Just today alone, I received five inbox messages from network marketers who all claimed to suck at sales.
“I’m connecting with people. I’m inboxing people. I’m messaging people, and we’re having these great conversations. But then, I ask for the sale, and it’s total crickets.”
They don’t understand. They’re doing so much work, yet not seeing any return on all of the hours they are putting in. So, that is what we are talking about today. I’m going to give you three simple things to think about that you can start implementing into your business so you start hearing “yes.”
A trend going around network marketing is to FORM people, which stands for, “Family, Occupation, Recreation and then the Message you intended.” (Giving your sales pitch). A lot of people are using this technique,inboxing people who they don’t actually know and trying to build relationships. But, they’re going about it by trying to build a friend relationship as opposed to positioning themselves as the coach. For some people, it works really well, and for other people, it really hurts them. They end up in this weird, confusing relationship of, “Are you my friend or are you my coach?”
FORMing can definitely work. “Hey, I saw you’re newly engaged; congrats!” “Cute kid. I have a 10 month old too!” You’re going through the process, and for some people it’s working real well. And then, for other people, you’re maybe just not asking the right questions, or they’re just not feeling that connection with you.
What I find a lot of women are doing is: they’re immediately jumping the gun.
They’re going through this FORM process. They’re asking a bunch of questions. They’re slowly trying to move it into health and fitness, asking “How much weight do you want to lose?” And these people (who don’t really even know you) answer with, “…I guess I would like to lose 10 pounds?…” and then the coach says, “I have a solution for you!!!!”
If you’re doing it this way, you’re not actually taking the time to engage with this person. You need to get on the phone with them and really make sure that this would make sense. If this person’s never been approached by somebody like this before, they will be really turned off if they think you want to be friends but in the end you’re just trying to sell to them.
That’s not the kind of business that I know you want to run.
You might be thinking, “But Jen, this is what my company teaches. This is what my upline coach told me to do, and I do get some sales from it.”
I’m not saying it’s the worst thing. I’m just telling you to do a gut check for yourself. There’s no right or wrong.
There are 15 million different ways to strategize, to get customers, and to grow a business in the online space.
I have friends who make six figures just off of YouTube. They don’t have a Facebook page. They don’t have an Instagram page. They just get clients from YouTube. Other people just get clients from Instagram; she makes almost a million dollars. There’s no one right way to go about this! But, you’ve got to find the one way that actually sits right with you; that feels right in your gut.
If you’re getting those crickets and you’re getting people ghosting you, something’s got to change. Do you agree with that?
Just like Gary Vee has said, “The market is always changing.” I’m not saying certain techniques don’t work, but they may be less effective today than they were just a few years ago. Or, your business may be in a different place today than it was back then.
What got you here won’t get you there.
If you’re on a team of network marketers and they have already utilized all of the tools you’ve given them, perhaps they are ready to uplevel even more. Don’t just stay within the company for trainings; because those are going to get you here but they’re not going to get you to those top tiers, or there.
If you ask any top network marketer, no matter their company, they’re not just doing the five things that the company tells them to do every day. They’re hiring business coaches, they’re taking courses there on YouTube, they’re on all these other platforms and integrating all of these more advanced business techniques that maybe they’re sharing with their team. Maybe it’s not as duplicatable, but if you want to scale your business, it’s important to have some things in place that fit your needs.
How are you currently showing up on social media?
How are you creating value for a specific niche in the market?
It’s not that you just “help women lose weight and get healthy.” That’s everyone.
Everyone has different things that are pain and pleasure points. So, we’ve got to get more specific.
What is the problem that you’re solving?
Think about it: if you were going to create courses, what kind of courses would you create?
If you’re going to run online accountability or challenge groups, what is the focus of those groups?
For example, if I’m going to create a meal plan eBook, maybe it’s specifically for a woman who is in the last 12 weeks of prep for her bikini fitness competition.
Just started journaling, and think about the people who you’ve loved working with, so that you can get really, really clear about who that person is that you would like to serve. Now you’re saying, “Well, I would love to work with people who are bikini fitness competitors, but I’m not a nutritionist. I’m not a personal trainer. I don’t have that expertise yet.” That’s OK! Start with what you have now.
You don’t need to be the all-knowing expert.
You really don’t. I swear.
Instead of trying to have all the answers, take action! I know that a lot of you are just collecting certifications. You’re waiting until someone knights you or gives you a crown so that you can start posting on social media. You don’t have to be the expert to be a contributor!
Contribute to the conversation.
Show up.
Share your answers.
Allow people to see your journey.
So, how do you start a business? How do you pick a niche? How do you find your expertise?
I really think it starts with what you are passionate about.
What is your greatest passion? What makes you feel on fire?
Then, really think about your stories and struggles and challenges.
If you just step into your personal truth and share what you know, you’re going to win.
This is also very important to realize. Perhaps you choose a specific expertise, and your audience loves when you post recipes, so you decide that you are going to make a recipe book. But, do you actually like creating recipes?
