How to Approach Prospecting

Inviting prospects to learn more about your product or opportunity is one of the most critical skills you must develop as a Network Marketer. Let’s call it the “gateway” skill for Network Marketing because if you aren’t successful in getting anybody to take a look, then your future in this profession doesn’t look too good.

The problem most people have with prospecting is that they feel bad or awkward doing it. They feel like they are hounding their prospects, and their prospects probably feel attacked by their approach as well. Pretty soon, you have become known as the person to avoid. Everyone’s like “Oh, don’t talk to her. She’ll try to convince you to sign-up for her little parties.” 

You’re not alone. I did this too when I first started out. I was a hunter. I didn’t really care about relationships. All I cared about was getting that new recruit. I did get a few to join, but most didn’t. And then people started to avoid me. Even worse, the people I did get to join my business tried to do the same thing I was doing, failed, and then quit. I was frustrated. Prospecting wasn’t fun, and I definitely wasn’t being successful at it. 

Then, I started studying successful people to see what they did. What I found surprised me. They were building relationships, building friendships. 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 too put up my defenses. Instead of acting like a shark, I was more like a coach or consultant. I built relationships and then offered common-sense solutions to people’s problems.

And that is why so many people feel like they are hounding their prospects when they first approach them, because they are not coming from the mindset of being coaches and consultants. Instead, they think that they have to jump right in and tell their prospects why they’re going to miss this great opportunity if they don’t sign up. 

Form a relationship with your prospect. Learn where they are in life, what they enjoy doing in their free time, what struggles they are facing. And let them know you are genuinely interested in them and their lives. Even if you just met them, become their friend in five minutes. Then, you can make your invite as someone who share with them and educate them on an opportunity that you believe they would succeed in.

If you take this stance, you’ll find that prospecting becomes much less frustrating. You’ll become comfortable with the process. It will feel easy and natural, and you’ll find that you get more results.

[compliment the prospect, form that connection, then invite them to review a tool—don’t pitch]

[you’ll find that it feels…]

How to invite prospects using an indirect approach, direct approach, super indirect approach

How did it feel as a prospect/distributor?

First was a direct approach:

·        Easy, natural, comfortable – more practice, the better you get

·        Effective – it works around the world, with every culture, with every company; rarely found a process that would actually do that, but this one actually works in real life

·        Prospect: professional, comfortable, complimented, respected, overall felt good

·        Isn’t that amazing that the prospect felt that way? And that was after only five minutes

Indirect approach was second exercise:

·        Easy, can stray from script but followed same concept and can make it own, build a connection with that person in a very short period of time – instant repoire builder

·        As a prospect, you want to help; as if they asked you for directions to somewhere and you’re happy to give directions; helping out your fellow person

·        Less stress, you have structure; you feel comfortable and you know they’re enjoying it

·        Almost like a game, it’s fun, like a social experiment, no good or bad experiences only learning experiences

·        As a prospect, you knew it was a game and you felt good; how do you think they’re going to feel if they don’t know it’s a game? Good

·        You’re not afraid of a NO; felt completely unnatural to throw a NO into that conversation, a person who does that is an unreasonable person; it doesn’t make sense to through a NO in

Their confidence is growing; their feeling better about themselves, they don’t have to be afraid

Super Indirect Approach:

·        Easy to go after influential people

·        Lots of compliments

·        Even though you know it’s a game; when someone goes, I know this isn’t for you, you automatically go, I’ll be the judge of that

·        When you know what you’re going to say, you can concentrate on other things like your passion, your posture, your energy; you don’t have to worry about the words

·        Prospects feel in control, this takes care of their ego

What you get is a recurring theme, that hey I can do this, I can talk to these influential people

don’t have to only talk to people who look up to me, I can talk to people who I look up to

It’s liberating

It’s so important for you to practice this skill of inviting

What is feels like, if you take out a few little steps:

·        It’s uncomfortable for everybody

·        Prospect feels attacked

·        This is what you’ve been doing

·        You don’t want to be that person on either side; feel uncomfortable as a prospect, and feel like pushing as a distributor

·        As a prospect, you feel like you’ve been attacked

·        All we added was 30 seconds of niceness, and then we said the same words; correct way

·        You just experienced how good it can feel; and now you’ve experienced how bad it can feel with the same words

People realized, wow I’ve been doing it this why my entire career

No wonder I feel bad, people run away from me, people aren’t signing up for my business

Because I feel like a predator and they feel like they’re being hunted

If I could just do this professionally, I can get better results, have everyone feeling more positive like in the first exercises

If you do this right, you’re going to feel great. If you do it wrong, you’re going to feel bad

If you want to stop feeling bad and start feeling good all the time, start practicing; work with some people right away; practice; and get great

Because you deserve it, your business deserves it