This post comes from current project I am working on. The insights are applicable for any business that involves making a contact as part of the process of doing business and is specifically tailored for networking home businesses.
The first thing to keep in mind is that all you are doing is opening the door for someone to learn. You are not asking them to buy anything. You aren’t even asking if they are interested in what you have to offer. How could they be? They have no idea what you have to offer, so how could they be interested in it yet? You are only finding out of they are interested in learning about something that might be good for them.
The next thing to remember is that the need is great, so they likely have a need which you can serve through your offer. You can target this need if you know about it specifically or you can share the thing you are most excited about. I will talk more about this when I take you through the framework of the initial contact. The point here is that this contact is about them. It has nothing to do with what you want from the contact and everything to do with how what you have to offer could be of benefit to them. People are self-centered in general. If they think you are contacting them solely for your benefit as opposed to theirs, they will not want to learn.
An exciting thing to keep in mind, is that you have endless possibilities when you make a contact. Each time you open a door, you have no idea what might happen. Certainly there will be people who say no right away and have no interest in learning. That’s the human nature part playing out. The key is to not be thinking about this part of the equation. Focus on the other side. I know that we live in a limiting and often negative environment which breeds negative thinking. We are conditioned in our lives to think about what could go wrong. In this case, nothing can go wrong. The worst thing that can happen is someone is not interested in learning. That’s not a negative. Because you have now successfully let them know your business is open! You will have plenty of opportunities in the future to serve the person who says no initially. The fun side of this is that the next contact you make could be one of the most successful people in the history of your business in the future. Or they may become one of your best customers. Or they may lead you to a great amount of new business. You never know until you make the contact. After all, consider the top people in the organization you are part of. Someone contacted them at some point. Look how that turned out for them?
The last idea for your frame of mind comes from a quote I have on my wall. I played a lot of basketball in my life. I never made a shot I didn’t take. The picture on my wall is a picture of a basketball court with the saying “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” When you make your initial list to begin letting the world know you are in business there will be times when you think to yourself “he/she wouldn’t be interested” and be tempted not to contact them because you think they wouldn’t be interested. You need to contact them anyway. Because you have no idea if they would be interested or not. I have sponsored many people I first thought this about because I contacted them anyway. I took the shot. Always take the shot. You only know about people what they want you to know. You rarely know the real story. Make the approach and let human nature work for you.
