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Prospecting Rules 1

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Prospecting Rules 1

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Uzo
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chapter One Getting Started Ns When your warm market gives you the cold shoulder, start a warm conversation with a cool stranger. —Russ McNeil ———————————_—_— Gertine Started Who Should Read This Book Ifyou are new to the industry, the concepts in this book will prove especially beneficial. Promoting a business opportunity to people you don’t know is a unique type of activity, It's easy to get discouraged before your efforts begin to pay off. By applying what you read here, you can accelerate the learning process and get tangible results sooner, If you're an experienced rep, you will already be familiar with many of the concepts herein, Even so, you are bound to find some fresh ideas, At the very least, the principles described will help you define a structure for your own prospecting style. No Theory Here ‘This book is not about (heory, It is about practical voncepts that get results, While it does go into some of the psychology behind the Unknown principles, it goes beyond =e that. It also contains actual words and phrases that, with practice, will jenerate tangible results. The suggestions work because they are based on sound prineiples—not on one person's ability to exert bis unique brand ol influence. In theory, there is no difference beeveen theory and practice. In practice, there is no relationship between them. Do Your Own Thing ‘This book includes mock dialogues twillustrate the conceptsin thisbook, | It's allright to ich mock dialogue represents an be a copycat, Just xcerpt of the overall conversation | make sure that you that includes some of the very | copy the right ca. words and phrases I use when I’m ‘it in the world prospecting, Don't ist the impression that these are tho only words and phrases that will work. Such a notion is simply not true, Hiventually, you will want to develop your own prospecting style, which will —D. Self Gettinc STARTED include words and phrases that fit your personality. Any prospecting style will work as long as it’s based on the correct principles, How to Use This Book You may apply any of the principles independently of the others, They are however, much more effective when you apply them in combination with one another, One chapter is dedicated to each principle principle but also to give examples of how to incorporate it into your prospecting conversations, At first, it may not be readily apparent how to combine a particular principle with the others. That's because, initially, the explanation will be out of context. Don’t let this seem confusing, A later chapter ties all the principles together. ot only to describe the “To get the most out of this book, read it twice. The first time, read it cover-to- cover to get a feel for the philosophies and attitudes it represents. The second time, concentrate on the core chapters covering the principles themselves. As you reread the chapters, you will have prior insight on all of the principles and it will be more obvious how they complement each other, Easy Does It didn’t simply wake up one day and suddenly have a complete understanding of the eight principles you are about to learn. It took years for me to “discover” many of the ideas in this book. I use the word discover not because Toriginated the concepts, but because I had to uncover them on my own. 1 didn’t have the benefit of taking notes while someone else explained the in’s and out's of prospecting strangers. If you study and apply the principles deseribed in this book, it won't take years for you to become an exper at prospecting, Even so, the development of your prospecting skills won't be instantaneous. It will take some time. Don’t rush, As you begin to see results with one principle, add another until gradually you have incorporated them all. An Order to the Madness Within the book, the principles are presented in a chronological order based on where they typically fall in the conversation. Read them in this order. GetTine STARTED However, I recommend a different order as you begin to employ them. The first principle to implement is Mental Judo (Chapter 10), The second one is Casualize & Minimize (Chapter 13). After you figure out these two, add the others in any order you'd like. Terminology “here are several key terms used throughout the book. They are: Rep—short for representative, It is a generic term used to mean someone «ctively involved ina Direct-Sales or Network-Marketing opportunity, Common industry titles include associate, broker, distributor, independent business ‘owner (1BO), and representative. This book uses rep because it’s goncric, it’s easier to read, and most importantly, because it's easier for me to type, Yools—most companies encourage the use of professionally produced ‘marketing collateral to promote their opportunities. Such collateral may come iu the form of tapes, magazines, CD-ROM’, or DVD's. This book uses the Lvpms tools and prospecting tools interchangeably to refer to al these items Jack —you will see this name sprinkled throughout the book. Jack is tle name of a fictitious prospect. We