The good news is that our story in this industry has a happy ending.
But here’s a few, so you have an idea…OH THE MISERY!!
Have you ever tried to prospect your waiter while celebrating your 21st wedding anniversary? We have.
Have you ever messaged someone you haven’t talked to in 20 years and asked them to take a look at your business only to have them block you or ignore your attempts to contact them again? Sadly, this has happened too….a few times. Lesson learned!
Have you ever had someone to your house to pitch you on new windows, a water softener, or insurance, and you end up pitching them your business? Yes…all three. We even sent samples home with them.
Everyone within 3 feet of me was a prospect. Friends, family, delivery people, waiters…even people who accidentally hit my number and dialed me. “Hey, while I have you on the phone…let me tell you about this great new thing we are doing…”
The point is, I’m about to cast some heavy stones at some networkers, but I just wanted to let you know that Greg and I have made mistakes too… but that doesn’t mean we should be going easy on those that are committing some MAJOR prospecting mistakes on Social Media and online.
Something people fail to remember…
The Internet Never Forgets and It’s Ruining It for Everyone Else
I once heard that success in business is all about ‘time’ and ‘place’. As a professional marketer, I would add ‘message’ to the equation as well.
Unfortunately, network marketers today are being taught online prospecting methods, which include the wrong message, at the wrong time and most definitely in all the wrong places!
Here’s the truth!
There is a VERY fine line between prospecting on social media and spamming people. I’m sorry to say that most network marketers have been turned into human spam bots by their upline and company leaders…‘Disposable distributors’ tasked with the job of spreading the word about their company’s products or opportunity, at the expense of the individual’s reputation and risking the suspension of their social media accounts.
Here are 2 examples of the WRONG WAY to prospect using social media that I received in my inbox this past week:
That secret being:
“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care” – Theodore Roosevelt
The screenshots above are weak prospecting attempts from people who haven’t yet figured out that building a business is not about tricking people or finding the right copy/paste FB messages to send to strangers.
It’s about actually caring about people, becoming a person of value and being someone uniquely positioned to help someone with their problems.
That last one is critical “uniquely positioned to help someone with their problems.”
Any idiot can copy and paste a message into the Private Message function on Facebook.
What sets you apart from the rest of the desperate reps hitting people’s inboxes with their new “ground floor” opportunities or cash programs?
Now this doesn’t mean, prospecting online doesn’t work. I know some very skilled recruiters who are excellent at online prospecting, but just like offline prospecting, they’ve devoted the time and effort to learn this very difficult skill and have mastered it. And if that’s the strategy you want to deploy, you need to do it right or else!
But if you’re still a little fuzzy on whether you are a spammer or not, here’s a guide of sorts…
Top 5 Warning Signs That Your Prospecting Efforts are Actually SPAM
1) Your first private message to a stranger on social media includes a link to join your opportunity.
2) You get angry replies via private messaging and/or you have been reported as a spammer.
3) You post links to your opportunity or website in the comments section of other people’s social media posts.
4) You compulsively want to talk about your company or products, without anyone asking you to share.
Finally… this one is the most important one…
5) You engage in interactions online, with a hidden agenda, hoping to transition the topic to something that would get people interested in your opportunity, without caring about knowing the other person.
This last one for me is a big one but could also be controversial.
After all, #5 is the very definition of prospecting (online or offline), which even when done right… can still feel awkward, result in people getting angry at you, and is very unleveraged, which is why Whit and I eventually decided to stop prospecting all together.
But here’s the interesting thing…
“When We Stopped Prospecting People, Our Business Started Growing!”
I can’t tell you how relieved and at peace we felt, when we once again, were able to go out with friends, visit a family member’s home, or be in a public place without having to think about prospecting anyone.
Just enjoying being normal again, was incredible, after two years of being taught that “everyone was a prospect” and approaching every conversation with a hidden agenda. We were free!
That’s because it wasn’t until we STOPPED prospecting, that our business actually started growing!
Weird, right?
At this point, you may be asking, “then how the heck did your business grow?”
Well before I answer that, I have to say that there are people who are very skilled prospectors and recruiters who completely disregard the issues I mentioned above.
They knowingly and without shame, approach every interaction with a stranger as a prospecting opportunity.
Getting yelled at or cursed out by prospects is no big deal, as long as some people say ‘yes.’
And just like doing it right offline, there’s a way to successfully do it online as well. After learning and becoming very good at prospecting, we decided that we didn’t want to build our business this way.
The problem with prospecting in general, as it’s normally taught, is that the mindset going in, is still about what YOU want people to do and about manipulating people into doing what you want them to do.
In other words, it’s about YOU, not them. We didn’t like that, but still did it for a little while… until we found a better way.
The More Leveraged Alternative to 1-on-1 Prospecting, Which Won’t Make You Feel Like a Cheap Sales Man
Now, I am not trying to be high and mighty about all this prospecting stuff, because I’m not.
If it came down to feeding my family with ‘stone cold’ prospecting tactics or my kids starving, I choose stone cold prospecting every time, without remorse.
But the reason Greg and I were able to quit prospecting was because, with the help of some extraordinary mentors, we eventually discovered an online recruiting strategy, which…
Enabled us to passively generate leads, customers and new reps – even when we were out having fun with friends and family.
(Hence why we didn’t have to worry about prospecting them!)
Rather than spending hours spamming or private messaging people on social media, we learned how to legitimately get Facebook and other networks to actually help us attract the people who are most interested in what we have to offer, using their ads platform! (i.e. going legit!)
In fact, every day for almost 6 months now, we’ve awoken to an email inbox full of notifications for new leads, new customers, new team members and commissions we earned while sleeping!
This strategy is called ‘attraction marketing’, which is an internet marketing strategy designed for networkers and people in direct sales!
You see, if your business depends on you being on social media, sending private messages or commenting on people’s posts all day, you are NOT doing internet marketing… despite what you may have been led to believe.
Online prospecting and internet marketing are NOT the same thing!
Internet marketing is a passive strategy, which works, even when you are not. If you want to learn how it works, I actually reveal the entire strategy we use in afree 10 day online recruiting boot camp available here.
You’ll also get more details about a book, which goes into the nuts n’ bolts of our recruiting & selling formula.
Now if traditional prospecting online or offline is your thing and you want to stick to that, by all means, go for it.
There are many top trainers and earners in the industry that focus on cold market recruiting skills…
(And they do ‘attraction marketing’ too!)
For us, there was simply a certain way we wanted to live our life and that was more important.
I would much rather make a ton of money in my business first and then have my friends and family beg me to tell them more about it.
It’s much better than begging my friends and family to join a business which isn’t making any money.
Which would you prefer?
Exactly!
Click here for more info about the FREE online recruiting boot camp.
Until next time,
We cheering you on and looking forward to hearing about your journey.