Five Rules to Follow When Prospecting in Your Warm Market

By Tim Sales

Forget for a second that you’re in network marketing. What if you were starting any other kind of business like a retail store, a salon, or a construction company. Where would you get your customers? Your employees? How about business partners? Where would you find them?

In one or more of those categories a friend, acquaintance or family member might be the right fit, maybe not. Maybe they know someone who is the right fit. Somehow it always works itself back to an acquaintance, a recommendation or a referral. This is called your "warm market."

Life seems to be a series of experiences brought on by connections to other people. Your job as a Networker is to connect the bridges together and move past the disinterested in a professional and honest way, without "pushing." Most businesses begin this way.

Your warm market can be one of the greatest resources to your business. Dealing with family and friends can be a blessing or a curse, but if you want your family and friends to continue to respect you, give you referrals, be your customer, and possibly say "yes" to your presentation, I recommend you follow these five rules to working with your warm market:

Rule #1 – Hold your tongue. Don’t ever insult someone for his or her decision not to buy your products or participate with you in your business. Don’t tell someone they’re stupid for not doing business with you, even if it is the way you "talk to your brother." It’s unprofessional and out of place.

Rule #2 – Be wise. "No" rarely means never. That same brother in three weeks or three years could lose his job. If you’ve made a fool out of yourself, not only will he not do the business, he will tell all of your friends to avoid you. All of this because "you told him" how stupid he was. That’s not wise.

Rule #3 – Deal with it. For 10 years I’ve dealt with objections, concerns, past failures, bad experiences, etc, which have all taught me how to successfully handle these issues. The good news is that all of these objections are resolved and discussed in the "Brilliant Compensation" DVD presentation. Just as an experienced dentist knows that treating teeth is the easy part and the hard part is dealing with the patient’s "baggage"… like the time the "other" dentist stuck a six-foot needle in their gum when they were 14 years old. "Dealing" with these issues is what "wins" the patient. Once the trust is established you’ve got them for life or until you decide to stop servicing their needs.

Rule #4 – Yes or No. Some prospects just take one conversation to be interested and some prospects take 10 conversations. (Nine of those conversations resulted in a "No" answer even though the reason for the "No" was never stated.) If you take the thought process as being that either the prospect says "Yes" or "No," then you’ll miss the art of communication and networking. Suppose your company has 20 products. If your prospect says "No", find out what they are saying "No" to. Are they saying "No" to all 20 products? Are they saying "No" to "I don’t want to diversify my income?", or to "I don’t know anyone who needs or wants any of your 20 products?" That’s a lot to say "No" to. I recommend that you find out exactly what your prospects are truly saying "No" to, then deal with that issue.

Rule #5 – Don’t be a bug. Do not ever "bug" family and friends about your company or products. Sometimes Networkers get extremely focused, which is good, and it should never be suppressed. Focus is what creates success. Just be disciplined as to what and who deserves that focus. If it’s a friend or family member who clearly isn’t interested, quit wasting time there and get in front of people who do want this.

And there you have it – five rules to follow when working with your friends and family.