Developing the right posture

I remember when I first enrolled in my first Referral Marketing Company how excited I was. This new business was going to put me on the fast track to success and I was going to have a  HUGE business. I couldn’t wait to share my new discovery with all my family and friends. I just knew that they would all see what I saw and join me on my journey towards financial independence.

I did what any good new business associate would do. I developed a list of everyone that I knew and began to call them one by one. 

I broke the list down into several different groups. I decided to start with the group of people that I felt for sure could use some extra income; I just knew they would be a slam dunk. Well, to my surprise that wasn’t the case.

In fact as I recall, they seemed to have the MOST questions of all the people I talked with. Some were even quick to suggest that my time may be better spent doing something else. 

As I made each phone call I began to learn some really hard lessons. First, your friends and family are not obligated to join you in your new journey. Of course you would like them to, but that’s really an extra benefit if they do. 

In a perfect world we all want to be accepted and looked up to; especially from our friends and family. What I have come to realize is the people closest to us have a certain way they see us. If we’ve had past failures, that’s what they remember. If our primary career has less status and prestige than our friends and family; I believe it’s often difficult for them to accept the possibility that we actually found something that could really benefit them financially or otherwise. It’s just the way our human nature works. Knowing this will help you better understand the dynamics and help you be better prepared. 

By the time I had made my tenth call, I was disillusioned and feeling a little down. The phone now seemed like it was a 50 pound weight. The calls were beginning to weigh on me. 

Over time I found out that everyone who ever succeeded in this industry went through the same feelings and setbacks I did when making those early phone calls.

Honestly, friends and family members can be the hardest people to talk to. JUST ACCEPT THAT!  It’s really liberating. Once you get through your friends and family list, it gets a lot easier. 

I can hear you saying, “ well then I’ll just skip sharing the opportunity with them all together”

You Could do that.

But that would be too easy; and besides you will find a few that will gladly want to join you in your new opportunity. This will help to get you off to a quick start. And besides it will be fun building your new business with people you already know and like. 

Once you have gone through your friends and family list, I would like to personally welcome you to the prestigious NFL club…

 ”No friends left” 

Don’t panic, I’m not saying that you scared all your friends away; I’m saying that you DID IT.  You did the hardest part of this business, contacting  people that you already know. By making those calls, we risk rejection or misunderstanding by those people that mean the most in our lives.

So here is the million dollar question. What can a person do to make their experience a little better and one which yields higher results? 

By having the right posture… 

Here’s a tip. Don’t ask questions that can give you a yes or no answer. Get them engaged in a dialogue with you. And don’t start pitching your opportunity; ask them questions and keep it in a natural dialogue. Here is an example of what a conversation might sound like. 

Hey (Their name) Listen, I only have a minute but I wanted to share something with you.  Do you have a second? 

Great… I can’t promise anything at this point but I have found something that I think might solve a lot of people’s financial problems. When was the last time you looked at something that could really add a nice second source of income over and above your primary income? 

Most people will answer, it’s been awhile, or I can’t say if I ever have etc. 

Well… like I said I can’t promise you anything at this point and I don’t really know if this would be for you, but I think it could be worth checking out. I want to get you some specific information so that you can make an informed decision. Here is what we need to do next. 

Now at this point, depending on what it is that you are involved with, there is a process that your team has developed to get your prospective new business partner more information. That could be a number of things such as:

1. Threeway conference call with someone who is more experienced in the business then you. (My favorite) this always yields better results then you trying to answer all the questions. It also helps to keep the call in more of a conversation than presentation.

2. You may be inviting them to sit in on a webinar or to listen in on a informational call.

3. It may be to let them know that you will be sending them over an e-mail to take a look at your website.

4. Or Inviting them to a get together to learn more about what you are doing. 

Through this process, it’s important that you create a comfortable posture of just sharing some information that could be of some value to them. You want them to know that your job is simply to help them make an informed decision.  It’s worth repeating. You are sharing not selling.

 The person who can master the art of asking questions that engage the other person in a dialogue, is the person that will begin to see more people join their opportunity. Most everyone can use more time and money. When you can master the skill of leading them through the process you WILL enroll more people.

I always welcome my readers input and comments. Please feel free to leave a comment on this post. You can do this by scrolling down to the bottom of this page.

Happy Building!