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Conversational
Rules for Prospecting Online How to start a chat, keep it focused and moving toward
your goal
While
you will undoubtedly meet lots of interesting people on the Internet and
you may even develop some close friendships, remember that your main goal
when prospecting online is to get people to your eCosway website.
Make sure that all of your online conversations ultimately focus on inviting
people to view the eCosway website. Remembering this goal will keep you
on target. If your conversations wander, don't panic. You can bring them
back, but you will be even more efficient if you don't allow them to go
off on useless tangents in the first place.
Following this general strategy should keep you on track.
Here are some general conversational guidelines for prospecting online.
This sequence has been tested and has been proven to be effective. We
strongly suggest that you start with what we have outlined here. As you
get more experience, you can start experimenting to see what works best
for you. As you chat with more and more people, you'll discover that you
may be able to take some shortcuts or that you may have to add some additional
information for it to work for you. You may even find things work better
for you if you change the sequence of the questions. Everybody has a different
style. The important thing is to keep on chatting with people and prospecting
for eCosway Business Owners.
The power of questions
As you look over this section, you'll notice that the main idea we're
trying to get across is how and when to ask good questions. Questions
are very powerful. When you ask questions, you are literally forcing people
to think about the answers to your question. If you know where you want
the conversation to go, the best way to direct it there-- is with questions.
If you ask good questions, the answers will naturally lead the prospect
to ask more about eCosway.
These questions work. However, they work more powerfully when they're
asked in a certain sequence and at the appropriate time. We'll be giving
you some general guidelines about when and how to ask questions to get
you started. However, to really master this material, you'll need to go
online and talk with people. As you get more experience, you'll develop
your own, even more powerful ways of connecting with people online.
Making the initial contact
After you've searched through some profiles and found someone that you
want to talk to, contact them using an instant messaging service like
AOL, ICQ or Yahoo Messenger. You can use any of the following phrases
to instant message someone and start a conversation.
All of these greetings have been proven
to work. Even the simple "Hi" or "Hello" works just fine because before
responding to you, people will check out your profile. If you use these
phrases in your instant messages and people don't respond to you, it could
be because they're online but not at their computers or maybe they just
can't answer you at the time. If nobody ever responds to your instant message,
your profile isn't working. You'll need to re-read the section on how to
write a profile and change yours till you start to get responses when you
use these openers. This is one of the great things about doing prospecting
online. If something doesn't work, you simply change it until it does.
Start off with small talk
Once they've responded to you, the next thing is to start
off with some small talk and get people to open up to you. Ask about the
person's job or occupation. The response often tells you whether or not
a person is a good candidate for eCosway. Plus, it's easy to transition
from the subject of someone's job to the idea of business ownership with
eCosway.
Even though people will give you some extremely personal information when
they're online, you don't want to start asking them personal questions right
away. For most people, you need to build up to it. As you talk to more and
more people, you'll get a much better feel for this. Experiment with how
you approach people and see what works for you.
Some of the people you contact will be great chatters. Remember that if
they've put up a profile, they did it for a reason. They want to chat with
people. However, if they're not carrying their end of the conversation when
you begin, a great way to get them to open up to you is to volunteer information
about yourself and then ask a question.
This is a great technique for getting the conversation going and getting
information from people. It's based on the principle of reciprocity which,
in its simple form, says that whatever you give to another person, they're
obligated to give back to you. So if you volunteer information about yourself,
the other person is obligated to do the same. When you give someone information
and then ask them for the same information, you'll get it almost all the
time.
Examples:
- I'm
45. How old are you?
- I'm
a teacher. What do you do?
- How
long have you been online? I started two months ago
- I'm married with two kids, boy 6, girl 3. And you?
Here are some questions that help to get
conversations started. These are open-ended questions designed to get
people talking.
- What's on your "to do" list for today?
- What do you have planned for today?
- So what's on your schedule?
As they talk, listen and look for an opportunity
to turn the topic of discussion towards their job. Once you see an opening
in the conversation, use the following questions as a "set".
