The #1 Hidden Objection That Keeps People Frozen

When someone states “I’m not good at sales” or “Most people fail” or “Only a few succeed” or “It doesn’t work” … what are they REALLY saying?

OK, so they don’t have time.  I get that.  I know people are busy.  But let’s just make sure that we understand this… 

A person has time for a $31k/year job but doesn’t have time for an $88k/mo job.  

Is that what I’m hearing?

Today I’m talking about the number one, hidden objection that keeps people frozen. 

It’s probably going to be the objection that’s the basis of all objections.

This episode is pretty much dependent upon you having watched The Number One Reason People Don’t Want to Join Network Marketing.  It was the last video that I did in this series. Make sure that you watch it because there’s a lot of foundational content there. 

The Pipeline Takes The Mystery out of Network Marketing

When somebody states, “I’m not good at sales,” what is the basis of that? Where did that come from? 

I have been teaching people about the Pipeline for two years straight. (If you want to get my free Pipeline training, grab it here.) 

Here’s how it works: 

First, you generate a lead, you contact the lead, you set an appointment, you show them a presentation, you follow up, and you get a customer or a rep. Then you serve them and you make money. That’s what I’ve been teaching. 

I’ve continued to train on this over and over because I’m trying to take the mystery out of how to successfully do Network Marketing.

“Not Good at Sales” – The Magic Question to Ask

When somebody says, “I’m not good at sales,” I like to ask the question, “Which part?” 

That’s going to get them to come out of that closet that they’ve locked themselves in by what they think about themselves. 

• Or from when some guy tried to pitch them on something and wouldn’t shut up and kept bugging them and pushing them. 
• Or when they bought something they shouldn’t have purchased. 

Asking the question, “What part of sales do you feel you’re not good at?” will take them out of any of those negative experiences from the past they are now harboring. 

I like to break it down this way, into the different steps of the Pipeline, so that they can start looking at what the process is. 

And then if they had a bad experience, I’ll say, “What happened in that presentation?” 

I’ll listen through the concern, and I’ll tell them, “Oh, well, that’s not really the way a professional salesperson works. A professional sales person is going to put the quantity of leads across the Pipeline in front of that presentation. 

That’s how I’m going to walk that person out of it.  

If someone tells me they can’t do Network Marketing because they “aren’t good at it” the magic question to ask is… 

“What part of these are you not good at?”  (Referring to the steps in the Pipeline.)

They might say: “I tried it somewhere…”

And to that I reply: “Well, tell me about that.”

As you’re listening, really listening, not pretending to listen, but really listening, what you’re listening for is which of those did they get hung up on? There’s one or more of them that they got hung up on. 

“Most People Fail” – The Magic Question to Ask

Here’s how to handle somebody who says, “Most fail.” 

I say, “At what?”

Their reply: “Network Marketing.”

I say: “Well, what part of Network Marketing? What part of Network Marketing do most people fail at?”

To the prospect, they are looking at it as this blob – this big giant, hairy spider, so they say, “The whole thing.”

Then I say: “Hang on a minute, now. Let’s divide it up. Is it that you don’t like the way they generate the leads? You don’t like the way that they contact them?”

“Yeah. I keep getting spammed.”

“Well, we now know what we don’t want to do.”

That’s how I walk people through the conversation. 

“Only a Few Succeed” – The Magic Question to Ask

Let me go to the next one here: “Only a few succeed.” 

“At what?” 

“Network Marketing.” 

I say, “Well, these (steps in the Pipeline) are the components that make up the doing of Network Marketing. What part of it is everybody failing at, or few succeeding at? What part?” 

They say, “They don’t even make minimum wage.”

“Oh, you’re talking about the outcome. What happened before the outcome of money? How many people saw the presentation?”

Maybe the presentation was bad. Maybe it’s how they set the appointment. Maybe they didn’t contact enough people. Maybe they didn’t even ever do any steps in the Pipeline.  You fail at swimming if you never even jump in the pool, right? 

If they’re not doing it, then they’re not doing it, so of course they’re going to fail. 

“It Doesn’t Work” – The Magic Question to Ask

My favorite is, “It doesn’t work.” 

“What’s It?”

“Network Marketing.”

“Oh, all of it?”

“Yeah. All of it.”

So I say, “Well, can you find one part of it where most of it doesn’t work?”

