I said Initiating Contact is the primary key to your UnFranchise Business success, however, Converting Prospects into active participants is just as important and possibly more so.
It is important to remember to stay focussed on developing the relationship as you create a profile of them and gauge their interest. This needs as long as it needs. Once you have decided they are a strong possibility then you can start reeling them in.
In this section we look at developing a prospect after the initial contact has been successful. That is, you have arranged to see them again. The opportunity is for you to enrol them as an UnFranchise Owner. Or at least get them interested in selling or buying products. Whatever happens, maintain the connection even if they are definitely not interested because you never know what may happen in the future.
Funnily enough it is harder to enrol people during the early days of your business because you are still a beginner in your own business and do not have a lot to demonstrate your success yet.
This is why it is extremely important to understand the business thoroughly so you can be genuinely enthusiastic about the possibilities. In the early days it is this enthusiasm that grows your success. It is what attracts people now, until you can demonstrate your own success, which becomes more appealing to your prospects than just enthusiasm.
Let us assume our first objective is to enrol prospects into becoming UnFranchise Business Owners. If that isn’t for them then the goal is enrol them as a seller or buyer of products. At the least maintain a positive connection.
Your next steps depend on how you ended up your first meeting. I can provide some possible scenarios but really it is up to you to design your process for each prospect. It is important to recognise that you are unique and your process should match your personality. Also each person is unique and your process should be designed to match their personality. They will have been giving you clues as long as you listen because everybody exposes a lot about themselves sub-consciously.
Second Meeting Options
What might you know before you meet them again:
- What they do
- If they like what they do
- If there are opportunities to help each other
- What interests them
- If you like them
- If they are interested in what you do
- What your next step might be
- If they listen
This information will dictate your prepared process for the meeting. Your meeting goal is to create more interest and open
up possibilities to share the business opportunity during the meeting. If you have done the ground work, then this should be reasonably easy because at some point they will declare their interest. You have to be ready. It may be another meeting, a home meeting or a public meeting. Never mind if the opportunity doesn’t show up because you can always meet again. How much time you invest in getting to this point is up to you and should be relative to your assessment profile of the prospect.
You can see that this isn’t a specific how to. That is because everybody is unique and the result is based on your skill and the prospects interest. However, everything you do can be looked at and improved to increase the return on your time investment.
It is important to write an accurate statement in your journal. Exactly what was said and your thoughts. You have to learn as much as you can, so you can amend your process to increase your successes. It is in this information that you and others can find areas to improve your outcomes.
If you do what you always do, then you are guaranteed the same result.
If you would like some input on any of this, then contact us or talk to fellow business owners.
