Denise Lee Porter

*John is an entrepreneur, he’s popular on all of the social media sites, has multiple streams of income, and is always giving advice  online about how to succeed in business.  The funny thing is that John’s advice usually lands the person who asked for it on his business prospecting list, and if they don’t watch out before they know it they’ve landed in his downline - and still don’t know what to do to improve the business that they already have!

My question to you is  are you John? Do you rush in  with your product or biz opp, offering them as the solution to your prospect’s problem before you even know what the actual problem is? Deeper still, do you listen with your mouth instead of your ears?  In his book  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Personal Workbook Stephen R. Covey says that the key to effective communication is that you must  “seek first to understand, then to be understood“.

You:  “Hello, Carrie, this is ____ with the fitness company, I have a note here that says you’re interested in losing weight”

Prospect: “Oh, I definitely am.”

You: “Great, how much weight are you looking to lose?”

Prospect: “Well I gained 30 pounds with the baby and just can’t seem to get rid of it, and I’m breast feeding too so dieting is hard”

You: “Oh I know what you mean, it was so easy to take the weight off with my first two, but after my third I just could not get that weight off.  I’ll tell you I tried just about every diet that you could think of.  I tried walking, and exercise tapes and finally I found the XYZ fitness company. The company was started by a Mom who had the same problem, and she designed our products specifically for Moms like you and I. You know we are a 7billion dollar debt free company and our products are shipped directly from the Amazon River, where they are harvested by natives. ”

What are you reading a script or something? Did you even hear the part where she said that she couldn’t afford fancy diets or that she was breast feeding? I bet you were waiting for her to finish her sentence, so that you could say the next thing on your script.  You quickly jumped to the conclusion that her problem was the same as your problem and therefore what worked for you should work for her.

Next time, listen and respond to what the prospect is saying, rather than responding to your thoughts about what the prospect is saying. For example when she mentions breast feeding you could say: “Really? Do you have any dietary restrictions due to breast feeding?”   or “Tell me more about that”  Maybe she can’t use your product because one of the ingredients  gives babies gas. Isn’t it better to learn that early in the conversation?

Also, remember that the most important person in a prospecting call isn’t you, it’s the other person. You already know all there is to know about you, now you  need to learn what you need to know about them so that you can determine if your solution fits their problem

Good luck and keep your ears open…

* John is fictional, don’t be like that Carly Simon song “you’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you”