If the answer is, “No, I hate it. But that’s what gets the most likes on my social media and everybody’s asking for recipes…” you still don’t have to do it. You don’t have to be the recipe person. Recognize too that, if you haven’t been speaking to a specific audience, the market research that you do on social media is going to be a little bit skewed.
You’re not going to get accurate results, because those are possibly not your people.
Be okay with just following your own intuition on what you should create next.
We also don’t want you to live in your inbox. That’s not a smart way – and probably not a fun way – to continuously grow your business.
Maybe you’re hitting your monthly goals by answering messages immediately, but is it allowing you to step forward? Are you available to get on live video, create content, do activities that will bring people TO you, instead of you chasing them in the messenger app?
WHY are you living in your inbox? Is it allowing you to stay small? Is that becoming your go to excuse? “I couldn’t do a live video today because I had to answer questions.” Is there some kind of fear or some kind of block around getting a little bit more visible? Is that a little convenient for you right now?
This doesn’t have to just be living in your messenger. This could be any area of your business. What are the things that you’re doing right now that you’re allowing to take up all this time? What actions are you taking that are not actually money making activities?
Another reason people stay in their inbox is because they have no concept of creating boundaries. They feel bad. They feel bad when they don’t answer right away. They think, if I give people all of this value and answer all of their questions, then they’re going to buy from me eventually.
Are you doing your best to show up consistently and give tons of value? Or, can you do a little bit more? We all can in some way.
But, when you commit to being visible and providing value publicly, you don’t have to spend as much time in your inbox.
You’ve already built that know/like/trust with people, and when you build, you actually expedite the sales process.
You shift the perceived value around what you have to offer. So, go to your own social media platforms right now and do a little audit. If you are a brand new potential customer, what would you see? What would you learn? Can they get a sense of who you are within just a few seconds? If not, you may want to make some changes.
If you start to implement some of those things (by getting more visible and being more clear in your messaging), you won’t have to spend as much time in your inbox. You’ll feel like, “Hey, I earned the right to not answer this person’s question. I don’t live in my inbox!”
If people have questions, I will redirect them to my Facebook group to some kind of video content or let them know about my coaching offerings. Because, if somebody is coming to me, they’re coming because they want to have their problem solved and I’m happy to do that. But, I also am a very busy human being and I value my own time.
When you’ve got that person who’s been in your inbox for six months and every couple of days they’re asking you another question. I don’t care what industry you’re in: there’s going to be people who will try to get information for free. It may not be ill-intended, but they may be those people who are being poachers. If you’re not giving them something to potentially buy and invest in, they’re not going to do it. Redirect them. You don’t have to spend your entire life living in your inbox, answering questions for people who are not wanting to invest in you.
If they’re asking that many questions, then they’re ready. They are ready and they will figure it out.
So moving into this next piece…
What are your beliefs around money?
For network marketers, there’s a really interesting thing that I see come up with specific companies. There’s a huge amount of people (especially in the lower tiers) devaluing their time and services. I think a lot of those marketers cannot see themselves as a real business owner. They’re constantly having to validate and convince other people that what they’re doing is legit. But, at your core, what are the things that you’re telling yourself?
Is it that money is hard to come by?
Nobody wants to buy my stuff?
I constantly get crickets?
Ask yourself…what is real money to you?
You may have a significant other or friends who do not believe that online businesses generate real money. Of course it is! You have dollar bills and numbers going into a bank account. Is money only valuable if it’s in a corporate setting? Is being a waitress real money, or is that fun money? Or, being a network marketer, is that hobby money? Or, is that a real business?
Your “little coaching thing” that you’re doing on the side.
Are people scoffing at it?
Or are people like,
“Dude, that’s awesome! You’re generating another stream of income…” ?
I don’t care if it’s $12 a week. That adds up over time. If you’re doing it for five years, guess what? You’ve now made an additional stream of income. So, are you placing judgment on the type of money that you’re bringing in? Does the way that you’re bringing in somehow make it less legit? And, if there’s other people whispering negativity in your ear, you might want to just shut that down for them.
So just to kind of quickly recap:
Own your boundaries and own your time.
Own your freaking prices.
Get visible in order to help more people, on a bigger scale.
Get up and teach, or be the coach.
It’s beautiful when you have people reaching out to you who you’ve never met before who have watched a couple of your videos. They’re like, “You are my coach!” even if you don’t even know who they are. That is freaking cool.
They’re ready to work with you, because you spent 30 minutes creating this one video.
They watched the video.
They connected with you.
And now, they are like, “You’re my person. Let’s do this.”
Just those little tiny things: deciding to get on video, deciding to write that story, deciding to show up authentically, and deciding to ask for the sale even if it’s freaking scary. These are all the things that move us forward.
You’re moving the dial every single time. It may be moving one degree, or maybe even .001 degree, but it’s moving in the direction that you want to go.
So, it counts.
Make sure you are celebrating every single win, even if it feels small.
Those are the ones that are sometimes the most important.
If you guys are not already inside the Facebook group, you can find us by going to heyjencasey.com/group.
Come hang out with other people who are like-minded entrepreneurs who are looking to level up!
