"How you answer the most common objections in Relationship Marketing / Network Marketing, and close the deal at the same time — without pushing, pressuring or convincing anyone."
This document is done to help you when you are struggling with overcoming objections and questions. This is meant for your education; it is not meant for sending out to prospects or anything like that. It is meant for your education so that you can learn how to handle various objections and what to say.
First, let me start by saying that Relationship Marketing and this opportunity is not for everybody. It is not for all people and we don't expect every person in the world to join us. As with any other profession not everybody becomes a doctor, not everybody becomes a carpenter or a sailor. People are different so although we have a good positive attitude towards people when we meet them, there will be questions, there will be objections, there will be people choosing to say that this is not for me, and that is okay.
The products you sell could be for everybody, but not everybody will buy it. A lot of people would say "I don't believe in it" even if we educate them. Some people don't want to be educated and we cannot help people who don't want to get help. Some people refuse to go to a doctor too, some people refuse to take a product, even if it is proven that it could help them. Some people will choose to say I can't afford it.
What we are doing, we are sifting and sorting and qualifying through several people, to find those who already want what we have. This is not that different to any other business. If you take a BMW or Mercedes dealer or anybody who sells those cars, they don't assume that every person in the country will buy it. Not everybody can afford a BMW and not everybody wants to drive a BMW even if they could afford it. It is never going to be the whole market. So, don't worry about people saying no, don't get emotionally involved in rejections because we will all have them, it is just a part of the game.
When we get questions and objections, we want to clarify, so that we are sure that we understand the objection or the question that they ask, that we have understood the right objection.
There may for example, be people who say "I don't have time", whereas, the real objection is "I am not sure if my wife or husband will agree that I should do this". To clarify, when people say, for example, "this is too expensive", we want to clarify what they mean by that, so that we know that we understand them correctly and only then can we answer them correctly.
You want to clarify, for example, by using a mirroring technique. When they say "this is too expensive", you can say: "expensive? what do you mean by expensive" or what do you compare it to when you say expensive? Or "why do you call it expensive?".
Then you would need to also ask them "what if it wasn't expensive, would you buy it then? would you invest in it then? what if it was possible, would you do it then? If I could show you how to overcome that, would you join us then? Would you buy it then?
I would suggest you clarify all the questions that they can think of, before you start answering, because some people want to be difficult or they just have paradigms that tell them they always should disagree, that is not because they don't want to behave, but it is just the way they are.
We clarify the right objections and questions, and then we ask what if it was possible? What if you could do it? What if you could find time? What if you could find money, would you do it then?
The objections, the questions and moving to closing are closely connected. Learn to love objections, learn to love questions because if they didn't ask questions, if they didn't have objections, you can guarantee that they are not interested.
A question is just a sign of interest. They just want to make sure that they do the right thing. When we answer, we don't answer by confronting or provoking, we answer with compassion. When a person says "I don't have time", I would suggest using for example the "Feel, Felt, Found" method, it has served me well for over 30 years and continues to do so. It is very simple and there are variations of it, but you will probably say something like this: "I understand how you feel, I felt the same when I started the business a while ago, because I didn't think I had time at all, but then a friend of mine helped me find a way to create time".
So, Feel, Felt, Found — I understand how you feel, I felt the same or some other person felt the same, and then we found a way. Would you like to see what we found out and maybe that can help you too? Very often, you will benefit from using a third party story, even more so than your own stories. Then if you can connect it to a third-party story, then it is even better sometimes. When you refer to a third person then they cannot really attack you or argue against you.
Common Objections or Questions
Time
Let's start with time — "I don't have time". The way I would answer that is that I would first clarify. You said you don't have time, how much time is it that you don't have? In other words, "how much time do you think it takes?". If the answer was; "I guess it is like any other business, you will have to invest sixty to eighty hours, sacrifice your entire family, your hobbies to build a business. That's normal." Then I say, "well what if this is not so normal, what if you could start this with just two-three hours a day, fifteen to twenty hours a week instead of sixty to eighty hours a week, would you do it then?"
You clarify first, so that you understand when they say "I don't have time", how much time is it that you don't have? It is a good question. I usually say then: "I understand how you feel; I felt the same 27+ years ago when I first started because I had a full-time job, I was an Executive Vice President in a large company. I had sixty-to-eighty-hour work weeks, I was travelling for half the year, I didn't think I had time at all to start up anything…" Then I tell the story of a friend who asked me to look at my calendar, going through all 168 hours of one week — sleep, meals, commuting, TV — and we couldn't account for 17 hours. Those 17 hours became the seed for the business.
Money
Another one that is very natural is, "I don't have the money". Well, to understand you correctly, if you had the money, would you do it then or is there anything else that stops you? Clarify all the objections first. "Okay how much money do you think it takes?" One person said "usually you have to borrow money, put your house up as a security and then be in debt forever if you fail".
