. There are some that may care but found their solution in bottled water or in one of those simple little water filters.
If you have a network marketing product that you want to sell, go find people that have a WANT or a NEED for your product and (this is important) also WANT a solution. It’s much easier to help someone that wants help than it is to try to force someone to look at a solution to a problem they don’t even know they have.
How Role Play Can Increase Your MLM Sales
Friday, July 17th, 2009First, I should probably explain what I mean by role play. I don’t want you to come into this exercise thinking about your kids playing dress up to play the role of princess or the more wicked (a grown up) acting out a fantasy with a sexual partner. That’s not the kind of picture I want you to have.
Of course, now that I have put those pictures in your mind, I have to wonder if I should delete this part of the post and start over. I’ll leave it for now.
Let’s continue by looking at the words themselves. When someone assumes a ‘role’, they play a part in a specific situation. ‘Play’ means that the role is taken on in a safe environment. A place where you can be inventive as possible, creating you own reality. When done for business, role play allows you to experiment with your knowledge of what happens in the real world and develop your ability to handle any situation that may come up during your sales process.
Why Role Play Is Important To Increasing Your MLM Sales
Role play is very useful in helping a network marketer to learn how to handle a variety of situations. It can also help the MLM’er that is afraid of using the telephone because they might mess up and say the wrong thing. Role playing puts you in a realistic situation but also gives you the opportunity to make mistakes that don’t cost anything. Probably the biggest reason to role play is so that you can identify any sales skill gaps that you may have as a network marketer and correct them.
Role playing as a sales tool can help you to manage any stress that you may feel when you are communicating with your prospects. If you feel stressed at all during your sales process, you may shoot from the hip and lose control of the sales cycle. By practicing your script and role playing a network marketer will be prepared to respond to the prospects questions and thereby increase your MLM sales success.
2 Role Playing Tips To Increase Your MLM Sales
- Don’t make it easy. As a network marketer, you have to learn to be able to handle the pressure of your prospects probing questions.
- Make a list of the top objections that you have received while selling your MLM product and use them during your role playing sessions. When you role play with someone else these objections, you will see how another network marketer would have handled the situation.
Role Playing Examples
I role play at least once a week with another strong network marketer. I recorded the last time we got together to practice prospecting and then I edited it a little bit so that you wouldn’t have to listen to us talk about our kids and stuff. I think I cut out all of the swear words too, sorry that can happen when you get frustrated and mess up even when you know what you are doing, things happen. That’s why as network marketers it is important to role play to keep your sales skills sharp and ready for the real deal.
So, listen to the audio of me role playing with my good friend Barbara Thiel as we role play our prospecting script. Notice how we are using the same script but it sounds different. Inside this audio you will also hear:
- What to do if your prospect objects to your presentation time.
- Why you should also have your prospecting script in front of you even when you have it memorized.
- Me prospect Barbara for another home based business that helps people save money on gas.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This audio is only about 15 minutes long and there isn’t any introduction or anything like that it gets straight down to the business of role playing. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think by leaving a comment. That’s it for today. Have a great MLM day.
