"Give 'em a
headache, then make 'em
ASK YOU for the aspirin"
What if sponsoring
was as easy as selling aspirin to people with headaches? What if you created an atmosphere
with every person you came across where they felt lucky you decided to show them your
MLM opportunity? Where they jumped for joy if they were selected and approved for
team membership. Would sponsoring become fun, exciting, and simple?
If banks can do
it, why can't you? Think about it. Banks make money by renting out money,
don't they? Yet, how do we feel when we get "approved for the loan?"
We jump for joy and feel lucky, don't we? But how crazy is that? That's like going into a
supermarket and kissing the manager's feet because he LET you buy a loaf of bread!
The secret of
applying this to your networking is to make your prospect want what you have
before you offer it to them. In the broadest sense, there's only two motivating
reasons why someone will join your network. They join either to gain pleasure or to avoid
pain. Here's a little known fact: More people will join your network out of a desire to
stop the pain than will EVER join because of all the pleasure they'll get. Yet, what
do most MLM'ers do? They push aside the most powerful persuader they've got and overwhelm
their prospects with why their deal is the greatest and why they've "got to get in on
it now!"
You can easily
triple your sponsoring efforts if you demonstrate all the pain that your
prospect is currently living with that will cease to exist if they are selected to
join your team. Now, don't misunderstand, I'm NOT saying you shouldn't present the
benefits of your business, but your sponsoring results will go up dramatically if you use
the carrot AND the stick!
So, your job (and
it's really fun once you know how to do it) is to go around giving people headaches and
then curing their pain. Once a prospect knows (or admits it to him or herself) what they
are missing and (more importantly) that there is, in fact, a better way - something
more for them - they want a way to get there immediately!!! They desperately
want someone to provide them with the leadership and direction to change the
situation. They instantly want someone to coach them... an expert to show the way...
a consultant to guide them... a trusted confidant to provide advice. And, that
someone is you.
Here's the
catch (you knew there had to be a catch, right?). Sometimes your prospect's pain is
hidden. Your prospect has been living with the pain for so long that they've gone numb to
protect themselves against it. The trick is to tactfully shake them up a little.
"How?", you ask.
Questions Are The
Answers
The best way to do
this is with questions. Questions allow you to step inside your prospect's head. By
asking questions just like a doctor does, the prospect tells you where it hurts and in so
doing begins to feel and experience the pain again. Questions are so
powerful. They allow you to lead and direct the conversation down the path you wish to
go... they build trust and rapport... they make people feel important. Think about
it: Who would you rather be around; the person who talks intelligently about a number of
different topics while you listen, or the person who asks you a number of
intelligent questions and listens with genuine interest to what you have to say?
If you simply TELL
people how you have this great opportunity then they can (and usually will) doubt you.
But, by asking questions and getting your prospect to TELL YOU the same thing,
they BELIEVE and ACCEPT it as a fact! And, because it's now their idea, they'll move
heaven and earth to get it.
Learning to ask
questions instead of asserting statements about your MLM can take a little getting used
to. At first, you might feel a little like you're learning a foreign language, and
in a sense you are. You've got to think in terms of questions. From now on,
every time you're tempted to tell your prospect something, rethink it in your head
and ask it as a question. There isn't any statement you can make about your MLM that
cannot be rephrased and expressed as a question.
If you want to get
good at sponsoring, spend an entire day every so often and try not to make one
statement... just ask questions and listen to the answers. If you accept this
challenge, you'll attract people to you like moths to a flame. People you just met will
tell you they feel like they've known you their entire lives. People will open up to you.
When they open up, they trust you. When they trust, they'll tell you where they hurt
and experience that pain. When they feel the pain, they want it to stop... which is
exactly the opening you've been searching for!
When you prospect
someone (be it online through a web site, email, telephone, in person, etc.) you
give them a headache. You build in them an earnest desire to join and make it their idea.
Every day of their life they experience some pain or frustration that your MLM
opportunity will eliminate. Find it. Ask questions to uncover it. Don't assume you already
know what it is. Make them tell you. As they answer, they'll experience that pain
and naturally want to end to it. Then, casually let them know that you might (if they're
lucky) be able to stop it. Now, they WANT what you're offering... and it was their
idea! So now you're doing them the favor and they are grateful to you.
This whole process
can happen very quickly and it's easier than it sounds. Start off by asking open ended
questions that requires your prospect to explain. Here's an example: "If
you could change any aspect of your financial situation, what would you change?"
Think about the idea behind this question and you will see how it can be adapted in any
number of ways depending on who you're prospecting.
If you really
involve yourself and take a genuine interest in your prospect's frustrations,
you'll come up with an endless supply of follow up questions. For example: "John,
if you could change any aspect of your job situation, what would change? Are the number of
hours too much? Is job security a concern? Are you on the road too much? Would it help you
to be making more money? Do you find yourself less patient as a result? How does it affect
your relationship with your wife? Have you saved enough to send Aimee to college or will
she have to wait a couple of years?"
Here's one more
REALLY good follow-up question: "If you were not working 80 hours a week and
spent some quality time with your son, do you think you could have stopped him from
getting hooked on drugs, stealing cars, and getting in gang fights every week?"
(JUST JOKING!)
Although that was
a joke, its implications are very real. Those kind of fears, pains and worries are
extremely persuasive and motivating. So, for each area of dissatisfaction and pain,
make sure you don't leave out the most important question, "How does
that affect you?" This will get your prospect to think about and feel the
consequences of the problem (or potential problem).
Once they tell you
the consequences, you've given them a full blown headache, now it's time to make 'em ask
you for the aspirin. Here again, use questions like "What would it mean
to you if I could provide... __________? " If you fill in the blank with the
benefits your opportunity can provide, tailored to what you know (from your
questions) your prospect wants, and you will make them stand in line and beg to join your
network!
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