I don’t care how nice they glaze it over for you, at the end of the day you need to do two main things to have any shot at earning real income and building a residual cash flow – you need to know how to SELL and RECRUIT/SPONSOR (whichever word your company favors). Don’t get me wrong, there’s a whole host of stuff you’re going to need to learn along the way as well, but none of them match up with the ROI (return on investment) that those two high-impact activities can bring. I believe, based on my own experience and what I’ve seen and heard from leaders in the industry, it’s easier to learn how to sell than it is to recruit. The ability to show someone the value of your product or service seems to be an easier task than getting them sold on YOU, which is what recruiting is all about.
Knowing how to sell your product or your service can be done within your first 2 weeks of getting started if you’re serious about SELLING. The problem is most direct companies are afraid to say the word “selling” anymore, so they talk to you about educating your customers and asking them to buy. That’s a nice start, but that’s just the beginning of all there is to selling. Business philosopher Joe Ensor used to say, “don’t mistake the beginning of all there is, for the end.” Selling is an art . . . with pieces of science thrown in there, if you think your education presentation and one buying question is all you need to succeed – good luck!
The key to selling, now I’m giving you a gem here so pay attention, is to learn the “science” part of it right away. Learn about why people buy and don’t buy, learn why certain questions work in one situation and shouldn’t be used in another. I’m telling you, if you’re serious about earning an income through selling, you can learn the “necessary” parts of scientific selling within two weeks and that will be enough for you to go out and start earning income. I didn’t say you’d be good at it, in fact, you’ll be pretty bad – BUT, you’ll be “selling” your products or services versus educating people on them. Remember, no one gets paid until something is sold – that’s the oldest axiom in sales and it holds true in direct selling as well.
Once you become comfortable with the robotic aspect of sales, (canned presentations, memorized answers to concerns, syntax and sequence of steps to closing the sale, etc.), you’re automatically going to start observing patterns in people. These observations are going to become markers in your mind of what to do next based on how much you fail or succeed with certain parts of scientific selling. This is the beginning of you learning the “art” of selling, and after awhile, you’ll start reading people right away and know which parts of your presentation should be used, or which close should be used to secure the sale. The “Art Part” is a longer process and can take anywhere from a few months to a few years, but that’s neither here nor there because if you got involved with direct selling to really “BE” successful, does it matter how long it takes for you to get it down pat? As long as you’re earning income and learning all at the same time, do you care how long it takes? I don’t think it should but then again, many people never really get into direct selling to be successful, they get in to give it a “try.” Trying is the codeword “cowards” use to cover their failures. Like Yoda told a young Luke Sywalker in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, “Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.”
The same holds true for recruiting. This has always baffled me but many teachers, including leaders in direct selling, create this divide between selling and recruiting. There shouldn’t be one, because they should both be happening all at the same time. Recruiting or sponsoring is nothing more than a sales process, but instead of selling a product or service, you must sell the prospect on why they should be joining you and your team. Selling is easier to learn than recruiting but if I already explained that you can learn sales within two weeks of starting, would it be so bad if it took you just a few more weeks to learn how to recruit like the leaders in your company? I believe you can and will if you make a decision to master the necessary skills upfront, asap. Learn the science of selling, the mechanics of it and transfer those ideas over to recruiting – if you can do that, and stick to it, you’ll be on stage at your next big event ,while everyone who joined with you, will be clapping along with everyone else for you, wondering how you managed to achieve so much, so soon.
