Which hand are you holding out?

It is an age old question in network marketing, one I know I get asked about the most…. do you lead with the business or the product. Here is my experience…I started by leading with the product because it was most comfortable for me to do. I prospected so many people only showing them the product because I knew in my heart my product would help them. I would learn everything I needed to know about my product line, I could have become some expert in nutritionals. I packed up with a bunch of copies of clinical studies, testimonials, whatever I could find and hit the phones. I prospected a lot of people. Sure, I had a good number of enrollments, and many would reorder, and that was a blessing. But rarely, repeat, rarely would someone go and prospect or bring new people into the business, so I ended up being the only one recruiting, the only one enrolling. It was frustrating. I would scratch my head and wonder why no one else could do what I was doing? The truth was, because they didn’t join to build a business, they joined to get their product cheaper. Whammo! Truth sucks sometimes. I had been prospecting and growing my business on a house of cards that was solely depending on my prospecting.

If you lead with only product, then you are going to recruit lots of customers and that’s ok, but normally customers will consume for their own use and may throw you a referral every so often. Typically you have to wait for that customer to feel some benefit from the product which could take days, weeks or months. Sometimes one of those distributors will have a response to the product, they then go and build a business based on their own story. That’s fine and a great way to build a business, but you first have to sift for those that are interested in the product in the first place, then sift for those that actually have such a great response from your product, you really are leaving a huge group of people behind.

So I switched my focused and only went to prospect those interested in making money.. I got a lot of people that wanted to make money fast, but didn’t want to invest much, I got A LOT of “tire kickers”, I got a lot of people that would tell me they were going to make me rich! What I got was a lot of spurters. People that come in and spurt then fizzle because they didn’t get the “whole picture” of what this industry was about. That network marketing isn’t about a substitution for a second or third job; it is about building a business. I learned that money doesn’t solve money problems and I cannot make anyone do anything they do not want to do. I learned you cannot make someone become an entrepreneur if they don’t have the desire. Period. I also had to deal with my own issues about the industry. I was frustrated again. If leading with product was weak and leading with the business was weak what was the answer?????

Well, first, I had to learn what this industry really is, and it wasn’t until I was able to get past my misconceptions did I fall in love with it. I also had to learn that I did not want to peddle product, and that wasn’t what I signed up for. I didn’t want to be a product expert. It seemed I was stuck in between the two. I sought out suggestions from industry trainers. And I heard something that just lit the lightbulb in my head. I believe it was Randy Gage that said lead with the SOLUTION. It clicked. I listened and learned. Just because you started your own business, I can almost guarantee your distributor kit did not come with a crystal ball. You have no clue and no place trying to determine what need your prospect has UNTIL THEY TELL YOU. Your job is to show them the solution and ask them very simply, do they have a need for either the product and/or the business. That’s it! When I understood this simple concept, prospecting was a breeze. If they didn’t have a need for either, that was ok. I just went out and found more who did. This concept has become my fundamental belief on prospecting.

I believe there are more broke people in the world than sick people.

I believe if I had $200 in cash in one hand, and $200 in product in another hand, more people will reach for the cash. Think about it, if you were my prospect, what would you do? But my job is to offer both hands. It is not my place to judge what their need is. It is really none of my business. My job is to offer a solution and let them share with me what their need is. If I do this, and then teach others to do this, my business grows. It really is that simple.