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!)