pick on him incessantly and without inerey. Sorry, Jack. (No wonder he’s not so crazy about the industry.) Poor Javk maybe one day he'll wise up. leam building, team-based opportunity, and the industry—these wrins, and others like them, are used throughout as synonyms for Network- Murketing and Direct Sales and Party Plans. Philosophically, these business inalels are quite different, However, from the standpoint of prospecting, tly are too similar to draw a distinction, In this book, the synonyms are tweil as generic references to include these business models. Read them in tlh nuntext that makes sense to you, \What’s the Big Deal about Strangers? | When rst introduced to the industry, I was like most other people when they get started. I was excited. I knew that all my friends and tvlitives would see the same potential that I did, especially with all the ‘ivolibility Thad with them, I was certain that the big bucks would be Jhuwing freely in no time. Gernne STARTED Imagine my surprise. For starters, none of my friends or relatives had even the slightest interest in nny opportunity. [quickly discovered that any credibility had wit them did vot extend into the realm of business opportunities. The people who knew ie simply did not see me as a font of business acumen. Imagine that. Tran into another obstacle as well. It was ‘only much later that I realized the nature of the obstacle: the more a person knew about me, the more they aew about my past [athures. What reason did they have to assume that my | new business venture into would be any different? So there I was. T had a fabulous opportunity that I vwas excited about and believed in, but ‘A prophet is not without honor but in his own country, ‘and among his own kin, and in his owa house. Mark 6:4, KV no one I knew seemed to care. I found myself wondering what to do next, ‘Then it occurred to me that I live in a city with five million other people. | Tealso occurred to me that I only needed a few of them to attain financial | independence. All Thad to do was find this precious few and have them join) ry team, So goes the first law of prospecting: | 1 st law of prospecting ‘The list of people who don't know you is infinitely larger than the list of | ‘people who do know you. Lamia the habit of prospecting strat ou will never ri cout of prospects, Think about it — people are turning 18 faster than you iF Cou you evel Je to approach? This law gives you'a major advantage in building your business. Since you believe in your product and opportunity, you should want to share it with the people you already know and care for. Many reps, however, will get better results talking to strangers, Ironially, you have more = GetTinG STARTED credibility with strangers than with your friends and family. The second law of prospecting spells this out: 2nd law of prospecting People who don’t know you wil take you more seriously than the ones who |! {do know you. Prospects form opinions based on what they know and what they see. Jack (or whatever your prospect’s name is), will evaluate you on what he knows about your personal track record and how well you relate to him, When you first meet Jack, he has no knowledge of your past successes or failures. His opinion of you (and of your offer) isn't influenced by your resume, All he has to go on is his first impression. That's good newsl ‘There is an unlimited supply of people willing to take you seriously if you relate wel to them. In fact, you could really mess it up With a bunch of them and still build a successful business. Now that you have that monkey off your back, take a deep breath and relax, Besides, if you don’t start meeting new people, what will you do when you get to the ‘end of the list of people you already know? That's the challenge...and the reason for this book, Building a Team with Strangers Since I got such a chilly reception from my so-called warm ‘market, [ set out to build a team with people I did not yet know, First, there were questions that demanded answers: + Where would I find the people with which to build a team? + How would I go about meeting them? + What would I say to them when I did meet them? Instinctively, I knew the answer to the first question, We pass people every day who are prime candidates for our opportunities. Unfortunately, that s exactly what most reps do—pass them. Think about your daily routine and the places you frequent — grocery 13 Gertine STARTED stores, restaurants, elevators, and my personal favorite, gas stations. Have you ever turned the tables on a telemarketer? See, you passed another one. ‘The third law of prospecting summarizes this idea: 3 law of prospecting Some of the people we pass in everyday life would be hugely successful in ‘our business, but unless we prospect them, we'll never know which ones they are. ‘The other questions caused me real concern, How would I approach them and what would I say? I quickly discovered that no one seemed to have complete answers to these questions, Obviously, there were people who had methods and styles of approaches that were working for them. The challenge was that no one seemed to be teaching the in’s and out’s of prospecting strangers. Oh sure, there was plenty of teaching about specific bne-liners, but what was missing was an organized strategy of