Do's And Dont's When Inviting

The 5 DON’Ts of Inviting

1. Don’t do it through email, Facebook or text

Many new networkers love email, Facebook and text because it’s not personal, and you don’t get immediate results. So when rejection comes, it’s less painful. However, inviting thru these methods also increases the chances of you getting a NO because…

• Firstly, it’s slow. You don’t get immediate responses, because most of the time the prospect doesn’t feel the urgency to respond. So you can be left hanging, wondering if they got the text/message or if they are ignoring you on purpose. (Remember: you need the person’s response to decide where to sort this person – no response makes it difficult to conclude).
• Second, it’s uncontrollable. If the person isn’t speaking to you, you could be interrupting them in a meeting, or they could be in the middle of a show/movie, etc. Calls are best because you know you have their attention.

If texting/emailing has worked for you, then great. But if you want to improve your inviting rates, then try out calling your next prospects (with a script ready of course).

So when should you use text, email and Facebook?

For prospecting. For getting names and contact numbers. Maybe even for initial interviews like the FORM: family, occupation, recreation, money questions. But when it’s time to invite, calling is the best and fastest way!

For overseas prospects, of course you may have to use Facebook or email. When it comes to presentation time, however, Skype becomes the more professional option.

2. Don’t deceive them with words like: “Part-time job”, “Catch-up lang tayo”, etc.

Network marketing is a business. It is NOT a job. It is NOT a ‘catch-up/coffee’ session. Do not resort to kidnapping or making false job offers to your prospect because it destroys the trust between you and your prospect.

And in any business, TRUST is of utmost importance! So even if you get people to go to the meeting, they will just end up angry, turned off and negative during the whole presentation. And if they DO walk-out, think about how the other guests in the room would feel? They would feel like it’s a scam!

For the sake of your business and for the sake of the wonderful industry of network marketing, stop lying and misleading your prospects. Instead, learn how to invite professionally and properly.

3. Don’t spam Facebook groups

Many online networkers spam Facebook groups. Besides being annoying, it also doesn’t give you any results. This is like the online version of crashing a birthday party with an impromptu business presentation. This is NOT attraction marketing, but the exact opposite! Because aside from getting yourself BANNED, you’re also giving network marketing a bad name in the public’s eyes!

When it comes to Facebook Groups, always respect the theme of the group. If the group is about the stock market, then assume that only stock market and investing news will be appreciated there. If it’s about photography, then only posts about photography will be allowed. Stop asking for permission to post something irrelevant to the group, because it will obviously be denied, and you will be banned.

If attraction marketing is your goal, then you’re doing it wrong. Stay tuned for the next articles, because we will talk about this again when it comes to high quality and targeted prospecting.

Note: Take this article for example, this already uses attraction marketing. You’re learning from me, and most likely you’ll want to learn more, so you’ll end up subscribing to my mailing list below. From there, whenever you receive an email from me, you’ll open it, and I can control your life. Mwahaha! – Just kidding – but seriously, attraction marketing is all about adding value to people. It’s not spamming and forcing them to join your business.

4. Don’t give spoilers

When a prospect starts inquiring about your business opportunity, your goal should NOT be to answer their question, but to set up a meeting as soon as possible. Your prospect asking questions is a good indication of their level of curiosity. And if you answer their question directly, their level of curiosity would drop. So as much as possible, give a neutral answer, then proceed to set the meeting. There are many ways of handling questions with the use of posture, take-away, and jargon which will be tackled in later articles.

5. Don’t take it personally or force anyone to attend

Remember the saying: Some will, some won’t. So what? Someone’s waiting, so Next!

Always go back to the goal of inviting which is to sort the people who are interested. You could do EVERYTHING RIGHT but still get a no, if it’s not the right time for the prospect. Similarly, you could make a couple of mistakes with your inviting, but end up getting a yes with a prospect who is open for business!

And just as a quick test on how ‘well’ you are inviting. If you call up 10 people… on a good day, about 5 will say yes. On average 3 will say yes. And on a bad day only 1 will say yes. If you make 10 calls and get 10 No’s, then it means you’ll need to work on improving your inviting script.

So that’s it for the DON’TS – now let’s move on to the 5 must-DO’s of professional inviting!

