Lesson #3 on Communication and Prospecting from my Conversation with the Jehovah's Witnesses

Several days ago I had an interesting conversation with a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses that taught me five (5) important lessons about communication and prospecting that I believe apply to building a business in a professional, genuine way. In earlier posts, I shared the first two lessons:

Lesson #1: Don't just dive in to what you want to talk about

Lesson #2: Ask questions

In this post, I'd like to share a third lesson I learned from my experience with the Jehovah's Witnesses about effectively communicating with people, a lesson that you can apply to building your USANA -- or any! -- business:

Lesson #3: Start with points of commonality, not points of division

In almost any conversation or discussion, it’s advisable to start with what you and your prospect agree on, rather than starting right in on your points of difference. That’s true for discussions about politics, religion, what movie to see, how to raise your kids ... or in the case of USANA, about health/nutrition or business.

In this experience I had recently, what the Jehovah's Witnesses had to say about Doomsday I didn’t necessarily agree with. We both sort of entrenched in our position, and while the conversation never actually got heated, I don’t think either of us made much of a break-through, either.

BUT, I bet there were some things that they believed that I would also agree with. If we could have figured that out (to do so would have required asking questions, by the way!) it might have led to a much more productive conversation from their standpoint.

In USANA, before launching in to your sales presentation, figure out what your prospect already believes about eating a healthy diet, for example. Do they think they can get all of their nutrition from food alone? What are their thoughts on supplementation? Do they believe it's necessary? Why or why not? Are all products essentially the same? What do they feed their kids?

And in terms of business, do they think it’s even important to have multiple streams of income? Do they know what network marketing is? Are they looking to make a full-time income or a part-time income? Have they ever been in business for themselves before? etc.

It can be difficult to dive right in and “convince” someone that supplements are necessary, that USANA is the best, and that network marketing is the best way to distribute those products and to earn a nice residual stream of income. You may believe those things (and rightly so!), but if on a scale of 1-10 in each of those areas, your prospect is closer to a 2 or 3 in terms of their belief, then it will be better for you in the long run if you figure out where you do see eye-to-eye and build from there.

One final thought on this topic that should go without saying: People don't like to be told that they're wrong!

This is another reason why it's so important to start your conversations by focusing on areas where you share the same beliefs or ideas.

If you do ask a question and get a negative response, or if you hit on a topic that your prospect clearly disagrees with you about, don't make it immediately obvious that you think he/she is wrong. For example, if your prospect says something like, "You know, I think I actually eat pretty well and really believe that good food is the ideal place to get all your nutrients," you might be tempted to immediately counter that and explain all the reasons why that's out-dated thinking (e.g. soils are depleted, foods are over-processed, optimal levels of ingredients are simply impossible to get today without supplementation, etc.). However, I've found that a much better approach is to get your prospect talking more about his/her beliefs.

A great phrase to use when someone says something that you disagree with is: "Wow, that's an interesting perspective. Tell me more about that."

You'll find that it leads to a much more productive conversation. Furthermore, this approach may just open your prospect's eyes to some of your beliefs on the subject, much more so than if you immediately reject the person's way of thinking and state your position straight-away.

To be continued... 

(check back tomorrow for Lesson #3!)

Lesson #2 on Communication and Prospecting from my Conversation with the Jehovah's Witnesses

Several days ago I wrote about my conversation with a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses and one of the lessons I learned about communication and prospecting that I believe applies well to building an effective USANA business:

Lesson #1:  Don't just dive right in to what you want to talk about

Here's the second lesson about communication and prospecting that I learned from that conversation:

Lesson #2: Ask questions!

A great way to build rapport and establish trust is to actually find out something about the person you’re talking to. The obvious -- but often under-utilized -- way to do that is to ask questions.

I found it interesting that my two visitors never once asked me anything about me. How long have I lived in the house? Do I like the neighborhood? Do I currently attend a church? Am I married? Any kids? Do I believe in God?

Those would have been perfectly appropriate questions to break the ice and get me to open up.