conversation that prepared the prospect for responding to the one-liners. The purpose of this book is to fill that void. Prospecting vs. Sponsoring Prospecting is a vital aspect of team building. Keep in mind, though, that it is only a part of the process. For the purpose of this book, we draw @ distinction between prospecting and sponsoring. Prospecting is the process of approaching someone you do not know and using conversation to determine if he or she has an interest in exploring your opportunity. Sponsoring is the process of sharing the details of your opportunity with the intent of enrolling them as a rep on your team, This book focuses on the development of prospecting skills. Sponsoring is an entirely differently subject. The sponsoring process is more specific to your particular opportunity and this book will not disculss it. As far as this book is concerned, the goal of the prospecting process is to get a tool into the hands of an interested prospect and following up a day or two later. 14 i | | Gettine STARTED Magic Questions Author's Note: This section briefly introduces the term “magic question”. The concept of magic questions is important enough to warrant a separate discussion so a later chapter covers the topic in detail. What in the world is a magic question? A magic question is the capstone of a prospecting conversation. Magic questions determine whether the prospect wants to learn about your opportunity. An effective one makes it easy for the Jack to say yes and hard for him to say no, The entire prospecting process guides the conversation to the magic question, The Prospecting Moment A prospecting moment is the point in a conversation that represents the optimum time for you to ask your magic question, The goal of the prospecting conversation is to create a fertile verbal environment in which the prospecting moment can occur naturally and within the available time. Oncéyou have mastered the principles of prospecting, folll ea tee tee pec scans fecar cama gt you hy will. You will be able to gauge the timing 6> of the conversation and know just when G Z , lo initiate the prospecting moment. (a, (z) the entire process will transpire ya A so naturally that the prospect will G never realize what's happened. €> You will be an artist and every conversation will be your canvas. a geek-speaking software engineer can learn to meet and prospect total strangers in face- to-face conversations, then you certainly can. 15 chapter TWO The Magic of Conditioning ‘The difference between try and triumph is a little umph h —Marvin Phillips The Macic oF Conpitionine Quarterbacks and Prospectors nnsider the following three people and their occupations: | "Hen you see aman at a doctor, a commercial truck | S%p ofa mountain, Ge cdc pro ctball || Jeroen Hea quarterback. What do they | J shere. i have in common? You guessed —Coleman Orr it conditioning. They made deliberate preparations for their chosen careers, Each of them invested time and money inv the education essential to ee their respective professions. After acquiring the initial book knowledge, these professionals learned to apply the knowledge. Only through consistent practice can you complete the earning process. Developing strong prospecting skills requires investment of a different sort, The largest investment you will make to master prospecting is the time you spend on personal development, Three strategies in particular will condition you for taking full advantage of the principles in this book: * Use affirmations Experience is not the best teacher + Sharpen your people skills Someone else's experience is. * Practice what you learn e Strategy #1: Use Affirmations Affirmations, a form of self-talk, are the single most powerful tool you have to condition yourself for prospecting, Self-talk is what you say when you talk to and about yourself, It includes the things you say aloud as well as the things you say internally. Self-talk dictates a person's behavior by molding his innermost beliefs. Positive self-talk will produce desirable results and negative self-talk will produce undesirable results. Affirmations are things you say that induce positive self-talk. 17 THe Macic oF CONDITIONING The concept of self-talk is abstract, So much so, that for two years after I first heard about it, | completely disregarded it. The concept seemed foreign and illogical, and I refused to try it. Looking back, I realize that those two years have cost me many thousands of dollars. [encourage you to learn from my mistake, Embrace self-talk; the results are dramatic, Self-tall is the subject of countless books. Building a case for and explaining the entire mechanism of self-talk is beyond the scope of Prosrrcrine Rutes! Even so, it is a powerful tool and it warrants a short explanation How Self-talk Works What follows, is a brief, no-frills over view of self-talk: * The subconscious mind will focus on the most dominant message. + The subconscious mind receives input from hearing. + The subconsciotis mind does not distinguish between fact and fiction, + The subconscious mind is the gateway to our beliefs. * Our beliefs determine our actions. + Our actions determine our results. (One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody's listening. —Franklin P. Jones When we hear the