How to communicate effectively online

Many network marketers have realized the new gold mine of prospects that is now at their fingertips.  Many people wrongly assume that Facebook, MySpace, etc. are great places to start putting links for their business opportunity and/or presentation.  When contacting people and making new friends it is important to realize that initial conversations should be focused on the prospect, never sharing your business unless you determine they actually need what you offer.

You’re not looking to make a sale every time you meet someone.  You’re looking to see if there is a sale to be made.  The only process that really works is for the prospect to “self-identify” themself as a prospect for your business and/or products and services.  It is important to listen more than you talk, and ask questions to discover how you can best help them.

You must put your own agenda aside and engage in conversation with the prospect.  The most successful sales people are good listeners.  You want to discover three things before sharing your opportunity:

• Is there a problem to be solved?
• Do they have a need and desire to change?
• Do you have the right solution for them?

The degree to which a person’s motivation and commitment to change is present is in direct proportion to the amount of discomfort they feel about their present situation and will determine their openness to your solution.  Do they want and need what you have?  Most of the “no’s” you get are because you’re trying to impose a solution on someone before you know a need exists.

All the sales cliches are false, e.g. “every no is a step closer to yes.”  Most of the time, sales people have elevator speeches and are using manipulative questions to get the answers they want.  This usually raises a “red flag” and leads to an automatic “NO.”

In the traditional sales model, closing questions are used before qualifying a prospect, e.g. ” If I could show you a way to make big money working part time from home, would you be interested?”  Then qualifying questions follow, e.g. “  If you saw the opportunity and had the funds available, how soon would you be able to begin.”  This is commonly used in telemarketing, and is being taught to most network marketers as well.  The success ratio is extremely low using this method .. maybe 1 out of 200.

The relationship selling model begins with establishing a relationships and then asking questions.  Then new questions are formed based on the previous answer you get.  During the process, you can decide whether even to continue based on the answers you are getting, which can save you time.  Unfortunately, most in network marketing are being trained in traditional methods which are not as effective in communicating with your online prospects.