Do Business Well

There are dozens of methods of contacting prospects. The following are the most popular methods:

Over the phone

The quickest and most cost-effective way to get around is by phone. Although this has a down-side — you can’t see the customer, his face or his expressions — the phone should be used to obtain interviews where you can sell the opportunity.

Just bear in mind that a telephone call can be unwelcome. You are intruding on the prospect’s time. So make what you have to say short, relevant and of interest to the prospect. Your phone call must, within seconds, convey a benefit which will be of interest to that prospect.

Do not try to explain networking over the telephone. This rarely works. You want a face-to-face interview lasting just 10 minutes with the prospect to drop off material. If you can obtain that, and the prospect is interested, you can be sure that your appointment will last considerably longer.

Face to face

The most straightforward way to sell the idea of networking is to speak to prospects at the club, office, home, wherever, and to arrange an interview at the prospect’s home during which you explain the opportunity. Arrange a date, time and place for the meeting. Phone up the day before to confirm the arrangement. Cancelled meetings and forgotten appointments are a waste of precious selling time.

A decent presentation takes at least 45 to 60 minutes and you want to ensure conditions are right. You will do yourself a disfavour if you try to sell the idea of network marketing and the prospect is not expecting you, has one eye on the clock, is about to go shopping or has a meeting to go to. If she has forgotten the appointment, offer to come back when it suits her.

House meetings (the presentation meeting)

One of the best ways to get prospects interested in the business is to invite them to a group meeting — a house meeting or a presentation meeting. At first, until you have enough confidence or knowledge to do it yourself, you should invite your sponsor to co-lead the meeting with you. You can benefit from her experience.

Newspaper advertising

Any advertising is worth a try. Perhaps the best approach is to put an advertisement in the classifieds under the ‘business opportunity‘ section which reads: ‘Turn spare time into cash with South Africa’s fastest-growing industry. Telephone…”or ‘You’re a telephone call away from a great money-making opportunity. Proven method. Legal. No buy-in required. Phone … and ask for Jill or write to PO Box… Free brochure.’

If you have an answering machine and are out, simply ask for the caller’s telephone number and say you will call back: ‘Hello, I’m Jill Jones. I’m not in at the moment but if you leave your telephone number I will contact you shortly. Please let me know when it would be convenient for me to phone you.’

That last sentence shows you are considerate and can also save you wasted phone calls.

Lengthy advertisements are unnecessary. Keep it short, concise and have an interesting lead-in. Try to keep your advertisement going for six weeks or more. Readers are encouraged to respond to advertisements which seem familiar. Advertise where everyone else advertises. They can’t all be wrong!

Direct mail campaigns

Many people don’t want to sell. They feel they are intruding on another person’s life. This problem can be overcome through direct mail. You simply post off letters and brochures to prospects. You can research and compile your own list or you use names you have bought from a direct mail company. Usually you will do a small mailing to test for prospect interest.

If the prospects are genuinely interested, they will invite you to contact them, not the other way round. There is no intrusion, no knocking on doors and no hard sell. You will become a welcome invited guest to help them make money

If you have 20 distributors in your downline, there is no reason why you cannot have a direct mail campaign using your distributors to help you. Write a letter and send 50 copies to each of your distributors making provision for their telephone numbers and signatures at the end. These can be written by hand by the distributor. Simply ask them to mail this off together with a suitable brochure.

You pay for the brochure and letter, but your distributor pays for the cost of envelopes, stamps and the time taken to address these mailers. Your costs per thousand for a mail shot are, say, 10 cents for the letter and 40 cents for the brochure. This comes to R400 in total. If just one per cent sign up as a result of this mail shot, that’s 10 new distributors. If each new distributor makes you more than R40 in a year — and they should! — you recover your costs and, more importantly, you’ve helped your downline to grow.

Many newcomers to networking think that if the opportunity is that good, all you need to do is send out literature to prospective clients, sit back and the business will take off. It doesn’t work that way. Any business that needs to grow has to be worked at. If you don’t receive a response to your letters, get on the phone and follow up: ‘Did you receive the brochure we sent you?’ and continue from there. If you do receive a response to your direct mail shot, the response shows people are interested and are half sold already.

HINTS FOR BETTER DIRECT MAIL

• Direct mail can be expensive if you do not target good prospects. Rather do small mailings on a regular basis and test the response than throw caution to the winds and waste money. You need to be able to respond quickly to positive responses. Ask for telephone numbers so you can phone prospects. This becomes difficult with a large mailing.
• Many people overestimate the power of the written word. The response you receive depends on the quality of your mailing list, the attractiveness of the offer, how well the direct mail letter is written and its presentation.
• You will receive the highest response by mailing to people you know. Next best are people who have responded to business opportunity offers or to other network marketers. Thereafter contact those people who are employed but who have good reason to want more money. Unemployed down-and-outs are not usually good leads.
• Keep track of how many mail pieces you send out and the cost. Evaluate continuously the success of your campaign.
• Contact all positive responses and follow through. It rarely helps to try to build a network at a distance.

More about: How to contact prospects

• Look for Business Everywhere
• Get Your Business off to a Quick Start Week 1
• What Are You Selling?
• Expenditure on Advertising: Would I have made more Profit if I had Spent less on Advertising? (10-18)
• What Evidence Do You Have of Success?
• The regular follow-up
• If it's trite and boring, do it!
• Email Marketing Program, Developing a Customer Contact Plan, give a Call
• Whom do you contact next?
• I Made My Own Advertising Work part 3

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