Network marketing prospecting is the real heart of your network marketing business – selling the idea of selling. In other words, whilst selling products to friends, relatives and other contacts starts the sales commissions rolling, there’s a better way.

The real money is to be made through proactive network marketing prospecting and bringing more and more people into your network. If you can get 5 people to join you and they each get 5 people who in turn each get 5 people and you get sales commissions from all of them, then you can make some serious money.

However, network marketing has picked up a bit of bad karma. The evangelistic methods passed down from network leaders through their distributors to unsuspecting public like you and me has left a little problem.

Yes, in theory it all makes sense. Yes, it’s legal and honest. Yes, you are selling good products (because you did your homework didn’t you!). But inevitably you will – over a period – try to sell to all of your friends and relatives because, if you are trained properly, you will start to see anything that moves as a potential prospect.

You won’t be able to help yourself. Instead of seeing friends and family as people, you start to see them as OPPORTUNITIES.

And guess what? Your friends and family will start to feel like opportunities, not people. Unless you are very careful, they will start to dread you coming over to preach your “opportunity”.

And you can’t wait to get over there because you can’t wait to start preaching again! It’s inevitable. Your network marketing training demands it. Your upline sponsor demands it, your team meetings demand it. The problem is, for those of us not as enlightened as you it is downright boring and painful.

Every inch of your excitement is an inch of our misery.

So think carefully from the outset about your network marketing prospecting strategy, if selling the idea of selling means putting relations and relationships on the line or whether you will go about it in a different way.  The choice is yours. And by the way, there are other ways………

Yet statistics consistently show that the cost of gaining business through prospecting is anywhere between 3 and 10 times as expensive as increasing sales through current customers.

Armed with that snippet of information it would be odd not to address the issue of how to target customers to maximise sales.

Target Customers To Maximise Sales In 10 Steps:

Make sure that you work through these steps in sequence. It’s important.

1- 80:20…Prioritise. Always remember that 20% of your customers will provide 80% of your profit. Work out who they are and focus on them. Now target customers who are in your bottom 20%. Ditch them.

2- Customer service.  I’m not just talking good customer service. I’m talking mind busting customer service. Good won’t differentiate you from the competition. 80% of customer service is giving the customer what they want when they want it. 20% is the personal relation building, touchy feely bit. Get the 80% right first without fail. Then worry about the 20%.  And don’t forget to give your customer some fun while you’re about it.

3- Solve your customers’ problems.  This is really an extension of mind busting customer service. Put yourself inside your customers’ head and work out what their problems are. Now solve them. If you can’t work out what they are then ask. These problems should be completely unrelated to your company’s current dealings with that customer. (Because you have already sorted that with your mind busting customer service haven’t you.) Don’t forget that to give is to receive, your payback will come in due course.

Now that you’ve sorted points 1-3,  target customers in your top 20% and make the most of points 4 to 6.

4- Feedback.  Asking your customers for feedback is a great sign of business maturity. It will also make your customers feel good. You might actually learn something too.

5- Testimonials. Whilst your customers are thinking about what’s wrong with your business for your feedback, they will also be considering what’s right with it. They will puff their chest out with self importance if you ask to use it for a testimonial.

6- Referrals. While your luck’s holding, ask your customers to recommend your company to their own contacts. Extremely powerful.

Your customers are now suitably warmed up. In fact they think you’re fantastic. So strike while the iron is hot and prepare for some direct selling.

7- Upsell.  Your customers are obviously happy with your widget X. Target customers who may be even happier with your widget X deluxe.

8- Cross sell.  Don’t assume that your customers know your full range of products even if you have told them a dozen times. They’ve got more important things to worry about. Tell them another dozen times.

9- Raise prices.  Contrary to popular opinion, customers will accept price rises provided that they understand i) why your product represented good value in the first place and ii) why a price rise is necessary and reasonable. Surprisingly customers are often under-informed about the products they buy and consequently don’t use them to their full potential.

10- Sell other products. There is no reason why you shouldn’t wholesale other companies’ products to your customers if you can be competitive on price. It obviously helps your economies of scale and reduces the number of individual deliveries your customers need to receive. Potentially a win win.

And there you have it. 10 simple steps to target customers to maximise your sales revenue. Charity begins at home so make the most of it.

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Small Business likes the the idea of selling. We pride ourself in our small business sales techniques. Honing our persuasive selling skills. Bowling over objection after objection. Channelling our prospect into the appropriate corner and nailing him. Ah, the sweet smell of victory. A sale. And nothing given away. Perfect.

But small business sales techniques don’t need to focus around selling at all.  Just for a minute, put the selling mauals down and think about this:

Stop selling and start giving.

Small Business is not very good at giving things away. Things of real value. We hand out pens, keyrings, badges and other completely useless items. We indulge in promotions.  10% discount. Money off next purchase. Buy 2 get 1 free. Win a holiday. Win 2 holidays.

But that’s not giving away. Giving away means giving away. Free. Nada. Zilch. Chargeless. For nothing.

The point about small business sales techniques is that they allow us to do things that the big boys don’t. Or can’t. So we have to take advantage of that.

How often have you walked into your local Comet store and been handed a free telly? Or got to the checkout at Tesco and the manager has waived you through saying “that trolley is on the house sir” just for the hell of it?

Sure, when you go to the summer fair the local brewery is always on standby to hand out copious quantities of free beer. But that’s not giving away either. What your local brewery should do is to supply your village pub landlord with enough free beer to last him a month. And encourage him to sell to his customers at normal prices and he keep all the profit.

Do you know why small business sales techiques like this are so powerful?

They remove the prospect’s buying objections in one hit. Because they aren’t buying anything. You’re giving it away.

Not only that but if you have got your giveaway strategy right then you have sewn the seeds of a strongly loyal customer for a long time to come. One that will bring you returns well in excess of the costs of your original giveaway.

Now don’t start giving your children’s inheritance away willy nilly.  First decide who are your top 20% of customers. Prospects like them are your target.  Then, stop thinking about your own small business needs and start thinking about theirs.  What are their biggest issues likely to be? How can you best help them by giving away?

If you’re not sure, ask your top 20% customers. What are their problems? How could you take away some pain for them?  They will queue up to tell  you that.

If you can solve any of these by giving away, then what are you waiting for?

Small business sales techniques sometimes involve giving, not selling.