Prospecting, Recruiting, Sponsoring…synonyms?

Prospecting, Recruiting, Sponsoring…synonyms?

What do the Girls’ Scouts NBA teams, the military, Fortune 500 companies and colleges all have in common with direct selling? Recruiting. Recruiting is the lifeblood of every organization. Recruiting is how reorganization grown and expand their purpose and in case of businesses grow their profits. Recruiting is especially important in direct selling because unlike retail stores where customers come to them direct sellers must go directly to customers. And as we know the more customers and business partners you recruit the more stable and profitable your business becomes.  

Putting People Though the Process

Many direct sellers confuse the words prospecting, recruiting and sponsoring. They think they’re synonyms but they’re not. Actually they are three different stages in building your business. So the first stage is prospecting. This is the qualifying phase when you talk to people asking them questions to discover their needs and wants and to determine the best way to share your products and/or your opportunity. When you prospect for business builders you’re looking for people who are looking. Your goal is to identify individuals who are dissatisfied with their current jobs and careers and are open to owning their home-based business.

Then you move to stage two, recruiting. In this stage you want to make your presentation and ask your prospect to join your business. Your goal is to move the prospect to “I am interested” to “I am in” by having them sign the paperwork and make a commitment of working the business.

Stage three is sponsoring. In this final phase you’d begin mentoring your new recruit, plugging them into your support system and teaching them how to work the business and helping them to set appointments and achieve the success that they are looking for.

A good analogy for the recruiting process in direct sales can be found in college sports programs. Colleges hire full time scouts and recruiters to visit schools and youth leave to search for talents. They start by watching prospects perform, evaluating their skills and interviewing them to determine which ones of them would be good fit for their programs. If the recruiter thinks the youngster would be an asset to their team he will move from the recruiting stage to inviting the prospect to visit the campus and meet the coaches and team leaders and at the end ask them to sign a letter of commitment. Once the prospect signs the paperwork and commits to the school then they enter the sponsoring stage, that’s where they start learning the coach’s system, receive intensive training and are mentored by the coaches and seasoned player to help them achieve their fullest potential.

Instead of prospecting for a great athlete direct selling professionals prospect for retail customers and for potential business builders by seeking out people who are open minded, teachable and are looking to move in their lines. The ideal prospects can be described as dissatisfied successful. That is leaders or self-starters who have succeeded in their chosen field but are disenchanted and open to exploring further opportunities. A lot of times we also follow the NCT rule. The NCT rule talks about Never Can Tell. So although many times good prospects come from successful individuals that are professionals in a specific field yet many times individuals never can tell how good they can be in a specific business unless we give them an opportunity, or unless we show them the opportunity. You see our responsibility is to share the opportunity with people but it is up them to decide if they like to join that opportunity.

Prospecting

There are two categories of prospects. People you already know and people that you haven’t met yet. The people that you know we call that your worm market. Your warm market consists of friends, family, co-workers and acquaintances plus people who know you such as your children’s teachers or members of organizations you belong to and different other networking groups. Right now let’s concentrate on prospecting people you don’t know but come in contact with every single day. It could be sales clerks, people in line at a bank, the people you often see at shopping or local grocery stores, people you are introduced to at a party or a business function etc.

One of the biggest benefits of direct selling is that some of your best friends and most productive members of your team will be people that you will have never known before.

 So the more people you meet and share you products and opportunity with the better your odds of building a solid self sustainable business. Baby steps not bombs away. When you’re contacting new people the last thing you want to do is blow them out of the water by forcing your opportunity down their throat. You don’t want to, for example, corner a stranger in a frozen section in the store and say, “Hey, do you want to get rich quick?” that wouldn’t be advisable. Your goal with the new contact is to strike up a conversation, make a connection and begin building a common bond and trust with that person. If it was at the end of the of the conversation ask for a business card or a phone number and tell them that I’ll get back to you within a few days and set up an appointment. Follow-up and follow through.

Okay, so you’ve met your new prospects over the weekend, they’re bright, easy to talk with, energetic and friendly, perfect prospect for your business. You remember to get their phone number and as you were parting you told them that you’re going to give them a call in the next few days. What you do next will separate the amateurs from the pros. The amateurs fall victim of the phone - o - phobia. This is where they’ll make every single excuse why not to call their prospects. So then two days go by, two weeks, and possibly even two months. Then the amateurs realized that it might be too late to call some of these promising prospects and as a result they fall through the cracks. See fear of rejection and failure to follow up are two the biggest reasons why people fail in direct selling.

Direct selling professionals master the art of using the phone to contact prospects and set appointments to learn about our products and opportunity, making small talk. On the surface small talk is just chit chat about everyday matters but for the direct sellers small talk actually provides a big window for their prospects character and personality. See if you are alert you can learn a lot about a person in a two-minute conversation. Things like, does the prospect make eye contact with me? Are they positive and uplifting or are they negative and critical? That energy is easily noticeable. Do they have enthusiasm and variety in their voice or do they have a quick laugh and inviting smile? Are they sarcastic or sincere?

Is this someone that you’d want to recruit or run away from? At the end if you recruit somebody you’re going to spend some time with them so you might as well make sure that you have individuals and people that you’d really enjoy spending time with. In a brief conversation with a prospect you can get these and many more questions answered.

So you don’t think you’re good at small talk because you don’t know what to say to people? Well then use the simple acronym called FORM to break the ice. F stands for family, O stands for occupation, R, recreation and M stands for money. So for example about occupation you might ask somebody what do they do for a living. So after they respond you may say, “Great, I bet you love that don’t you?” Most of the time this question opens a floodgate to their innermost feelings about their job.

Such as, “My boss is an old so. Or I am underpaid and underappreciated.

The Power of Asking Questions

Ever noticed that the best communicators ask lots of questions? The good questions prompt prospects to open up and own the answers you are seeking from them. If you say it they doubt it but if they say it, it is true because they have said that themselves. Lots of research shows that people value more what they conclude than what they are told.

So opening phrases, things like, “Wouldn’t you agree that?”And “Keep going.” Isn’t it true that …? Can you see how?” Doesn’t that make sense? Ways that you can actually get them to agree with you towards the ending of the phrases is you can just say something and the end by saying, “Wouldn’t you agree?” or “Isn’t that true?” Or “Isn’t that right or Don’t you think so?” For example after talking with new prospects you may want to mention that people don’t socialize as much as they used to. Now rather than making a statement a more effective way is to phrase it in a question. So say things like, “Janice, it seems to me that people don’t come face to face as much as they used to and that’s not good for families or neighbors wouldn’t you agree? You see when you make it a question it becomes more engaging and interactive and Janice s likely to give you the right answer you’re looking for. So most likely Janice would agree with you and that opens the door for you to say, “Well, what do you say if we can show you how many people are breaking that habit and we get together for coffee next week? Shall I give you a call? When is the best time for me to reach you morning afternoons or evenings?” Allan Pease author of the best seller "Questions are the Answers" says, "When you’re interesting your prospect will be interested". The best way to appear interesting is to ask questions that leave the prospect to self discovery and personal insight.

More on Recruiting In a Future Article.