same message repeatedly, it becomes the dominant message. Since the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction, over time, the dominant message develops into a belief. The belief, in turn, will irresistibly dictate our actions. Applying Affirmations to Prospecting When we first get involyed in team-building, most of us have at least some beliefs that inhibit our prospecting efforts. This is a nice way of saying that most of us have some hang-ups. If you do have hang-ups, you will need to deal with them before you can take full advantage of the principles in this book. Some of the more common hang-ups include: 18 LHE IVIAGIC OF CONDITIONING + A belief that for your opportunity to work, you must take advantage of or manipulate others; + A belief that others will perceive you as taking advantage of them; + A belief that when someone tells you “no,” it diminishes your own ability to succeeds These beliefs are false, yet they can paralyze you to the point thot you never offer your opportunity beyond a handful of people, By applying affirmations, you can override these tmproductive beliefs with productive ones, 1, Self-talk Build Dominant 5. Reinforcement ATRCUSHE) Generate Desirable Results 3. New Belief Figure 1: The Self-talk Gycle Note: The author's complimentary newsleter, Prospecting with Purpose, includes specific prospecting “offirmations. Visit ProspectingRules.com to subscribe." 19 THe Macic of ConpiTioninc Strategy #2: Sharpen Your People Skills FLEGRO UTA sikh tseacee ane aux different Sau people has a direct bearing on the success of your prospecting efforts, When it comes to approaching the jawbone of an ass, and every day thousands of sales are killed with the same weapon. strangers, quick connections are invaluable, By developing your people skills, you will be able to relate | quickly to a wide range of prospects. The more refined your people skills, the more rapidly you will be able to make the connections === People skills are not innate, Rest assured that when you meet someone who is good with people, his or her skills were cultivated intentionally. The less value you see in developing people skills, the more you need to do just that, Personal development is crucial to all aspects of team building, especially prospecting. Reps with underdeveloped people | skills often drive prospects away in the first encounter. That’s too early in the process for the rep’s coach (aka upline) to step in and! save the day. Learn to become a better you. The best way to learn about improving your people skills is through books and audio programs. This list below identifies some of the resources that I use even today to keep my own prospecting skills sharp. Title Author 1 How to Win Friends & Influence People Dale Carnegie The Go-Giver Bob Burg & John David Mann Positive Personality Profiles Robert Rohm Cracking the Networking Code Dean Lindsay The Greatest Salesman in the World Og Mandino Hung by the Tongue Francis P: Martin Tue Macic oF ConpITionING Strategy #3: Practice, Practice, Practice Iaetice makes perfect. When it comes to prospecting, perfection is ‘yptional —practice is not. irom Ignorance To Mastery Wo all know that the more you do something, the better you get at it, Scientists have developed a model that describes the process of peg unpetence Learning Matrix. This matrix is composed of four phases. ity definition you must traverse these in sequence. Let's look at how this mudel applies to prospecting strangers. ssing from ignorance to mastery. It's called the Conscious ‘1, Unconscious Incompetence This phase describes someone who is unaware of what they don't know. iefore you became @ rep, you were in this phase, Until you started your Insiness, there was no reason for you to consider the subject of prospecting ivangers. Thus, you had no reason to know about prospecting. You didn’t know what you didn’t know about prospecting. Clearly, you aren’t in this phase now, If you were, you would not be reading this book, 2. Conscious Incompetence his phase describes people who are consciously aware of the fact that they lack | {fatfirstyou ome key skill, In other words, they realize | ‘on’e succeed, ‘at they don’eknow what they need to know. | tem skydiving Il you are new to the process of approaching | * not for you. strangers with a business opportunity, you Henny, are in this phase. Youngman When you first begin to employ the information in Prosrecrinc Rutes!, you may have a tendency to become liscouraged. Keep in mind that you aren’t skydiving, With prospecting, you can get it all wrong and still live to try again, It will take both practice and time, to move from incompetence to 2 Tue Macic oF Conpirionine competence, You're not in competition with anyone but yourself so give yourself permission to take the time. The results are worth every minute. 3. Conscious Competence A person in this phase performs the skill competently, but it takes concentration and deliberate effort to do so. If you continue to practice the principles of prospecting, you will eventually find yourself in this phase. In the conscious competence phase, you are fully aware of how, when, and where to apply the principles, but it requires conscious focus. In this phase, you will see tangible results on a regular basis, The more often you pra the principles, the quicker you will become consciously competent. Warning: Once you have entered this phase, you may actually have fun prospecting. 