That’s a question the CEO of one of our industry’s biggest companies asked me some months ago.
Should you or shouldn’t you?
Explain your answer. I’ll do a post on it tomorrow.
About the author
That’s a question the CEO of one of our industry’s biggest companies asked me some months ago.
Should you or shouldn’t you?
Explain your answer. I’ll do a post on it tomorrow.
I would definitely share my product with everyone I meet, but I would wait until they become enthusiastic about it before sharing the opportunity with them.
candleluvr@gmail.com
“Why shouldn’t they share the opportunity and product with everyone they meet?”
Dr. Ron – Simply because you never know who is the absolutely right person for who your business is so
needed and proper for.
I most definitely do NOT share my product or opportunity with everyone because not everyone qualifies! I am NOT a telemarketer calling strangers and reading a sales script. For customers, I’m looking for people who hate going to the store every time they need to purchase an overpriced greeting card each time a birthday, anniversary or whatever rolls around when I can show them a better, cheaper and more convenient way to do it. For business builders, I’m looking for people who are sick of their 9-5 dead-end time-for-dollars J O B and who are above al coachable and HUNGRY. That rules out most people!
Nah, I only share what I do with people I want to take a 30-day cruise with.
Even then, I just let what I do drop into the conversation as an aside. It’s up to them to pick up on it . now or later.
I don’t want everyone whispering behind my back “Watch out for her… she’s always trying to sell you something….” like they do about one over-enthusiastic, boundary-less, clue-less, but good-hearted member of our community – that is, if they still invite her anyplace.
The word is out about her.
She’s even barred from some community events for her addiction to “soliciting.”
If you meet a surgeon at a party, does she start trying to sell you an operation? Wouldn’t you RUN FAR in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION if she did?
What’s wrong with that picture?
That kind of advice really “trains” people in a non-effective and negative way.
And fuels the Bad Name this industry can get.
That’s right up there with “Throw ’em on the wall and see who sticks.” Ugh 🙁 Sounds like vomit to me.
Boo :(((
Pat Crosby
http://Pat.MentoringForFree.com
Open the kimono just a little with my short first date script. Only after someone is madly in love with the product do I move into anything about the business side.
No way, that’s up there with the 3 foot rule, the breathing rule and ultimatley the NFL.
Qualify, problem solve and present only if it’s appropriate, then there is no need to hear no and be rejected.
kristine.mionegroup.com
organicskin.networkmarketingcentral.com
I would not “share” the product or the opportunity with everyone I meet. Most people won’t buy the product and even fewer will be interested in the business. The methods I’ve seen of “sharing” the opportunity requires some form of manipulation and people don’t like being manipulated.
I prefer to wait until the right moment in a conversation to say anything about my products or my opportunity. If I feel the person has a need that my products or opportunity can fulfill, I would ask more questions to find out whether or not they are ready to make a change or if they are just venting. I would only bring it up if they were ready to make a change.
If I don’t hear them express a need, then I would wait for them to ask me what I do. I would then tell them about the product I market and ask for a referral. The reason I would tell them about the product at this point rather than the opportunity is because the chances of finding a customer are far greater than finding a buisiness builder.
Joe Washburn
http://understandingyourhealth.blogspot.com
I don’t share this with everyone. I try and qualify everyone when I am talking to them whether that is over the phone or in person. As we are talking, if I don’t find a need then I leave it at that. I don’t want to have to talk people in this and then have to talk people into doing something! Do I want to tell everyone I meet about this, yes!
But I have to learn to reframe so that I am not looking like I need people but rather there to help people. Would you take a job if your future boss was out telling everyone about that position and it looked like he needed someone bad? Probably not because then you would wonder what is wrong.
Chris Benton
http://www.bodyalivenow.com/chrisbenton
I would share my product and/or my opportunity after qualifying the person, i.e. whether he/she even needs my product or opportunity. How else am I going to find out if they are open or not? I don’t have to throw all over them though.
Hi Kim,
I voted “No”, because for some folks the timing may not be right and I could blow off a potentially good prospect with my lack of wisdom and self control.
Here’s a guy with many of the attributes necessary to be successful in our industry. However, he is going through a emotional divorce. No matter, I am going to ‘share’ my product and/or biz opp with him right now because he is on my top ten list.
How do you spell stupid?
What about timing?
Tom Doiron
Why not share our opportunity with everyone we meet? Because a mere one in 100 people are interested in selling.
Why not share the product with everyone? Because it turns people off. No one wants to be sold. Pick and choose who you share your thing with carefully, and you will be less likely to add to the network marketing death count.
Even though I am in mlm, I have an aversion to being prospected by someone who does not know me, or has not taken the time to determine if their thing might benefit me.
I think that is at the heart of why I feel we ought not prospect everyone. (or try and hide what we are doing by calling it sharing) It is all about the prospector, without taking the needs and feelings of the prospectee into consideration.
Merry Christmas!
Tracy
About Me
My Business Blog
I have to agree with Brad.
Everyone is not your market. You need to find your target and stay focused on that.
If you are all over the place in your marketing, it will lead to lots of wasted time and money and in the end…failure.
I am looking for people who drink energy drinks and are sick and tired of paying between $2-3/can for an energy drink that is full of sugar, carbohydrates and artificial ingredients which causes those who drink them to get headaches jitters and a horrible crash..