More than that, however, they might just have learned something about me that would have given them a better idea of where to begin the conversation! For example, if they’re going to launch into a discussion about Doomsday, don’t you think it would have been helpful to know whether I even believe in God? Or rather than using Scripture as some sort of authority about their opinion, doesn’t it make sense that they should know something about what I believe about the Bible (i.e. is it Truth, inspired by God? or just some work of history without any relevance today?)?

Instead, as I mentioned in Lesson #1, they pretty much just launched in to their agenda and lost me along the way.

Here’s a take-home message for you: He who asks the most questions, controls the conversation!

It was funny -- about halfway through the conversation, after they read me a few Scriptures, I started asking them questions. From there on out, I controlled the rest of the conversation. I think at one point it sort of confused them; they probably never had anyone do that to them before. But the truth is, I got the sense that they actually liked it. I was showing an interest in them. I was asking them questions. They got to talk about things that were important to them, and my esteem went up in their eyes.

It’s an interesting phenomenon to see happen in a conversation, when you ask questions. Try it with sometime you talk to today!

To be continued...

(check back tomorrow for Lesson #3!)

5 Things I Learned about Communication and Prospecting from my Recent Conversation with Jehovah’s Witnesses

A few days ago I had a couple of elderly Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on my door. Rather than tell them I was busy or make an excuse as to why I couldn’t talk with them, as I’ve admittedly done in the past, this time I decided to actually have a conversation with them and see what they’re all about.

I’m glad I did.

In addition to having an overall interesting conversation with two very nice people, I actually learned some valuable lessons about communication and prospecting that I believe will make me more effective in my USANA business. And I believe they can help you, too!

As a quick aside, let me ask you: When is the last time you were on the receiving end of a sales presentation, or in an environment where someone was trying to convince you of their point of view?

What worked? What didn’t work? 

I think a lot of us instinctively try to avoid those situations (which in itself is instructive -- we need to realize that’s what our prospects may be thinking when we start talking to them about our business or product), but I would encourage you to put yourself in those situations more often so that you can remind yourself what it’s like. Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes every once in a while and learn some lessons yourself about how to be a more effective communicator.

Now, back to our Jehovah’s Witnesses. For me, here are five things I learned from that conversation:

Lesson #1: Don’t just dive right in to what you want to talk about

Let me describe the first minute or two of my experience with my two visitors.

When I opened the door, the couple started introducing themselves while I yelled at the dog and told her to get in her crate so she’d be out of the way. As a result, I missed their names and still don’t know what they are. Then they made a comment about the vacuum cleaner that was visible in our foyer and asked if I had a busy day of cleaning ahead, which was a nice attempt at breaking the ice, but in my opinion, not nearly enough. Because as soon as I stepped outside onto the stoop, they dropped the vacuum cleaner discussion and immediately announced why they were there:

“We’re talking with neighbors about ... blah...blah...blah...” (I’m not belittling what they said; I just really don’t remember what they said they wanted to talk to me about) “...and we’d like to share a few things with you.”

They then took out a little magazine they had, flipped through it, and read me a random Scripture.

They then said something about Doomsday and asked if I was familiar with that term. I said “Yes.”

They then started telling me what they believe about Doomsday, read another scripture, and the conversation went on from there.

Here’s the point of telling you this: By this point in the conversation, I felt absolutely no rapport with them. Who were they? Why should I trust anything they had to say? What credibility do they have? Where do they live? Why are they walking around knocking on people’s doors on a beautiful day?

Frankly, I think they’re so used to having people close the door on them that they were probably excited to finally have the opportunity to tell someone what they believe. But from a sales standpoint, that doesn’t work. I would very much have liked to have known more about them, and I would have asked them some questions of my own if I had been able to get a word in edge-wise!

Keep this in mind when you’re trying to build relationships with people:

It is crucial to establish trust and build rapport with your prospect before diving in and starting to talk about what it is you’re wanting to talk about. 

It takes a little more time, but it’s essential for opening up the prospect's mind to even being willing to have the conversation with you and hear what you have to say.

To be continued...

(check back tomorrow for Lesson #2!)