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Phil's Past Episodes Episode 16: The Secret Of Sales In the world of MLM, everything boils down to sales. If you or your downline is not selling product, you'll soon lose interest in what you're doing, and you'll be on the road to shutting down the business in no time. Friends, it doesn't have to be that way. People can be - and should be - calling your phone all day long asking for opinions and advice, and, more importantly, asking to buy something from you. That type of magic doesn't just happen on it's own. There's some work behind it, but I'm going to lay it all out for you in the few minutes that we have today. At the end of this Episode, I'll share one of the biggest sources of perpetual income that I have with you. This seven step approach is something I have used for years to increase my sales. It's proven, it works, and it's easy. Before I get into the steps, I'd like to share a quick secret with you. My short term memory isn't the best. I have a PDA with voice recording capabilities. I keep it with me wherever I go. When I meet someone, I make a verbal note of it - a brain dump, if you will, about the meeting, and mental joggers that will help me recall exactly who they are - For example, "Joe Smith, Marble Collector, grew up in Virginia, hates snow, has two kids, and a dog". Step 1 - Get out of your circle and meet new people. Take a quick self inventory of things that interest you. Got it? Great. Now go visit http://www.meetup.com, and enter your city name.... WOW... there are people just like you out there meeting together. Meetup.com is a free service to join, and you can join as many meetup groups as you like. Depending on the groups you choose to meet up with, your rolodex could become full of new business cards very quickly. If you can't stand the idea of getting out and meeting new people, then you can always purchase new leads from my website, http://www.mlmeruption.com. Step 2 - Learn to listen Most people like to talk -- some more than others -- but for the most part, people like to talk. We are all familiar with the old addage that says, "Communication Is A Two-Way Street". While this is true, there's nothing to indicate which side of the street has 4 lanes, and which side has 1. Let them talk to you. In fact, keep them talking to you. Keep the initial conversations as one sided as possible. If there's a moment when you're supposed to say something, simply take the last idea they conveyed, turn it into a question, and ask them about it. For example, if the person has just indicated to you that they collect marbles for a hobby, simply say, "Marbles? Can you tell me more about that?". Stay away from "Yes/No" type questions, such as "Do you enjoy collecting marbles?"... instead, ask, "What would you consider the top three benefits from collecting marbles?". The more questions you ask about them... suddenly, the more you're listening, and the more comfortable they feel around you. Step 3 - Learn to look There is so much information that you can learn by simple observation. I worked with an Akido Master who taught me the power of observation. It started with simple drills - counting the number of exits in a room - windows, doors, or other. It progressed to aproximate number of people. How many men? How many women? Age groups? How many people wearing sneakers? Dress shoes? What color eye make up did the gal behind the counter have on? What did her nametag say? How many rings did she have on her fingers? Was there any animal hair on her jacket? Unless you're dealing with a professional poker player, people have "tells". You can tell alot about a person just by watching them. How they stand can indicate what type of personality they have. How they hold their head is an indication of self esteem. Watch a crowd of people in a room setting. You'll soon pick out the followers and the leaders by simply watching which way the majority of the people face. Step 4 - Build your new circle If you're going to meet people through a meetup.com meeting, or through another lead source, it is vitally important that you build that relationship. Don't miss meetings. Don't miss phone calls. Keep records of information you learn during each encounter with the group. Read those notes before you go into a meeting. Having that fresh information on your mind will enable you to easily pick up a conversation with someone, and practice the art of listening. As your circle grows in strength, you will begin to pick up on the underlying need of the circle. Is this a need you could help fill? If so, go listen to a few people. In the conversation, interject some money-related instances. For example, "Where do you get the extra money to expand your marble collection?" Step 5 - Follow up Review your notes on a nightly basis. Pick at least three people from your rolodex to place a call to or email the next day. Of course, make sure you have something relevant to talk about - this is not an outbound sales call (more on that later). The day after a public meeting is a great time to follow up, simply because you have something relevant to talk about. Looking and Listening play a huge role in follow up. Not too long ago, I attended a network conference as I often do. During this meeting, my business partner and I met a couple of other people who were also in the marketing business. My observations about their movements showed that they were involved with another particular high profile individual. Watching that individual showed that he was involved in martial arts. So, now I was able to deduce that the two partners we originally met were loosely associated with martial arts. When we were talking with them later, I mentioned my involvment with martial arts. As I had noticed, the individual they were associated with is a martial artist, and they were doing some personal work with him. During a subsequent meeting about a week later, we were discussing a project they were looking to get done. As they started their explination, they indicated that we didn't know who the work was being done for. With the mental notes I had made from looking and listening, I asked for a name. As it turns out, the name was of someone involved with Martial Arts that I did indeed know of, and had met several times before. Needless to say, we won the bid for the work. Step 6 - Under Commit, Over Deliver Anyone who says "yes" to everything can't possibly deliver. If you ever run into a "yes person", you can do one of two things: Believe them and get burned, or walk away and save yourself a ton of headaches. Of course, one of my favorite things to do is ask them something that I know cannot be done. When they say, "YES!", I ask them how. I worked once with a "yes man". He would always say, "The answer is 'yes', what is the question?"... of course, when I tried to exploit that by saying, "Can you give me 5 grand cash?", he'd laugh it off. A more reserved approach works very well. "I believe I can help you with that, let me talk to my partners and get back with you. When is a good time to call you tomorrow?". Then, once you absolutely know you are the person for the job, you scale back what you tell them your deliverable is. Once you deliver, go beyond their expectations. Do a little extra. Make it special. A company I order all my computer equipment through asks their customers to open the cases and do a quick visual inspection before setting the computers up (things shift during shipment). Normally, you'll find a little personal note on the inside of the computer, tied on to one of the cables. It's a nice extra personal touch that really makes people feel good about their decision. Step 7 - Get out of your circle, and meet new people. Now that you are comfortable in your circle, it's time to start the whole process again. Go find another interesting group, and redo the whole process. Successful sales is all about inbound sales traffic. Your outbound sales traffic should only be about discounts, specials, promotions or limited time offers that you want to extend to your circle of friends. Of course, follow up outbound sales traffic is fully acceptable. I have a person who emails me about 4 or 5 times a week. He went from interesting to annoying very quickly. I do not do business with him simply because he lacks true personalization. Sure, we all use form generated emails that put a persons name in the email (he messes this up sometimes, which is annoying too), but we need to establish a relationship with the people we want to become our true customers. Another person I do business with, and will continue to do business with is The Internet Marketing Center. I've met key people in the organization at different meetings, I've gotten personal emails from them, had them come up to me at a meeting and remember me from the last meeting, and had my input about improving a technique they use fall upon open minds -- and that generated an inbound follow up contact from them. Doing these seven steps will not only make you a successful sales person, it will also enable you to grow as a person. You'll learn more about yourself and others. You'll learn to look and listen. Earlier I mentioned that I would share a huge success secret with you. Here it is. My phone goes directly to voicemail. If you call me, you get voice mail. I don't return calls until after 3pm. I don't listen to phone calls until about 1 or 2pm. I then categorize them as level of importance as to who gets called back first. I typically stop making my phone calls around 5 or 6pm (unless it's really important). My schedule is for me, not for customers. My time is mine. A phone call during the day is nothing more than a distraction from what I am doing. Even if I look down and see a caller ID on the phone -- if it rings, it's a distraction. If I see caller ID, it's a distraction. Straight to voice mail. Check voicemail after lunch, prepare to return calls, then return calls. Make your phone system work for you. For MLMEruption.com, this is Phil Foster - The Trusted Voice Of MLM |
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