Originally posted August 25, 2008
I am a really big fan of Michael Oliver and his book How to sell network marketing without fear, anxiety or losing your friends. (If you are interested you can click the link and purchase it from Amazon and have it shipped directly to your door.) He has written, in easy to read form, much of what we have been taught by Ann Sieg on her Renegade Network Marketing team about prospecting.
In a recent article, he redefined Cold Calls as calling people who have no idea you are going to call them. By that definition, leads who have signed up somehow should not be considered “cold”. If you have worked generic leads, I’m sure you’ll agree that they are often still “cold”.
His reasoning, however, is sound. Leads who have been generated by your marketing system (especially, if you’ve set it up using Ann Sieg’s Renegade Network Marketer), or if you are lucky enough to be able to purchase Ann Sieg’s leads, are targeted and qualified. They have requested information to solve their particular problem.
That still doesn’t mean that they don’t “feel” cold to the network marketer. Knowing and feeling can be two different animals. 
We must reach them and begin the relationship and sell them on us first before presenting our “deal”. Even though they are good warm leads, we still fall victim to phone fear or procrastination in picking up that two ton receiver. I want you to stop here and think…examine for a minute why that is in your particular case. What keeps you from calling?
For me, it was fear of rejection and not knowing how to handle possible objections.
As we discussed last week, life is full of choices. What you choose to think, to say or to do, will reflect what other people will think, say or do in response to you. By understanding the underlying causes of rejection and objections, I discovered that I could change myself which, in turn, changed the responses. I was in a better position to think and chose an action that would eliminate the negative reaction.
There are a couple of things that you must understand before we go on:
- People buy for their own reasons, not yours. They are motivated by personal interest…”What’s in it for me?”
- Most people erect a wall when being told or “Persuaded” what to do. As Michael Oliver says, they “generally like to learn and understand before taking action on changing anything.”
That’s why the traditional NWM approach isn’t effective. If we launch into our presentation as soon as we hear a possible opening, they will most likely throw up a defensive wall. It is much more effective to ask questions and listen and gently dig around to find out what they really are looking for and the reasons for their search…the reason they asked for the information you will provide. Discover what they want, why they want it, and what led up to their search (a little history).
Please, understand that we are unique creatures. If we pitch the deal in the “One size fits all” approach, we are setting ourselves up for rejection and objections. It is not necessarily personal, just an ingrained defensive action. On the other hand, if we couch our presentation to meet and overcome some of the personal reasons the prospect is searching they will be more open to our solutions…That is, of course, if we do have viable solutions. If we do not have a real possible solution for the potential partner’s problem, we must say so and walk away. That’s a WIN-WIN.
Realize that it doesn’t matter what you think about your solutions or whether you think they are going to work for someone. What’s important is what the other person thinks. That’s why it’s so important to help people surface what they know and don’t know and what they want by allowing them to come to their own conclusions. Get them involved. Help them feel their uniqueness and that their interest is what’s important. Acknowledge them.
People act for their own reasons, not yours!
