It’s Only Sharing
It’s Only Sharing…
“Hey there college buddy/lifelong friend/long-lost uncle. It’s David Gignilliat. What’s up?
… Remember that time in third grade when you split your pants on the playground? Yeah, that was awesome.
… How’s Jenna and the kids? Are you still working at Acme Widgets?
<This brand of small talk can usually go on for a few more minutes until …>
… I know I haven’t spoken to you in years, but I thought I’d give you a call/drop you a line/say ‘hello’/see how things are going. While I have you on the phone/staring at your e-mail, I’d like to share with you a business opportunity that’s been …”
At some network marketing companies, your training manual might include a sample conversation starter just like this one. It’s merely a laid-back way to approach your natural market with your business opportunity. You may even be instructed to send a pre-approach letter to your 500 closest acquaintances to warm things up before you make this call. Or you might even role-play these interactions with your sponsor or training manager to make them sound more natural.
Don’t get me wrong. Tapping your natural market is an excellent way to start growing your MLM business. These are people that know you already and they may want to use your services, … and just not know it yet. They may even be able to refer you to more people that you can share a business opportunity with.
But what’s all this sharing about, really? Sharing is a concept that has dominated MLM sales for years. It’s a way of gently re-packaging the truth to obscure how your products and your opportunity are distributed to others. Despite sounding easy, the fact remains that it’s still sales, and you still must have solid fundamentals to be successful. The idea that you don’t really have to sell anything but simply share your idea/concept/business opportunity with others is one of the great fallacies of network marketing. Yet somehow the Pollyanna fantasy of singing folk songs in endless fields of swirly-whirly candy canes … and just sharing a business opportunity with others nudges its way into our MLM mindset.
So what does a “share” really get you anyway? Yes, you may get a warm fuzzy feeling that you are growing your business. But most likely you’re not. In reality, you’re deluding yourself with a bunch of feel-good contacts that will likely never result in a successful business. This is because a warm market will never supply you with the amount of people you need to make it big in MLM. It makes the “business” seem easy when you first start, but eventually your warm market runs dry. At this point some people go to desperate measures to salvage their business, passing out flyers on car windshields, cold calling strangers, searching malls for prospects, etc. But for more then 95% of networks marketers, eventually all your “sharing” gets you is a failed business.
Now don’t get me wrong, word of mouth and referrals will always be a powerful tool for salespeople in the network marketing industry, but it’s most effective when the referrals and buzz come to you. By sharing an opportunity with others, yes, you are engaging in a “word of mouth” approach, but not in the true sense of the phrase. When you hear an opinion from someone who has nothing to gain or lose from saying it, that’s word of mouth. The “word of mouth” technique taught to you in MLM, — namely, your recommendation with strings attached — is tainted. You want people to choose you and your opportunity. By disguising a sales pitch as “word of mouth” you not only reinforce unprofessional business techniques, you also risk permanently damaging your relationship with anyone you try this approach on.
Don’t just expect your friends and family to buy from you or join a business based on your recommendation, just because you’re you. For practice, you should pretend that they are a complete stranger and they do not know anything about you, your product or your business.
Or pretend that you are a salesman. Because you are.
Once you’ve accepted this, you can start to learn the real way to make network marketing work.
Check out Magnetic Sponsoring or The Renegade System for more information.
By David Gignilliat
Filed under All, Articles, Network Marketing