4. Unconscious Competence 7 A person in this phase has The hard must become habit.The habit must | mastered the skill to the point become easy.The easy must become beautiful. | that the skill has become Doug Henning, magician |; second nature. The person ===55=! performs the skill on automatic pilot with little or no conscious effort. Have you ever driven from your workplace to home and when you arrived, you realize that you don’t even remember making the trip? That’s unconscious competence. You perform without having to think about it. If you employ the principles consistently, at some point you will transition into this final phase. Once this happens, the skill of prospecting will be second nature, Practice Will Overcome the Fear For many people, building a business like ours can be intimidating, It requires you to develop new skills and to apply these skills in strange and foreign ways. Indeed, for many eps, the most intimidating aspect of | (cam building is the prospecting process. Whe I first started prospecting for team members, I had no prior related experience, My formal education was highly technical. I had never received Woininy, to pp cpare me for dealing with people, Merely talking to strangers a2 THe Macic oF Conpiionins with a business opportunity nearly paralyzed me with Fear. Asan inexperienced rep, I was using undeveloped skills to approach total strangers about something I knew virtually nothing about. No wonder I was afraid. I knew just enough to be slangerous and danger is ner my idea of fun, | was uncomfortable, The notion of approaching them { | | Understanding the Fear Thankfully, I had the blessing of a mentor who helped me to understand war and how to overcome it, This life-changing teaching included three powerful truths: 1, Fear Comes From Lack of Knowledge. ear dere once Gl renner a ee know what it is hiding. We fear falling because we don’t know how bad aafnipn Walde.Emeren, the sudden stop will hurt. We fear prospecting because we don’t feel prepared for the prospect's questions. If wwe have the knowledge to respond to his questions, we know what to say. If we know what to say, there is no fear, 2. Knowledge Comes From Experience. he more you do, the more you learn, As you gain experience in prospecting, you will come to the carth-shattering revelation that all prospects share the same list of responses. The fact is, that the list of prospect objections is actually quite short. With experience, you will learn how to deal with the most common responses. You will know enough to prospect effectively. A man carrying a cat by the tail learns something he can learn no other way. —Mark Twain THE IVAGic OF CONDITIONING 3. Experience comes from practice. ) You should find this statement liberating, This single truth empowers you ‘© overcome the fear of prospecting. Practice allows you to apply theory to the real world, Through practice, you will get the ‘experience to gain the knowledge that, in turn, will eradicate the fear. The more you practice, the less you will fear, Following this line of reasoning, the logical conclusion is that if you Practice enough the fear will evaporate. That is exactly what happened to me and, if you practice diligently, that is exactly what will happen to | You. The good news is that it will happen. The bad news is that it will not | happen instantly because it is a process, Here’s more good news— the Process is completely predictable, Stretching the Comfort Bubble T call the process of practicing through the fear stretching the comfort bubble, j Do the thing and you will have the power —Ralph Waldo Emerson Think of your comfort zone as a bubble. Everything within the bubble | 's comfortable, Things inside the bubble are familiar, You have complete | knowledge of everything inside the bubble.’There are no strangers in the bubble, The bubble is safe, a place of refuge. Unfortunately, the prospect exists outside the bubble. A conversation with a prospect is likely to be uncomfortable, If you are like I used to be, it is exeremely uncomfortable. The idea is to stretch your comfort bubble to the point that it is large enough to include the prospect. How do you stretch your comfort bubble? Believe it not, your comfort bubble is surprisingly easy to stretch, Just follow these three easy steps; | Prospect, prospect, and then prospect some more, As long as you keep these in the right order, your bubble will stretch. When you use every opportunity | to practice prospecting, you are applying a constant pressure on the walls | of your bubble, You will notice the stretching is taking place when you realize that you're not as apprehensive about starting conversations with 24 os The Macic of Conpirionina Mtrangers. With a little more stretching, you'll become comfortable guiding the conversation. After some more stretching, you will become comfortable creating the prospecting moment, |Who’s the Oddball Now? Years ago, I listened to an audio tape about one particular aspect of prospecting, At some point on the tape, the speaker said, “If you practice this all enough, you will eventually get so good at it, that when the prospect -” I