Authors: Eric Worre
If you want to master this skill, follow these four simple steps:
Step one:
Make your list as comprehensive as possible. Include every person you can think of. EVERY person. It doesn’t matter if you think they are a prospect or not. Your database will be one of your most important assets. Everyone goes on the list. If they are negative, put them on your list. If you hate them, put them on your list. If they are your best friend, put them on your list. If they’ve said, “I’ll never be involved in Network Marketing,” put them on your list. If they’re 98 years old, put them on your list. If they’re 18 years old, put them on your list.
It’s important to do this, because as you empty your mind out on paper, it will make more room for new contacts to find room in there. When you write down your nephew, you will begin to think about the circle of people around your nephew. All of these connections will become apparent to you as you make your list more and more comprehensive. Think about everything—every organization you’ve ever been involved in, every group you’ve ever been a part of, everything you’ve ever done. If you do this right, it will end up being hundreds and hundreds and maybe even thousands of people.
You’re not required to prospect everyone on your list. That’s up to you. But it’s extremely important to do the work necessary to truly capture your network on paper.
Step two:
Have you heard of the concept that we’re all only six contacts away from any person in the world? Six degrees of separation? I’m not sure if that’s a myth or if it’s true, but I believe in the concept. Step two is looking at your list and thinking about the people they know—the second degree of separation. Chances are, you’ll know most of them also.
Think about members of your family. Who do they know? Add them to your list. Think about your friends. Who do they know? Add them to your list. Think about all the relationships in your life. Who do they know? Add them to your list. Don’t worry about what you’re going to do with this list yet. We’ll talk about that a bit later. Just keep building it.
Step three:
Constantly expand your list. This is why the professionals call this an “Active Candidate List.” It never stops growing. The pros have a goal to add at least two people to their list every single day. They may not prospect them, but as Harvey Mackay’s father said, they go on the list and you should find a creative way to stay in touch. Harvey’s book
Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty
deals with this concept. If you think about this as a core skill, you’ll realize it isn’t very hard. You come into contact with people every day. Just add them to your list. You meet people through online social media. Add them to your list. You do business with new people. Add them to your list.
My friend Jordan Adler is the author of
Beach Money
®, and he’s also a seven-figure-a-year earner in Network Marketing. He’s a master at step three. He just lives his life and is always making new friends, and if you look at his business, almost all of the people he’s recruited into his huge organization are people he didn’t know before he started his Network Marketing business. He’s a Pro.
Professionals develop a higher level of awareness. They pay attention to the world. They know they will be introduced to new people all the time. Posers and amateurs don’t even notice. They just go through their day saying “What people? I don’t see any people.”
How hard would it be to raise your awareness and add two new people a day to your list? Think about it. If you did that six days a week, that is over 600 new people a year. Do that for five years and it’s over 3,000 people. Can you see why professionals don’t worry about running out of people to talk to?
Please understand, I’m NOT saying you should assault these people with your pitch the moment you are introduced. Some people in Network Marketing make that mistake and it’s not good. Just add them to your list, make friends, develop a connection, and when the time is right you can help them understand what you have to offer.
Step four:
Network on purpose. Professionals network on purpose. It’s hard to meet new people if you’re hiding from the world. Get out there. Have some fun. Join a new gym. Have fun with a new hobby. Volunteer for a cause that’s important to you. Find places and organizations where you can meet new people. Not only will it be good for your business, but you’ll also make some great friends.
CHAPTER FIVE
Skill #2—Inviting Prospects to Understand Your Product or Opportunity
Once you’ve identified your prospects, the next skill is learning how to properly invite them to find out more about your product or opportunity. This is by far the most critical skill to develop. I call it the “gateway” skill for Network Marketing. If you aren’t successful in getting anybody to take a look, then we can guess what your future will look like in MLM.
Most people think you must start off with a great reputation and have a lot of influence with others for them to take a look at your opportunity. That’s just not true. When I first started in 1988, I had no reputation and no influence. I barely escaped high school, attended one semester of community college before dropping out, and had a total of 18 jobs—all before the age of 23. Do you think I had a lot of respect in the community? I had zero. And since I was a $5 to $10 an hour person, all my friends were the same so they weren’t much help. Most of them were still living with their parents.
But I was desperate and I was scrappy. In the beginning, I made up in numbers what I lacked in skill. I called everyone I knew and gave them my pitch. A few of them joined. Most didn’t. I placed ads in the local newspaper. I gave all of the people who responded my pitch. From all of that activity, a few joined. Most didn’t.
I tried everything. I was like a hunter with the goal of bagging an elephant. I went around with a gun/opportunity in my hand and shot at everything that moved. I didn’t really care about relationships. All I cared about was getting that new recruit. My attitude was, “Some will. Some won’t. So what? Next!”
But because I was a hunter, everyone around me felt hunted. And they started to avoid me. And it wasn’t fun. Even worse, the people I did get to join my business tried to do the same thing I was doing, failed, and then quit.
