How do you get them to climb
the Four Steps?

The Four Steps are underpinned by some fundamental principles which you need to understand if you’re going to succeed in sponsoring effectively.

It doesn’t matter what approach you use, the “Lock Nut” or some other, these principles will still apply. You ignore them at your peril.

The process is simple and logical, but not always easy. It takes vision, time, effort and discipline (the Four Cornerstones of Success). It also involves intelligence and integrity.

It’s like playing snakes and ladders, but with a twist… in this game, if you land on a snake, you go right back to square one!

Your first task is to move them from CLOSED MIND to OPEN MIND.

You can always tell if the prospect has a closed mind by their responses and attitudes.

The sample presentation you’ll find in the “Lock Nut” System shows how this works. A few key questions will tell you reliably whether they’re at “Open Mind” or “Closed Mind”. Obviously, if they’re at “Open Mind”, you can skip the process needed to move them there from “Closed Mind” – unless you mess up and they slide back down to square one. That’s a possibility at every stage, so tread carefully.

By the way, if that happens, getting them back up to “Open Mind” is going to take a great deal of time and effort to overcome their sudden loss of trust.

Note that at each stage of the process there are two follow-on squares: compromise and integrity.

Compromise is the absence of integrity (see The Win-Win Perspective for insight on this issue). Integrity is the degree to which your motives, attitudes and behaviour are fully integrated. In other words, you always do the right thing for the right reason. You can be trusted, because you’re predictable and desirable. (It’s the only intelligent option when it comes to personal relationships – especially in network marketing, which is utterly dependent on the quality and durability of personal relationships for its success.)

What it all boils down to is this: your prospect is going to to test you. They’re going to check out what you say to see if you have integrity… whether you can be trusted. If they do as you suggest at each stage, and they find that you can be trusted, they’ll willingly climb up to the next stage.

But if they find you’re not as good as your word, or that things don’t work as you said they would, they perceive compromise… and down they slide to a mind that’s slammed shut. Tight as a drum.

In other words… “words can conceal, but actions reveal”.

No matter what you SAY, they’re going to judge you by what you actually DO.

Once you prove yourself at the “Open Mind” stage, where they’re receptive, they move up to “Anticipation” stage. Now they’re eager to know more. But they’re still going to test what you say – and you’d better be sure that they can trust you, your products, company, reward plan or whatever, or they slide right back to Square One. And the further they slide, the tighter their minds close on impact!

So they pass through the first two steps: safety and simplicity.

Now they invest hope in what you tell them. They’re focused forward instead of behind them (watching their backs!). They’re no longer worried about what you might do TO them. Now they want to know what you can do FOR them. They WANT it to be everything you claim it is (products or business). They’ve now arrived at Step 3. This is why a slip backward is so disastrous at this point. Don’t compromise your integrity!

If this final test proves you true to your word, they become convinced. You’ve got them to Stage 4 – they’re ready to ACT on that conviction.

Strike while the iron’s hot.

Sit them down. Fill out the application form. Order their kit (or give it to them if you have one handy). Begin planning and goal setting ON THE SPOT. Harness those dreams… put them to work. Clothe them in clear images that make them real for the new distributor. And introduce them to The “Lock Nut” System.
 

Introduction | Step 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Step 4 | Put it to work

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©1998 The Profit Clinic. All rights reserved. This page updated 1 October 2005.