Let’s do a quick review before we explore some principles for communication with your prospective partner.

• The way you think and communicate will determine the way people respond to you.
• Other people’s actions and words are a reflection of your actions and words.
• People do things for their reasons not yours.
• Most people resist being “told” what to do or “persuaded” to do things, but generally like to learn and understand before taking action on changing anything.
• “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood” Steven Covey’s #5 in his The 7 Habits of Highly
  Effective People

Remember, once you are using the techniques and strategies in Ann Sieg’s Renegade Network Marketer to build your marketing system and are generating qualified leads, you must be able to communicate with them or lose them.  (Haven’t read The Renegade Network Marketer?  Click here to learn about it…Renegade.)

First of all, every communication you have with your prospective partner must have a valid business reason…a purpose…and provide value.  Before you can determine what the purpose and value will be, I must ask you a question.

What is the purpose of your business?

According to Michael Oliver, the answers to that question usually divide into 2 camps…”Make money” or “To make a profit” or “To be fulfilled”…”To help others” or “To help people solve their problems.”   In other words, the answer is either “self” focused or “other” focused.

Following the adage that our thoughts determine our words, your answer should have been very telling.  Ann Sieg has always taught us to focus on others…people buy for their own reasons…to discover what the prospective partner is trying to solve, fix or avoid.  If your initial answer was $$$ or self focused and, to follow the adage another step, our words determine our actions, how do you think you will come across to your prospect?  Right.  He will perceive you are focused on your own self interests.

Can you see that a change of thought pattern and, therefore, communication might be in your best interest?

So, principle #1…Focus communication on the prospective partner…where he’s coming from, whether he has a problem you can solve, fix or help him avoid.  Focus on becoming a solutions provider.

Sure, we all need to make $$$ in our businesses, but we must put that in the background.  Ann Sieg did a wonderful webinar training on the Desperate Marketer vs. the Successful Marketer.  The focus and your possible desperation does come through the phone!  Take time to delve into the other person’s situation.  Respond to them with pertinent questions.  Be prepared to walk away if what you have to offer cannot solve his problem.

Check out what Ann Sieg has to say by clicking the link below.  View the video recording
The Desperate Marketer vs The Successful Marketer

As Michael Oliver says…”With problems come opportunities. The opportunity for you is to help others get what they want and to be rewarded for it.”

Last time, we explored objections and rejection.  Remember, the way you think and communicate will determine the way people respond to you.  There are 2 important points to consider when speaking with prospects: (1) they do things for their reasons not yours and (2) most people resist being “told” what to do or “persuaded” to do things, but generally like to learn and understand before taking action on changing anything.

So what does this have to do with “Attraction Marketing?”  Once you are using the techniques and strategies in Ann Sieg’s Renegade Network Marketer to build your marketing system and are generating qualified leads, you must be able to communicate with them or lose them.  (Haven’t read The Renegade Network Marketer?  Click here to learn about it…Renegade.)

There is a natural law called The Law of Giving.  If you smile at someone as you walk down the street, more than likely they will smile back at you.  Other people’s actions and words are a reflection of your actions
and words.  Some people think of it as “Give to Get”.  I don’t like that focus, however.  I prefer to think of giving to give.

This reflection of your actions and words can work against you.  If you try to tell, persuade, or just present when you interact with your prospective partner, their natural reaction is to reject, object, or passive aggression (ever had someone say they will do something and don’t like no show an appointment?)

So, if you want the Law of Giving to work for you and have people listen to you and your solutions, then listen with the intent to understand them first.

This is key to building a business and team of successful entrepreneurs.  Michael Oliver in his book How to Sell Network Marketing Without Fear, Anxiety or Losing Your Friends! calls it “Dialog”.  (You can purchase the book by clicking Oliver)  I think of it as simple communication.   To quote him…

You can do this! You can achieve the success you’re looking for without the anxiety normally associated with selling.

First, observe two things – the way you think and the way you communicate – and be willing to work to change them. Wouldn’t you love to bring harmony into your life, and the lives of others, in a way that assures every conversation you have will end with something positive?