The objective of this question set is to find out if the person is a good
prospect for eCosway. Specifically, you want to find out if they're looking
for something new, what motivates them in general and what motivates to
make a major life change.
- What do you do?
- How long have you been doing it?
- How did you get started?
- What did you do before?
- Why did you change jobs?
- What's your least favorite part of the job?
When you ask what they did before, the reason for changing jobs frequently comes up. If it doesn't, then ask the question directly because this tells you something very important about that person. People don't change jobs on a whim. They're either forced out of them or they consciously decide to change jobs. If they were forced out of a job, then they may be very open to network marketing where it's impossible to get fired. If they decided to leave the job and you know why, then you know what motivates them to make a major life decision and can use this information when you present them with the eCosway opportunity.
Let's get personal
It's absolutely amazing what people will reveal about themselves. When they're online, people are incredibly open and will tell you things that they would never tell their friends or family. This is good because it allows you to get the information you need to customize your eCosway opportunity so that it solves their specific problems or helps them reach their goals.
After you've talked about the job, it's time to really get to know the person. Find out if they're married, how long, what their spouse does, do they have kids, what ages, what are their hobbies and interests, etc. The purpose of these questions is to find out what they would like to do for or with their families, what their challenges in life are, what motivates them, what they like/dislike.
If you've established good rapport with a person, you can move on to more personal questions such as what are their long term goals are and if they'll get it if they keep doing what they're doing now. This is very powerful information to know. But asking this question has even more benefits.
Even though most people don't have long term goals, they all have something that they really want to do. Asking them about what they want to do or what their goals are puts them in a very good emotional state. This is important because if you are the one who is around when they're in this good emotional state, the positive feelings they have will be associated with you. In other words, you'll be a trigger for making them feel good. That's going to make your job a lot easier when you bring up the eCosway opportunity.
How do you know if you've established good rapport? It's pretty easy. People type a lot more . If you're only getting one or two word responses, you're not connecting with them. If they're answering your questions with details, that's a very good sign. An even better sign is if they start volunteering information. It shows that you've established a degree of trust and that you're doing a great job of connecting with the person.
Do a reality check
Now that you know a lot about this person, if you haven't done it by now, decide if you want to continue this conversation. This is something that you should be doing throughout your chat. At this point, you should know if this person is a good prospect or not Be selective. Remember that there are lots of people online who will be perfect for joining eCosway. You'll never run out of people to talk to. If you sense that the person you're talking to isn't right for the business (and you have no other personal reasons to connect with them) don't be afraid to "end" the conversation and spend your time looking for more suitable candidates. Your network will grow much faster if you select people carefully.
Introducing them to eCosway
Once you've learned about their personal life, start talking about the job again. This will lead naturally to introducing them to the concept of business ownership with eCosway. How you bring up the job again will depend on what the person has said to you so far. The general idea is to use all of the specific information you've gathered about the person and use it elegantly.
You're looking for an opening in the conversation that allows you to ask a question that will lead to them asking for more information about eCosway. Here are some questions that will create such openings:
- I spend a couple of hours a day online. What about you?
- Are you pretty much where you want to be in your career?
- What would you like to be different?
- Is what you're doing going to get you what you want in life?
- Would you consider other alternatives to achieve your goals?
- Have you ever considered going into business for yourself?
Would you consider other alternatives to get your goals?
If they answer yes, this gives you an opening to say,
I teach people how to run a home business chatting online. Based on what you've told me so far, you'd probably be very good at it and it would solve <a specific problem they've told you about> or help you get <a specific goal they've told you about>
When you deliver this line, it's very important that you use the specific problem or goal that they brought up during the conversation. Even though you may think that having a residual income is the greatest benefit of Mutual Marketing, they may think that having more time with their family is more important. If you go on and on about how wonderful it is to have a residual income without mentioning more time with their family, you're going to lose them. So be sure to listen to what is important to them. It's also important that you use the exact, same words that they use to describe their specific problem or specific goal.
