Prospects Say The Darnest Things!

Sometimes prospects can be very frustrating can't they?

It's uncanny how so many of them seem to have acquired the unabridged "Encyclopedia of Excuses."

I've never seen it, but I'm sure it exists because prospects seem to all tap into the same resource for coming up with reasons they can't join our business.

My car broke down.
I'm sick
My spouse is sick
My kid is sick
I don't have any money
I'm too busy

Yep, they can come up with every excuse in "the book."

Let me translate those excuses into "Entrepreneurese."

They all actually mean the same thing:

"I don't believe I'll be successful."

It's not that your prospects are always lying. The objections they raise may be real.

But that's not the point.

If they believed they'd make a lot of money with our business ... they would join despite the obstacles.

So our job is to bolster their faith.

So how do we help them overcome their doubt? We don't.

Doubt is not the opposite of faith.

Fear is the opposite of faith.

So we need to identify their fears and help them overcome them.

Fear is a matter of focus. There are definitely risks in starting a new business, and those risks are not going to go away whether they join or not. But fear is alleviated when they focus on success rather than failure.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to refocus your prospect's mind and emotions on their dreams and aspirations, rather than on "what if I don't succeed."

You need to also control your focus when talking with prospects. Don't get distracted by the excuse of the moment. Remember there is almost always a deeper fear underneath it that is causing the prospect to delay or withdraw.

Also don't get too frustrated with them. They're simply expressing their honest feelings, and a person's feelings are never "wrong."

Many years ago I was working a MLM company that was located in Florida.

I'll never forget one prospect. He loved our compensation plan and products. He was very excited about our marketing tools. But when I followed up to enroll him, he said ...

"I'd never join any company that's located in Florida!"

I couldn't believe my ears. I'd heard a lot crazy excuses in my life, but this was a first. Of course I asked him why in the world he wouldn't join a company just because they happened to be located in the beautiful state of Florida.

He said that he didn't know what it was, but he'd never had a good experience with any Florida company.

I told him that was crazy, but he didn't join.

A few months went by and then he called me, admitting that it was kind of nutso to think that every company was bad just because they happened to reside in a particular state. So he joined with me.

The ironic thing is:

That year the company was hit by a hurricane and put out of business!