Part Three of a Four Part Series

Leverage in Network Marketing

In this third of four articles, John Counsel of The Profit Clinic MLM Success Centre explores ways in which you can "tilt the seesaw" in retailing and sponsoring.

By John Counsel

In Part Two of this series I talked briefly about "tilting the seesaw". This is the simple trick we all learn as children playing on a seesaw. By standing in the centre of the plank, and merely shifting our weight from one foot to the other – not even moving our feet – we can control which end is up or down.

We don't need to go the the end of the seesaw. We could lose our balance and fall off if we did. It's a delicate balancing act that we quickly learn, purely by instinct.

"Tilting the seesaw" in dealing with prospects, whether for our products or our income opportunity, is equally simple and equally effective. We don't have to "go to the end" and take a particular position to control which end of the transaction looks safer or riskier. We just have to "tilt the seesaw" in the prospect's perception by showing them a more accurate view of the situation, so that what they currently think is the "safe" option suddenly appears high-risk, and what seemed risky to them is suddenly revealed as the safer choice. They make the decision.

The Secret Language of Prospects

This is a language we all speak but rarely recognise when we're on the receiving end. It's an unspoken, silent language that's clear and unmistakable in its meaning. Every prospect speaks it, but very few of us actually "hear" it, because we're not listening for it. Instead, we "hear" what the prospect uses to cover up their real meaning – and we miss the opportunity. Again.

Let me explain what this secret language is, then I'll explain why we miss it so consistently and so disastrously.

Every prospect, no matter what they SEEM to be saying to you, is actually saying this:

1. "I want to enjoy the benefits of what you're offering, and I want to feel as excited and positive about them as you do, BUT…
    
2. "I want YOU to make it safer, easier, better and smarter for ME to buy from (or join) YOU than to buy from (or join) ANYONE else, AND…
    
3. "I want YOU to make it safer, easier, better and smarter for ME to buy from (or join) YOU than to DO NOTHING."

Remember – no matter what you THINK they're saying ("Oh, I don't think I need any of those" or "But isn't that just pyramid selling?" etc, etc, etc), those three statements above are EXACTLY what they're saying. And if you're not hearing "Yes, I'll buy" or "Yes, I'll join you" from them, what they're really saying to you is this…

1. "I want to enjoy the benefits of what you're offering, and I want to feel as excited and positive about them as you do, BUT…
    
2. "YOU haven't made it safer, easier, better or smarter for me to buy from (or join) you than to buy from (or join) anyone else, AND…
    
3. "YOU haven't made it safer, easier, better or smarter for me to buy from (or join) you than to do nothing – YET".

They'll keep sending out the message to you until you either hear it and act on it, or they finally get the message that you're not hearing them and never will.

Then they say "no".

Or, worse still, they say "yes – meaning no!"

That's when they buy or join for a benefit – but the benefit for them is to get rid of YOU.

Sadly, this scenario is the most common in network marketing. (All too familiar, isn't it?)

Happily, the solution to fix this disastrous "deafness" is simple and fast-acting, and can turn the usual 10% success rate in prospecting into a 90% success rate if you learn to do it right – and can learn to "tilt the seesaw", not crash it to the ground by rushing to take up the opposite end to your prospect (or even the same end as them).

But why don't we hear this Secret Language of Prospects when we're talking with our prospects? Especially when we all speak it fluently?

Because we only speak it WHEN WE'RE THE PROSPECT!

When we're the would-be seller or sponsor, it goes right past us without us ever recognising it.

Why do they hide what they really mean?

Fear of loss, pure and simple. The prospect doesn't want to be vulnerable to you in case you abuse or exploit their desire and take advantage of them. (We're not talking here about existing customers or downline people who already know and trust us.)

They EXPECT you to understand their unspoken demand to make what you're offering safer, easier, better and smarter than any other alternative for them. Not only that, but to do it in an equally non-threatening, non-verbal way!

You can't afford to confront them over their fears. You'll terrify them, prove their worst fear about you, and send them fleeing in panic.

You'll lose them immediately.

These kinds of actions are the equivalent of taking up a position at the END of the seesaw (and it doesn't matter which end). You can't achieve any kind of balance that way. Here's why…

Question: Which position is the safest for everyone on a seesaw?

Answer: When the seesaw is perfectly level.

Then both ends are safe. Neither is at risk.

If the person whose end is down gets off, the person in the air crashes to the ground. That can hurt the person who got off, too, if they're not quick enough to get out of the way of the upswing from their end. Nobody wins. And, when you're the would-be seller or sponsor, it's the prospect who gets off, and YOU who crashes.

This is why tilting the seesaw to achieve a perfect balance is so critical a skill for you to learn in order to improve your success rate. And you can only achieve that from a neutral position, right there at the CENTRE of the seesaw, at the point of balance.

There are a couple of simple rules to learn.

