Listening

If you are going to be successful in MLM you need to master the skill of listening. If you are a salesman by nature this skill will also help you in sales as well. As most the salespeople I have met are talkers and extroverts, some are just plain obnoxious individuals.  I have been involved in sales and marketing for over 12 years and MLM for almost 2 years. Now the difference with MLM and direct selling is that you are mostly sorting for people who are going to duplicate you.

While I am sorting I run into people who don't want to do the business for one reason or another, but some do tell me they would be interested in becoming customers.  If you listen you will find both, but I would say that 70 - 80% of the people I sign up are business builders.

I want to share a quick story with you than let you decide how to build your business. I received a call yesterday from a man who was selling me on his business. I knew from talking to him he was trying to sell me as he had another person on the phone with him. He told me he was making $25K per month, but barely let me get 2 words in when I started to talk. I could tell this guy may have mastered the skill of selling, but he certainly had not mastered the skill of listening. This is not called Network Selling folks, it is called Network Marketing. I promise you if you listen to your prospects, your business will explode. If there is one skill to master this is the one that will make you, or break you. 

In final, here is what I do and I believe it works. When you get a prospect on the phone who qualifies for your time. Meaning they don't treat you like a telemarketer and express genuine interest in your opportunity. Then you are going to interview them (Don't waste your time with mean people, whiners, or complainers). This is no longer about you and your opportunity but about them. Let them tell you as much as possible in 5 - 10 minutes, than you decide what the next step is. Rarely will I ask anyone to join me in my business on the first call, usually after that first call I schedule a follow up call. This follow up call is a chance for me to qualify them further. I ask them to do a simple task like look at a few videos and then I schedule a day and time to call them back. On the second call if they have not looked at the video, I make them feel guilty - ha ha and try to schedule another time. If they haven't looked at them the next time, I don't even call them back. They are a tire-kicker and not very honest or honorable so they don't deserve my time.

In closing you in network marketing you are sorting not chasing. Salespeople chase, networkers qualify. If you qualify, and keep qualifying when it comes time to ask them to join your team than it will be very very easy. If you present yourself as an expert and a strong leader and do the above, I promise you that you will find some strong business builders.  If you have not yet achieved success when it comes time to bring in a new team member, this may be the time to put your prospect on the phone with your enroller or upline team members.  This may also make your prospect feel better that they are going to be supported.  Obviously you may have to go through many to find those few that are going to treat this like a business. But they are out there, as if that were not the case than there would not be any successful network marketers in the world.