If you are in sales or network marketing, you’ve probably heard the saying “say less to more people” before. In today’s article, I’m going to share what it means, the benefits, and share my own personal thoughts on the subject.
What it Means?
Say less to more people simple means that instead of saying a lot to one person, you say a little bit to a lot of different people. You are the messenger, not the message. Rather than try to “sell” someone by explaining everything in detail right out the gate, you are going through a sifting and sorting process to identify people who are looking, or people who might be in the market for what you have.
Real World Examples
Here are a few examples of how to say less to more people, just to give you some ideas:
# 1: You’re at a networking event to find more clients for your landscaping business. Rather than spend lots of time connecting with one person at the event, you mingle and spend a minute or two with each person. You collect everyone’s business card and give everyone your business card.
# 2: Rather than explain in detail every benefit of your company and business opportunity to your Uncle Bob for an hour, you invite 20 people to attend your business presentation at your home on Friday night.
# 3: Rather than spending 30-minutes convincing one lady at the night-club to dance with you, hoping she will say YES, you ask 10-20 girls to dance, one at a time, until you find someone who does say YES.
# 4: Rather than do a one hour business presentation with your prospect, you have four prospects each attend a 15-minute recorded conference call to learn more about your business opportunity.
Say Less to More People: The Benefits
Here are some common reasons WHY you want to say less to more people.
# 1: You Work the Numbers
Selling is a numbers game. It always has been and always will be. No matter what you are offering people, not everyone will be interested. You have to go through X amount of people to find Y amount of prospects to get Z amount of sales. The more people you go through, the more sales you will naturally get.
It goes without saying that if you “say less to more people” that you will talk to more people. When you stop trying to close everyone, you can quickly filter through your leads and determine the individuals who will be a good fit. Since it is less stressful, you tend to prospect more. Prospecting more simply leads to more sales and sign ups.
Source: Kenny Santos
# 2: You Don’t Come Across as a Pushy Sales Person
When you keep things short and sweet, you are more of the welcomed guest than the uninvited pest. If you spend lots of time talking with one person, you do come across as a pushy or desperate salesperson. You don’t want to wear out your welcome, especially on the first contact, nor do you want to hard-sell or pressure people.
This should be fairly obvious, but you’re not going to convince everyone to buy your product or service if you push them too hard. There will come a time in your sales pitch when you realize that the person is simply not ready to buy, and you need to let them say no.
Step back, thank them for their time, and maybe follow up with them at a later date.
Sometimes a prospect isn’t in a place ready to buy yet, and you need to leave them with a positive experience if you want to get a sale in the future. On the other hand, I understand the trouble with letting someone walk away. You know if you let them walk out the door they may never come back and you’ve just lost money.
However, steamrolling a prospect or bullying them into saying “yes” is terrible and creates a negative impression and sours the whole deal. If you are going to have a long-lasting relationship with this person and their business, being pushy isn’t going to make them like you in the long run. And if they don’t trust you, they’ll look for the first chance to get out of doing business with you in the future.
Sometimes if you have to push so hard to get someone to buy, they are not the right fit for your business. Don’t try and fit a square peg into a round hole.
Source: BNGTeam.com
# 3: You Don’t Have to be an Expert
Many people never get started with their network marketing business because they think they have to know everything BEFORE they get started. When you say less to more people, you don’t have to be an expert. Instead, you just have to learn a one liner. This is something ANYONE can do. Plus, you don’t have to worry about saying something dumb or messing things up.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” I’m not suggesting you remain silent all the time. But it’s all too easy to speak thoughtlessly, with insufficient information, or out of a wrong assumption. That can make you look less intelligent than you are, and you will minimize the chances of it happening if you listen more than you speak.
Source: Inc.com
# 4: You Don’t Waste Your Time
The last thing you want to do is waste your time with a prospect, only to find out they are not interested in what you have to offer. Your job is to pique people’s curiosity and then sell the appointment. Many newbie salespeople make the mistake of trying to make the sale right on the initial contact. Instead, you want to sell the appointment and let the appointment sell your products, services or opportunity.
After my experience wasting time with this prospect, where I demonstrated what a poor steward of my time I’m capable of being, I must now force myself to never make that mistake again. And the way I do that is to simply change the process so it’s not possible for me to make the same mistake.
Source: EarlytoRise.com
# 5: You Have More Time to Follow-up and Close
The initial contact is only the first part of the selling process. The follow up, presenting and closing are MUCH more important. If you can avoid spending lots of time with one person on the initial conversation, and instead use that time to present, follow-up and close your other prospects, you will get much better results. Say less to more people!
The fortune is in the follow-up!
# 6: You Can Learn A Lot
The listener is the one who is learning. If you say less to more people, you will end up doing more listening than you do talking. That is a good thing. It will help you identify “ins” to help you better convert your prospects. Your ultimate goal is to offer solutions to people’s problems. By listening more, you can find out what their issue is and then tailor your product, service or business as a solution to their problem.
You have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Use them in that proportion.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you say less to more people, you will sign up more distributors, find more prospects and make more retail sales. You want to be the messenger, not the messenger. You want to take the shotgun approach rather than the sniper approach. You want to make as many exposures as possible as quickly as possible. Rather than selling and convincing, you are sifting and sorting. The key to make that happen is to say less to more people!
What are your thoughts on this subject? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
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