The 5 DO’s of Professional Inviting

1. Have a Sorting Mindset

A common misconception about inviting is that people think your purpose is to get everyone to agree to meet with you. However, this is a sure way to get depressed, and oversell your opportunity.

The correct mindset is that you are only sorting. You are sorting between people who want to learn more about a business opportunity, and those who aren’t interested. Just like recommending a chick-flick movie. Not everyone would be interested, kanya kanyang trip lang yan. Your job in the inviting phase is to just sort, sort, sort!

For those who say no, that’s okay, walang pilitan. Remain professional and just contact them again 6 months later. It is possible that their personal situation would have changed already, and they are more open for business.

For those who say yes, then your only job is to set a meeting (not to present everything over the phone). Your only goal is to set an agreed date, time and place when you will meet to discuss the details further. Nothing more, and nothing less.

2. Ready Your Materials

Before inviting, you should have 3 things ready with you. Your name list with contact numbers, your inviting script and your phone. These three will keep you focused and efficient with your inviting.

(Why should you call? The best way for inviting is thru calls because you get an immediate response – rather than text or FB, your prospect has the option to delay and think about the reply. Calling also tells your prospect that you mean business, and your message urgent and important.)

3. Keep it Short and Focused

The best invites last for a maximum of 3 minutes. Anything more means you’re saying too much, or you’re not in control of the conversation – you’re asking too little. Here’s the general sequence of a good invite. (Important: This is just a quick outline, please DO NOT USE IT YET – we will cover how to deliver this script in the next article…)

• Build rapport

Kamusta na? San ka na nagw-work ngayon?

• Transition to serious mode

Kaya ako tumawag kasi may gusto akong itanong na importante. May 1-2 minutes ka ba ngayon?

• Introduce the business

May ginagawa kasi akong business project kasama mga kaibigan ko from <work, college, highschool,etc.>. Okay yung takbo ng project kaya naghahanap pa kami ng other people to help out. Kung yung project naman kayang gawin part-time and very good din ang income potential, open ka ba to meet with me and my team leader para ma discuss namin sayo yung details ng project, then after you can decide kung kaya?

• Schedule the meeting

Okay! This week available ako ng [ day and time ] and [ day and time ] Alin ang mas okay sa’yo dun?

• Make them commit to the meeting

[ Name of prospect ], very professional ang culture dito sa project team, kaya okay lang ba na I expect you to come on time? [Oo, okay lang]

Okay it-text ko nalang sayo yung address pareply nalang if you received it okay? [Yes, okay!]

Very Important: Do not use this yet, because it is INCOMPLETE. You still don’t have the script for answering questions like networking ba yan? Anong business project yan? Sales ba yan? Anong gagawin? Etc. You need to have scripts for those questions prepared as well! But don’t worry, because we will go into detail on those in the next article.

4. Always End with Questions

As you invite, remember that the person asking the question is in control of the conversation. That is why notice that at the end of each part, the script ends with a question. If the prospect asks you with a question, answer it, then ask your question to move the conversation forward.

5. Keep your Information Neutral

As you may have noticed, the script above doesn’t mention any specific company name or product, it also doesn’t mention network marketing or MLM. The reason behind this is to avoid any misconceptions the person may have about the industry or the company.

The reality is that network marketing is one of the best ways to start up a business. However, it has come to be highly misunderstood by the public because of the dishonest, corrupt and unprofessional people within the industry. This is made worse by the tendency of the public to generalize about everything they see on the news. This is the reason why we keep the information neutral – they should only know that it is a business related project (not coffee/movie/date!).

Note: Aside from empowering people how to become better network marketers, I also teach people how to invest in the stock market. And while the stock market is a safe and legal investment. People still mistake it for pre-need companies that close down, or associate it with gambling and pyramiding schemes! (Gosh ang layo na, na-associate parin sa pyramiding!) Anyway, I share this with you, because people really do have a lot of misconceptions about everything. And the best way to help them understand it is to remain neutral (and avoid the labels) during the inviting phase.

That’s it for the 10 Dos and Don’ts of Inviting.  IF you want to make sure you receive this article, then make sure you are a part of the my mailing list CLICK HERE.

Jerome Villarba