Getting Comfortable with Prospecting In Your Network Marketing Business

Prospecting is the water of life of your network marketing business. Quite simply, it is impossible to survive, let alone prosper, in network marketing if there is not a steady supply of new people joining your team. Network marketers can be separated into three distinct prospector groups and it is worthwhile knowing which group you are in now and whether you need to change groups or not.

The first group are those that enjoy prospecting. It is so natural to them they probably don't even think about it. These people can easily succeed in network marketing.

The second group are uncomfortable with prospecting but they have a great enough reason to succeed at their network marketing business to continue prospecting anyway. Very often these people will, through sheer persistence, soon discover that practice makes perfect and begin to enjoy prospecting, often moving into the first group.

The third group is made up of people dislike prospecting completely. Unfortunately very few have a strong enough reason for being in the network marketing business to succeed. The result is generally failure, but not always if they are prepared to have a rethink.

When you distil the difference between the three groups it boils right down to how comfortable a person is with prospecting. How quickly we achieve something is directly related to how quickly we become comfortable with what we have to do.

I was monitoring some drainage work being done on some land adjacent to our house the other day, and I got talking to the overseer. His ambition was to open up a bookshop. He loved books. He had a library of over 500 books in his home. Each evening he shut himself off from the rest of the household and with a glass of wine in his hand he would settle down in a comfortable chair to read a book.

As we talked, it became obvious to me that this man wasn't ready to open his book store. He didn't have the money to fund a business and the idea of raising the funds through a bank loan was uncomfortable to him - frightening, in fact. He had never attempted this before. He didn't know if he could do it. He didn't have a big enough reason to make him take action. It wasn't that he wasn't capable of being where he wanted to be, he wasn't totally comfortable with the thoughts and feelings yet.

As you know, whatever we do - our actions - are governed by our thoughts and feelings, so if you are uncomfortable with having to do something today, you will tend to put off doing it till sometime in the future. That is what the overseer was doing - procrastinating

How do you get comfortable with the thought of something? By having enough knowledge on how to do something, so that you know that when you take enough action you will achieve the results you want. That knowledge on how to do something is often referred to as know-how, or competence. Competence precedes confidence.

If you are uncomfortable with prospecting, you must decide whether your reason for building a network marketing business is strong enough to sustain you for long enough to gain the knowledge and the practice necessary to change you into a competent, confident prospector.