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Prior to becoming involved in network marketing, I was a member of the U.S. Navy's Underwater Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team (the Navy's bomb squad). I learned many great lessons there that helped me with my MLM business years later, one of which was overcoming fear.
In the Navy, what allowed people to overcome their fear of defusing bombs under water was simple: drill, drill, drill - and when you're sick of drilling, drill some more. Overcoming fear did not mean read, read and when you're sick of reading, read some more; that doesn't make someone skilled at defusing bombs. By the way, drill means repetitiously going over something to learn it well.
It's the same with getting appointments so you can share either the MLM business opportunity or your products with someone. Not that reading and learning the way bombs go "boom" and phones go "ring-ring" isn't important, it is. Reading or studying is only one part of knowing something and getting effective at it.
Here's why some distributors in your MLM organization quit. Just think what would have happened if the bomb squad trainers told the bomb squad to go home and read about the most common ways a bomb blows up, and then sent them out by themselves to defuse a bomb.
Yet that's what network marketing leaders are often guilty of - asking their new distributors to go home and make their list of prospects. They're given a sheet (sometimes) of objections they "might" encounter, and then are told to call their prospects and invite them to take a look at a great MLM business...BOOM! Ever wonder why that new distributor in your network marketing organization disappears within 30 days?
What worked best for me was to start with a script. Very often I've heard people say they don't/can't use scripts. That's fine. Write down what you plan to say anyway, because you need to get comfortable with making your call. You'll need to repeat it several times. It's very helpful to "invite yourself" into a tape recorder microphone. Listen to the tape and ask yourself "Would I accept that invitation?"
One of my scripts went something like this:
You: "Hi, John, this is Sue. Do you have a minute or did I catch you at a bad time?"
Them: "No, I have a minute. What's up?"
You: "Great, are you open to a business outside of ________(what they currently do for a living)?"
Now, here are some likely responses you'll hear:
COMMON OBJECTIONS AND QUESTIONS
* What is it?
* Is this a pyramid?
* Is it Network Marketing or multi-level marketing?
* Is this sales?
* What would I be doing?
* I'm too busy, I don't have time.
* What is the investment?
Here are the steps to take:
Step 1) Drill
Step 2) Drill
Step 3) Drill
These are the questions and objections! You know what they are! Drilling these beforehand is like knowing what's going to be on the test!
How I finish the invitation:
You: (This was already stated, but I put it here again so you get the whole sequence.) "Great, are you open to a business outside of ________ (what they currently do for a living)?"
The most common response is:
Them: "What is it" This is exactly what you want them to ask.
You: "Do you have Internet access?" (If not, send them the Brilliant Compensation® video.)
Them: "Yes"
You: "Do you have something to write with?"
Them: "Yes"
You: Give the web address of your Brilliant Compensation® website and say, "This is a purely educational online movie that explains our marketing strategy - watch this and then we can have an intelligent conversation about the target market, product lines and things like that. Read me back the address (make sure it's correct)." Confirm when they will have the time to review the information . Set when you will talk again. Hang up the phone.
Now, that script is one I've used successfully for years. The reason it works is because it was designed to PREVENT the objections mentioned above. It took me a long time to develop that script. In the example below there are several phrases I identified that actually CREATED common objections.
Avoid These Phrases and Instead Use...
(Phrase to avoid listed first, then recommended phrase listed second.)
I recently became involved
I'm working on a project...
I'd like to get you involved
I'm looking for the right person that...
I want you to...
You might want to...
I think you would love this
It may or may not be for you...
You would be good at this
This might be lucrative for us...
New business opportunity
Business idea or project
Are you interested?
You might want to see this
Are you looking for a business opportunity?
Do you keep your eyes open for expansion/diversification?
The point is, to overcome any type of fear, you must have both knowledge and practice. Therefore you must get with your network marketing organization and practice what to say to prospects and drill how to handle questions and objections. This is the best kind of MLM training I know. I've not seen or heard of a better way of overcoming telephone fears, training your distributors on what to say and how to have a lot of guests at your MLM business meetings than TEAM CALLING.
I put together a program called Assault Team Training - an event to teach people how to get past the fear of the phone, as well as talking to strangers (in person).
Eight distributors were invited to my house (because I had four phone lines and wanted two people per phone). To attend, each distributor had to bring 250 names with phone numbers.
