Stop Driving Your Prospects Away!
In our continued discussion on “How to say it,” this month’s is the most controversial of any subject I discuss. But as you will learn, it could be the VERY reason your prospect doesn’t sign up with you – or that if you DO sponsor them, you can’t seem to get or keep them focused on the business.
This very important subject is one of my Ten Communication Qualities and is named: “Make sure your body doesn’t distract the prospect.”
Prospects may choose to not join your MLM business for various reasons. In my years as an MLM success coach, I’ve trained thousands of people to avoid this one costly mistake that will most certainly drive people away from your business opportunity and your products.
There was a survey done at a very large trade show as people were walking out the door. They were asked a series of questions about the trade show.
Before I give you the answers to the survey, think about the money companies invest in trade shows: the booth fee (sometimes tens of thousands of dollars), the travel, the display materials (sometimes hundreds of thousands or even millions), the employees and sales reps that attend the trade show, etc.
While you’re thinking about all that expense, when asked the question, “What’s the number one reason you didn’t buy today?”guess what the answer was? The sales rep’s bad breath! Can you believe that!?
The prospects didn’t say the number one reason they didn’t buy was because of a poor presentation or that the event wasn’t exciting or anything else. The number one reason was bad breath!
This also goes for perfume and cologne. You may think your perfume makes you smell like a flower, but to some you might as well be wearing bug spray. You may even get compliments from some people – that doesn’t mean your specific prospect is going to love it.
People who wear perfume first put a dab on and over time their nose becomes less sensitive to it. Then for them to smell it they have to put two dabs, then three and pretty soon you can smell those people coming IN the room – not when they’ve walked past you, but when they enter the room!
If this scent is something that prospects don’t like they will be backing up (running away) trying to distance themselves from you. So, the rule is: MAKE SURE YOUR BODY DOESN’T DISTRACT YOUR PROSPECT.
This also goes for dress. Dress professionally. Ladies, if you have a beautiful body that you like to show off, great – but I don’t recommend it with prospects. Your body may get more of their attention than your business. The reason you’re there is to be interested in them – more specifically the problem your business can solve for them – not to have them be interested in your body.
Now I know what everyone thinks of when I say that: “But people buy you, not the business or the product.” This statement is very true. But what about you do they buy?
In network marketing, they buy your ability to help them get what they need or want as it relates to your business or product. If you dress provocatively and your prospects join the business because they like looking at you, you will have a heck of time trying to keep them focused on the business. When you’ve concluded your business for the day and you want to dress up sexily and wear perfume – great! But keep business and personal separate.
Your dress code should be appropriate for the situation and the others present. In my MLM business, I work with health clubs and doctors’ offices. It’s not appropriate to wear a suit or even dress clothes for that matter. Nice shorts and polo shirts get the best response in the gym. When we work in doctors’ offices we dress professionally but not in suits. In business presentations, suits work the best. The best rule of thumb is dress as nicely as the most nicely dressed guest.
From sloppily tied ties to body odor, from odd behaviors like tapping your feet to putting on lipstick in front of your prospects – all can be distracting and cause them to focus their attention on something other than the thing that can help them achieve what they want. And my final piece of MLM training advice whatever you do, make sure your breath is fresh!
Join me Tuesday May 17th at 10:00 pm Eastern time as I run through my list of things I’ve witnessed that caused the prospect’s attention to go somewhere else and how to prevent this from happening to you. As a bit of a warning, my experience tells me that people who are driving their prospects away are obviously UNAWARE they are doing it. So any temptation NOT to be on this call should be a warning that you may be driving your prospects away!
Much Respect and Admiration,
Tim Sales
Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the skills necessary to be successful in MLM. His MLM training is based on his personal success of building a downline of 56,000 people. Instantly access Tim’s free MLM training and learn the steps to achieve success at www.firstclassmlmtools.com/MLM-Training-W13.aspx
For more in-depth information on this topic study Lecture 6 of Brilliant Communicator.
August 24th, 2007 at 9:50 am
Wow-what a lesson! Former top model Tyra Banks had this subject on her talk show one day. The very SAME saleslady was put in TWO outfits in two different rooms of people. She was selling electronic equipment and gave great presentations(word for word) to both groups of listeners. With one group she looked like a “sexpot” with hair out, heavy makeup, and cleavage. With another she wore her hair in a bun, wore eyeglasses, and a suit. With which outfit did she get more sales? The sexy one right? No! The SUIT!
March 4th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Nice work keep it up