Rule #1 – It's not about you. And it's NOT about THEM, either!

It's vital to understand that your role is NOT to convince the prospect of anything. THEY have to convince themselves. YOUR role is to bring the situation to a point of balance – to level the seesaw and remove their fear. To restore them to a position of personal control over their own end of the transaction.

To do this, you have to disturb their comfortable – but false – position. They THINK they're sitting safely on the ground. They're actually up there, fully extended, way up in the air… and at risk, without realising it.

This could apply to their customary choice of products, or to their notion of job security or financial independence.

Now… you are NOT going to win them over by suddenly dropping them. (This is what happens when you confront them and try to prove to them that they're really at risk. All you do is terrify them. They'll be gone in a cloud of dust.)

Instead, you have to exercise total control over the seesaw by easing the balance gently into place. A small series of slight perceptual adjustments that gradually bring things into proper perspective, without threat to their emotional position, is what works best.

You have to focus AWAY from you and them onto something non-threatening and neutral.

The best way to do that is to relate what you're going to say to OTHER PEOPLE and what those other people would think, feel, say or do.

Example:

"Andrea, if most people saw this product, at this price, on the supermarket (health store, pharmacy, etc) shelf, what do you think their reaction might be?"

Andrea is now completely free to tell you how SHE would react because it's not about HER – it's about "most people". She's safe. She's not making herself vulnerable with her reply.

If she hesitates, you can balance her fear (that's what it is) by saying something like this:

"Let me tell you what I'd think if I didn't know better – I'd think it was very expensive!"

What have you just done?

You've put Andrea at ease, and you've grabbed her attention – because you've just said what she would have said if she hadn't been nervous of either offending you or exposing her own fear.

So you've built immediate empathy by showing her that her own reaction is perfectly normal and reasonable – but you've qualified your response with "if I didn't know better". Now she knows there's something more to all this that she doesn't know, and which obviously changed YOUR mind.

Can you see how you've actually confonted Andrea's fear – but without confronting Andrea herself?

This is what "tilting the seesaw" is all about. It's not about controlling which end is up or down. The REAL skill lies in bringing the seesaw to perfect balance. (Remember how that was the hardest thing to learn when you were small? There was no subtlety about swinging one end up then down. But achieving perfect balance took a lot more skill.)

You have to learn to separate the concern from the person. To deal with the issue without threatening the person for whom it's an issue. You have to show them that you understand their position by "standing in their shoes" and showing them that their viewpoint is perfectly reasonable – but that there's obviously another, more accurate point of view that you'd like to show them.

You can't achieve that by "trashing" other products, companies, reward plans or people. That's making THE PROSPECT the target, not the issue itself. You need to put them in control, by restoring balance. You do that with education and reason, not denigration and emotional manipulation.

You have to separate the viewpoint you need to change from the person who holds that viewpoint. You have to "play the ball, not the man" as they say in football.

Rule #2 – It's about VISION, not illusion.

Once you have their attention through empathy and education in this way, build a clear vision for them of what things can be like for them when they understand the truth and act upon it.

Not grandiose promises. Not extravagant illusion. Just a clear, accessible, do-able vision in their mind of what's possible for them almost immediately, and a track to follow to make that vision real.

Think of it like a street light on a dark night.

When I was a kid, I loved to hang out with the neighbourhood kids on summer nights as it got dark and the street lights came on. Nothing outside that pool of light seemed real. Within it, we were safe. Everything was within our visible emotional limits.

It's the same for your prospect. Show them what's possible. What's real. Anything else is out there in the dark, unreal and often scary for them. Show them how the street light can actually move with them – but only once they cross from one side to the other. Once they do that, they realise that the pool of light followed them – and you can paint a clear vision of what now lies on the other side of the pool of light, visible to them, but not yet theirs.

This is how you become a leader

By creating a clear vision of what's believable, achievable and immediate, not by the illusion of castles in the air, with helicopters on the roof and yachts by the front door. You want doers, not dreamers.

The skilled leader never loses sight, either, of the Secret Language of Prospects – because even when they join you, they have to be sold on whatever the next stage of their progress may be. And what they really want is to feel like YOU do about those benefits.

So the real secret is to focus on how they'll FEEL about their achievements, not the achievement itself – or even the benefits they'll enjoy once they've achieved it. It's really about how they're going to FEEL about it. Because how they feel about it is what will propel them out the door or onto the phone to share how they feel with others!

We don't have space here to share case studies of how this approach works in real life, but you can find an example of how this approach works for retailing products here. You can view a sponsoring case study here.

Next, we'll explore the power of leverage through the Fulfilment Spiral.
 

Part One  |  Part Two  |  Part Three  |  Part Four

 
© 2002 John Counsel. All rights reserved. No reproduction by any means permitted without prior written consent of the copyright owner. This article appeared originally in Australian Business & Money-Making Opportunities magazine.

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