How to Stop Selling and Start Building Relationships

I have seen so many people in the network marketing industry trying desperately to sell to people. Thinking that they have to hound or spam everyone in their path to be successful. The truth is I think that approach is a huge turn off. That is a quick way to lose friends and make people want to run, screaming in the other direction.

For many network marketers it might be time to try a different approach. Take a look at the chart below comparing traditional selling vs building relationships and think about your current selling mindset. How would your selling behaviors change if you changed your sales thinking?

Selling	Relationship Building
Strong Sales Pitch	Stop the sales pitch- build relationships
Always trying to close a sale	Always trying to get to know clients and prospects
Always chasing after clients and prospects	Clients and prospects are coming to you

Lets look closer at what this might look like and how you can learn to build relationships vs. being seen as a pushy salesperson. Once you learn these concepts you could change up your current sales thinking and become more effective in your selling activities. I believe building relationships in business will help you grow a larger, more successful and long lasting business.

1. Always doing a strong sales pitch vs. letting go of the strong sale pitch and building relationships.

When you are meeting a potential customer, client or prospect stop the sales pitch. Get to know them and start a genuine conversation. Be sincere and really desire to get to know them. Give as much as you can in the beginning of building the relationship as you can. Give them your attention, your knowledge and your time. The more you give the more you can build trust and grow your relationship. People want to do business with people they like, know and trust. By building relationships people will see you are a person of character and are trustworthy and do not just see them as a dollar sign. Plus when you build relationships you will be much more likely to know what make your customers tick and will be able to be of better service to them.

Never lead with your opportunity or sales pitch. I love how Chalene Johnson put it in a recent speech she gave she said, “This is like a woman at a party yelling, my clock is ticking would anyone like to get me pregnant.” You are probably not going to have a lot of takers. If you are out there leading with your sales pitch before anyone knows you most likely you will not have a lot of takers either. It is hard for people to build trust in you when you are taking and “selling” all the time and not giving any value or showing any interest in them.

2. Always trying to close the sale vs. always trying to get to know your clients and prospects.

When you are always trying to close the sale or pitch an opporunity you are going to push people away. People do not like being “sold”. When you engage and get to know people you can establish friendships and build trust. Build credibility with people and THEN you can do business with them.

3. Always chasing after clients and prospects vs letting clients and prospects chase you

If you notice a lot of the highly successful people in network marketing are not out there chasing after clients and prospects. They have people lining up to work with them. One of the major reasons for that is they are out there consistently giving out valuable information. By giving value and engaging people they have people coming to them that would like to be a part of their team.

If you can learn to change your mindset and think about how you can always give value, teach people things and grow your relationships I know you can transform your business. It will take time to establish relationships and grow your business but it is worth it if you want to be a long term success rather than a flash in the pan.

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Comments

Christine Casey says:

06/16/2010 at 10:13 am

Hi Angela,
I loved this post! It was right on & to the point…to be successful in network marketing (or probably any other type of industry as well) you must be interested in people, who they are, what makes them tick. It’s NOT about you! Thanks for sharing! Christine
Twitter: christine_tulsa

[Reply]
Angela Reply:
June 18th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Hey Christine! Thanks for the comment. I agree you have to be interested in people and not make it all about you. I think the more you can give and develop relationships in this business the better you do.

[Reply]
Nicole Rushin says:

06/30/2010 at 7:53 pm

Great post, I wish more marketers would get this. Well, at least our down-lines will know and be taught the best way to build retention in their businesses. The way I have heard it is, if you have to close or sell someone you will have to close and sell them every single month when it comes time to place an ARO.
Nicole Rushin´s last [type] ..Is Your On-Line Business Weed Free -amp Retail Ready

[Reply]
Angela Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Hey Nicole! I like how you put that, I can see that being very true. If you have to sell someone changes are you are going to have to sell them over and over. Thanks for your comment!

[Reply]
Lloyd Dobson says:

07/01/2010 at 4:19 pm

Hello Angela,

A great post and I enjoyed your integrity as to how to treat this business called selling. If we take the focus off of ourselves and place it on our prospect it is amazing the out come. Find out their wants or needs and focus in on those. And the only way to accomplish that is to build a relationship of integrity. People buy from people!

Make it a great day!
Lloyd Dobson
Lloyd Dobson´s last [type] ..Creating Effective Outcomes Through Our Conversation

[Reply]
Angela Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Hey Lloyd! I agree that it is so important to focus on our customers wants and needs. People do buy from people and like you said you do need to be a person of integrity. Thanks for your comment!

[Reply]
Glyna Humm says:

07/02/2010 at 8:22 am

Angela – You are making such a great point here. Every network marketer should read this and give it a try:) Some people just make you want to run the other way when you wee them coming!
Glyna Humm´s last [type] ..Shiny New Objects Aren’t Always a Bad Thing-

[Reply]
Angela Reply:
July 8th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
oh yeah, there are some people I see coming and I want to hide because I know they are about to pitch me something. I don’t think they mean harm that is just the way they were taught to sell. Thanks for your comment!

[Reply]
Tommy DiPietro | Social Networking says:

01/20/2011 at 7:13 am

Hey Angela,

This is so true!

Too many people are just trying sell, sell, sell!!

They don’t understand the power of building that
relationship and that creates some far better
than shoving another product down our throats.

Have a great one
Tommy D.
Tommy DiPietro | Social Networking´s last [type] ..How An Attack From The Mad Russian Makes A Better MLM Blogger
Twitter: tommydipietro

[Reply]
Trish Kirby says:

01/20/2011 at 2:06 pm

Hi Angela,

Great article. I took a lot of valuable information away from it but my favorite part is how you describe leading a conversation with your business and comparing it to a woman walking into a room at a party and yelling “my clock is ticking would anyone like to get me pregnant?” PERFECT analogy!!! People will avoid you like the plague with that opening line. Thank you for sharing your insight and perspective. I look forward to the next post.

God Bless,
Trish
Trish Kirby´s last [type] ..We Grow When We Serve

[Reply]
Ben says:

04/03/2011 at 1:37 am

Angela,
Just wow! I’m trying to find the words, and I just simply couldn’t have said it better than how you did.
Ben´s last [type] ..A Way to Correctly Approach Your Friends and Family

[Reply]