Handling a Prospect That Has Heard Bad News About Your Company
January 1st, 2009Question from Byron:
Hi Tim,
How do you handle it when there is some negative news on the internet about your company? I’m with a great company and what we do for clients is wonderful.
When do you handle this? Do you handle this as soon as you speak with someone after they have viewed Brilliant Compensation or do you handle this after you have met for a 1 on 1 presentation?
Thank you as always for your first class advice.
Byron
Hello Byron,
I will answer your question of “when do you handle this” a bit later in this article. Let me give you some general information first.
It used to be that when there was an article written in a newspaper or magazine it only lasted however long that particular newspaper or magazine circulated. For example, if that magazine article was in a dentist’s office for 3 months then that article was “around” for 3 months.
But today anyone with internet access can search for anything written or said. And, an even bigger challenge is that ANYONE can write or say anything on the internet!
With this comes a dire situation - most people do not know how to evaluate the information they read, watch or hear. Evaluation means to discover the value or worth of. Many people place the SAME value on “so-and-so’s” YouTube video as they do on factual content. This creates a lot of confusion!
So the first step in you being able to successfully handle negative content on the internet is for you to help your prospect learn “who” to listen to. If you’ve not watched the video I created named “M.L.M: Who’s Lying?” I recommend you watch it so you can discuss it with your prospect so they too can learn how to place the correct value on what they read, watch or hear. I’ll provide you a link to the video at the end of this article but please finish reading it first so you get the full understanding of how to handle this situation.
While you’re on the website that I’m going to link to, do three things: one, watch the video; two, click around and see how each objection is handled; and three, learn what questions or objections are “general M.L.M” objections versus your company specific objections.
Let’s suppose your company is named “XYZ”. When someone types “XYZ” into a search engine, an article comes up “XYZ scam.” That’s probably not a company specific article - that’s a general M.L.M article using 50 year old objections. By reading the First Class M.L.M website, you’ll learn which objections are general M.L.M objections and which ones are specific to your company.
If there’s something specific to your company, find out (either from your upline or calling your company) if there’s an official response for the specific accusation. That way, if your prospect asks you about something (or you decide to share something with them) you can respond, “I have the company’s official response to that.”
Byron, now I can answer your question of “WHEN do you answer this?” I would not offer this information prior to Brilliant Compensation - unless they’ve brought it up. So, if your prospect brings it up, you discuss it right then. If the prospect does not bring it up, I would bring it up after Brilliant Compensation, whenever I’m talking about the company.
You will have to decide whether you offer the negative information to your prospect prior to them finding it on their own - or if you wait to see if they find it and then try to handle it.
My experience on this is that if they find the negative content ON THEIR OWN within the first 2 weeks without you discussing it with them, they will feel you’ve scammed them.
As you may know from listening to Professional Inviter, my company was in the media quite a bit in a negative way. While they were going through this negativity, I developed some ways to bring this up with people. The two places I would discuss it would either be in the follow up conversation (after Brilliant Compensation) or in their first training session.
Here is the way I would bring it up.
Once they told me they liked Brilliant Compensation and were interested, I would go through a more thorough “qualifying” with them to ensure I wanted to invest my full effort and time into them. I set up these qualifying questions by saying something like, “John, I don’t want to offend you in what I’m going to ask, but if you and I are going to be business partners I need to know what kind of person you are. You see, I don’t know if you’re the type of person who quits things at the first sign of adversity, or if you’re the type of person who accomplishes what you set out to do regardless of the adversity and difficulty. In your own view of yourself, do you quit things easily?”
Then listen to their response - you truly are qualifying them! But don’t come off as a jerk in the way you say or ask this. Ask it as a concerned business owner who wants to know if their partner is a quitter. Wouldn’t you want to ask your potential spouse this question?
After this discussion, you can then ask, “Do you believe everything the media says is factual? Meaning, everything you read in the newspaper, magazines or on the internet… is it factual in your eyes or is it someone’s opinion?” Normally they will respond with something like, “No - it’s not factual” or “Sometimes it’s factual.” You can also ask them, “Do you agree that there are two sides to every story?”
Then say something like, “There have been positive, neutral and negative articles written in the past about my company and there will probably be more of each in the future. I need your commitment - and I will make the same commitment to you - that you will make your decisions based on facts and that you will not run at the first sign of adversity. Do I have your commitment on that?”
If they agree, you can discuss the negativity at that time or wait until their first training.
I know that I will not win the “most popular” contest with my answer to this question. This is one of those issues that no one wants to talk about. Most people prefer to wait and see if the prospect finds any negative information about the company and then try to deal with it IF it comes up.
How I deal with it comes from how I want others to deal with me. But… I’m just one guy. Now that you know my view, it’s your decision from here.
I hope this helps you Byron.
Here’s the link to the website. The movie is the first video you see: http://www.firstclassmlm.com
Tim Sales
PS: When communicating with your prospect about negativity they’ve read or heard, it’s important to use the correct amount of assertiveness. Not too much and not too little. This is one of the Ten Communication Qualities that, used well, will cause your prospects to listen to you and follow your suggestions. Get them in the CD set “Brilliant Communicator”.
