Alexis Jonathan Lamsen

Key Points to Remember for a Powerful Product and Business Opportunity Presentation !Moving on the network marketing sales process after getting qualified prospects and setting an appointment, it’s time for you to present your network marketing business to them. Network marketing presentations are one of the more crucial and significant parts of the sales process because this is the period where you can spend an ample amount of time with your prospects to know them even more and to communicate the advantages and benefits of your product and business opportunity so they can join you in your business. !In the prospecting, we all have our fortes. You may be an extrovert and lean on active prospecting, or conversely, you may be an introvert and may prefer passive prospecting. In presenting there are no fortes. You need to present and learn to present if you want to succeed in network marketing. There is no excuse not to present even if you are an introvert because everybody has the inborn ability to express and present themselves. It’s just the fear of looking bad to the prospect or the audience that gives us stage fright. Remember fear is the result of not knowing the unknown and once you tried presenting for the first time and continued practicing, you will start presenting confidently and fluidly like a Zig Ziglar or a Tony Robbins.! !In most cases you have two options to choose from when you’re in the network marketing presentation stage of the sales process: it’s either you let your sponsor do the talking for you or you do all the explaining to the prospect. Most network marketing leaders recommend that at first, you ask your sponsor to present the business to your prospect. ! 1 of 11 You’re new, and you might goof off in your network marketing presentations and lose your prospect. It’s hard to get qualified prospects these days so you must treat your prospects like gold. Now I know what you’re thinking, don’t let your pride get the most of you. Let your sponsor do the talking first because they are more experienced, but you must observe your sponsor closely so you can copy it later on and do the network marketing presentations independently.! !Practice and experience are the number one training when you want to get good at presenting your network marketing business opportunity. You can buy all the training videos you want on the Internet and hire a top-tier network marketing coach to train you, but if you don’t practice and experience presenting multiple times, you won’t get better at it. ! !You can start practicing by doing mock network marketing presentations in front of you sponsor or fellow team members. Treat these simulated network marketing presentations as the real thing and let your sponsor or fellow team members criticize your network marketing presentation. Their criticisms may hurt, but it’s the only way to get better in presenting. Treat their criticisms as personal challenges and do your best to learn from them and overcome them.! ! !! BEFORE THE NETWORK MARKETING PRESENTATION ! ! 1. Qualify your prospect. The biggest mistake that distributors make is not qualifying their prospect BEFORE they give them a presentation. If you were selling houses, you wouldn’t give a presentation to a homeless, unemployed person who wasn’t looking for home, would you? Hopefully not. ! When it comes to network marketing, you need to qualify your prospect before you give a presentation. In other words, you want to find if they are looking to start a business, if they are looking to make some extra income or even replace their full-time job. You also want to know if they would potentially be interested in your products. If they aren’t qualified. don't waste your time doing a presentation. Just doing this one step alone can save you lots of time. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 2. Develop a Bond to your prospect based on Mutuality and Look to Contribute to Them in Some Way. People like to work and associate with others who share things in common with them. The more areas of interest your prospect shares with you, the more likely he is to like you, trust you, and want to be with you. ! If you also can identify some ways that your income opportunity might contribute to him or how your products might be a fit, you will be that much closer to developing yet another thing in common: your business. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 3. Before scheduling to meet your prospect, you must be certain that he is already PRESOLD on you. That is to say that you must have earned some credibility in the mind of the prospect, and he must be eagerly anticipating the appointment. To achieve this, you must have been positioned as someone with formula for solving the prospect’s problem. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 4. Be sure BOTH partners are present if they are married. If you are presenting the opportunity to a couple, it’s important that you make sure that both of them are present. You will often find that if you only show it to one of them and they get excited, they will then try to explain it to their partner when you are not there. In the majority of cases, they will not be able to explain it correctly or answer questions. The usual result is that you lose them, simply because the second partner has objected to something that the first could not clearly explain. ! 