When to Use Three-Way Calling
Let’s assume that you are convinced of the importance of calling the people on your warm list. So what happens next? How does this team approach work? Three-way calling can be a valuable tool, as long as it is used at the appropriate time.
Most prospects will hate the idea of three-way calls prior to a personal presentation. If they know they’re going to have to suffer the indignity of making their first call to their family and closest friends with their sponsor (even if they are very close friends), they literally refuse to go any further than purchasing their starter kits. That’s why in our collective twenty years, we have always avoided three-way calling as a first contact with a prospect. The new distributor is actually right to want to avoid this strategy.
Think about it intelligently. Does a professional or corporate executive really need to gang up on his friends – that’s precisely how it appears to the prospect. If a distributor can’t even pick up his own telephone and get his family and friends to a meeting, or review an audio-visual presentation in the privacy of their own homes, that person probably does not have what it takes to succeed in network marketing. Period. End of story. Once trained, your new distributors should always be allowed the courtesy of talking to their closest friends and family without the presence of some hyped-up sponsor trying to overcome objections and prove how brilliant she is to her new distributor. Three-way calling, at this stage, is a very unnatural way of networking. Besides, when the business is presented properly in the initial approach, there should be no serious objections to overcome. If there are a lot, that person is not a prospect anyway. Call him or her again in six months. Don’t badger them with your upline on the other extension. The only way this could be helpful is if your sponsor is listening silently on the line during your first few calls in order to offer some constructive criticism afterward.
The best time for three-way calls is after a prospect has seen the presentation. It is most effective after someone has been exposed to the concepts of network marketing, likes what he or she has heard but still has some reservations – this is the best time to bring an upline associate into the mix. Here’s a sample script of what you might say to a serious prospect: “You are asking some really good questions, and as I told you, I’m new to all this. But my business associate has been at this longer than I. Let me see if I can get him on the phone with us right now.” You simply press your conference button on your telephone, dial your sponsor or upline, and press the button again – and bingo, you have an instant three-way call. Or if you prefer, give out the private number of your upline to your prospect, and let him or her call when it is convenient. Serious prospects will make that call.
There are advantages to each of these strategies. The three-way conference call allows your new associate to learn by hearing how a prospect is “closed.” It also reinforces your new associate’s belief in the business. This is sometimes quite helpful to a new network marketer. The two-way direct call from prospect to upline offers more flexible scheduling, and sorts out a serious prospect from a lukewarm one. Just taking the initiative to call shows a certain eagerness for the business. Mark prefers the direct call. Rene is more comfortable with the three-way call. Just be sure to use them appropriately – that is, never until after a full presentation has been made to the prospect or your audio visual business briefing has been reviewed.