Getting Information From Your Prospect First is Critical in Attraction Marketing

Attraction marketing stresses the importance of getting information from your prospect first. This may seem rather obvious, but it is not normally practiced in traditional network marketing.Most of us have asked the question of ourselves at some time, "What am I doing wrong? Why are my efforts to attract prospects not meeting with better results?One expert copywriter says in answer to this question, "I can tell you the Number 1 problem in online copy for network marketers: They start where THEY want to start instead of starting where the CUSTOMER IS."Ann Sieg says the same thing in another way. "It starts with getting information, not giving it."In this article I want to talk to you about why it is that we do not start where the customer is and what it is that we have got to know about the customer to change this. Then we will talk about how to get this crucial information.Why to Get Information from Your Prospect First to Do Attraction Marketing?Before I get to why it is that we need to understand our prospect first, let me explain why it is that we tend to start with the product we are trying to sell the prospect or the opportunity we are trying to sell them.First, there is this long habit in sales of starting right in presenting the wonders of our product or opportunity. There is this implicit belief that if we are not talking we are not selling. But how can we truly sell if we do not know what the other person needs or wants? We sort of believe that what we have is good for anyone and everyone, they just do not know it yet!Secondly, we have been taught the importance of staying in control of the conversation. And how can you stay in control of the conversation if you are not doing the talking? Well, it is possible through the questions you ask. By asking questions of your customer, you get them talking about themselves (and who does not enjoy talking about themselves!). You are still in control of the information gathering process even though the customer is doing most of the talking.The importance of getting information from your prospect is because it is critical to your selling. You need to know where they are coming from. What their hot buttons are. What motivates them. It is only then that you can know if your product, whether it be a business opportunity or an actual product, is something that meets a real need. If it does, you have a client. If not, you have a friend who may need what you have some other day.And it is this very process of taking the posture of the learner rather than the pushy sales person, that wins the confidence of your prospect. Once you have listened long and hard to them, they will be much more likely to listen to you when you coach them later.So during your initial interview you are primarily information gathering. Your customer should be talking 80% of the time. If you find yourself talking a lot, you know you are not doing your job well.What to Get Information about from Your Prospect to Do Attraction Marketing?The copywriter cited above, David Garfinkel, puts it this way. "This means getting into your prospect's thinking by understanding what their life is like. what frustrates them, what their secret desires are, what their fears are, and how they think about things...which would be different, maybe, than you do."You are looking for clues into their dreams, their motivations, and their feelings. Most people buy with their feelings and then look for logical reasons for justifying what they have decided on the basis of feeling.From my experience in network marketing, we are told that the most important part of selling is your enthusiasm. Hopefully your enthusiasm is based on a belief that your product or your opportunity is great, maybe even the greatest! The people who are the most enthused are held up as models for the rest of us to follow.Now enthusiasm has its place, but if there is no interest or need for what we offer by the customer, enthusiasm is really out of place. It is appropriate when there is a deep need on their part for what we offer.How to Get Information Effectively from Your Prospect to Do Attraction Marketing?There are two ingredients I would like to suggest to facilitate the process of gaining a deep understanding into the life and motivation of your prospect.First, there is a lot of power in asking the right questions. Ask open ended questions. Start with general questions and then go to more specific ones as needs be. Say you are selling an energy drink. You want to know if your prospect is into exercise or body building or sports to see if this could be a need.Sometimes, for marketing purposes, we need to know the wants and desires of our target audience. We gain this by doing our personal research. Listen to the kinds of questions people ask. Visit forums that focus on your niche and see what they are talking about or asking about. Do a Google search of your key terms.The second ingredient is the power of listening. It takes a lot of energy to genuinely listen to what the other is saying and to take it seriously. Active listening can be a kind of dialogue. You play back some of what you have heard from time to time to see if you have captured what they are saying or to see if you have captured their feelings. There is no better way to win friends than through asking sincere questions and listening honestly to another. Most of us love to talk about ourselves!When we do this kind of marketing by leveraging the internet, we can identify with whole groups of people who have a need for our product or our business opportunity. By putting myself in their shoes and addressing the things they are feeling and experiencing, they will be attracted to me to learn more. Hence Ann Sieg calls it "Attraction Marketing."By leveraging the internet you can get people coming to you rather then you chasing after them. You can get them coming in droves rather then approaching just one at a time. There are ways of using automation on the internet to sort and sift your prospects so you only talk to those who are highly qualified.I recommend you read more about "attraction marketing". You can get a copy of Ann Sieg's free eBook entitled "Attraction Marketing Manifesto" by following the instructions below.