What If Your Prospect Thinks that Multi-Level Marketing Doesn't Work?
$89.2 billion in sales has to tell you something
Tim Sales of Brilliant Exchange
Adapted from a Tim Sales Newsletter.
Used by permission.
Someone submitted the follow question to me.
Hey Tim. In Professional Inviter, you say to ask people who have an MLM objection the question: "Do you think MLM, by itself, works?" You also teach us what to do if they say "Yes" or "I don't know"; but, how do you handle it if they say "No", and why?
This is an excellent question. Let me back up and give a little more information here; then, I'll answer the question.
Let's pretend I'm talking with a prospect, and they ask, "Is this MLM?" I reply, "Yes. What do you know about MLM?" They respond negatively.
To handle this objection effectively, you should follow the Objection Handling Remedy that is outlined in Professional Inviter. I will not repeat the details of the Objection Handling Remedy here. I'll just use the remedy below, so you can see how to handle this objection.
- Listen through the objection: The more you can get your prospect to talk about his MLM experience, the better. Listen very carefully, because he will probably mention the one special issue that's really bugging him. You'll also probably hear him talk around the subject or task he couldn't do.
- Confirm your understanding of what the actual objection is: Many times, people fail at handling objections effectively because they handle the wrong objection — therefore, their prospect is still sitting with the objection. The "pyramid" objection is not the same as the "MLM doesn't work" objection. They are both "MLM" objections; but, you must make sure you understand that prospect's exact objection. So, if someone tells me how awful MLM is (step 1), but I never really hear his actual objection, then I would ask, "So, what was your bad experience, specifically?" To that, he replies, "It doesn't work!"
- Make the question or objection valid to the prospect: You can say something like, "I understand your concern about this. Of course, you wouldn't want to do something that doesn't work."
- Handle, or facilitate handling.
Alright; now to answer the question directly. Because you don't have any more information in the question, I'll answer it in the two different ways I've seen it. You may think that I'm not answering the specific question — but I am. Sometimes, if you ask the question, "Do you think MLM, by itself, works?" too early, then your prospect will shut down and say "No".
But that's not their true answer.
When someone has the MLM objection, "It doesn't work", then, what you have to do first is try to find out, "What about MLM doesn't work?" (from their view, of course). It could be something they've read, or they've tried it and couldn't make it work. There is a big difference in these two responses … and, how you handle them. So, you can ask, "Are you speaking from personal experience; or, is this someone else's experience?"
From someone else's experience:
If it's something they've read, or someone else's experience, then they are an observer and do not have a working knowledge. Therefore, you need to give them facts. The facts are: There are 49.9 million people in direct sales, with combined sales of $89.2 billion. There are 475,000 new distributors that join each week. Then, gently — not sarcastically — ask, "What part of MLM do you feel doesn't work?"You see, if it's someone else's experience, or something they've read, you cannot ask them, "Does it, as an industry, work?" prior to giving them facts, because they will just repeat what they've read or heard!! So, they will say to you, "No, it doesn't work."
From their own experience:
If, in helping them with their objection, they tell you that they personally had a bad experience, ask them to tell you about that experience. "What happened?" When they tell you, listen for clues of lack of training. You can even ask, "What were you not able to do?" Or, "What did they fail to train you how to do?"When you can finally get them to reveal this to you, then, and only then, can you ask them the question, "Does MLM, by itself, as an industry, work?" Then, "What do you feel it takes for a person to make it work?" If they give you a "type" of person that MLM works for, then ask them, "How is that person different than you?" What they tell you is what YOU WILL HAVE TO TRAIN THEM HOW TO DO!
If they tell you, "No, it doesn't work" after you've given them the facts, then you conclude the conversation and move on.
Someone who cannot see that $89 billion worth of products are moving to consumers, doesn't want to see it. They don't want it to be true, although it is. Why don't they want it to be true? Because, they don't want to fail — or fail again. They would prefer to blame it on the industry, rather than that there is simply something that they failed to learn how to do.
Seeing — or not seeing — what's right in front of you
When the first super microscope was first introduced, scientists looked through it at a piece of steel and saw that the steel was actually moving! Many scientists could not accept that to be true, even though it was true, and they were looking at it. The same thing occurred when a telescope revealed that there were more planets … many more … than scientists had thought before.
It's nothing new for people not to see what's right in front of them. And, you just can't build a business off of people who can't see what's in front of them.
I hope you will now master how to handle this objection.
Tim Sales
Make MLM work for you by becoming a Professional Inviter
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About the author:
Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the skills necessary to be successful in MLM. His MLM training is based on his personal success of building a downline of 56,000 people. Instantly access Tim's free MLM training and learn the steps to achieve MLM success at www.brilliantexchange.com/mlmtraining.