If they want more information, give them the appropriate eCosway web address and say,
Take a look at the information and get back to me. I'll put you on my buddy list, put me on yours and let's talk soon. By the way, I find that thinking positively and staying motivated is very important. I get daily inspirational messages that I'll start passing on to you. They're very uplifting and that's something we all can use, don't you agree?
Some great conversational techniques
Here are some great techniques that will help you build rapport with people in your discussions with them. They're listed here because the opportunity to use them can come up at any time while you're chatting. Read them over and be prepared to use them when the opportunity presents itself in your conversations.
Echoing
When responding to a person's question or statement, echo them. This means use the same, exact, identical words that they use to describe their situation.
Example:
Prospect: I need to be able to support myself and my daughter. My marriage is in trouble and I'm looking for solutions.
You: I know what you mean. I work with a lot of women whose marriages are in trouble and who are looking for solutions.
The following responses are less powerful than the one given above and may even break rapport rather than enhance it:
You: I understand. I work with a lot of women who are having problems with their husbands and want to get out.
You: I understand. I work with a lot of women who are having difficulties in their marriage.
The words a person uses have special meaning to them. When you repeat them, the person feels that you've been really listening (which you have) and are willing to tell you more about themselves.
Echoing is actually easier to do online than it is face-to-face because you don't have to remember what they said. All you have to do is scroll back up in the conversation and cut and paste their exact words.
What's great about this conversational technique is that you don't have to be creative. You simply use the words that they used and you will have the most powerful effect. Don't paraphrase them, parrot-phrase them instead!
Overcoming a difference in opinion
Sometimes during an online conversation, the person may make a statement that is just plain wrong or is a belief that keeps them keeping an open mind. Here's a language pattern that works extremely well for correcting erroneous information. It's called "Feel, Felt, Found."
I know how you feel, I felt that way once before and what I found out was I know just what you mean. I felt exactly that way until I found out that I can really identify with that because I use to feel that way, too, and what I found out was
What's so great about this language pattern is that it validates the other person's opinion. People always want to be right and will fight you tooth and nail in order to be right. With "Feel, Felt, Found," they get to be right. You're not making them wrong. This allows them to absorb the new information that you're presenting to them rather than resisting you and trying to prove they're right.
Compliments
Compliment people whenever you can. It builds trust and deeper rapport. Here's a language pattern that makes compliments super effective.
- Compliment the person
- Give evidence for your compliment
- Ask them something about what you complimented them on
Example: You're probably a great parent. The reason I say that is
because during our conversation, you've said so many things that show
that you want the best for you children. How do you manage to give them
so much of your time?
Compliments are much more meaningful and have a much greater effect when
you give evidence for them and then immediately ask a question before
the person has time to "deny it." Some people have a hard time accepting
compliments so if you give them one, they become nervous and start denying
or "undoing" the compliment. If you ask a question right after you've
given the compliment and your evidence for it, you quickly focus their
attention on answering the question and they "unconsciously" accept the
compliment. (This can actually be even more powerful than when a person
consciously accepts a compliment with no question attached.)
What's great about using this formula, is that it's impossible for you
to be insincere when you have to support your compliments with evidence.
This forces you to really listen to what the other person is saying. The
more you learn to listen, the better you'll become at getting people to
like and trust you. In fact, you'll find that LISTENING IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT
THAN TALKING! If you just learn a few good questions, you can actually
make people talk more, feel better, and be even happier to talk to you
than if you were the greatest talker on earth.
Sometimes you won't have to give evidence for the compliment. Here's an
example. Suppose someone says something really, really funny. You're compliment
might be "What a great sense of humor you have. That is sooooo funny!
How do you manage to come up with such great stuff?" No need for the
evidence. But you still want to ask the question so that they'll accept
the compliment.
Once you start chatting online, you'll probably discover that you are
more of a "people person" than you thought you were. It's much easier
to be personable online. After all, you don't have to look good; it's
harder to "stick your foot in your mouth" (since you have time to think
before you write your answers), you can take breaks anytime you want,
and you can quickly and easily end any conversations you don't like.
Just think
no more rejection!!!
You're in charge and you can become very good at online prospecting very
quickly if you just Go For It!