Do You Have an Emotional Elephant in the Room?

Do you have an emotional elephant in the room?

One of the biggest problems people in network marketing have, is that they expect everyone they prospect to either use their product or join their business. 

They are so excited about what they are doing, that they expect everyone else to be excited too. 

Guess what? 

Not everyone will be. Some will not want your product at all, some will not want to join the business, and some may never talk to you again!

So what happens? 

You become disillusioned. You feel rejected. You lose your focus. You start to question yourself and your business. You lose confidence. You become fearful. You listen to those naysayers that said it wouldn’t work. You fall into a state of inaction. You blame others including your team leaders. 

And finally you quit all together. It’s happened to many.

“90% of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.” – Paul J. Meyer

You become one of the voices out there that says the network marketing business model does not work.  You say that only a few people actually make money in this type of business. You rationalize why you quit or failed at it.  And underneath all of this you look for sympathy and agreement.

And in many cases,  people are too emotional and too emotionally attached to succeed in this business.

So what really is the issue here that we all need to be aware of?

1. Business Expectations.

Well, for new people getting into a business for the first time, there are expectations.  These expectations may be totally unrealistic.  They may see what others have been able to do and think that it can be the same for them (and, if I may add, without doing the same work, too!).

2. Emotional Attachment. 

Secondly, we are in fact too emotional and too emotionally attached to succeeding in this business.  As I said before, because we are excited about what we are doing, we expect others to be too.

3. Ineffective Prospecting. 

How are you doing your prospecting, and is # 1 and 2 impacting your performance?  If 1 and 2 are, then you are probably losing many good prospects on the initial meeting, because it will be more about you than about them.  A meeting with a prospect always has to be about the prospect and giving value for them.  Remember prospecting is the core of your business!

So lets begin by setting reasonable business expectations or goals for your business.  Lets understand that it takes time to build a network marketing business (or any business for that matter) and it takes effort.  You have to decide if you have a business or just dabble in it.

Evaluate what time you have to commit to it and what that time will allow you to do.  Your team leader (coach) will be able to advise you. If you have only so many hours in a week, then you have to commit to working those hours. This is the perfect business to start part time because of the leveraging and residual benefits.

Eliminating the emotional attachment to the business and the outcome, is essential if you truly want to your business to grow. 

With my 10+ years of experience now working inside of the network marketing profession, I can absolutely state without a doubt, that the biggest problem to having success is being attached to the outcome, causing people to quit before they really even get started.

And, as I said before, not everyone is going to buy your product or join your business, just as not everyone eats the same breakfast cereal. Everyone has choices, and you have to get over the fact that people will turn you down, say one thing and do another, and even leave your business.

But for some unknown reason in network marketing, we have this preconceived notion that the prospect will see everything the same way we do. Because of this, we take it personally and this stops us from moving forward. 

If you were working in retail and someone did not want to buy the product do you care?  Of course not. 

So we have to be the same thick skinned person, when we get ‘no’ from a prospect. In fact a ’no’ is good as it allows you to stop wasting a lot of time on the people that are not interested. Remember prospecting is simply a sorting process to find those who are a really interested in you and your business, thats all it is.

In order to be non-emotional and not attached to the outcome, you need to treat the lack of interest by a prospect as you would treat anything else a person is not interested in. We are all different and “ different things turn our crank.”

You have to understand that the prospect has many things going on that they have not told you about.  Therefore, it may be a timing issue. It’s not about you.

Finally, many people are not good at effective prospecting. The good news is that most people get better at it, the more they do.

Think of prospecting like fishing. Do you catch a fish every time you go fishing? Of course not. So why do you think you will catch a prospect every time?

First of all, you won’t catch any fish if you don’t have a line in the water and some bait on the hook. And that means you have to understand the fish (what they eat, when they eat, where they eat, etc). The same thing goes for your prospect.  You have to ask them questions to find out if what you have is going to add benefit or value to their life.  You have to understand what makes them bite!

In other words, be focused on them and their livelihood.

Concentrate on being passionate (not emotional) and providing education and better understanding of your business, product, how it could help them and why you are doing it. 

Your ‘why’ or in other words, your story, as to why you are in network marketing, is very important, and it should be compelling! Whether it is to help your husband retire early, or to have more quality time with the children, or to have a better lifestyle and more control, or to help others deal with their financial and health issues, you need to be able to effectively tell your story to others.  Logically, not just emotionally.

To be successful in a network marketing business, I truly believe you need to take the emotion out of the potential outcome. Believe me this is not easy to do. No one wants rejection, no one wants to fail. 

That is why I believe the emotional element is so important but at the same time, so debilitating, as it can impact your psyche,  your business expectations, and your prospecting.i

Work on removing the emotional elephant now, and your business will thrive!

“Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your inner voice.” – Steve Jobs