Only a certain percentage of the population contributes to the consumption of over 70 million energy drinks per day…I only want to talk to those people…not some average joe blow on the side of the road that I know nothing about.
http://www.TestThisEnergyDrink.com
I definitely believe in qualifying people and finding their area of interest if there is any. This can be done without hitting them over the head.
That CEO’s question smacks of the same self-serving mentality of the people that introduced me to this industry.
It basically goes like this:
Do what serves MY interests (ie: tell everyone you know) despite what it feels like to you, and despite how it strains your personal relationships.
Thankfully, I found Kim Klaver. Now there’s hope again.
I know this isn’t going to win any brownie points here but I don’t care whether they’re “qualified” or “interested” before I tell them about my product and business because the fact is Americans are starving to death on full stomachs! Our medical system is killing people by the thousands every year and although many are brainwashed into the mindless submission of “seeing what the doctor says” about something, more and more people are becoming acutely aware that personal responibility for one’s own health is critical to living a long, productive, independent high quality life!
To be honest about it, most people do nothing but walk around the town talking about all their aches, pains and medical procedures for anyone to hear. Kim talks about the complainers in her book who don’t really want to do anything about their situation, but some do and “what if it did help them like it did me and thousands of other people who had the same problem just like them”?
It’s kind of like Jesus. Everyone needs Him whether they know it or not but how can they know unless someone is sent to tell them? I’m one of those who are sent! I’m literally on a mission to save people from self-destruction and ignorance. It’s like seeing someone’s house on fire and saying nothing if you don’t tell them, who will? I don’t take it personally, I just know that when they get to the end of their lives, He will tell them “I sent my servant, Melinda, to help you”…you know like the guy who was on his roof in the flood saying he was “Waiting on the Lord” to save him and the helecopter, boat and something else comes by to rescue him but he sits on the roof, “waiting”. 😉
I know that if people aren’t getting their 90 essential nutrients every day, they will manifest one of the 900 degenerative diseases that are a direct result of nutritional deficiencies. I don’t accept the lie that we just have to accept certain prescriptions when we get older. Sorry to be so long here but to answer the question, it’s not always a direct approach that works best, sometimes it’s the “who do you know” or “do you know anyone who might like something like this”? I sometimes wear a button that says “Pills Suck, Drink Your Vitamins” and there’s two sponge men on the sign on my car that says, “Your Body is a Sponge, Soak up Superior Liquid Nutrition with V—-“. One of the sponge men has pills piled on top of him and the other one is soaking up the liquid. People have asked me information while pumping gas or pulled me over on the street!
Merry Christmas Everyone!
It’s like this. Pretty simple actually. You can’t push a rope! It does not matter what your business is. Whether it’s network marketing or not. Your product and business is not for everyone. Your first objective is to build rapport with people. No rapport no business. If you puke all over people about your product, service or opportunity they will run away! So at the end of the day it’s like this. Build rapport first, when the student is ready they will seek the mentor.
I voted yes on this one and here’s the reason why.
There’s nothing wrong with sharing both the product and opportunity with everyone you meet, but it doesn’t mean you do it NOW. However, if I do, I won’t try to convince nor deceive those I meet to make the sale of either. I tell them as it is and ask for references. Although they may say they’re not interested in either, it doesn’t mean that they won’t help you with it in other ways, such as providing you with referrals. You never know that your new acquaintance my find you an ace distributor.
What if they conclude that the product or opportunity turns out to be for them. That’s a big advantage. Plus they want to work with someone they trust. Then by all means, you have a more powerful team.
When the window of opportunity opens up, when you can work it into your conversation, you tell them what you do, but I want to emphasize not to ever pitch a sale when you tell all those people you meet, especially if you meet them for the first time.
Don’t just walk up and say to them I want to share with you what I do…yada yada yada. It needs to be worked in the conversation. Try and transition it GRADUALLY from the “how are you” to the point where you share what you do.
Is this duplicatable? Yes, but only if you get aces to work with you.
I hear from a lot of mlmers websites that recruiting is where the money is. But how can you make time to work with all 250 of them in your front line? After I listen to one of Kim’s network marketing mp3s, I said to myself that I’m only going to have at the most 12 people in my frontline. I can spend more time with them, building their organization and focus on selling the product more and put customers back on the top of my list, especially if the company I work with requires bringing in new business to be able to collect your builders’ bonus. Since I don’t have time to work with those who I believe won’t produce, I would say NO first to those unqualified prospects.
In conclusion, I will share both the product and opportunity to those I meet, but only if that window of opportunity opens up.
Sidney
http://www.e-dental-plus.com
http://healthprograms.blogspot.com
No.
Just make sure you find enough **qualified** people to talk to on a regular basis who might consider what you have. That isn’t everybody. Not by a longshot.
Same goes for the business side. Develop a system where you have enough **qualified** people to talk with about the business. That isn’t everybody. Not by a longshot.
But it doesn’t need to be everybody. And with focus, discipline, and hard work you **can** spend a lot of time in front of people who **want** to talk with you. Then you never have to worry about “sharing” with everybody.
Michael
triplem@nym.hush.com
If you want to talk strategy, resources, need a helping hand, or just some support that’s great – but PLEASE do not email me about joining your business opportunity
http://www.grmbeyond.com
http://www.uptownonthebay.biz
If the opportunity presents itself then I believe that you should tell everyone. It takes about 5 to 10 seconds to mention what you do. If they want more info they will ask, if not then they won’t. At least when you become successful then they can’t come back with “You never told me about your business.” How will you know if the right one crossed your path if you don’t make at least a slight comment.
Tim
timthepostman@comcast.net