What to Do if Your Prospect Says, "I'm Not a Salesperson"
Understanding the nature — and universal presence — of selling
Tim Sales of Brilliant Exchange
Adapted from a Tim Sales Newsletter.
Used by permission.
At some point — you can count on it — your prospect is going to ask you, in an apprehensive tone of voice, "Is this sales?" And, he is going to do this for one of three main reasons:
- The prospect is resistant to being rejected, or he's felt pressured by a salesperson at some point, and feels that's what salespeople do — and he doesn't want to do that to others. This could be because he feels you're pressuring him!
- Your prospect is not feeling confident in his ability to communicate. In my opinion, this is the main reason the question/objection comes up.
- The prospect has an image of a door-to-door salesperson, and he doesn't want to be viewed in that way. This is obviously an outdated view, as there are not a lot of people who go door-to-door today, other than UPS and FedEx and DHL.
All professions must promote or perish
To effectively handle this objection, you first need to ask some additional questions, to find out what the prospect has in mind when he thinks of sales or sales people.
If his response indicates to you that he has a negative picture of the profession of selling (in general), you need to explain that all professions — doctors, politicians, colleges, churches, etc. — must promote to make it known how they can make someone's life better. Any organization that doesn't promote perishes.
All sales is fundamentally communication; all communication is selling
Another way I've handled this objection is to discuss communication, and all the different ways he currently communicates, and draw the connection that he is already selling — by communicating.
Many people have an incomplete definition of selling. Most view selling as "moving a product or service to a consumer". The reason this is incomplete is because it omits the fact that communicating a concept, idea or desire is also selling.
- A person is "selling" when he is courting a girlfriend.
- A person is selling when he submits a resume for a job.
- A person is selling when he is asking his child to do his home work.
Almost all communications are "selling". So, this is really getting your prospect to look at — and see — what selling is, and what it isn't.
The MLM business isn't unprofessional, people are unprofessional
Also, you need to get your prospect to see that a profession/business isn't "professional" or "unprofessional"; people are either professional or unprofessional.
If someone has been in sales before, and has had a bad experience with it, it's generally because he got tired of "being in the convincing business". But, this is just of poor sales training.
Getting the training to handle every objection
No matter which version of the above objections your prospect has, there is one thing you must say to him (and ensure he understands) to effectively handle this question/objection. I cover issues like this on my weekly phone conference; and, you can learn how handle this — and every other — objection with the CD training set, Professional Inviter.
Much admiration,
Tim Sales
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.