2 of 11 Something else to consider: because the network marketing opportunity you are offering can potentially have a very positive impact on those getting involved, both financially and personally, it is only fair when a couple is involved that both partners be present. When you make your contact and invitation to a couple, stress how important it is that they are both there, and organise the presentation to best suit both partners. Never allow yourself to be persuaded by the person you are contacting that it’s okay just to see one of them; studies have shown that when this happens the percentage who decide to get involved is dramatically reduced. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 5. Don’t suffer from DETAIL-ITIS of information. Before your presentation, you should know not to fall into the trap of getting into too much detail, particularly information that the prospect does not need to know right now. At the first presentation your prospect just needs to know enough to satisfy their interest. Sometimes it is easy to get carried away and start telling them everything about every aspect of the business— before long your prospect will be overwhelmed by it all. What most prospects need to know is just enough to move them to the next stage, where they will have some questions, before getting started. ! In doing your presentation it’s good practice to continually ask yourself, ‘Does this person really need to know this just yet?’ In the majority of cases the answer will be no. Developing this habit will greatly assist you, particularly in the early days, of not falling into the trap of overwhelming your prospects with irrelevant information. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 6. Presenting your business opportunity doesn’t have to be perfect. Presenting your business to others simply means going through the opportunity with them and explaining the concept in detail. This can be done on a one-on-one basis or in a small group meeting in someone’s home. ! A stumbling block that many people face, particularly the perfectionist types, is believing they must get the presentation perfect before sharing it with their prospects. This can often result in a stalling of your business, because no one is being shown the opportunity while you are holding off, waiting to get it just right, or thinking you must know all the facts and figures before you start. Many network marketing companies or their support systems will have a proven presentation for you to follow, which may also be supported with presentation material. Always find out what is available to you, and take advantage of what is probably a tried and true method that works. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel or give in to an ‘I’ll do it my way’ impulse—follow the system if there is one. !Don’t wait until you think you have all the answers or have a very rehearsed presentation, just make a start. The best way to learn is by doing—and remember, your prospect doesn’t know what is right or wrong about your presentation, so it doesn’t have to be perfect.! ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 7. The network marketing presentation must provide a brief overview of the company, products/services, compensation plan as well as the people involved and their stories. If all of these elements are properly addressed, people will have enough information to make a decision as to whether they want to join the business or become a customer. ! Now notice, I didn’t say you had to be a super-polished speaker that never make mistakes. What’s most important is that you are able to effectively communicate the core message in a clear and concise manner. Remember, presenting is a skill and skills can be learned and mastered. 3 of 11 ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 8. Tailor your presentation to their Wants, Needs, Hopes and Desires. Do not use the same cookie cutter presentation for everyone you talk to. Rather than doing that, tailor your presentation “slightly” to match the person’s hopes,needs, wants and desires. ! ! You can still share the same basic information, but make sure you modify it slightly to match up to the person you are showing to. For instance, if someone tells you they are looking ti make a full-time income with your business opportunity. And if they are interested in making P20,000 to P100,000 per month, show them how to do that. If you ask questions ahead of time and make some small talk, you will get this information from them so you can tailor your presentation. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 9. You must be willing to edify and duplicate your sponsor, who in turn must be willing to edify and duplicate their sponsor, and so on — letting the process continue to the person who must be willing to edify and duplicate the parent company. At its very soul, Network Marketing is a business of duplication. One in which what you can do, is subservient to what your people can duplicate.! __________________________________________________________________________________________ 10. If you are not the speaker, design an introduction to edify or provide information about the speaker to the prospects. During the introduction, the speaker’s accomplishments should be highlighted. Include information about their professional background and success that they have had in your network marketing company. Additionally, make sure that you incorporate information that will appeal to the four personality in the introduction. You’ll want to make reference to the fact that the speaker is knowledgeable, enjoys helping people, loves to have fun and is making money (or is positioned to make money) via the company compensation plan.! ________________________________________________________________________________________! ! 