Welcome MLM’ers,
Getting Your Closing Edge By Direct Strategy
Getting your closing edge by direct strategy is one of the most challenging skills any marketer will ever learn on-line or offline. It is the ability to develop and find a closing edge (i.e. closing business deals) by using sensible means I’ll call a strategy. If you’re new to network marketing, this article may be for you. If you’re a seasoned veteran, you might be able to pick up a few new ideas.
Use Compelling Messages
Here’s the biggest challenge. You have to find a way to use and effectively communicate a compelling message encouraging others to tune into whatever it is you’re saying. I will carefully say that I’ve heard some powerful marketers and I’ve heard ones that are hugely convoluted. They don’t follow a typical purchasing mindset. Step 1) work on developing your messages ahead of time. Test them with other network marketers before going live. There’s nothing worse than listening to someone deliver words you can’t follow. Step 2) Get the marbles out of your mouth. This problem is very common to new marketers. If you’re tripping over your tongue, no one will follow you. Speak clearly and more slowly than you would during a normal conversation and use a good phone. I say this with the only intention to help you improve your messages. If people can’t hear what you’re saying without straining, you’ll get poor closing rates. Smoothness and intelligibility are the main keys to finding your edge.
Teleconferencing
Here’s a method that’s hugely powerful. I’ve spent thousands of hours dialing into various calls, hearing teleconferences that would astound you. A vast majority of them aren’t too hot but there are a few who are absolutely tops. These are the people you want to hear. You’ve got to hear a lot to later establish your own messages, methodicallyl prepared beforehand. (HINT: write it down on paper, practice, then deliver. Never do it cold.) That brings us to a naturally prevailing quesion, what are top producers doing that you’re not?
You Want Compelling Information
First of all, you want compelling information that’s entirely developed. I call this information valuable ’ how to content on your calls’. The same holds true for any other communication medium you might use. No matter what your preferred method of communication is, there are a few things most people do to guarantee a gain or loss in profits.
Here’s the Part That Really Stirs Up Dander
Some uplines want you to open your network and get to the business of ‘getting business done’. The wisest ones tell you who they’re targeting. Researching your audience and knowing how they think is important because successful teleconferencing depends on what people want and will demand. So, I pose this important question to MLM’ers and affiliates alike, how do you get your closing edge?
The right prospecting skill makes you money for the rest of your life. Find a series of messages people will respond to and you’ve got it made. It won’t come effortlessly. You’ll have to work at your content…., then implement and test. Refine, implement and test.
I’ll use an example in telecom. This is by far the cheapest, easiest method to use, but it’s not-so-easy to master. Huge persistence is required. You’re always guiding people on your call and you’re looking for ways to serve your audiences better. So head to your calls. Use your content but be ready to improve your messages to find that edge.
Affiliates Have the Same Problem
Truth be told, new affiliates and even advanced ones must always test their messaging. Miss the boat on messaging and you can kiss your conversions goodbye. A conversion is a marketing term applying to prospects who opt into something valuable you currently offer, in favor of purchasing something you market later on, assuming that product will naturally align to your audience’s needs. That’s what marketers mean by using the term ‘relevancy in your ad message’.
Common Q’s Others Ask
… is, “What am I doing wrong? I’m talking to people, lots of them, and I can’t get them to sign up. I just can’t close. Give me some rebuttals, sprinkle in that special sauce you use, then show me how to incorporate the magic bullet putting my prospects out of their misery (or in the very least, putting an end to mine).”
Sounds familar? Sure it does. Here’s the biggest challenge for most marketers when they’re using the phone. If you have a solid set of rebuttals (and there are many), assuming you listen carefully to what people are asking and saying (as you listen between their words), you won’t really need rebuttals. So you have to develop the ability to know what they’re saying even though they may not be telling you directly. You’ll then be able to use your logic to overcome many objections, but you’ll naturally visit with that person. However, that’s not where the biggest problem with closing lies. What you’ve got to do is help your own mind realize that closings don’t appear at the end of a discussion. They will appear early in the prospecting process when you’re either not listening (a challenge we all face) or realize what they were intending to say in the first place. Miss this point and you’ve just recruited them into another industry, company, or program. I’ve been there so don’t fret.
What Trips Up Marketers?
So what trips up marketers? The problem isn’t closing, at least 75% of the time. Almost always, the problem appears..again in prospecting. What I’m saying is — if you’re busy forcing people to do what YOU want them to do (which is to go to a call, then follow-up with you through any means), you’re wanting those prospects to join your business opportunity more than they want to be there themselves. That’s the first problem.
Direct Pointers
Here are a few direct pointers helping you get your closing edge:
* Then pinpoint more closely what they’re ‘wanting to tell you’…but won’t. Help that person tell you what’s naturally the real point, then allow them to use their objections. When you’re in charge of the conversation hinging from your expertise, you’ll be able to sift and sort through your people, bringing the right people to the call. So, you only need to help those people overcome their perceived fears, in favor of finding solutions to their most pressing needs.
4 Things You Have To Be Doing To Get Your Closing Edge:
There are 4 things you have to be doing everytime you close because closing begins early in prospecting.