was a prospecting novice when I first ways no, you'll think he’s odd. listened to that tape. I remember thinking, “Yeah, right...whatever.” I just vould not visualize anyone being that good, let alone me. (One day, a year or so later, I called a prospect and as usual, I used the script | 'had memorized from the tape. The prospect was flattered that I had called, [ut wasn’t at all inclined to look at other opportunities. He graciously tleclined and I thanked him for his time. As soon as I hung up the phone, T il, “What an oddball.” The trainer on the tape was right! [ literally used the word oddball! When you first start prospecting, you may feel a little odd about it, Once you attain unconscious competence, your perspective will make a 180° \urn. As a prospector in the final phase, you will be so competent, tliat when " prospect declines your invitation, you may think that he’s the oddball, 25 chapter Three Making Contact Iam prepared to meet anyone, but whether anyone is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me, is another matter. —Mark Twain PA Makinc Contact Applying the principles of prospecting requires conversation. Naturally, for the conversation to occur, someone has to speak first. Since you're the one with something to share, you go first. For a few reps, starting conversation with strangers will be easy, maybe even fun, For many, it will be slightly tmorecomfortablethanskinny-dipping in quicksand, Realize that while most eaalber soa ay people are not comfortable initiating 7 We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger. conversation, they do enjoy participating in it. In other words, prospects will be glad to tall to you if you speak first. When I first heard that statement, I tlidn’t believe it. Of course, at that point, I was inexperienced and basking in the luxury of ignorance. Once I began to get some experience of my own, I {ound out that in general, people really do enjoy conversation. In fact, itis safe ‘o say that most people are starving for it. Make a Positive First Impression Before you initiate contact, prepare yourself, Your demeanor will set the tone of the entire encounter, The unspoken signals you give off can shout so loudly that the prospect may never hear your words. If you want to attract others, then be attractive, The next few sections may seem like common sense, Unfortunately, sometimes common sense is not so common, Be constantly aware of your facial expressions. This statement has nothing whatsoever to do with the appearance of your facial features. [t's referring to how you are “wearing” your attitude on your face. It is hard to attract others when you have a scowl on your face. Don’t overdo it, It’s not necessary to go through your day grinning like a wall-mounted possum. You should however, attempt to sustain a pleasant expression, If you frown all the way up to the moment you and the prospect make eye contact, 27 Makinc Contact it’s too late to smile, A sudden change of expression at that point is not genuine and the prospect will see you as a phony — and rightly so. Another part of your demeanor is how you carry yourself. If you drag your feet when you walk, you appear lazy. Stand erect, Slumping over makes you appear defeated, Walk with purpose. People follow people who have a sense of who they are. If you want to have a team to lead, then carry yourself like a leader before you have the team. Looking upbeat and moving confidently are both important, but they are a waste of time if your speech is contradicting them. From the standpoint of speech, one of the worst things you can do is mumble, Mumbling shows a lack of confidence, so speak clearly. Another common speech mistake is talking too fast. When you first > begin to prospect strangers, you may be nervous. This is 7 ° perfectly normal, Don’t let the fact that you're nervous make you even more nervous. If you are like L used to be, nervousness makes you talk fast. (That's because ), your fear has the adrenaline flowing). If you come across up. If nothing else, talking fast will make you hard to understand. Keep practicing The nervousness will subside over time. Give yourself time to grow with the process, The worst thing you can do is let your apprehension keep you from prospecting at all. Classify the Target gor As you prospect strangers, you will encounter two types of prospects: stationary targets and fixed targets. In referring to the prospects as “targets,” we are merely having some fun with our subject. Proper prospecting is always a win-win proposition. A stationary target is a prospect that you know you can have access to on a regular basis, Typically, you will consider 28 Maxine Contact 4 target stationary because of his location or job, For example, the person running a dry cleaner that you frequent is a stationary target. You know from experience that the store’s manager always seems to be there when you drop in, You have an advantage when prospecting stationary targets because you have plenty of opportunities to build rapport with them over an extended period. A moving target is a prospect that you meet in passing. The _ 6° term odes) not mean that you follow him around Gan like a puppy looking for a chance to starta conversation. ¢-e

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