11. Way before the network marketing presentation, make sure you possess a jotter pad and a decent pen (preferably the Parker-like ones). A jotter pad is a small blank booklet that is easy to carry around. You can use these tools to illustrate the network structure of your company when you are presenting the compensation plan. These are handy tools that can supplement your network marketing presentation later on.! ________________________________________________________________________________________! !12. Remember ! to wear proper clothing when going out to network marketing presentations. Appropriate and professional clothing can help you look more authoritative to the prospect, and more authority means greater chances that the prospect will listen to you. If you are in a business meeting, you’ll probably listen to a well-groomed man with a polo shirt on rather than a man wearing a shirt with a marijuana leaf printed on it. ! Proper professional clothing doesn’t necessarily mean tuxedos or suit and ties, it can be a basic polo or polo shirt. Included in proper clothing are the peripherals like appropriate watches, rings, and necklaces, but just don’t overdo the bling.! ________________________________________________________________________________________! ! 11.Before traveling to the meeting place make sure that you’ve got all your tools with you, you groomed yourself and dressed appropriately, double checked everything, depart to arrive at the meeting venue for at least 15 minutes before the agreed time, and packed optimism so everything will go smoothly as anticipated. !! 4 of 11 ******************************************************************************************************************************! ! DURING THE NETWORK MARKETING PRESENTATION ! 1. Two scenarios may happen when you are nearing the meeting time. First, you arrive first at the meeting place, take a seat, open the PowerPoint/Keynote file so you won’t have to fiddle with your devices later on, and begin waiting for the prospect. Or second, the prospect arrives first at the meeting place. If possible, you need to avoid scenario two at all times. !When scenario one happens: When the prospect arrives, stand up, introduce yourself, and offer him a seat. If you’re meeting in a coffee shop or a bakery or any place that has food or drinks, ask him if he wants to order something (at your expense) before beginning the network marketing presentation. !When scenario two happens: Quickly say hi or hello and introduce yourself. Likewise, if you are meeting in a place that has food or drinks, ask him if he wants to order something before the network marketing presentation at your expense. ________________________________________________________________________________________! !2. When you and your prospect are now comfortably seated, introduce yourself more. You can state your occupation or your prior occupation before going full-time in network marketing, and the name of the team you’re in. By human nature, your prospect will do the same. Thank the prospect also for the time they allotted to hear this business opportunity out. The person might be busy, and maybe he sacrificed something of importance to be with you at this meeting, so a word of gratitude is somewhat appropriate. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 3. Take time to know your prospects a little better before STARTING your presentation. By taking the time to get to know your contacts a little better, you will find that they will be far more relaxed and less defensive once you get into your presentation. You will also find they will be far more open to talk about their dreams and goals, which is very important to the presentation. ! Your network marketing business is a business of people. If you want to build a successful business, you need to have a genuine interest and build relationships with your people, which all starts at the first presentation. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 4. Make SMALL TALK and ASK Questions. At the beginning of the presentation, make small talk with your prospects. Ask them few questions about themselves. Find out about their background and what their goals are. ! Your goal is simply to break the ice and introduce yourself to each other. Spend at least three to five minutes making small talk. This helps you warm up the prospect. You don’t have to draw this put for hours and hours. Be short and to the point. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 5. Before presenting, you can give a briefer about what you’re going to present. You also need to offer a disclaimer to your prospect that if they don’t like what they hear or see, they will not be forced or obliged to participate if they do not see value in what you are about to show them (hat tip to Chinkee Tan for that line). 5 of 11 But do remind them to keep their minds open because it may seem unbelievable and unreachable at first, but if they take the time to look at it closely and give some time to study and do the system, it’s really within arm’s reach. ________________________________________________________________________________________ !6. During the network marketing presentation proper, take a couple of subtle deep breaths before you begin and affirm yourself that this is going to be a great network marketing presentation, and there is no room for presentation jitters. Turn on your laptop or mobile device that contains the PowerPoint/Keynote presentation and load the deck out, or bring out the binded hard copy of the PowerPoint/Keynote deck if you haven’t done so. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 7. Be Genuine and Ethical. One reason that direct selling and network marketing gets a bad rap is that many representatives/distributors use hype and sometimes deception to lure in new recruits. This leads many to believe that the network marketing companies themselves encourage this behavior, but in truth, they don't. ! Legitimate network marketing companies want you to be honest in your dealings with customers and potential recruits. If you love your product, your enthusiasm is enough to promote it. Just make sure you're not over-the-top or making exaggerated or false claims. Good business conduct will ensure that your customers and recruits don't feel duped, and as a result, will stick with you. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 8. A couple of pointers before starting to present the business: (1) Remember to time your network marketing presentation to a maximum of one hour to twenty minutes, any longer than that and the prospect’s attention span may drift but regulate the pace so that you don’t present too fast. (2) Don’t forget to smile periodically while in the network marketing presentation as this will lighten up the mood but don’t do it so much that will make the prospect freak out. (3) Lastly, maintain eye contact with the prospect when presenting so that, according to Inc.com, you’ll look more authoritative, more believable, and more confident. ________________________________________________________________________________________! ! 9. Relate to your prospects through your STORY. As part of an effective network marketing presentation, one of the first things you should do is tell your story. The purpose of telling your story is to relate to the guests and get them to see that you are an average person just like them that had a desire to improve the quality of your life. ! Include challenges that you have faced (i.e. lack of time, money or both) because you want to show the guests that you were looking for something to improve your situation. Also, sharing your challenges makes you more relatable to the guests and gets them to say “me too.” !In your story, tell how the opportunity was presented to you, that it made sense to you, you got started and took action. Continue by telling them what happened as a result of starting your business and taking action (i.e., you are having success with your company, earn additional income, earned a car, etc). Tell your story in a concise format taking 5 minutes or less. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 10. Show to your prospects that your company is SOLID and STABLE. Discuss the reported earnings and any accolades that the company has received. Cite publications, news stories and other third party sources that highlight your company’s success. ! 6 of 11 If your company has been featured in any magazines, make sure to have copies available for people to review after the presentation. An effective network marketing presentation will assure people that you are representing a solid company with a tremendous success record.When discussing the industry, focus on size and expected growth. For example, if you represent a health and wellness company you can mention the rise in obesity, increasing health care costs and cite health statistics.Spend about 5 minutes on this portion of the presentation. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 11. When sharing your products, mention only the HIGHLIGHTS of your products and don’t get TOO TECHNICAL during your explanation of the products. Focus less on the features of your products/service and more on the benefits. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 12.When you are in the compensation plan part, you can use your jotter pad to illustrate the network marketing system that you company has and how can the prospect earn via the compensation plan from recruiting people into the team. ________________________________________________________________________________________! ! 13. Explain the HIGHLIGHTS of the compensation plan, not the every LITTLE detail. If you attempt to discuss minute details, you will confuse many of the people in your audience. ! Keep things high level. Focus on presenting a general idea of the many ways they can earn income. Discuss concepts such as residual income, creating leverage by incorporating the efforts of other people. Mention any quick start bonuses, weekly, monthly and annual bonuses, car allowances, etc. that your company offers. !An effective network marketing presentation will have those individuals that are money motivated sitting on the edge of their seats, if the information is presented properly. Spend a little more time on the compensation plan because for many people, the reason they decided to attend was to learn how to earn extra income. Plan to spend approximately 10-12 minutes on the compensation plan. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 14. I n c o r p o r a t e T E S T I M O N I A L S i n t o y o u r presentation after you explain the compensation plan. Testimonials are critical to the presentation’s success because they answer the question that many attendees will be thinking which is…”Sounds good, but is anyone really having success?”, “Can I really make money?”, “Is this something I can do?” ! What you’ll find is that often it’s not the presenter’s story, but someone else’s story that moves prospects to action. I suggest that you incorporate both product and business building success testimonials.Testimonials by people that have been in business 60 days or less and have had success, are extremely effective. People attending the network marketing presentation really take note of testimonials done by people that are fairly new. !Let me be clear, testimonials should be done by representatives that have had success with the company. Don’t have someone give a testimonial simply because they are a member of your team. You need success stories!Testimonials should be short (2-3 minutes). Have reps include in their testimonial, their background