Change the way you look at prospecting – look at it this way… I’ve never heard of anyone ever breaking an arm or leg let alone a finger when they opened their mouth and started a friendly conversation. Starting a friendly conversation is the beginning of prospecting. To me, prospecting is opening up a new relationship by engaging in a friendly conversation and getting to know the other person. You don’t even know if they are someone you would want on your team if you don’t start communicating with them. Using this approach you also don’t feel vulnerable and get your feelings hurt by thinking they rejected you in some way. Don’t put so much on a simple friendly conversation. When you take this approach you end up choosing who you want to introduce to your business and who you don’t. No pressure just making friends.
Nice post Ed. So many people think prospecting is some complicated process when in fact it's just as simple as starting a friendly conversation like you said and let the conversation flow naturally. Most people think they need some script or some witty saying to get people to take a look at their presentation and that's just not the case.
So true Dereco. If one of your friends invited you to a party and introduced you to one of their friends you would have a natural conversation with them from the start. The recruiters mindset needs to be the same by wiping away the fact you want to enroll someone and just start a conversation. Through the conversation you will "qualify" the person as to if you even want to show them your business or not. Most of the time you won't simply because of what you learn through your initial conversation. In fact, in some cases it will take a few conversations to determine if the new person you are talking to would be a good fit to be part of your team.
This was exactly me when I got started. Sometimes I don't even go at it to prospect. I just go at it to get out of my comfort zone and speak to someone I don't know about a random subject. Prospecting is like building a muscle. Repetition and consistency will develop the muscle over time. Steve
