MLM Expert Advice

So you’ve managed to qualify some suspects and you now have one or more prospects you are going to present to.

How do you make them sit up in their seats and pay attention?  It doesn’t matter whether you are presenting to them in person, over the phone, via a webchat or teleconference, or even via email you have to get them to pay attention to what you have to say instead of whatever else may be going on in their lives or what they are missing out on by listening to you.

You need to start by building a relationship with you audience and doing this does depend on whether you are using an indirect method (phone, email, teleconference) or direct (person-to-person, conference).

Lets start with the indirect.

The more times that you can reach out to a person and start to create a strong relationship, even if all you are leaving is voice messages and email messages, the better your chance of making a sale and repeated sales or recruiting someone..

When you call and leave another voice message or send another email, physiologically, you have already been introduced to your prospect.  This lends a sense of familiarity to you calling again and at some level your prospect feels that they know you.

Think about when you last purchased a car or even a house.  How many times did your salesperson leave you to take a call or ask their boss a question or get something from their assistant or secretary. This is a tried and true technique used to create that sense of familiarity and build a stronger relationship. Each time they left and returned seemed to strengthen that relationship.  You can do the same thing with voicemail and email.

The key is not to give much of anything away and build curiosity so that your prospect wants to contact you back.  Don’t make the mistake of introducing yourself and telling them to check out a website and call you if they have questions because you neither have built curiosity nor have you left yourself much room or reason to follow-up.  Recall that you want to be able to follow-up multiple times to strengthen the relationship.  Similarly don’t leave them a message telling them everything about your product or opportunity because why would they want to call you back… after all you’ve already told them all there is to know.

People return your contact with them because they are curious about what you want to present so your contact with them when leaving a message or email should simply say your name, contact information, and let them know that you receive the information that they were interested and you have a question for them. This builds curiosity, after all who wouldn’t want to know what the call was about and what the question was.  Alternatively you can build curiosity by saying:

• I have some good news for you
• I have a favor to ask you
• I needs some information from you

all of which entice your prospect into getting in touch with you.

Thing can get interesting if you haven’t heard back from them after a few attempts to contact them.  You can then escalate the messages.  For example you could say that you were confused (which you may be) as to why they took the time to give you their information and that there must be a reason they did that and you’re curious as to the reason.  Then you can add that you would like then to call you back so you can understand their reason for expressing an interest and then you might be able to help them out.

When you have gone through the steps of building curiousity and letting them know you want to help, you will notice an increase in the number of prospects that either buy products from you or join your organization.

But what if you are presenting in person or even if you do reach them directly on the phone when you try to contact them?

You’ll want to start your presentation by building rapport (strengthening the relationship).  Find out how things are going for them and then use what they have said in your presentation relating it to the points you wish to make or relate a personal anecdote that is relevant to what they have just told you.  This grabs their attention.

Once you have their attention you need to then build curiosity with a statement that gets them to focus directly on what you have to say.  A startling statement that provokes curiosity will shock or surprise the audience and results on them sitting up and paying attention. Blurting out your topic and your purpose is generally NOT an effective attention-getter. You need to bring your audience into your topic by surprising them with information or a perspective on your topic that is new and interesting to the audience.

For example:

• I will be sharing with you the 10 things your boss doesn’t want you to know about starting a home-based business.
• Discover why your neighbor never leaves the house but drives a better car than you do.
• Here’s the secret your parents never knew or told you about money.

Statements such as these will grab people’s attention quickly and create a burning desire to know what this is all about.

Ok you’ve got their attention and you’ve built curiosity and they are listening.  Now you want to make sure they retain it and remember you.  You can do this with two simple magical words… thank you.  Why? By saying thank you, you are feeding people’s desire to be recognized for whatever they have done, no matter how great or small.  In this case you’re thanking them for taking time away from their schedule to listen to what you have to present.  By using these words you will build a strong bond with your audience.

These are seemingly simple tools but when you apply them consistantly you will not only get your prospects attention and keep it but also you will increase your call backs, sales, and the size of your organization.

I would imagine that if you’ve been in your MLM for long or even if you’re just getting started one of the first things you were told to do is put together a list of everyone you knew (or ever knew).  While that may be a great list for approaching about whatever product you may have, it isn’t necessarily the group you want to approach about joining your business unless you live or work with others who feel passionate about marketing.

Friends and family can help to build an home business success, if they are prepared to speak out about the quality of whatever product your MLM company is selling So while friends and family might be the easiest people to contact, they are not always the best people to put on a leads list for joining your MLM.

Nevertheless you need to put together your lists whether for your product or your business.  Keep in mind everyone that you put down is not necessarily a prospect, rather they are a suspect.  No I’m not talking about foul play here.  You suspect that they may want your product or you suspect that they will want to join your business.

So while you could add anyone to your suspect list don’t mistake them for being a prospect.  But how do you know when they are a prospect?  Communication.  Whatever form it takes, whether its a phone call, an in-person meeting, or an email, communication must occur to determine whether someone is a prospect.

Have you ever talked to a salesperson, such as a car or insurance salesman who “vomits” information on you without finding out a thing about you?  If you do all the talking, you’ll never learn if someone is interested in what you have to say and you won’t be able to connect with them to find out if there is anything in their life that would make them a good candidate for your business or product.  For example if they happen to mention they are tired all the time you could tell them about a product you’ve been using that gives you all the energy you need to get through your day.  Alternatively they might be complaining about how they didn’t get a raise at work or are struggling to make ends meet and you could let them know you’ve found a way to make extra cash.  Note that in both cases I didn’t suggest that you would pounce on them immediately with your pitch because again they are still a suspect and you need to qualify them or let them qualify themselves.

In each of the above examples you would need to see if they have an interest, if they ask for more information, or if they provide you with contact information so that you can let them know more about it.  Then you have a prospect.

With this blog, I suspect there are people that will be interested but I won’t know for sure until they become a prospect by signing up for updates and the newsletter.  Thats the difference between prospecting on the internet and prospecting in person; however the same rules apply.  I won’t be sending you an email or a newsletter unless you sign up because you haven’t demonstrated an interest in what I have to say.

Whether prospecting in person or over the internet you will only communicate your business or product details to someone who has migrated from your suspect list to your prospect list by showing interest.

If you need help in qualifying your suspects or creating curiousity in them so they ask for more information then you should check out the Professional Inviter CD series.  On the other hand if you are interested in working on the internet to qualify your suspects then you owe it to yourself to sign up for Your Free MLM Videos and learn how you can attract qualified prospects to you.