prior to starting with the company and success that they’ve had since partnering with the company. !Testimonials are very important because “stories sell” and the attendees can relate to the stories. FYI, attendees are more likely to remember the testimonials than any other part of the presentation. Plan to spend approximately 5-7 minutes on testimonials. _______________________________________________________________________________________ 7 of 11 15.Show to your prospect that they can have SUCCESS by using your company’s proven system even if they’ve never done network marketing before. Explain to guests how they will receive their training (one on one, conference call, online, local, regional and national meetings) as well as how often training is available. Tell the attendees who conducts the training and a little about their qualifications and success in the company. ! People need to know that they will not have to figure things out on their own in their new business venture. Also, let them know that they can be successful if they plug into the training system. Spend about 2-3 minutes on this portion of the presentation. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 16. Engage your prospect with QUESTIONS to understand their needs, goals, aspirations and dreams! Great teachers, leaders, and salespeople ask great questions. Asking open ended questions is a powerful way to get a person to open up about themselves. You are here to help them achieve what they want to achieve.The more you help others get what they want, the more this profession will reward you. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 17. Handle Dissenters Well. One of the major fears I hear from network marketers is that of being faced with doubting prospects or those who dispute what they’re being told. Unfortunately, the tendency is to dig in and fight your corner but this can turn the discussion into an argument and work against you, especially if you’re giving a presentation in front of a group. When you’re faced with negativity, always start your answer with “That’s a very good question…” and continue with your viewpoint. Wherever possible, turn things around to make your audience right. ________________________________________________________________________________________ 18. Spend most of the time of the presentation in the EMOTIONAL side of the business which is the emotion of achieving their dream. A very common mistake made in presentations is to spend the largest part of it on the logic of the business, on the facts and figures, on why it is such a great idea. Although important, these are not the reasons why most people get involved. The decision is usually an emotional one, responding to what they see they can get from the opportunity, not necessarily the opportunity itself. ! Therefore, the majority of your presentation time should be taken up with trying to find out what your prospect would like to achieve outside of what they are currently doing. Your goal should be to find out what their dreams are, and then to talk about how the network marketing business opportunity can help them achieve those dreams. Presenting the opportunity is not about selling the business concept, but about showing your prospect how the business is a vehicle that can be used to achieve their dreams. It is more a dream-building session than a business explanation. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 19. Talk About the Good and the Bad of your business. Of course you want to emphasize all of the benefits of your business, but if you don’t point out any of the downsides, your audience is going to find it tough to trust you—after all, most people know that there’s no such thing as an opportunity without risks. So, prepare to highlight all of the life-changing, super awesome benefits of your business, but also take care to pepper in a few potential drawbacks (along with your proposed solutions to those drawbacks). This way, your audience will feel like it’s getting a truthful, well-rounded picture of the venture. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 20. Take note though that there are people who may have heard about the network marketing business but are not familiar with how it works. If this is the case, then you need to spend some time to educate them enough to help them decide later on which part of the business they would be interested in. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 8 of 11 21. Have FUN with your presentation. Prospects have a tendency to mirror the feelings and emotions of those presenting, so if you’re dry, bored, or disengaged, you can bet they will be too. If you want your prospect to get excited about your venture, then you have to show your own excitement. Tap into your personal passions and enthusiasm for your business and share it openly; be conversational, playful, and don’t be afraid to crack a joke or two. Even if your jokes are bad, it’ll lighten the mood and help your audience relax and receive what you’re delivering. ________________________________________________________________________________________ 22. Always invite your prospect to join your business opportunity. It’s a call to action to ask the guests to make a decision about whether they want to partner with you and your company. An effective network marketing presentation will have a close that “paints a visual picture” for the guests of what their life could look like after a few years of building a successful business with your company. ! I personally don’t use a hard close, but I do believe in pointing out to people realities of life. I mention that there is no such thing as job security. I touch on why it’s smart to have multiple streams of income. !I mention that the likelihood of retiring from a job wealthy, is very slim. I mention that most people don’t have enough saved for retirement or their kids’ college education. !I discuss the fact that many people don’t have much leisure time and state that by building a business, they can get their time back. I use the close as an invitation to “join us” in business and become part of a debtreduction and cash accumulation movement. !I like to leave people in dream mode and considering the possibilities of a life with both time and money not being an issue. The close should take about 5-10 minutes. ! ****************************************************************************************************************************** ! AFTER THE NETWORK MARKETING PRESENTATION ! 