As A Motivational Sales Speaker
I met a lady at a conference a few months ago and never heard much from her until just recently when she contacted me about a MLM business that she’s involved in, some type of online video services. Although she was nice about it, she obviously pushed her product on me claiming that it will drastically improve my sales and reduce my advertising costs at the same time.
Well, this is yet another case where it clearly shows that many involved in MLM need much more sales training. I can say this with confidence because as a motivational sales speaker, I was involved in high level corporate sales in the pharmaceutical industry for 14 years. Almost everything this lady and many others I’ve met involved in MLM (multi-level marketing) schemes are doing everything wrong in terms of selling techniques. They are often nice folks who have never been in sales careers before and never got solid formal training in selling techniques unlike those in corporate sales where there are training departments that continually train their sales forces.
Why MLM People Need Sales Training
One of the golden rules in sales is to qualify your prospective customers. Let’s face it, no matter how great your product or service is, it won’t be for everyone out there. As a sales professional, you have to make sure that each potential customer does really have a need for your product or service. You cannot assume that everybody has a need for your offering.
One can only qualify prospective customers out there by spending the time to ask thoughful questions in order to really understand the client’s business or situation. If during this discussion, the customer establishes that there is no need for your product or service, you would be wasting both of you time by pushing your offering. This is one of the steps in sales that many MLM people miss. They do not qualify their customers and end up pushing their products on pretty well everyone they meet hoping to get a sale. Unfortunately, this only serves to irritate people and give MLM a bad reputation.
I’m sure that most people who have encountered folks involved in MLM and most certainly all corporate sales professionals will agree with this motivational sales speaker. Not qualifying customers is only one of the elements in professional sales that many in MLM do not do. I’ll get into more crucial selling elements they miss in future posts.
