How to Successfully Build Relationships With Your Prospects

Ask yourself this question: when approaching prospects, are you thinking only about the potential sale? Or how your perfectly rehearsed marketing pitch will be received? Or how to anticipate and combat the “no’s” and turn them into resounding “yes’s”?

I won’t say that these are not important things to think about; however, if your only line of thinking involves the quickest way to get something from your prospects, you may be leaving a lot of business on the table.

I run two home-based businesses, one of which is a network marketing business. When I first got involved in network marketing, I always thought from the perspective of “what will this person be able to do for me?” Not even from a greed standpoint…but just from a sheer lack of knowledge on how to approach people, build relationships and be in tune with what prospects need and want to help them reach their goals.

I realized that I was missing a major component when talking with prospects. Instead of always thinking about what they can do for me, I started to think about what I could do for THEM and how I could help them either get started in network marketing or provide solutions for them in their current business – even before they thought about joining my team. I started to understand the importance of providing value to a prospect in order to build a meaningful and trustworthy relationship.

Ultimately, people decide to do business with you if they know you, like you, and trust you. So how do you achieve this? I find that if you are willing and open to share your knowledge, resources and expertise with people – without expecting something in return – people respond to that and are more open to learning about what you have to offer. I’m not advocating giving away every piece of valuable information you have; rather, just be open to sharing some free advice or a few tips that could really make a difference to your prospect.

For my prospects, I spent time talking with them to understand their goals, offer them tips and other helpful resources to consider in their businesses, and freely share my knowledge and perspective on running a home-based network marketing business. Do I expect anything in return? No. I simply hope the information and resources I’ve provided helps them make a positive decision for themselves.

Now, some people may say that this is a waste of time, or that too much is being shared without expecting something in return…and I simply beg to differ. Plus, sharing knowledge and helping people just feels good, even if it never directly benefits me. I love helping people be successful and making a positive impact on others, so I consider it a good thing.

So next time you approach a prospect, consider what you can offer THEM instead of the other way around…and you may be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.