Today, I want to talk to you about how to deal with negative prospects. This advice is geared for network marketers, but it will benefit anyone in sales.
If you are serious about your network marketing business, and you are talking to lots of prospects, you are bound to stumble across negative people from time to time: lots of them.
Sadly, many people are misinformed and have pre-conceived notions about network marketing. It is what it is.
I’ve learned it’s hard to change someone’s mind if they aren’t willing to open it. Remember, it’s not your job to convince people or hard-sell people that what you have is something great. Instead, you are looking for open minded people who are looking for something to improve their life. You are really in the sifting and sorting business.
In addition, there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with negative prospects. Listed below are some of my best success tips to deal with negative prospects effectively.
# 1 Be Nice
Be nice to everyone you meet. Never let a negative or rude person take you down to their level. Be polite, smile and move on. By all means, don’t let someone walk all over you, but don’t get in a shouting match or argument with the negative prospect either. Negative prospects will expect you to become argumentative or defensive. Don’t do it. Kindness wins every time. Stay calm, cool and collected. Thank them for their time and move on.
# 2 Keep the Door Open
One of the best things you can do is NEVER burn your bridges. In some cases, your negative prospects might one day be a HEAVY HITTER on your team if you treat them well and stay in touch. Let them know you are committed to the business and tell them the door is always open to work with you if they ever change their mind.
# 3 Prove Your Commitment to the Business
My favorite way to deal with negative prospects is to achieve massive success in the business. I believe massive success is the greatest revenge. Stick to your guns and follow through with your commitment to build a big business. There’s a good chance that two to three years down the road your negative prospect will be in your business, if you stick with it and build it big.
Words of Wisdom
If the first words out of your prospect’s mouth is “do I have to spend money?” move on to the next prospect.
If the prospect tells you this is a scam, move on to the next prospect.
If the prospect tells you this is a pyramid scheme, move on to the next prospect.
If the prospect does not return your call, don’t keep calling them back; move on to the next prospect.
The last thing you want to do is sponsor someone negative into your business. They will suck the life out of you one ounce at a time. Trust me, I’ve been there and done that.
What You Are Looking for in a Prospect
There are really only THREE things you are looking for in a prospect.
# 1 Do they have a burning desire to really change their life for the better? In other words, are they hungry for success and OPEN to a new business or money making idea? Is this a good time in their life for them to change?
# 2 Are they coachable? Will they follow a system and mentor’s advice or do they think they know it all?
# 3 Are they willing to put in the work? Most people are not. Don’t take it personally. It’s just what our society has come to.
At the end of the day, you are looking for someone who is sick and tired of being sick and tired and is OPEN to looking at new ways of making money.
Trust me, there is someone out there right now waiting for you to share this business with them.
The Numbers
Keep in mind there are more than SEVEN BILLION people in the world. At the end of the day, you only need two to five serious people who want to change their lives for the better. Two to five people can build you a dynasty in your network marketing business. You don’t need everyone. You don’t want everyone.
To sponsor someone, you’ll probably have to talk to 20 to 30 people. To find someone good, you’ll probably have to sponsor 30 to 50 people. What does this mean?
To sponsor five rock stars you must personally sponsor 150 to 250 people personally. To sponsor 150 to 250 people personally, you’ll probably need to talk to 3k to 8k people.
Let’s just call it 8k. If you reached out to five people a day, you would do that in just under five years. If you reach out to ten people a day, you would get there in about 2.25 years. And, if you reach out to 20 people a day, you could get there in just over one year.
The only real question is “will you?” do it.
Secret Tip
I want to share a tip with you that makes dealing with negative prospects fun. You need to calculate how much a NO is worth to you. For example, if on average you get 20 NO’s for every YES, and you make $100 when you get a YES and sign someone up, you know that a NO is worth $5 to you ($100/20).
Every time you get a NO, or deal with someone negative, realize you just made $5. When you think of it that way, you get excited about getting a NO, because you know you are one step closer to getting a YES.
Final Thoughts
You have to learn how to deal with negative prospects, if you want to succeed in network marketing, or sales. You must learn how to be mentally tough and not take the rejection personally.
You must realize that what you do is a numbers game. Ultimately, you are looking for people who are looking and what to change their life. It’s not your job to convince anyone that what you have is a good fit for them.
I hope that helps. What are your thoughts about this subject? How do you deal with negative prospects in your business? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
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