How to Talk to Network Marketing Leads/Prospects

This short training has one objective: to give you a simple, concise summary of how you talk to a lead or a prospect in your first and follow-up conversation.  This applies primarily to speaking with network marketing leads/prospects on the telephone.  This may seem intuitively obvious, but trust met, that absence of a simple checklist and guidelines like what you see below stops a lot of people from taking the first step to speak with a lead.

Note that this is not a script.  This is an outline you can follow and modify for your own style.  What is important is to have a roadmap for controlling a conversation so you don’t get sidetracked.  Not every call is going to go the same, but if you have some general guidelines to follow you’ll be better off, and you’ll eventually develop your own style and guidelines to follow.

How the Convo Flow Goes

1. Greet them by their first name, unless they are a doctor of some sort, then you great them by Dr. Whomever.
2. Introduce yourself, but don’t include the name of your company.  Just your name and optionally the city you’re calling from.
3. Ask them how they are doing today, and reply with a “great” or other positive reply.  If they’re grumpy or negative, say: “I’m sorry to hear that.”  Whether you’re in person or on the phone, don’t get into a discussion about how bad things are going.  Move on to the reason for the meeting or call.
4. Get to the point.  Say, “[Name], I’ll get right to the point of my call.
5. Explain that you are expanding into or growing your business in their area, and you found them as described in “6” below.
6. Explain briefly how you got their information (they are likely to ask anyway):
   • Did they visit your website
   • Were they referred to you by a lead list company
   • Did you get their name from one of the 30 or more sources of leads (Facebook, Twitter, Bulletin Boards, etc)
7. Ask the peak interest questions: “So, [Name], let me ask you a question.  Do you keep your options open at all to making additional income outside of what you are currently doing?”
   • The reason for this question, or some variant thereof, is to find out if they are interested at all in considering an opportunity.  In essence, you are asking their permission to continue the dialog.
   • There may be other questions that are more appropriate, such as: “I see from the form you filled out that your are looking to start a home-based business, is that correct?”  Etc.  The bottom line, is you start the question process.
8. If the answer is yes, the proceed with the guidelines below.  If the answer is no, ask one more question: “Just to make sure I hear you correctly, you’re not interested in learning about an opportunity in which you could make money, and not interfere with what else you’re doing, is that correct?”
   • If they still say no, you’re done.  Thank them for their time, and move on.
9. For the “yes” answer, or the “depends” answer, reply with a “great” or other positive affirmation  Next, ask these rapport building questions (unless you already know the answer from other sources)
   • What do you currently do for a living?
   • How long have you been doing that?
   • What do you like best about that?
   • What has changed that has you looking for multiple streams of income or a home-based business?
     • Listen carefully, because whatever they say will lead you to a new set of questions.  Here you are looking for the areas of dissatisfaction in their life for which you may have a solution.
   • How much money per month do  you want to make in this business?
   • How many hours do you have per week that you can devote to a side-line business?
   • What is your timeline for reaching that monthly income goal?
   • Do you consider yourself coachable and trainable?
   • Ask whatever other questions you may have, and then move on to the next step
10. Confirm you have a solution for them, and get them to an information tool
    • At this point you have a lot of information about them, so what you want to do is get them to a tool that will explain your opportunity and/or product
    • Say some thing like this: “[Name], I feel this opportunity is what you’re looking for.  But, I’ve got a [call, webinar, meeting, etc.] that I need to get to, so I’d like to send you some information (or send you to a website, etc.), where you can learn more about this.
    • Get their contact information confirmed so you can get them the information.
    • Ask how soon they can view the information.  Note the word “soon.”  Use this word, not “when.”
    • Set a follow-up appointment with them for shortly after they say they can review the information.
11. BIC – Break In Communication
    • At this point you need to break the communication and let them review the information.
    • One very good reason for this is to keep them focused on looking for a solution to their dissatisfaction, not looking for the problems in you solution.  If you get into too long of a conversation, that is usually where it ends up.
12. Follow-Up
    • Follow-up exactly on the day and time you set – if you can’t, then call the prospect and let them know
    • When you get in contact with them:
      • As what they liked best about what they saw, read, heard, etc.
      • Reaffirm their reply by agreeing with them.
      • Make the positive statement something like this: “When we spoke last you said [their area of dissatisfaction] was something for which you were seeking a solution.  I’m sure you saw that this opportunity does just that.”  Then listen carefully – the questions and objections are about to start.
13. Questions and Objections
    • It’s outside the scope of this article to go into handling objections and questions, but here are some basic guidelines:
      • Don’t argue.
      • Use the Feel, Felt, Found (FFF) approach to answer objections until you have better replies .
      • If you don’t know the answer to a questions, tell them you don’t and you’ll find out and call them back.
      • Keep answers to questions short, and if possible defer them to a tool that you can provide.
14. Closing
    • Details of closing is outside the scope of this article, but what you want to do is find out where they are: are they ready to sign up or not; or are they just not interested.
    • If they are still interested, set up a three-way call with your upline, and/or get them more information.
    • If they have a specific item they are looking for before signing up, ask them “so, if you received that information and it looks good you you, you’re ready to join the team?”  The idea is to get a test close and find out where they are.
    • Note that the average range of the number of “exposures” to your opportunity before a prospect joins is 3 to 5, so don’t be disappointed if you have to schedule another meeting or call.

OK, so this has been a short, to the point, training on the flow of the dialog with a lead/prospect.  It will get you going so you can develop your own approach.  The key is to stay consistent in your approach.  The big variable is the lead, so don’t introduce more variables into the process.

If this was of value to you, please comment and share.  Thanks in advance!

Here’s to fun, profit, and lifestyle in your network marketing business!

All the best,

Dana