"TOP TEN MOST COMMON MISTAKES
NETWORK MARKETERS MAKE"
From MLMU.com
1. Selling Features And Benefits
One of the greatest misconceptions about selling is the notion of selling
features and benefits. Today, selling F&Bs is old technology.
Unless you're selling a small inexpensive product or service that is usually
bought on impulse, bringing out F&Bs early in your presentation will
actually cause objections...especially price objections.
Instead, it's far better to first explore the needs of your prospect and
then match those needs with the benefits of your product/service and business
program. The best place to match needs is usually in the "demonstration stage"
of the presentation.
2. Making Cold Calls
Making cold calls is one of the quickest ways to burn yourself out of network marketing. Why? Because of two reasons:
a. It's the most stress related part of network marketing because of the
anticipation and reality of constant rejection and abuse.
b. I don't know about you, but being required to make cold calls everyday would be like being sentenced to prison. Ugh!
The good news is that there are much better ways for you to "attract" your
ideal distributors/dealers and retail customers without feeling uncomfortable
in the process.
To attract qualified leads, consider the following: warm calls (from warm
market list), lukewarm calls, attraction calls (follow-up calls made after
initial contact or promo packet is sent), referral warm calls, sales letters,
free reports, newsletters, joint ventures, database marketing and endorsements.
3. Being Enthusiastic
Yeah, you heard me right. Displaying excitement around a prospect in the
beginning of a prospecting call turns most people off, off, off!
Boy, they can see that pitch coming when they see that great big, stupid,
fake smile with those jacked-up phrases and adjectives like: "you're in for
a treat; it's awesome, fantastic, great and you're gonna love it!"
This mistake is especially common with people new to network marketing. They
don't have a clue that this kind of ridiculous behavior actually works against
them instead of for them. When I see this glazed-over, phony enthusiasm coming,
I usually think to myself, "oh no...give me a break."
4. Not Disqualifying
There is a lot of teaching today among sales trainers on how to qualify a
prospect. In my opinion, there's not enough good training on how to disqualify
an unmotivated, unqualified prospect.
This is another great example of how people burn themselves right out of
the network marketing business. You see, while well-meaning network marketers
are wasting their time with unqualified prospect, the smart ones are investing
their time with people that are serious, motivated and ready to do business
immediately. They have learned to disqualify early in their presentations.
You learn to disqualify by first making up your mind that you will only work
with the easy sales. Then you ask good questions that reveal how serious,
motivated and financially qualified your prospects are. And then finally,
when you see the need to disqualify, you can say something like this:
"You know, Mr. and Ms. Jones, based on what you've been telling me, it doesn't
sound like I could be of some benefit to you folks at this time. I do appreciate
meeting and talking with you, however. If I can ever be of some help to you
in the future, just let me know. Do you have any questions before I leave?"
5. Not Focusing On The Pain
Selling (yes folks, network marketing recruiting is selling) is about solving
problems--not about how wonderful your product/service and business program
might be. If you doubt that, just think about all of the times you gave a
wonderful presentation to a qualified prospect but could not close the sale
or recruit that person into your business, and as you were walking out of
the appointment you kept thinking to yourself: "Gee, I know I gave a good
presentation. I pointed out all of the advantages of my business opportunity--and
they seemed to agree. I can't understand why they didn't enroll."
The reason they didn't partner with you (or buy your product/service) was...you
did not probe enough on their pain and suffering BEFORE offering them solutions
to their problems with your product/service and/or business program.
By asking good problem and exploratory questions that bring out the pain
and problems your prospects may have, you can actually get your prospects
to sell and close themselves on your product/service and/or program. And
you can do that, even before you give your demonstration.
6. No Structure
Most network marketers (and most people for that matter) don't like selling.
I'm not kidding. They do not like selling because they don't know what to
say on a sales call. They fear what a prospect may say to them. And they
don't know how to respond to a prospect's questions, requests and/or concerns.
Many times when someone initially gets into the network marketing industry,
he/she feels that simply being honest, caring, enthusiastic and knowledgeable
about his/her product/service and business program is enough to succeed.
Not true.
The most successful network marketers have a selling system. That is, they
have a guideline or outline of how they plan to give their presentations.
They have a structured (but flexible) presentation.
Successful network marketers tend to build their presentations around proven
and powerful questions and other language skills that make the selling process
effective. They also listen very carefully to their prospects--not just what
is being said, but what is being meant.
Developing a structured presentation is the first major step to creating a successful network marketing system.
7. Not Staging
If you were an actor in a Broadway play, would you go on stage if all of
the props were not in place? Would you come out on stage if half of the audience
were still trying to get into their seats? Would you try and give your performance
with a lot of loud, noisy distractions going on backstage? I didn't think
so.
It is disturbing for me as a sales coach to see network marketers trying
to give a presentation with a television playing, children crawling all over
them, people walking in and out of the house and pets doing the things that
pets do...all without saying a single word about it!
The same thing is true about network marketers that call on people at their
place of business. Many times they are trying to compete with the phone ringing,
interruptions, and the prospect telling them to make it quick because they're
in a hurry. It's no wonder so many people fail in this business.
8. Closing Too Soon And Too Often
Enough said.
9. Not Tracking
Do you know why many network marketers have permanent shrugged shoulders and dents in their foreheads?
It is because if you ask them how many calls or mailings it takes for them
to make a sale or how much they spent on advertising, marketing and other
lead generation systems last year, they'll just shrug their shoulders and
say: "Umm...I don't know."
And when you tell them that tracking is the only way to tell if their marketing
efforts are working or not, they'll hit their foreheads and say: "Gee, I
should've known that."
10. Focusing On Details
If you would like to waste two hours, go into your office for five minutes.
Most network marketers do not make sales by doing paperwork. They make sales by "being in the market."
Although there are literally hundreds of minor activities that need to get
done in a MLM business, there are usually only a few that are high-income
producing activities. The best network marketers have learned to focus only
on the high-payoff activities and delegate or outsource everything else.
One of the best ways to do this is to hire a personal assistant. If you think
that would be too expensive, just keep in mind that if you want to earn a
hundred thousand dollars a year or more in network marketing, you'll never
do that as long as you continue doing $7 per hour work.
Top MLM leaders usually spend the bulk of their time on prospecting, giving
presentations, putting deals together, getting referrals and building relationships.
It's difficult to do that hanging around the office filing papers and making
coffee.