Prospecting Mistake

Prospecting is the start of the sponsoring sequence. And it is the lifeblood of your business. Without prospects, you can’t invite. If you can’t invite, you can’t sponsor. And if you can’t sponsor, then you have no income. No prospects = No sales.

Now thankfully, prospecting also the easiest step! However, most new network marketers tend to overthink this activity. So in this article, I hope to give you 5 prospecting mistakes that are often committed by new network marketers. These mistakes are very simple to correct, so if you’re doing any of these, you can apply it immediately to your business.

Before we begin, let us first clearly define: what is prospecting? In the traditional (gold mining) sense, it means to search, explore, survey and scout. In sales, it means identifying potential buyers to your business. And in MLM it simply means this: getting the name and a contact detail (usually the Cellphone Number). Nothing more and nothing less. With that said, let’s get started with the most common mistakes:

Mistake #1. Pre-judging your Warm Market

New network marketers tend to pre-judge the people before even writing down their names in the prospect list by excluding those that they assume will say no, or those who don’t need the product or the opportunity. (Notice I said assume.)

Never pre-judge your prospects because sorting between those who are interested and those who aren’t only comes in during the inviting phase. Don’t assume. That’s bad for your business, and heck, it would also be bad for your prospect! Who knows, that person you prejudged might have been the one who secretly needed your opportunity the most!

So when you’re prospecting, just list names and numbers. Don’t overthink it, and just build your list!

Mistake #2: Advancing to the Invite

This is the most common and deadliest prospecting mistake. When you prospect, remember that you’re just after the name and phone number. (If this is your warm market, then it’s just a phone number because you already have the name!)

Here’s what usually happens… As you’re chatting/talking to your prospect, the person mentions a need for a lifestyle change. He mentions that he’s looking for ways to increase his income, or he’s trying to get out of debt, or he’s already bored with the job… etc.

Now, most network marketers would already jump to invite him. Ah, may alam akong business na makakatulong sayo, kelan ka pwede? Etc. etc…

DON’T DO THIS!

Why? It’s going to seem out of the blue! From a very casual discussion, all of a sudden the conversation transforms into a business transaction. This catches your prospect by surprise which makes them skeptical and defensive. Finally, you’ll likely come off as a bit desperate.

You should do the inviting at a later time! Remember, your goal is to just get the number. So if you’re already casually talking, then just enjoy the conversation! And before you leave/go offline, then ask for their number.

It’s as simple as saying, “Hey, kailangan ko na pala mauna. Nice talking to you! Pero before I go I’m not sure kung updated pa yung number mo eh. What’s your number now?”

That’s all there is to it! No need to complicate things. Just get the name and number.

Mistake #3: Not Having an Organized Prospect List

A few network marketers tend to write their prospect lists in random sheets of paper, kept in a folder. They write the names as they recall the people they know from each group. The problem with this method is that it is too inefficient. You can’t keep track at a glance of who’s on your list and who’s not. You also can’t see the status of the person if you’ve invited him before or not, what they said, etc…

So from experience, the best way to organize your prospect list is to put it in a spreadsheet (Excel) File. The columns are: Full Name, Nick Name, Category/Affiliation, Cellphone # and notes. The category/affiliation is just so you can easily sort your list based on where you know them from, whether that’s from highschool, work, church, college, relatives, etc…

By having an electronic copy, you can easily track, record and update your lists as you perform the business activities.

Mistake #4: Not printing your Prospect List

Once you have your electronic copy, the next common mistake is to fail to print it. Having a physical copy of your prospect list allows you to invite anywhere, anytime (whenever you have free time).

This is again an issue of efficiency. If you keep your list in your iPad for example, there are so many little things that slow you down. Just a few examples: (1) if you run out of battery, (2) when you’re calling somebody and the iPad locks up, requiring you to unlock it every single time, (3) updating the result of the call using the touchscreen keyboard is so slow… and so many other delays.

Now, these may seem like small things, but if you’re doing it over and over again, these small delays really add up! Remember that as a part-time network marketer, time is super precious!

Mistake #5: Not Doing it Consistently

After a couple of months in network marketing, your prospect list will start to dwindle. Soon you’ll run out of people to invite, and then your income stops. This is the reason why prospecting should not be a one-time activity but a HABIT.

In the next article, I’ll give you 3 Ninja Prospecting strategies to make prospecting very easy. But for now, it’s enough to know that you should schedule prospecting as an activity that you do at least once a week.

Now, let me just share one of the best practices I learned from my mentor in this business.
My mentor has been doing the business for about 4 years already and was the fastest one to reach the “top-rank” in the company. So basically, this is a guy who has invited virtually everyone in his warm market already. But when I met with him after the New Year, he showed me his new list of 674 names that he’d been building up the year before. He said that every day, for less than 10 minutes per day, he had been prospecting. (How he does this, I’ll share in the next article…)  In the meantime, just know that you should be prospecting on a daily basis if you want to grow fast. That’s what the leaders do, so that’s what you should do if you want to become a leader.

As a recap here’s what you should always do when prospecting:

1. Don’t pre-judge
2. Just get the name/number (no inviting)
3. Keep it organized
4. Have it printed
5. Do it consistently

YOURS IN SUCCESS,