I’m trying to get them to look at something specific instead of looking at the hairy, greasy spider. 

Once you get them looking at something specific, it’s very logical for them. That breaks that blob up into them actually being able to see: “Well, what part doesn’t work?” 

In reference to the previous video, if you have this logical conversation with someone, and they still just fight and won’t look at it from a logical point of view, then you’ve got your clue: they’re not interested. 

But if they can start to break it open and look at each column in the Pipeline, then they get it. 

Debugging the Pipeline When Things Don’t Work

I want to say it again. I’ve been inching up on this for a long time. I’ve been (in essence) trying to solve it for everybody who’s watching, without letting you know that I was. 

The biggest one was when I did the Real Estate Agent episode, comparing Network Marketers to real estate agents, and I said, “What does it take for a real estate agent to get one person to buy a house?”

What had to happen? I guess they had to show the house. How are they showing the house? Well, they put a sign out. That’s generating leads.

What if they don’t sell one house? Out of 700,000 people, only 7% come out the other side with a house sold. Then you say, “What did they obviously not do?” And you try to find it on the Pipeline. 

The secret is that you can break it into another industry other than Network Marketing to help them see it.

That’s what I’ve done for you in the comparisons. 

For somebody to not be able to sell one house, they didn’t put enough quantity of prospects in front of the house. That’s it. It’s all it will ever be. 

Any sales manager who listens to any noise is not worth their weight. I don’t listen to the noise. 

Before somebody ever joins Network Marketing I have them go through the Pipeline with me. When I get with them on a Zoom or in person, I walk them through the Pipeline. 

I say, “What does it take to get one customer?” 

“Well, I’d have to generate a lead.” 

“How are you going to contact them? What’s easiest for you? What do you prefer?” 

My wife, she likes to text. I like to call on the phone. 

“Next is to set an appointment. How do you want to do that? To see what? What do you want to sell? How many times are you willing to follow up? (I suggest a minimum of seven times.)”

Then you get a customer. You serve them. 

If they will not say, “Yes, Tim, I’m going to do that Pipeline,” then I don’t sponsor them. 

That’s my rule. 

The HIDDEN Objection – The Basis for All Objections

When somebody says, “I’m not good at sales,” what they are really saying is, “There’s something I don’t know.” 

“I don’t know how to get leads”.

“I don’t know what to say.” 

“I don’t know what to say on the appointment or the contact.” 

“I don’t know what to send them.” 

When you’re debugging a person (or yourself) who is having trouble, make sure that you have these concepts in your mind. You have to start with your lead source because that’s going to determine what you say. What you’re sending them is also related. The leads have to connect to the presentation. 

I’ve actually got a great checklist you can run through to debug someone on your team who is stuck, or even for yourself. It’s a great little list you can run through to debug areas that are stopping you (or your team). You can get it here. 

 The #1 Hidden Objection That Keeps People Frozen

“I don’t think I can do it.” 

This objection is the primary underlying objection that you will ever hear in Network Marketing. Sure, they may give you another objection, but what hey are really saying is, “I don’t think I can do it.” or “I don’t feel like I can do it.” 

I’m going to get into each one of these specifically, but I just want to explain what I mean right now by giving you an example. 

Let’s say somebody says, “I don’t have time.” They would be like me, when I was in the military. I remember saying back then, “I don’t have time.”

Fortunately, I had a very incredible professional salesperson that said to me, “Tim, you don’t have time. I get that. I know you’re busy, but let me just make sure that I understand this….” 

(I had gone to a presentation and had seen a gentleman who was making $88,000 a month. I went up and I talked to him. He was real. He was a research chemist at NIH.)

So this professional sales person continued, and he said, “You got to meet this gentleman. You’ve got time for a $31,000 a year job, but you don’t have time for an $88,000 a month job. Is that what I’m hearing?” 

I said, “Hmm, I didn’t really say that.” 

But he popped me out of my own objection. 

If I absolutely knew with certainty that I could do the Pipeline, then what would stop me from saying, “Yes, I’m doing this.” 

That’s really my message for you. 

I appreciate you reading or watching this. I hope this was helpful.  If you have a comment about something you learned or you would like to know, drop them down below. I’d love to hear from you. 

P.S. If you don’t have a team, haven’t recruited anyone (or less than 10 people), this is THE course you should get – Network Marketing Training Course