"Well, what if you didn't have to do that? What if it was possible to start this with $500?" "That's not possible." I said "well, what if it is possible, would you just let it go believing that it is not possible or would you like to hear how it could be possible." He said "OK, tell me more."
I once had a friend who said it was impossible to raise the money. I said: "There's a car parked outside, it is worth $100,000, it's mine. Let's assume I need money right now, and if you can get me the money within twenty-four hours, I am willing to give that car to you for $10,000. But I need a decision now. Would you buy it?" He said "absolutely, right away." "That's interesting," I said, "because a minute ago, you could not even raise $500, so what makes you think you can raise $10,000 now?" He said "no problem, I can go to 10 friends and borrow $1,000 from each of them..." So why not look at this opportunity the same way? Every time, if people see or believe that they can get a bigger value back than what they pay or invest of time and money, they will buy.
"I have to think about it"
That is usually something people say just to avoid having to deal with it right now, because people are afraid of making decisions. When they say "I have to think about it" you can say "okay, let me just understand, which part of it is unclear, what do you need to think about, what kind of concerns do you have"? Clarify what they need to think about.
Then: "If you are like me, when we say I have to think about it, what we really mean is we go home, we think about it, but then we also talk to other people about it, people that we may love and respect — maybe a wife or husband — but they don't know anything about Relationship Marketing or the company. They would suggest solutions anyway, and usually they would ask skeptical questions, and you may start doubting yourself."
"So whoever you want to think with, I would suggest that you do your own thinking but if you need advice, make sure that you talk with people who know what they are talking about and can prove by results that they know what they are talking about. If you want to talk with them anyway, please ask them to come along with you on the next call so that we can explain to them as well. Let me help you think instead of letting them think for you."
"I have to speak with my partner"
"That's understandable, if you are a couple, you make decisions like these together. But please understand one thing — your partner was not here. Just because you heard the information and you got inspired by it doesn't mean that you are trained to deliver the same speech to them. So, if they are interested or if they have questions, ask if they can please come with you on the next call so that they can get the information from the same source."
Pyramid Scheme / Scam
Then there is the classic — "Is this a pyramid scheme or a scam?" Clarify by saying "Pyramid scheme, what do you mean by pyramid scheme?" They say "Well, isn't this one of those where just a few people on the top, those who started the whole thing are earning all the money, and all the people that come in at the bottom, sooner or later they lose, and the company disappears"?
"Well, if that is what you mean, then I can confidently say no, this is not a pyramid scheme. The reason why is that I know it is a legit company. The company has been in business for some time, they are moving into a momentum and exponential growth. They have products that are backed by science and are proven to work."
"You see, a pyramid scheme is illegal, people will end up in jail if they run a pyramid scheme. So, this company has nothing to do with these things. This is a legit company that is a leader in selling health technologies, they just happened to choose relationship marketing as a distribution model. There are 100 million people involved in this profession these days, and they sell products, services, and opportunities for $200 billion a year."
"I need to try the product first"
That is a classic. I say "OK, why do you want to do that? Why do you think that is most important?" They say "I need to believe in it to sell it". I reply "that, I agree — but why do you need to feel it on yourself? Why do you need to try it out and feel it on your body in order to believe in it?"
It took me six to eight months before I noticed the difference. Just because you cannot feel it, does not mean it is not there. If you are sitting in a silent room, you can't hear pop music — but if you put on the right radio frequency, it's there. So just because we can't feel it, doesn't mean it doesn't work.
I once talked to a pharmacist who said "I want to try out the product to believe in it before I can promote it." I said "OK, you're a pharmacist, right? Does that mean that you take all the pills and drink all the medicines before you sell or promote it?" He started laughing: "of course not, I would be a wandering drug addict then." "OK, so how can you promote it then?" "Well, I trust the information, I trust the science, I trust the doctors, I trust the testimonies." "Why don't you do the same here as well?"
"I need to know everything first"
"What is everything? What is it that you need to know everything about?" They reply "well, I need to know everything about the product, everything about the science, everything about the compensation plan, everything about everything." "OK, of course that is going to take you some time and probably you will never get there because some of the things that you need to know, you will not know until you have experienced them."
When I was interviewing for a position of Executive Vice President in a large company, the President asked me: "How do you make decisions? What do you need to know before you can go ahead, before you can decide and act?" I said: "I don't think it is even possible to know everything. I educate myself as well as I can, maybe I get fifty percent of the information, and then I trust my intuition, decide and take action. Usually I land on both my feet. Sometimes I make a mistake, but then we learn from that and we move on — and that is called experience." I got the job.
If you wait for all the lights to go green before you start driving, you will never get anywhere.
These were 6 of the most common objections you will meet — and now you know a little bit about how to approach them. Remember: whenever you get a question or an objection, it is always a positive thing, because if they did not ask, if they did not have any objection, they probably would not be very interested in what you have to offer.
Thanks for studying this document. I hope you will repeat it and practice it over and over until it becomes a natural part of you. That is when you know that you have automated this skill.