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February 09, 2006
They Aren't on Your Time Frame - Practice Patience
Patience is a virtue. This cliché is the essence of running a work at home business. Impatience can breed failure if you aren't careful. One of the most important areas in which patience is needed, is realizing that YOUR time schedule and your potential CLIENT's or RECRUIT's time schedule may be totally off synch from each other. Whether you are looking at recruiting someone for your business opportunity or attempting to sell your product/service to someone, you need to realize that these contacts and potentials aren't as anxious about your business as you are. Don't get caught up in your own time table that you disregard and in essence toss out contacts that could very well be the best people for your business.
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A prime example is for those who are promoting a business opportunity and are wanting to recruit new representatives or consultants. While it is exciting to be able to get people signed up right away, you need to realize that these individuals most likely do not have the same urgency that you do. For example, if you work off of leads that either you collect or you purchase, some people may not fill out all the questions, such as their phone number. Don't write off the people who don't leave phone numbers. Over the many years of working with moms who are in search of work at home businesses, I have found that sometimes online, people are very leery about giving out too much personal information such as a phone number. |
You should still follow up with them via email, sending some information for them to be able to peruse at their leisure, and ask about connecting with them via phone. Then keep them in your contact list and reconnect with them. People are at different stages on their quest for working at home. While some are ready to jump in right away, someone may be "just curious" and "just looking" right now. Never rush to judgment on your contacts or leads. If someone is just starting out, they may be collecting info on 10 - 30 companies and don't want 10 - 30 different people calling them on the phone. They may feel that they might be put on the spot or pressured by being on the phone with someone they don't know. So, by building even a small relationship via email - that can put the person at ease to then eventually want to speak with you via phone.
If you sell a product, there WILL be many people that impulse buy or know specifically what they want while shopping around, but there are also a large percentage of people who need to see your name and product over and over to let it sink in with them and let them gain trust in your name and business. It is one thing to have friends and family and people from networking circles you are involved in becoming your customers, but the real key to your success is when you are able to turn virtual strangers into customers, and hopefully into repeat customers for years to come. Again, don't discount the people who make initial contact with you, whether it be seeing your products in a store, at a trade show, or sending you an email with a question. These are all potential customers who may just need to be kept in the loop and feel like they are learning more about you and your products before making a decision. Not everyone will be in need of what your business has to offer at this moment in time. They may be ready to make a purchasing decision 3 months from now, but as stated above with business opportunities, they may be simply searching, browsing and collecting information on their options prior to making a final decision.
Don't shoot your business in the foot by discounting people because they are not where YOU want them to be right now in their decision process. You may even find that the people who take their time and research thoroughly before coming to a decision, will end up being the best customers or hardest workers on your team.
Posted by Cyndi at February 9, 2006 10:46 AM
Comments
Having been in direct sales for over 17 years, I couldn't agree more! I do believe we need to have goals so that we are always stretching ourselves but we need to remember that we are working with people not goals written on paper. If you get so focused on reaching that goal that you forget to put the person you are talking with FIRST - they will sense that immediately!
I can't tell you how many times you will talk with someone; and for whatever reason, it just isn't the right time or place for them - respect that. I always keep in touch with anyone that shares some form of communciation method with me. The most dramatic story in my history was a lady that was on my newsletter list for 5 years. She never shared her phone number and I never pushed. She ordered via snail mail, once every six months. I would ship her order and always kept her on my snail mail newsletter. We never talked on the phone so my newsletter was my only means of communication with her. Five years into this - I got an email from her requesting further business info. I emailed her back; but she didn't want to share her phone number with me just yet, so I send her the details via email. The next day - I had a new business partner and she called me to let me know! She is a wonderful person who just needed time to consider her options and she wanted it to be a no-pressure situation.
Respect people, put them first, and never, ever give up before you should!
Donna Vogel
Posted by: Donna Vogel at February 9, 2006 11:27 AM

