Chatting with a colleague recently, I could tell he was really frustrated and a little upset with himself. It turns out that things had been going really well with a prospect – he was building a sound relationship with that person. Having identified what the prospect needed, wanted, and didn’t want, my colleague felt confident that he had positively qualified his prospect and was ready to invite the prospect to take action. The prospect was all excited about the excellent training offer and was certainly eager to move things forward . . . and then things suddenly went really cold.
It turns out that the prospect’s wife had found a bunch of junk on the internet that put down network marketing as an industry, and his company specifically. I can tell you that both objections are not based on true fact. I can also tell you that the same thing has happened to me and I shared my associate’s frustration. He wasn’t able to pick up on it early enough to deal with this new “‘objection” in time.
The “Anti” Lobby
The only way negative comments and negative websites will ever carry any weight, regardless of whether they hold any validity or not, is when there is someone willing to read and believe those things.
As incredible as the Internet is as a source of information, we all know that for every action there is a reaction. Unfortunately, the Internet has allowed the creation of what I would call the “Anti” lobby.
The Internet allows anyone at all to publish whatever they want. There are so many “anti” sites out there it’s hard to believe. And I’m not just talking about anti-MLM business. Of course there’s a lot of anti MLM because there are a whole lot of people out there who had gone into network marketing, were not trained properly and did not do it right. These are the type of people that don’t take personal responsibility for getting bad training or no training at all. And then they turn around and talk negatively about the MLM industry.
Failure Can Lead to Resentment Towards the MLM Industry
The person who’s spouting the negativity most of the time is feeling negative because they failed at their business. The person who believes the negativity without any inspection or research to validate what is being said, is the person who has doubts in themselves.
They take very erroneous statements such as, “90% of the people who join network marketing don’t succeed,” and they believe them. They say to themselves, “oh, wow. Maybe I shouldn’t bother with network marketing.” Well, I’ve got another statistic for you: 100% of the people who are born are going to die. So if my reaction to that was: let’s stop having more children – would that make any sense at all?
No it wouldn’t. It would be ridiculous – and so is the erroneous statistic about network marketing. In other words, you can distort any piece of data or information and twist it however you want. There’s not a subject out there that you cannot get on the Internet and type the word “anti” in front of, and not find that somebody out there hasn’t pulled it to pieces.
Do Your Own Research
The point I’m making is that you yourself have to be able to evaluate the information that comes to you. One of the most broad, sweeping perspectives you can take is to ask yourself: are they offering a solution to something or are they just complaining? If a solution isn’t offered following the complaint or the negative comments, then these people you’re talking with aren’t trying to solve anything. They’re trying to destroy something instead. What they’re doing – just complaining – doesn’t add any value at all. One of the key components that I am always looking for when listening to a complaint is some sort of a “How do I?” So, while these people spend all of their time writing up information about how network marketing doesn’t work, I tend to dismiss it. Anybody who cares to turn around and look can see that it is a very large and successful industry.
The Genuine Complainers Will Offer a Solution
That isn’t to say that some complaints do not have merit, especially with regards to MLM training. However, I do find that the more genuine people who care are more likely to offer a solution, as well as making the complaint. That’s the key element that separates the instructor from the complainer!
That’s the whole reason why I now spend my time offering solutions and help in MLM and network marketing training.
So did my colleague learn from his experience? Of course he did! He realized that he had been able to sense that something wasn’t quite right when he met with the prospect and his wife. He also realized that he was talking to two people who were at different stages. The prospect was more than ready to take action, whereas the prospect’s wife hadn’t been qualified effectively and still had objections that had to be addressed. The solution would have been to focus on handling the objections, qualifying his wife, and bringing both the prospect and his wife to the same point of positive action.
Next Steps: Need more help with inviting and getting your prospects to say yes to your business opportunity? Download my free e-book: How to Build a Huge Ambit Business Part-Time.
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