There is a popular saying in network marketing that goes like this: “some will, some won’t, so what, next!” This is a common saying taught to new distributors teaching them simply to work through the numbers, not to take rejection personally, and keep pressing forward until they find the right people who are interested in what they have to offer.
For more than 11 years I lived and died by this concept. If someone wasn’t interested in what I was doing I would say NEXT! I have since learned that this concept is fatally flawed. In the rest of this post I’m going to share some personal insights on why I don’t think you should adopt this mindset in your network marketing business.
I should start out by telling you that it is good to be mentally tough. In any selling profession, you are going to be faced with constant rejection. Learning how to deal with that rejection and not take it personally is vitally important! Otherwise, you will feel defeated and quit.
In addition, selling is a numbers game. You will typically here at least five to ten NOs just to get to a YES. As your skills improve you can improve your conversion rates and talk to fewer people, while getting better results. But when you are new to the business you must make up in numbers what you lack in skill!
Here’s why I think the “some will, some won’t, so what, next!” concept is flawed. You have to realize that a huge MAJORITY (at least 90%) of the people you talk to (and probably more) will not be interested in buying your product or joining your business opportunity at this specific moment in time (when you talk to them).
In other words, most people you talk to are not ACTIVELY IN THE MARKET TODAY to buy what you are offering, whether it is your products, services, or opportunity. That doesn’t mean they will never be interested in what you have to offer. It just means that the timing is not right for them today. Simply put, a NO today does not mean a NO forever.
My biggest mistake in this great industry is that I never kept a contact list of everyone I ever talked to about the business or products. Through the past 13 years I’ve approached thousands of people myself. If these folks weren’t interested in what I had to offer, I would simply move on and talk to someone else. I’d forget about them and never talk to them again.
I WISH I would have collected their contact information and stayed in touch with them every few months FOREVER. That is the best advice I can share with you today. Talk to as many people as possible. But as you do that, keep track of everyone you talk to and stay in touch with them every two to four months until they buy or die.
When you stay in touch with people you increase your odds of sponsoring some of these folks into your business as customer or distributors. The more you communicate and follow-up with them, the more people you will convert.
Most people I approach take anywhere from 10 to 20 follow ups BEFORE they join my team or become a customer. And most of them take anywhere from 30 to 90 or more days from the time I first expose them to the business until they join.
Had I only talked with them one time, I would sponsor far fewer people.
Another key point to consider is that many top earners actively prospected their best people for five to ten YEARS before they joined their team. Think about that for moment. When you know someone is sharp, and would be a great distributor, it just makes sense to follow-up with them until the timing is right for them.
By all means, don’t sit around and wait for any one person. That is foolish. But just because someone tells you NO today doesn’t mean they will never say YES. Your job is to get their contact information, put them in your follow up system and stay in touch with them every few months, FOREVER. Do that and watch your business soar. Don’t do it and you will have to talk to 100x more people.
Think about it this way for a minute. If you talk to just three people a day about your business and did that every day for five years you would talk to (3 x 365 x 5) 5,475 people. If you stayed in touch with ALL of those folks at least once every 90 days, you would never have to prospect anyone else again! You would keep sponsoring new people from this group of prospects.
Final Thoughts
In summary, if you have the “some will, some won’t, so what, next!” mindset, I hope you will at least consider the advice I mentioned in this article. Doing so will have a profound impact in your business.
What do you think about this concept? Do you think it makes sense to stay in touch with people or do you believe it’s better to just keep talking to new people? Leave a comment below to 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
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
It would be interesting to have the statistics on how many people said no originally, but after some time and contact, they finally said yes. It would also be interesting to know how many of those people who finally said yes turned into network marketing rock stars.
I completely agree with keeping contact information on the people who say no originally. That doesn’t mean to spam them all the time, but just stay in contact. Maybe give them a free sample every once in awhile.
The majority of people will say no the first time. That is how people are, but as they get to know you, the odds move into your favor that they will say yes.
I think you will find that many people say no originally, but if they are treated well, and the recruiter stays in touch with them, good things happen.
You also have to understand not to take it personally when someone you talk to is not interested in the business opportunity. My mistake when I first started was getting down and losing confidence because I took people’s rejection of the opportunity as a rejection of me as well. The truth is, people have a long list of reasons they might not be interested and 99% of the time none of those reasons are related to you. Once I freed myself from that I was able to branch out and talk to everyone without fear or reservation.
You could walk around offering people free $100 bills and some folks would not be interested. It’s just life.
This is very good advice Chuck. Building a list is one of the most important steps in network marketing. As you stated, many people may say no now, but in time they may say yes. If we just “check in” from time to time, that day just may come. If we think we can remember everyone, we are greatly mistaken. If we are talking to the amount of people daily that is prescribed to have success, there is no possible way we will remember people.
I also suggest that you make simple notes about why they said no the first time; this way you can come to them with that in mind when you speak to them again.
When you have a list, many of the people who tell you NO today will eventually tell you yes if you stay in touch and treat them well.