Oh man, this drink, such a controversy. One thing that did make me smile about all the Facebook action was the network marketers. Awww…you guys. It reminds me of a meme I saw floating around that said, “let me get this straight, you will eat fast food, drink neon sports drinks, and clean with toxic chemicals, but you need to do more research before using essential oils.” I do love a snarky meme. I think this is hilarious. I think it’s hilarious not only for the obvious irony, but also because it goes to show how network marketers really don’t understand what is happening in the customer’s mind.
Today I’m going to go over the 5 reasons why people need to research your product but not the sugary goodness in a Starbucks drink or any of the other “poisons” that your normal customer uses.
- Customers don’t make decisions based on logic. We make decisions based on emotion. So your snarky logical comment, isn’t going to sway me. In fact, if I see that on my feed and I’m not yet a customer, it actually irritates the crap out of me and I think you are a pretentious jerk. So lose-lose on your end. When I make decisions based on emotion, fear only causes inaction as opposed to action. So the emotion you want to drive is hope as that is the one that will move me to actually buy something.
- The frappuccinno, fast food or whatever has clear, and low expectations. It’s $4 and it’s supposed to taste good. If it doesn’t, there isn’t a big risk. I’m not going to look stupid and I’m not out a bunch of money. But your high quality network marketing product? It’s more pricey and the expectations are high. I look at the promise of the In and Out Burger- it’s $3 and it tastes good. Done. Easy decision.
- Your story causes skepticism. Many network marketing companies encourage people to start with their amazing story. The problem is that many times your amazing story feels a little too good to be true. I know that network marketing products are awesome, they are typically best in class. However, those of you with a really cool story, have you ever stopped to wonder why people always want to research, where the people with a super lame story keep making sales? It’s because their customers find the claims believable. Watch out for projecting a “too good to be true” vibe as this will cause your customer to want to research their claim because they don’t want to be taken for a sucker and lose face later.
- People are instinctively going to be contrarian in nature. We have a tendency to argue to make ourselves look smarter. Because how on earth can you know something that I don’t. So obviously you must be wrong. This is an emotional self-preservation tactic. So when you try to explain to me that I’m wrong, oh I’m going to double down on how I’m not, and you are wrong.
- Your crazy eyes. Yes, you know the ones. The ones that light up when you talk about your product and how it’s changed everything. The ones that make me back away slowly and make me wonder if I say yes what on earth will happen to my life. These eyes instinctively make me want to run away and hide behind research. The Starbucks kid doesn’t have those eyes. She is just like, “hey want a pink drink? It’s delicious.” Ok, cool yes I do.
So what do you do? The best way to handle the research objection is before it comes up. Stop doing the things that cause the research objection. Stop overloading people with the most amazing story ever. Be cool. And for goodness’ sake stop being snarky on social media! It’s not cool. But more than what not to do, let’s talk about what actually to do.
Remember this super important quote from Zig Ziglar. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
So if I have a health issue please don’t start telling me about your amazing product. How about you actually care? Maybe, “how are you? Dang, that’s hard. What all have you tried? Wow, that must be frustrating. How can I help? I might have something that would help but I can see you are very overwhelmed and I would hate to add to it. But I also wouldn’t be a good friend if I didn’t offer to at see if I do. Would you like to talk about it? If not, I totally understand.” Now I am feeling hopeful again, and that might cause me to move. Instead of fearful and resistant. When you are listening, you have soft, caring eyes, not the crazy ones. And so I might actually trust you. And if I trust you, guess what? I don’t need to research.