They Are –
1. Sincere Enthusiasm. Are you truly there for them or are you there for yourself?
2. Smoothness. Project confidence in what you’ve come to know.
3. Sincere Listening. Let go of your own inner dialogue so that you can pinpoint the real objection, helping that person overcome fear. It’s okay for people to feel fear. Your job is to help them sincerely feel comfortable in knowing you because you’re the only one who can solve their problems. At least, that’s the mindset you should be projecting but it must sound sincere. You’re giving propsects confidence to move forward…, and
4. Closing. So that you will consistently close the same prospects over and over again, they only know this fact when you’ve repeatedly proven yourself to them. Lack of proper leadership is the most common reason why some marketers can’t close a refrigerator door. I’m adding a bit of humor here. So, your closings will ultimately boil down to you (as in what you offer in your expertise) plus the addition of a quality system you offer (ensuring their success). This idea applies to both building an active downline or helping someone truly improve their health.
In Step 4, prospects will offer what are called ‘buying questions’. Seasoned marketers realize this when they consistently hit ’close’ or ‘no close’. The no close means you didn’t offer what that person needed. You must ensure (and follow through) that you’ll be there to help them find valuable solutions, based on what people demand. I’m repetitious about this fact in business. It’s not about forcing a purchase. You will close prospects when all other curiosities have been answered, but don’t scrimp on spending necessary time. Kindly forget sweeping questions under the carpet. Humans just don’t buy that way. They do operate in logical ways so your messages must fit into natural thought processes and behaviors.
Conclusions
Listening tends to hang up a lot of network marketers and affiliate marketers. It’s not easy to master communications at the front or back end of a campaign because that skill requires constant honing.
Listening is THE most important skill set of all. It’s the one we either lack the most (because we’re too busy thinking about our own thoughts). If your listening skills aren’t grounded in logic but get caught up in your own emotion, prospects will mirror back to you what must be solved (fear of committment or dedication, to name a few). So you’ll miss what’s really being said by your prospect.
Listening requires that we remove or at least silence apart from the ‘I’ ego, what’s going on in the other person’s mind. Eckhart Tolle says, “We’ll know when we’ve found that place. It’s when we remove ‘me’ (from the equation). That’s going to be intense when you’re newer to business, but it gets easier the more you close prospects. Until you do that much, you’ll miss on your closings.
Luckily in marketing, we don’t have to remove the ‘me’ for all things, but we do when we’re doing this one thing. You must get out of your own way, and you must be willing to listen intently, patiently and earnestly. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Then let the other person’s process unfold. That’s the only way they will begin to trust you. Listen to what they’re telling you. Listen to what they’re not voicing (because they want to be accepted by you). Then, use naturally calm logic to help them overcome whatever they create (by default). One last point, you must be careful not to zero in on literal meanings. You’ll miss what they’re really saying. And, you must not lie. Listening is a fluid skillset, but it is not a rigid procedure. If you use a rigid procedure, you’re rarely do yourself or anyone else any good.
To find your ‘groove’, let go. Be your natural self, and then listen. If you’re not sure, help that person move through their confusion. Avoid sentiment on your part by using sympathy. This doesn’t help the prospect see what has to change. Use a little bit of empathy, “I can understand that. Now…, let’s consider X, Y, and Z’. Move your prospect into solid solutions. Your job is to identify the underlying root problem like — tired of a daily job, tired of working for a boss, tired of too little pay, wanting a change, looking for independence, or needing to generate some income from home.
Now Move Into Your Groove for Closing
When you’re prospecting or right before you’re ready to do so, find something that makes you laugh. Some marketers will use stand up comedy. The main point is to find your “relaxed state of mind” so that you can let go of outcomes. One master marketer I knew would dress up in various occupational garments (like a surgeon) before contacting his list. If these ideas don’t work for you, find something that does. It should really make you bellow (to relax your gut and to let go of your ‘I-ness’. Once you find that ultimate state of relaxation, you’re ready to ‘tune into’ your prospect. Then…smile and ‘heel’ them. Help them feel your ease and move them through the close.
This is the feeling part that combines hearing with feeling. You can’t have one without the other or your prospect knows it. They must know beyond every listening moment that you’re ’there’ for them.
When you ‘heel’ your prospects, the right ones will come up outta nowhere. Then, watch what happens in closing. When closing stops being about you and starts being about your prospect, it’ll happen. BOOM!! It feels so cool. It’s the same rush we all feel many times in our lives. It’s where we find our real selves. That’s when you’ve helped someone become better in the outcome. That’s when you’ve then expanded yourself. That’s what honest business should mean.
I hope this helps because when you get it, you’ll know you have found your groove. Then, you’ll spend the rest of the time trying to get back there. Once you do that, work on staying there for longer periods of time. The more you do this, the more you’ll be able to convey satisfaction (projecting relaxation). If not, then find it again for the first time…, and more.
Above All, Have Fun
Above all. Have fun. Pull up your comfy chair just as you would if you were talking to family. Those people out there are like family. Open up and let things flow. Last point, be sincere. You can’t be enthusiastic if you don’t care.
Happy Prospecting,
B. Brinkmeyer, MBA