Next week I’ll outline some principles for communication that allow you to relate with people in a way that puts all the focus on them, from start to finish. As a result, people feel good about you and respond to you positively.  You’ll build relationships and take the next step in “Attraction Marketing”.

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:

1. People buy for their own reasons, not yours.  They are motivated by personal interest…”What’s in it for me?”
2. 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!

Originaly posted:  Nov. 5, 2007

Last week, I shared my goals with you and requested that you think about and set Your own goals.  I appreciate those of you who shared them with me.  I can better focus on how to help you reach them.  (In case you didn’t get a chance to send them in last week, you can still do so)

For those of you who have joined SOC as an Entrepreneur and/or are on Ann Seig’s Team, you will be receiving an updated series of cards from SOC and, in a few days, an e-mail requesting that you opt into a training series guide that Daviette and I are working on.  This free, valuable training is only available to those of you on Ann’s Team or SOC Entrepreneurs.  If you’d like to talk about joining SOC and Ann’s Team, give me a call or drop me an e-mail.

This week, I should like to give you the first of several specific actions I am taking to reach my 90 day goals.  I am committing to “filling my funnel”.  In general, this means making prospecting calls, setting up consults (we’re using The New Conceptual Sales way), and closing sales.  The industry average is illustrated by “The Power of 45″.  For every 45 dials, you can expect to reach 15 prospects, set up 5 consults and close 1 sale.  I repeat, that’s the industry average. Don’t forget to leave voice mail messages for uncompleted calls.

From my tracking, using Ann’s leads which are highly targeted and qualified, my percentages are significantly higher.  So…….

I am committing to make enough calls to set an average of 10 consults each week for the next 90 days (except Thanksgiving week).  Again, using Ann’s leads, there are significantly fewer calls needed than using generic leads which have had no “pre-selling”.

And that’s worth thinking about!  That’s worth doing!

Originaly Posted:  October 8, 2007

This week’s topic is Sales Training.   There are very few people who are born salespeople.  If you’ve been in a network marketing business for very long, I can just about guarantee, you’ve been taught all of the “7 Great Lies” Ann Sieg talks about in her book…meaning you’ve received little help with sales.  Sales can either be of your product or service or your business opportunity.  People don’t just jump into your business!  They will be much more apt to jump if you have something that they need to help the solve or avoid a problem.    The same goes for your product or service.

You are in an enviable position.  Because you are working with me, you have some awesome training available.  We leverage our time and resources on Ann’s Team.  Your basic training is available through The Works Team’s Monday night training calls based on The New Conceptual Selling .  For those of you who have joined Ann’s Team, further training is available on Ann’s Tuesday night Team/training calls and small group coaching calls and individual help from me.  We are all here to help you become a success in Send Out Cards and, through implementing our SOC directed business building training, a success in your primary business.

It is up to you to take advantage of all of this!

If the calls are not at a convenient time of day for you, both The Works Team and Ann’s Team calls are recorded and archived (check out the sites under recorded calls and archived team calls, respectively).  As both calls are set up as a series, if you want to start at the beginning instead of in the middle, go directly to the archive and begin there.  If you have more time for training and are anxious to get as much as you can so you can speed up your skills set improvement, gobble it up at your pace.  Just remember they are tied to The New Conceptual Selling.

As we discussed when you joined me, I expect you to complete the chapter exercises (first set on pg. 67-71) and send me a copy so we can review them.  You can find a pdf copy on Ann’s Team site under SOC documents…the bottom of the page.  Download them and fill them in, save them and attach to an e-mail to me.  There are 13 sets.  They can be completed in as many weeks or sooner if time permits.  If you’re not following through with sending me a copy of your worksheets, I won’t have a basis for our discussion or know where you need help.

Again, I’m here to help you become successful.  It’s up to you to take advantage of me and the training available.  Building your Success will take Time, Effort and Determination over time with a Vision of your goal always before you.

S = T+E+D + V
(over) time