How to Build a Downline?

Every successful networker knows that in order to build a downline of distributors you have to be actively presenting your prospects with your business opportunity, and while this is not rocket science, the way in which you approach it can significantly alter the outcomes. So what is the best way to present your business opportunity?

How do I present my business opportunity?

After reading the last page you should by now understand how to set the foundation for presenting your business opportunity. You understand the importance of building a relationship with your prospect, prequalifying them and in identifying their hot buttons. Now that you have set the ground work, you’re now ready to offer your solution. So how should you present your business opportunity?

As the name suggests, network marketing is essentially a sales and marketing business. The problem with this is that there are very few network marketers that have tertiary qualifications in sales and/or marketing. Therefore, one of the most effective techniques to building your downline is to a take slightly different, but highly effective and simple approach

Share the business opportunity, don’t sell it.

The concept of sharing the business opportunity basically means that your primary goal is get your prospects to look at some information and then let someone else (eg upline distributor) or something else (eg. prospecting tool) do the selling for you. For example, in response to their hot button you may choose to invite them along to a business opportunity presentation which might help to solve their problems, alternatively you may give someone a DVD to watch or refer them to an online presentation.

In recent years there have been a number of advances within the network marketing industry and in particular the development of prospecting tools, which has made sharing your network marketing business easy and more time efficient. Some examples may include:

• DVD presentations
• Online presentations
• Local Business Opportunity Meetings
• Live Webcasts – Presentations broadcast live over the internet
• Publications -newspapers, magazines etc.
• Company websites
• Audio presentations

The main benefit to using such prospecting tools is that it takes you out of the sales role, allowing professionally made sales tools or successful upline distributors to do all the hard work for you. Additionally you do not have to spend countless hours researching your products and business model as the prospecting tools will generally answer all of the questions for you. Win-win.

Using this downline building technique, your primary prospecting goal is simply to get to some information in their hand and an idea in their head. Anymore than a 30 second summary and an invitation to review some information is probably too much. The aim is to keep your approach brief and allow your prospecting tool to do the work.

After reviewing the information, your prospects are either interested to know more or they are not. Your prospects are now fully qualified and you know which ones to pursue. Are there any lost friends or hard feelings using this technique? No, because as far as they are concerned you didn’t try to sell them anything. They presented to you with a problem or an area of their life that could be improved and all you did was offer them a ‘possible’ solution. Those who are interested will want to know more, whereas those who aren’t interested won’t.

TIP: Don’t ever dismiss a prospect even though they may have initially turned you down. It is human nature to fear the unknown. If you are just starting out in the business as far as your prospects are concerned you haven’t been in the business long enough to know what the future holds. Go back to them in 6 months. After seeing your success they may be more willing to look at what you have to offer.

Don’t get us wrong, although we refer to this process as ‘sharing’ the information you are in fact selling, but the difference here is that you are taking a strategic approach by trying to promote some information that may be of relevance, as opposed to blatantly trying to sell your business. If after reviewing the information your prospects are interested to take the next step, they have essentially sold themselves.

Throughout the entire business prospecting process your ultimate goal is to have your prospects walk away with a commitment to either review some material (prospecting tool) or attend a meeting or presentation. This is best achieved through building a relationship with your prospects and through identifying their hot buttons such that you can then offer them your solution.

If your prospects start to ask questions immediately after you have delivered your information it is important to remember that your goal is to share the information, not to sell your opportunity. That’s what the tools are for. Therefore a good response to any question is to refer them back to the tool/appointment that you have just provided for them.

“That’s a great question and everything will be explained in the ...... (tool provided/ appointment). How about I give you a call on ....... (follow up date) and we can go through any questions then? ”

The follow up is arguably the most important aspect to converting your prospects into downline distributors and we will discuss this in more detail later. At this point however it is important to emphasise that when you deliver a prospecting tool you must also remember to arrange a convenient time to follow up to see if they are interested in knowing more. One of the biggest mistakes a new Network Marketer makes is in creating an interest with a prospect, but then not effectively following-up.

One final point to consider when using this downline building technique is that given you are relying on your prospecting tools to do the selling for you, it is important that you get to know each of your prospecting tools such that you can tailor your approach to meet your prospects needs. While some prospects might enjoy the convenience of the internet, others might prefer to watch a DVD. Do not overwhelm your prospects and give them too much information or homework to do as this approach can deter even the most motivated of people.

The role of the initial prospecting tool is to spark interest, not to explain every minor detail about your products or company. If after reviewing the initial information they want to know more, great, you have got them interested. Provide them with the necessary information and get one of your upline sponsors to help you close the deal and convert them to downline distributor.

Although prospecting tools are a great way to share your business opportunity and help build your downline, the way in which they are delivered and followed up on is important. Do not ever try to force information upon your prospects. As discussed previously, the best approach is to build the relationship first such that they are open to hear what you have to share. If your prospects are reluctant to accept your information, maintain you dignity, respect their decision, withdraw the information and change the topic of conversation. Remember professionals sort, amateurs convince. Reality is that you can’t win every prospect and trying to do so will only disrupt your potential friendships and damage your reputation. This helps to explain why pre-qualifying is so important.

How to Present your Business Opportunity Summary

• Once you have built a relationship with your prospect and indentified their hot buttons, look for the chance to present your opportunity.
• Put the prospect needs first - consider how you can help them (solve their problem), instead of how they can help you (build your downline).
• Share the business opportunity don’t sell it (pre-sell and then let someone/something else do the selling for you).
• Offer a brief description about how your information may help to solve their problem and then provide them with the relevant information for them to review.
• Arrange a follow up.
• As always continue to build the relationship with your prospects and pre-qualify them.

Now that your prospects have reviewed the information you need to get back in contact with them to see if they are interested to know more and potentially join your downline. On the next page we will discuss how to prepare for the follow up and then discuss the final and the most crucial stage to prospecting, closing the deal where we’ll teach you how to present the follow up so that you can convert an interested prospect into an active downline distributor.

NEXT -> Preparing for the follow up

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