Everyone spent the first hour around a table writing a script of what they would say on the telephone to invite contacts to an MLM business briefing we scheduled three days later. Then each person read their script back to the group and the group critiqued the script with one major emphasis: prevent the objection. We all agreed that in the invitation call, it's much easier to prevent objections than to have to handle them. (See example of what to say/what not to say above.)
Here's the best way to overcome the most common MLM objections. With good communication skills and using the phrases from the example above, we still got "Is this one of those pyramids!?" objection 50 % of the time.
It was this objection that constantly stopped or severely slowed down my organization's growth. That is the reason I produced the "Brilliant Compensation" presentation.
Now, a few years later Brilliant Compensation is being used all over the world to explain network marketing. It's been used by regulators to prove the legitimacy or illegitimacy of MLM companies. In one court case in Europe, it was looking like one company wasn't going to survive the legal challenge. Some of the distributors convinced the attorneys to show the Brilliant Compensation video in court.
What they told me was that the video saved the company. It's also been used at universities to explain MLM. The video really works! It completely handles all the network marketing objections. I can't tell you how many hundreds of people have emailed me, told my staff or told me that they wouldn't be in the industry if it hadn't been for "Brilliant Compensation."
People have told me they are NOW in the industry because of it. I tell you this because for YOUR reasons and YOUR interest you should be using it. Prospects rarely say "no" because of your company or products - it's their misunderstandings about the MLM industry.
After everyone writes an MLM invitation script, the next step is to role play. At the Team Calling event, divide people into pairs and have them role-play with each other. Person A reads the script. Person B asks the most common questions or objections. Start slow and easy and get tougher as your partner gets better. It's very important that your partner feel successful. Compliment his/her efforts ALL THE TIME. Then switch: Person B invites and Person A asks the questions.
Because during the role playing, one person is constantly reading the MLM invite script - this serves as a drilling of the invitation. Once you as the leader are satisfied that everyone attending team calling is able to handle the above objections, then hit the phones.
Two people on each phone line. One is prospecting - the other coaching. After 15 minutes, switch. The person that was coaching switches to prospecting. The one that was prospecting is now the coach. Do this for one uninterrupted hour.
The rules are: No getting up. No bathroom, no food, no water, no answering cell phones. Nothing! It's so important to play by the rules. We all know the feeling of searching for any excuse not to dial the phone. Believe me, this is fear-facing at its best, but also one of the best forms of MLM training I know of.
By the way, people who show up late are not allowed in "the pit" until after the hour is up. I can't stress enough the importance of this SOLID HOUR of no interruptions.
Use Monday - it's the start of the week and the best day to invite to your weekly MLM business briefing without a weekend interfering. Charge $5.00 per person to cover the cost of the phone calls.
Your job as the leader is to help keep the calls under three minutes and to ensure that the person making the call wants to continue making calls. As a coach, resist the urge to correct "everything" you see a new person doing wrong. You don't want to unintentionally invalidate the person or make him/her feel that they're messing everything up. It's much better for the coach to consider the whole exercise as a gradual learning process. For some people, it can be a huge success just to dial 10 numbers in an hour.
I suggest that you teach everyone how to keep accurate records. It's very important for everyone to keep statistics while doing team calling. You want to keep track of Dials, Connects and Appointments. Set a goal for each, and then keep track of the activity.
This is the basis for coaching and measuring progress and is the backbone of successful MLM training. If anyone complains about their results, you can go straight to the Daily Marketing Worksheet and tell exactly where someone needs help. Maybe they need help with their actual phone skills, or maybe they're just not dialing enough numbers!
What Results Can You Expect? After two one-hour sessions in which everyone kept their statistics, the least number of confirmed appointments we've seen was eight. The most was 64. That's right!
The most impressive are those eight. What this represents is the minimum result of eight confirmed guests! What this means for you is that if someone spent two hours per week inviting through team calling, they would have a minimum of eight confirmed appointments at the weekly MLM business meeting.
The next time you or your distributors come to a business meeting without a guest, ask yourself and them, "How much actual time did you spend making calls?"
Making MLM prospecting phone calls isn't as hazardous as bomb squad work, but it really can be just as scary. But the way to handle any fear is learn how to do it and do it over and over. Confront what you fear most enough times and you won't fear it anymore.
