I spent 6 years doing direct sales and networking just like each and every one of you who may be looking for the perfect business opportunity or the right technique. Many people ask, "what does it take? What does it require? How do I become successful?" Jeff Mills, who has sold over a million dollars of product and earned over $700,000 in the last two years in the direct sales industry, recently interviewed Jeffrey Combs of Golden Mastermind Seminars, and found these insights so remarkable, he decided to report on them for you in this special article. The questions asked above are all great questions, but what most people don't understand is why they do what they do, and in our industry, direct sales and networking, what does it require? What does it really take? It requires that you have the ability to create rapport, the ability to connect with people, and most importantly understand who is serious, who is interested, who is committed and who isn't. I mean, this is what it really breaks down to. Who is a great prospect? What does it take to enroll someone? Most people don't fail. Most people never really get started; and you'll hear a lot of people say that our industry has a very high failure ratio. Well, no higher than the owner of a restaurant, no higher than owning any other kind of business; and when you leave your job, or you leave behind your job mentality and step into a free enterprise, it requires a whole different level of mindset, posture, attitude - all meaning the proper frame of mind to become a connector - and what people don't ever really master are three simple skills: asking, listening, and receiving, and there's a tremendous amount of emotional resistance to asking. Most people aren't comfortable with asking for the order, asking for the sale, asking for a commitment, asking a series of questions so you can provoke someone's curiosity. Now, here is the common denominator in all of this - "people", and the more you understand about people, the more you understand there are four different personality types, and that the four different personality types have different hot buttons, different reactions, different emotional requirements; and that doesn't mean you have to spend a great deal of time, but you learn by this - repetition and experience; and what most of you are already finding is that if you can't prospect in this game, you aren't gonna make it, and here's why people have challenges with this type of prospecting - because they approach it from a perspective of fear rather than fate. For the largest majority of people, fear is a two-letter word - "No". No could be the scariest thing you ever hear, but is it really that bad? People fear they'll be rejected and they end up taking the whole process personally, afraid of the negative outcome of prospecting. Jeff Mills has had the privilege of coaching over 450 clients and devoting over 4000 hours in the last several years to honing his craft and understanding why people do what they do. He routinely has six- to eight people joining his organization wanting his coaching per week. He doesn' farm it out through a series of coaches that he's trained, and he's extremely good at understanding why people do what they do. "I can help people overcome their fears and have breakthroughs. I know a number of successful marketing techniques that always get good results," said Jeff Mills. Why do people sabotage themselves? Why do they get ready to get ready? Why does procrastination become the norm rather than production? I know someone recently who's just left his corporate job achieving six figures, and for the last month he hasn't been able to get on the phone, what does it really take to succeed? See, you don't just 'get on the phone'. You can put the phone in the middle of a room and sit on it, and that'll be getting on the phone. That does not make you money, it makes you a moron. What you get paid for is qualifying people for your time. Having conversations to see who's actually committed, and what you're gonna find if you're talking to the American populace is that most people are interested, they're not really committed; and what people really fear is change. And when you present a great opportunity like Coastal Vacations Club, or your product and your services, it's not that people don't see value and it's not that they don't see value in you. Most of them can't decide, and if you can't ask for the order, ask for the commitment, then you're only dealing with a very small percent of the population. What you need to become is an order taker. Jeffrey Combs told me, "There are three kinds of people when it comes to prospecting and connecting. There are order takers, there are sales people, and there are closers, and the people that make the most money in these opportunities are people that have the ability not just to close, but primarily to ask." Now if you are a closer, it means you feel good enough about yourself that you are comfortable in asking for what you deserve, and the reason most people don't do this is they have receiving issues and they have deserve issues. Most of our society is great at giving, and they give, give, give, and really what they're giving for is approval, and then they end by giving their power away. I've seen people do everything correctly. They take people through a system. They actually get someone to warm up to them, but they aren't comfortable in asking. They blow it at the close because they hate to ask for the money or simply don't know HOW to ask. A lot of our unconditional emotions based on our past keeps many of us in our present. All you have to do is go back to some of your conditioning you learned with the 20,000 meals you spent with your financial planners, and that would be your parents. See, most of us spend 20,000 meals with a set of parents and this is where we learn all about conditioning, about success, about money. We are told that "children are to be seen, not heard; don't take money from strangers; don't pry into other peoples' affairs; don't ask questions." Well, closers are able to ask despite or in spite of the circumstances. Closers have self-esteem. That means they have posture. They are confident about the task at hand. They have been through enough repetition and experience that they know who they are talking to. They know their real product, which are people. They realize the product solves problems, but marketing to people and developing people relationships is what you get paid for. Closers are great at listening. It means they can hear what people mean, not what they say. So what does it take? You must learn to become a closer, and it that is too hard for you to learn is there a better way to delegate to someone else to close the sales for you? Jeff Mills would answer with a, "YES!" Jeff Mills has found the perfect closing solution for people looking to make a 6 figure annual income. To learn more, see his bio below. |