After three or four years of frustration, I came to my defining moment, and started studying successful people in MLM to see what they did. What I found surprised me. They weren’t hunters. They were more like farmers. They built relationships. They built friendships. They learned how to build trust with the people they met and were able to skillfully transfer the belief they had about their products and opportunity. Their goal wasn’t to immediately recruit their prospects. Their initial objective was to educate their prospects on what they had to offer and then let those prospects decide if it was something they wanted to do.
This was a HUGE switch in strategy for me and I began to look at things differently. I put myself in the prospect’s shoes and thought about what would be attractive to me and alternatively, what would cause me to put up my defenses. I realized why the pros had such great results. Instead of acting like sharks, they were more like coaches or consultants. They built relationships and then offered common-sense solutions to people’s problems. Who wouldn’t like that?
The other thing I noticed with the professionals is they didn’t “pitch” their product or opportunity. Instead, when the timing was appropriate, they just invited people to do one of two things, based upon the individual prospect’s situation.
The first thing they did was to invite people to attend some sort of event, such as a one-on-one or two-on-one meeting with another member of their team, a three-way phone conversation, a small group presentation in their home, an online webinar, a local hotel meeting, or some larger company event or convention. Professionals understand that personal interaction is a critical component when it comes to building trust and transferring belief, so they try to connect with people as much as possible.
The second thing they did was to invite people to review some sort of tool. I’m a BIG believer in using tools to help educate a prospect. Tools take many forms. There are CDs, DVDs, magazines, brochures, websites, and online presentations. With some companies, you can even let people sample the product and treat that as a tool.
There is no question that technology continues to evolve, offering more and more convenient ways to help educate prospects, but I have to interject a personal opinion based on experience. While technology allows us to get people quality information quickly, there is nothing like a physical tool. In a world of bits and bytes, and in a Network Marketing world where it’s important to build trust, a physical tool makes it real.
Of the two methods used to help educate the prospect, events are the most effective. There are lots of reasons. There is physical interaction from meeting with people, and that helps build trust. There is the important element of “social proof”. It’s valuable for the prospect to see that there are other people actively involved, and find out what those people are like. There is education on the product and the financial opportunity. They get to see first-hand the kind of support that’s involved and they realize they won’t have to do everything by themselves. In most cases, there is excitement and urgency at these events. And, they get to hear stories of how things are going for other people.
Those are some of the benefits. The only downside to events is they can be difficult to schedule and confirm, especially for a brand new person. If you don’t have the skills, it’s fairly common to invite twenty people and have only one or two show up. That can be discouraging.
For building a large and duplicating organization, I have found that a tool is a better first step. Remember, our goal is education and understanding. We want people to know what we have and understand how it can benefit their lives. A tool is a great way for people to become educated (and hopefully excited) in the middle of their busy lives. They might not have time to drive across town to meet with you, but they could listen to a CD in their car, watch a short DVD, read a magazine, or watch an online presentation.
If you were to look back at my career, you’d see that tools changed everything for me. In 1990 my company came out with a video that was dynamic and exciting. Even though it was wildly expensive at $15 each, back then it was worth it, because when you learned how to invite people to watch that video, the results were dramatic.
Everyone in the company became focused on a daily method of operation that centered around inviting people to watch our video. We allowed no distractions. Our entire culture revolved around this strategy and our growth went through the roof. Events were still very important, but they were a second step after a person watched our video.
By adopting this new approach, my organization finally broke out, and I was able to enjoy the experience of having a group that grew with or without me. It was more fun than I can describe. My group grew from a few dozen to a few hundred and then to a few thousand. All I did was learn how to successfully invite people to watch a video, follow it up with an invitation to an event, and teach everyone else to do the same thing.
The second career breakthrough took the form of an audiocassette. Yes, I said cassette. This was 1992 and that’s all we had. The company was launching something new and exciting, and this time I personally recorded an audio that explained the opportunity in detail. We sold it for 50 cents apiece, which covered our costs, and in less than one year, that little audiocassette sold over a million copies. We taught people how to invite prospects to take that cassette, put it in their car, and listen to it right away. The results were amazing.
We trained people to get 100 cassettes at first, get them out to everyone they knew, and then had them focus on getting out two-a-day after that. Using that simple system, my income grew to almost $1 million a year.
Different companies use different tools and event strategies to grow their business. Some use home parties. Some use online presentations. Some use one-on-ones with magazines and flip charts. Find what’s working best in your particular company, develop your daily method of operation, and then train your people how to effectively do the same and invite their prospects to plug in.
As a professional, you are going to be inviting your prospects to review a tool or attend an event. Here’s what you’re NOT going to be doing: You’re NOT going to be pitching people and trying to dazzle the world with your wisdom. That approach will feed your ego but steal from your bank account.
Let me give you my formula for financial independence in Network Marketing.
Your ability to get a large group of people to consistently do a few simple things over an extended period of time.
It was this formula that helped me break out of Network Marketing mediocrity, and it will help you do the same.