Sales People Make Bad Networkers?

Years ago I remember reading a study that evaluated who tended to do the best and worst in network marketing. The research looked at people's vocational background for its measurements.

The results showed that:

• People with a sales background tended to do the WORST.
• People with backgrounds in nursing, teaching, and especially coaching, did the BEST.

These results surprised a lot of people who thought that salespeople would have the most network marketing success.

I'm not sure who conducted that study or how formal it was, but it makes some sense.

Sales persons are often after the one-time sale. They use techniques to persuade, motivate, overcome objections, move beyond people's defenses and go for the close. In short, salespeople have a reputation for doing and saying anything to get people to buy.

Actually, that's what BAD salespeople do. And most people in sales are bad at their game.

Here's what a great salesperson does:

1. Qualifies their prospect to make sure that the product or service is one that their potential customer could really benefit from.
2. Develops rapport (relationship) with that person to establish trust.
3. The close occurs naturally because it is the only logical outcome of the process once the legitimate need is established and the product/service is clearly the best solution.
4. Establishes a relationship with his or her prospects that lasts for months, years and even a lifetime.

Even when with big ticket, rarely purchased items, a superior salesperson will maintain a long-term relationship with clients because re-sales, are much easier than initial sales.

An excellent example of this is Joe Girard. The Guinness Book of Records named him "The World's Greatest Salesman" ... 12 times!

Joe was a car salesman. In a profession filled with men and women who will do anything to make a one-time sale, and then dump the customer, Joe followed up and maintained relationships with his customers for years and even decades.

You can read all about it in his book: How To Sell Anything To Anybody (a highly recommended read).

Background actually has very little to do with success. Your own attitude and how you relate to your prospects has everything to do with success.

Abandon hype. It doesn't work.

Embrace integrity. It’s what people respond to.

Interview your prospects to first understand them, their goals, their ambitions and their drive and motivations.

Only then can you decide if your opportunity is right for your prospect. If not, tell them so, and move on to the next lead.

The first step in the process is to QUALIFY leads. This will save you a lot of time often spent on giving presentations to prospects who won’t join anyway.

Qualify your prospects quickly and only give presentations to those who are qualified (which will only be about 20% of them). This allows you to move through leads more quickly and find your leaders more efficiently.