Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)
Does the idea of prospecting family and friends make you want to puke? Would you rather poke your eyes out before you approach your boss or colleagues regarding your business? It doesn’t matter if you’ve been successful in the past, if you’ve worked as a truck driver or managed your own company, most people fail in this industry because they cannot get past their fear of prospecting.
Even if you have experience making 50 outbound sales calls for a company in the past, or you’ve successfully built your own company from the ground up, having to make calls to prospects about your home business can cripple people’s confidence.
I know because I used to have one of these jobs where I was required to make 30-50 sales calls. I had no problem making these calls to people I didn’t know for another company. In fact, I was one of the top salespeople in this company. But getting prepared to make calls for my own home business was putting myself on the line, not the company. And now the idea made me want to vomit!
My fear had nothing to do with my belief in the company nor the business…It had everything to do with the types of prospects I was calling. I finally understood my family was not a fit for this business. Nor was the Chamber of Commerce. My colleagues were a huge disappointment. My friends did not share the same goals and lacked motivation to change their lives. Neighbors were skeptical. Local business owners were afraid. And strangers were scared to talk to someone they didn’t know.
It occurred to me, that in this previous sales job, the prospects I contacted had all entered their information into some website seeking some information about a particular product. So to call them to discuss their options was an easy conversation because they were ready and willing participants in the conversation. I was in control of the conversation and all I was doing was measuring their motivation level to determine if they were ready for the appointment.
Find out how we learned to drive the traffic to us by SEO and Social Media.
In my network marketing business, I approached young and old, professional and non-professional, driven people and desperate. What I came to realize is that while these people were all very different, none were looking for a business. While I was doing everything I was told, I was simply targeting the wrong people all together! Not too different from the experience of throwing crap up to the fan and hoping some of it sticks!
Network marketing is a word of mouth business. So the idea is to ask people who they know…But to manage it as a business, you need to treat it as a business. And marketing 101 would tell you it is a lot easier to convert an already existing customer of your product base than spend time educating and convincing someone who has never been exposed to this industry and your targeted product. So don’t waste time with those that don’t recognize the opportunity in the business or the product, just continue forward.
Try selling a 3 bedroom house to a single person who isn’t ready to buy, cannot afford to buy, and only needs an apartment and in a different town. It doesn’t work!
If you work this business long enough or talk to the right people, you will eventually run into that person with the servant mentality, people who are true go-givers and want to help others. They will become your best referral source to connect to other business minded and successful people. This may take some time…so just hang in there…
Sure, continuing to talk to everyone in your circle cannot hurt because you never know what is going on in a person’s life. The worst thing we can do in this business is not talk and open our mouths at all. There are some people who come into this industry with wanting their lives to change, but the fear of how to take the next step shuts them down to the point of becoming mute. Giving into your fear in this industry is not an option.
Because we become afraid to say the wrong thing or too much, we choose to say nothing at all. Funny how people become weirded out with promoting a product that may contribute to money in their pocket, but they have no problems talking to the entire neighborhood about the great deal on a $200 gadget or the car they just bought. What typically happens to the mute is they find a way to determine that the business does not work and they quit, which is ok. I will bet once they are out of the business, they will have no problems talking about the business, nor the product.
As you open your mouth and talk to everyone you know, figure out your target group. Are they young or old? Are they middle or upper class? Are they well read or well educated? What types of neighborhoods might they live in? What types of activities might they be involved in? Then find a way to penetrate that group of people. This may be by buying leads. It may be direct marketing. It may be who you simply know. Never give up on your circle because they are more apt to help you than someone you don’t know.
Staying persistent and not desperate is the measurement to success!
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Tags: Attraction Marketing, challenges in network marketing, challenges to network marketing, health and wellness network marketing, Home Business, home-based business, Internet Marketing, Magnetic Sponsoring, marketing, mlm, Network Marketing, personal development, prospecting, Robert Kiyosaki, sales skills, techniques to network marketing, Trump Network
Thanks for the great content and information. I am always going through the internet searching for good content and to also get ideas for my home based business web sites and future articles on this basic and general subject. Again, thanks for the great content and I will be coming back to revisit this site again for more information in the near future.
Hey Dennis. Thanks for the feedback. We have learned the ups and downs in this business and through persistance and a great willingness to be coached and mentored we have learned many of the essential tools and tricks to this business and this industry.