4 Prospecting Tips for Network Marketing

After sitting in on a network marketing presentation that dragged on and on, and despite my answers of not being interested, I felt compelled to write some tips for network marketers that keep your prospects in mind. Throughout this presentation, I felt like no one was listening to me. I felt like the only priority was the agenda at hand, and my own interests or goals were irrelevant. I have some prior MLM experience. I understand the background. Combined with my current career of teaching others how to build relationships with customers, I came up with 4 tips to help with prospecting for your network marketing business.

1. Go!
The first tip is to go out and meet people. Go to all the training and seminars – and bring people with you. Go to as many events as possible. Never go anywhere with your passenger seat empty. Take a guest, or a prospect or a customer or a friend. It’s really easy to put prospecting on the back burner, but you really need to schedule time for it. If you’re spending less than 3 nights per week building your business, you are taking the long route. Don’t sit home, GO!

2. It’s not about you.
Nobody cares so much about you or why you are building your business. Show your prospects overwhelming value for themselves. Discover their needs, dreams, passions, and goals and see if you can help them achieve them. Don’t sell your product or business plan until you’ve discovered why your prospect would buy it.

• Listen to their story. Your prospects will tell you everything you need to hear, when you listen. Listening will help you to qualify your prospect, keeping you more productive. This is also a quick way to reconnect later. Remember their story and build on it. Remembering details will keep you connected with them. If you want people to remember you, use a story. Long after facts are forgotten, stories travel.

• Get 3 Yeses. Don’t go for open-ended questions. Get them to say YES! This primes your prospect to be in agreement with you. Psychologically, once they say no, you have to work that much harder to bring them back to a place of saying yes to anything, including a next appointment.

• Talk about the value of your business or product. What are the 3 top ways you help people? Share the value and you will connect with people as the expert rather than as a salesperson.

• Create an experience. Nothing bonds people together stronger than a shared memory. Create an experience that will linger in your prospect’s memory long enough for them to talk about it, and you will increase your value and demand for your business.

3. Respect Their Time.
Tell your prospect why you are meeting and how long it will take. Don’t beat around the topic. Your time and your prospect’s time is valuable, and you’ll show more respect the clearer you are. If possible, finish the meeting early. Never go longer, even if they seem intrigued. Always schedule another appointment before you leave, even if it’s just for coffee.

4. Build relationships with your prospects.
The success of your business is in direct correlation to the relationships you build. Relationships are built face to face and with continual interaction. Follow up your meetings with hand-written cards and phone calls. Use email to share information – not to make decisions or build relationships. Your prospects should hear from you several times per year by phone, and monthly via newsletter or email. They should see your face at least every 4 months. So invite them to share a cup of coffee once in awhile. Keep them included with your business updates. There’s no excuse for not staying connected, with email, voicemail, cell phones and social media, there’s always a way to get in touch.

Network marketing offers so many opportunities. You get the benefits of a large company backing you, but with the flexibility and tax benefits of owning your own business. It’s really easy to focus on the operations side, but when you focus on building relationships with people, your business will grow.