1. You can ask your sponsor to tag along with you and let him do the closing for the first few network marketing presentations you make. Since closing is the highest part of the network marketing presentation and will mean the difference between a sale, a delayed sale, or a lost sale, a more senior member of the team like your sponsor will have the most experience in handling the closing process and answering objections properly. But don’t be dependent on him, observe what he’s doing during the closing process and his responses to the prospect’s objections as you’ll duplicate what he’s doing later on. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 2. When you decide to let your sponsor tag along and do the closing for you, you must bridge him first to your prospect. Bridging is the process of transitioning from one speaker to another with the previous speaker introducing the newer speaker’s credentials beforehand thus building authority to the newer one. You can bridge your sponsor by telling the prospect his name, his previous occupation, his reason for joining network marketing, and his achievements in the business. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 9 of 11 3. Make the next appointment after you and your sponsor have done your presentation. When you have done your presentation and the prospect has shown a degree of interest, organise your next meeting with them. Always have your diary with you so you can organise it there and then. Try to get back to them within the next 48 hours if possible. You will find that people’s enthusiasm and interest will start to wane after that time. If you have follow-up material, leave it with them; this will assist in maintaining their interest level. !This is a very important step in the process; it is easy in all the excitement to walk out the door without making the next appointment. What can sometimes happen is that you can feel as though you are ‘chasing’ the prospect when you ring up to get together again. Try to remember to ‘book a meeting from a meeting’, which simply means that before leaving the current meeting you book the next one. Your prospects will also respect this professional and organised approach. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ! 4. Have thick skin if your prospects rejects your offer.Your prospect is not rejecting you, they are rejecting the offer. How often do you walk into a department store, look around, talk with a sales person and walk out again without buying anything? Do you think the sales person gets upset when you leave? No. Do they put their head in their hands and start crying? No, of course not. They don’t care one bit. That’s the attitude you need. Be ready for rejection and don’t let it eat away your positive mindset! ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 5. Evaluate the effectiveness of your network marketing presentation based upon the number of people that decide to join your team or become a customer. Keep in mind, most people won’t join your team immediately following the first network marketing presentation that they watch. Most people will need to see the presentation 2-3 times before deciding to join as a representative. ! ****************************************************************************************************************** ! ! OTHER KEY POINTS REMEMBER FOR A POWERFUL PRODUCT AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY PRESENTATION 1. The key difference between a good presentation and a bad presentation is how well you addressed your prospect needs. You can know everything about the products or be an expert on the compensation plan and still give a bad presentation! That’s something a lot of distributors don't understand. They think that if you know everything about the products, everything about the compensation plan, naturally you will have a great presentation because you know everything. But that’s actually incorrect because the key difference between a good presentation and bad presentation is how well you address your prospect’s needs and what they are looking for. ! So remember knowing everything is not enough. You might know everything but still give a bad presentation! So place the focus on your prospect’s needs versus the focus on your knowledge/expertise is what will set you apart from every other presentation they’ve ever seen. ________________________________________________________________________________________ ! 2. Network Marketing Success is NOT about your Success. You need to learn this: People do NOT care about your network marketing success, it is ALL ABOUT THEIR Potential Success. Yes, you need a good personal testimonial, but down play it and make your Success a STRONG possibility for your prospect, and then show them that you will work hard to help them achieve it. It is NOT about you, but all about THEM. If an ego needs stroking, stroke their ego, not yours. !! !! 10 of 11 11 of 11