Passing the Network Marketing Interview

Most firms, when they want to expand their operations, will place an ad in the newspaper or some other media outlet seeking candidates to fill a certain position within their company. The scope of work has been defined and now begins the process to have a candidate sell themselves to you as to why you should employ them.

By the same token, your company is also being interviewed as an ideal place to work in terms of atmosphere, benefits, and working conditions.

Hopefully, after two or three interviews, and all of the references check out, an offer is made and the candidate accepts the offer. Then, comes the orientation, the training, and the true employment comes in where the former candidate, now employee, begins their career making money for the company.

With network marketing, some of the same principles apply. The marketer is seeking people to work with them. They present their company and products/services first, however, and that is what is used to draw candidates to them. They also use their personality to underscore everything that is "good" about working with THIS plan to help achieve the candidate's life goals.

For many marketers, it is here where failure starts to rear its ugly head.

When one ties their personality, their essence as it were, into the company's vision and the product's capabilities, and they are so tightly wound together, that one views the rejection of their offer as a personal slight to themselves. Then, they dissolve into a pathos of misery where they blame themselves, or they fault the company, or the products for their failure.

EVERY marketer in the world has someone who tells them "no." No one is exempt.

I thought recently of the "cattle call" when a film or dance studio puts out the word for talent to appear and audition for a part in an upcoming production. Many people come with their portfolios, their credentials, and their spirits at an optimistic high. Nearly ALL of them are told no.

Does this mean that they are not worthy? No. It means that the troupe was looking for a certain kind of person to fill a certain role and, since we're all different, that role was better suited for someone else. That's all.

Yet, people run up against this rejection and deem themselves as failures where the role for them is just somewhere else.

Would you believe that the role of Indiana Jones was supposed to go to Tom Selleck? He couldn't get out of his Magnum P.I. role to do the movie so the part went to Harrison Ford and the rest is history. Tom Selleck has done quite well for himself, hasn't he, and Harrison Ford has proven to be box office gold for decades!

So, how does the network marketer deal with this when they are trying to find people?

First, you must realize that you cannot sell to or sponsor everyone. Not everyone is going to say yes to your offer. Colonel Saunders was told no over 1,000 times before he hit it big with his special way of frying chicken. Have any of you been told no that many times yet?

Second, you must conduct yourself as someone worthy of partnership. You should present your company, the product or service, AND you as distinguished and professional. The most successul people in your company were not carnival barkers who went out with a sandwich board and sang "76 Trombones" to get people's attention.

If your offer is solid, your calm, peaceful, and confident demeanor which represents it should be something that makes a person want to interview with you!

One of the problems with painting a picture of an opportunity in terms of income potential is that not everyone can see themselves with that kind of lifestyle. They often feel unworthy of it, or they don't want to do the work that earns that kind of life because of their self-image. The psychology of doing the "safe" thing has people so paralyzed that they feel that doing something like network marketing is being "unsafe" and they will risk everything by doing so.

Understanding this about people will help you to overcome it when you are faced with why people are telling "you" no...

Mold your opportunity to them. As my friend Tony Gainer asks, "What is your 'why?'" Why would you want to go into business for yourself? What kind of full-time money would it take to change your life from employee to employer? Ask them where do they see their dreams taking them in the next five to ten years?

You see, when it comes to network marketing, it is not about you. It is not about your company. It is not about your product or service. It is and always has been about THEM...the person with whom you want to see if you can work with.

But, before you do any of that, conduct that interview with yourself! Get with your business parther and have a frank discussion about who you are and why you feel that you can or cannot do what it takes to reach for and achieve the highest levels in your business.

When you realize that the crux of every success that you hope to achieve is vested with how well you interact with other people, you will find that your perspective is one that reflects right back upon yourself.

• Are you "partner-worthy?"
• Are you "success oriented?"
• Are you ready for this to be your last network opportunity no matter what comes along that sounds "better?"

Remember, people will disappoint you and they will do so every day. You go to your place of employment and sooner or later during the course of the next 24 hours, someone there is going to make you wish you were self-employed! But, the question will be are you really ready to work for yourself? Are you a better employer than your current employer when it comes to managing yourself?

Be prepared, network marketer, for the pitfalls and the speed bumps and the naysayers (even yourself trying to convince yourself that this just can't work). Someone somewhere will reject your opportunity and you at the same time. That doesn't mean that you can't still be friends -- or family. What it means is that your homework assignment is to find a way to prove to them just how incorrect they are about YOU...not your opportunity.

There is a classic saying that states, "Living well is the best revenge." Live well, marketer...prove them wrong and watch how much they will love you then! You won't have to find them...they'll find you!

P.S., I've been guilty of nearly everything I wrote above...*ouch*