MLM Network Marketing Training -MLM Success- The Secrets to Listening Power

I’m Listening

By Kim T. Gordon

“I’m listening,” may be the catch phrase for fictional TV psychiatrist Frasier Crane, but it should also be the mantra of every successful home-based and small business owner. Listening is the single most important component of any interaction with a prospect or customer.

An effective sales meeting or call contains two components: asking questions and listening to the answers. If you do both well, you’ll build trust and rapport. By asking the right questions, you can uncover your prospect’s needs and find out what customers really want. Listen for facts, feelings, beliefs and desires, in order to respond and frame your next questions appropriately. Listen carefully and never rush. Thoughtful pauses are part of natural conversation. Many business owners find focusing on the customer in this way helps them build sales by leaps and bounds. It also takes their minds off any first-meeting jitters.

The MLM Consultant Approach.

Instead of thinking about your one-on-one meeting or call to a prospect as a “pitch,” practice consultative selling. That’s uncovering and filling needs in a friendly, non-combative and support of way. Your attention must be “outer” or “other-directed.” Your meeting shouldn’t focus on, “What I offer;” it should be about, “What you get.” Begin your conversation with an opening benefit that underscores the reason your prospect is meeting or speaking with you. Then, it’s a matter of asking good closed and open-end questions that will help you understand your prospect’s needs and expectations. It’s a sure sign your meeting’s going well if your prospect is doing most of the talking.

Before your next meeting or telephone call, it’s important to plan what types of questions you’ll ask. Closed-end questions are great conversation starters. These may be answered with a fact, or yes or no. If your company specializes in computer network solutions, for example, your typical closed-end questions might be,” Who is your present service provider?” or “Are your department’s computers networked?” Open-end questions reveal the emotions behind the answers. You might ask, “How well do you think your present computer network is functioning?”

Tips for Overcoming Objections in Network Marketing

Here are four ways listening can lead to sales success.

1. Paraphrasing

Like you, your customers or clients want to feel they’re understood. And as a good listener, you have an opportunity to demonstrate your empathy through paraphrasing — which means to validate your prospect’s statements by rephrasing them in your own words. For example, a prospect tells you he’s hesitant to switch suppliers at this time for fear of missing important deadlines during the transition. Your response might be, “I understand. Switching to the wrong supplier right now could be risky.” This communicates to the prospect that you understand how important it is to meet deadlines and that you could be the right supplier should he become convinced the benefits of change would outweigh the risks.

2. Lead-ins and Endings

These are handy verbal tools to use when paraphrasing. They further confirm your desire to understand and fulfill your prospect’s needs, and they make smooth conversational bridges. Lead-ins are phrases such as, “It sounds as if,” and “What you’re saying is…” And endings include phrases such as, “…isn’t that right?” and “…wouldn’t you?”

For example, suppose you’re a bridal consultant who is meeting with a bride-to-be and her mother. You’ve drawn them out with open and closed-end questions, and the bride’s mother has given you a long list of desires for her daughter’s wedding, plus a number of concerns about everything from the cake to the tablecloths. You might say, “It sounds as if, while we should carefully review all the checklisted items for the banquet, your main concern is that everything from the food and decor through the cake should be unique and of the highest quality within the budget we discussed, isn’t that right?” The lead in, “It sounds as if,” demonstrates you’ve been listening carefully, and the ending, “…isn’t that right?” will undoubtedly elicit a resounding “Yes!”

3. Case histories

These are stories of the ways you’ve solved challenges for clients or customers in the past. Write down enough case histories to handle the typical objections you encounter in prospect meetings. Make them short and to the point; no more than a long written paragraph each. Then memorize them.

Case histories are excellent for demonstrating your company’s ability to meet or beat the competition without directly challenging your prospect’s previous choices. The key is to listen carefully so you’ll know which case history to use. Let’s say you’re an independent manufacturer’s rep and you’re meeting with a retail prospect. The mlm prospect relates how his only problems with his present supplier are their time-consuming ordering process and high minimum per order. Your best bet would be to tell a case history that relates how another retailer benefited by your policy of low minimum orders and easy ordering by fax. By using a case history in this way, you’ll demonstrate how other retailers, perhaps his own competitors, are benefiting by choosing your firm.

4. “Just Suppose” statements

In the real world, off-the-shelf solutions rarely work. “Just suppose” statements are useful when proposing solutions that meet your prospect’s uniquely specified needs. And they combine paraphrasing, lead-ins and endings into one powerful bundle.

If you were the independent rep described above, you might say, “Just suppose you could get the same product line you’ve been happy with and easy, 24 hour ordering by fax with no minimum to buy…you’d like that wouldn’t you?’ Your prospect would respond, “Yes, I would like that.” And you’d be ready to close.

To prepare for your next meeting, write down the types of questions you plan to ask. Then make a list of the common objections and consider how you’ll overcome them using case histories, paraphrasing and “just suppose” statements. By listening carefully and proposing custom solutions, you’ll build quality relationships with your customers that lead to successful long-term sales for your new Network Marketing company.

Presented by PassionFire Intl

Blessings…

doug Firebaugh / PassionFire Intl http://www.passionfire.com

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