Oliver's Twist - September 21, 2006
3 Reasons For Not Saying –
“I’m Looking For Someone Who Is…”
As many of you know, I’m not a great fan of scripts unless they’re written out as questions and used as guidelines.
Most of the ones that come across my desk tell, sell and explain, despite the fact that they claim otherwise in the script!
I was looking through some different ones the other day that people have sent me and discovered this common theme and fatal flaw in some of them.
(And if you’re doing this, you may want to look at why, and how, it will significantly reduce your odds of finding the right people to join you. It will also increase your odds of having to spend more time making more calls!)
Then we’ll look at what you can do about it!
The scripts stated near the beginning…
I’m looking for someone who is…
Flaw 1. Most people are going to say yes to this. Why? Because they don’t want to sound stupid by saying “No I don’t have any of those qualities or wants”!
This is a typical old sales way of approaching people by asking a leading statement followed by a question designed to get the answer you want, and not what you need to hear! At worst it fails most of the time and at best the results are temporary. It never did work in the past and it still doesn’t!
Flaw 2. To repeat a well worn theme, do people really care what you’re looking for? No! Most care about what they’re looking for!
Flaw 3. It’s an aggressive approach. Its intention is to create “posture” for the Distributor. In fact it creates the opposite effect. Use it and you’ll lose more potential partners than you’ll gain.
So what to do about it?
Instead of saying, I’m looking for someone who…
1. …Is coachable, trainable, self-motivated… ASK instead… “Are you the sort of person who is open to learning different ways of doing things to help you be successful?”
2. …Can follow a system… ASK instead… “Do you like things laid out for you in an easy to understand format you can follow, or do you like to just get in there and do whatever it takes?”
3. Who wants to earn in excess of $100,000 a year… ASK instead… “If you didn’t limit yourself, what kind of yearly income would you like to have?”
You then have a dialogue around the answers you get to these qualifying questions. If these points are important enough to you, then prove it by spending some quality time discussing them.
If you're using a bona-fide lead list then my "Calling Leads" audio program demonstrates exactly how to do this in practice. There are 7 role plays that take you all the way through a dialogue from the initial contact to the point where someone is ready to join your team. These role plays teach you how to apply proven principles to reach your goals, rather than using a "technique" which is really what a script is.
So what’s the lesson? Turn your telling, selling and statements into asking questions and open the field of infinite possibilities!
To your success...
Michael
MLM Insider #1 Trainer in Network Marketing 2004 and 2005 and author of "How to Sell Network Marketing Without Fear, Anxiety or Losing Your Friends!" http://www.naturalselling.com
Feel free to republish this article in your own e-zine or website. Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears: "Reprinted with permission from Michael Oliver, Natural Selling® Sales Training. http://www.naturalselling.com/
“I’m Looking For Someone Who Is…”
As many of you know, I’m not a great fan of scripts unless they’re written out as questions and used as guidelines.
Most of the ones that come across my desk tell, sell and explain, despite the fact that they claim otherwise in the script!
I was looking through some different ones the other day that people have sent me and discovered this common theme and fatal flaw in some of them.
(And if you’re doing this, you may want to look at why, and how, it will significantly reduce your odds of finding the right people to join you. It will also increase your odds of having to spend more time making more calls!)
Then we’ll look at what you can do about it!
The scripts stated near the beginning…
I’m looking for someone who is…
- coachable,
- trainable,
- self-motivated,
- can follow a system
- and wants to earn in excess of $100,000 a year.
Flaw 1. Most people are going to say yes to this. Why? Because they don’t want to sound stupid by saying “No I don’t have any of those qualities or wants”!
This is a typical old sales way of approaching people by asking a leading statement followed by a question designed to get the answer you want, and not what you need to hear! At worst it fails most of the time and at best the results are temporary. It never did work in the past and it still doesn’t!
Flaw 2. To repeat a well worn theme, do people really care what you’re looking for? No! Most care about what they’re looking for!
Flaw 3. It’s an aggressive approach. Its intention is to create “posture” for the Distributor. In fact it creates the opposite effect. Use it and you’ll lose more potential partners than you’ll gain.
So what to do about it?
Instead of saying, I’m looking for someone who…
1. …Is coachable, trainable, self-motivated… ASK instead… “Are you the sort of person who is open to learning different ways of doing things to help you be successful?”
2. …Can follow a system… ASK instead… “Do you like things laid out for you in an easy to understand format you can follow, or do you like to just get in there and do whatever it takes?”
3. Who wants to earn in excess of $100,000 a year… ASK instead… “If you didn’t limit yourself, what kind of yearly income would you like to have?”
You then have a dialogue around the answers you get to these qualifying questions. If these points are important enough to you, then prove it by spending some quality time discussing them.
If you're using a bona-fide lead list then my "Calling Leads" audio program demonstrates exactly how to do this in practice. There are 7 role plays that take you all the way through a dialogue from the initial contact to the point where someone is ready to join your team. These role plays teach you how to apply proven principles to reach your goals, rather than using a "technique" which is really what a script is.
So what’s the lesson? Turn your telling, selling and statements into asking questions and open the field of infinite possibilities!
To your success...
Michael
MLM Insider #1 Trainer in Network Marketing 2004 and 2005 and author of "How to Sell Network Marketing Without Fear, Anxiety or Losing Your Friends!" http://www.naturalselling.com
Feel free to republish this article in your own e-zine or website. Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears: "Reprinted with permission from Michael Oliver, Natural Selling® Sales Training. http://www.naturalselling.com/
posted by Michael Oliver at 12:18 PM
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