Cold market prospecting is something that network marketers often neglect in favor of the low-hanging fruit: warm market prospecting. After all, it’s in the name — network marketers are supposed to work hard sharing opportunities to their immediate network, right?
While that might be true, cold market recruiting is a tried and tested strategy that not only brings in definitive sales, but strong, lucrative friendships and relationships, too. With cold marketing, everyone can be your prospect. The world literally is your oyster, and that’s one of the best parts of it!
If you’re not employing cold market recruiting into your arsenal of prospecting strategies, now’s the perfect time to do so! Here are some cold market prospecting ideas and tips to up your cold market recruiting game. First, let’s talk about why it’s worth your time.
Benefits of Tapping Into Cold Market Prospects
Networkers will be remiss if they ignore the untapped power of good old cold market recruiting. Cold market prospecting allows you to:
- Tap into a wider net of people. While it’s important to tell your family, friends, and acquaintances and their extended network about how working with you is the big break that they’ve been waiting for, there will always be more people outside your personal circle than within it. Cold market recruiting will allow you to reach out to more people, and to change more people’s lives for the better.
- Find opportunity wherever it might be. Learning effective cold market prospecting techniques will allow you to reach out to everyone: from people in the gym to someone in a bar!
- Reach out to passionate individuals in your niche. No matter how amazingly you present it, some people in your immediate circle just won’t be interested in your business, and that’s ok. Joining and meeting people through niche Facebook groups and in-person clubs will make it easy for you to break the ice.
- Have a clean slate. If you’ve exhausted your warm market contacts due to bad network marketing strategies (no worries, a lot of entrepreneurs have been through that), an effective cold market strategy will allow you to tap into a wide network of prospects who don’t know you and don’t have any preconceptions about who you are and what you offer.
An effective cold and warm marketing strategy is a two-pronged way to success. After all, the core of being an effective marketer is not only grabbing every available opportunity, but in creating opportunities where they might not initially exist. Cold market recruiting gives you a chance to really pour your heart and soul into the grind, to try to reach more people instead of trying, over and over, to convince those who refuse to be convinced.
Finding Cold Market Opportunities
Cold market recruiting will allow you to see, and find leads anywhere! However, it’s important to understand your market in order to find the most worthwhile leads. While you’re familiarising yourself with the market, here are some places to start:
- Social media groups – The internet opens up a brand new avenue for you to take your business to the next level. Facebook and LinkedIn groups are an amazing place to start! For example, if your business is in the health supplement niche, you can look for fitness or health groups. You can also look for social media groups for business-minded individuals, or people looking for opportunities.
- Places you frequent – If you regularly work out at the gym, a place is a great place to start. The bar, a hobby club, a coffee shop, or a class is also a great place to find cold market prospects!
- Set up well-written ads – If you have a bit of a budget, you can hire a copywriter and an ads strategist to design an ad campaign for your business so your message can reach as many interested individuals as possible!
Cold Market Recruiting Script To Use
If there’s one thing you should remember, it’s to be kind. Prosperity is the by-product of meaningful relationships. Be a person first, marketer second. Put yourself in the shoes of the person you’re talking to: if someone approached you talking about how they have an opportunity that could change their lives, you’d probably be freaked out!
As simple as it is, the priority is to make friends. If it turns out that the opportunity isn’t right for them at the moment, you’ve gained a lifelong contact who might, at some point, change their mind. If it goes really well, you might gain a lead, and a lifelong friend. So be respectful, kind, and attentive.
Start with something that you have in common.
If you’re in a coffee shop, talk about the coffee, or the ambiance, or your favorite barista; if you’re in the gym, talk about a workout. If you’re messaging someone from a Facebook group, say hi, and ask them if it’s possible to add them on Facebook as you share an interest in your niche.
The goal is to establish a common ground. Introduce yourself!
“Hi, saw your profile on the [niche group name]. Just wanted to see if we could connect — I’m always looking for like-minded individuals to share [niche] knowledge with!”
Ask them about themselves.
After a bit of small talk, asking them about what they do will be a natural thing to ask! Ask them about their work, and how it’s going. If you can, compliment them on the skill that is required to do what they do. This part of the conversation will help you gauge how interested they are in their job, and how open they might be to other opportunities.
If they ask you what you do, focus on your niche.
“I’m building a business in the [your niche] industry.”
Find an opening.
The goal is to eventually be able to tell them that you’re looking to work with people with their skill set/their personality in your business.
The key is to be as non-abrasive, warm, and kind as possible. The goal is to make it natural to say yes to you by making people feel comfortable. A huge part of making someone comfortable is to make them feel like you won’t be offended if they say no. Say something that will linger in their minds after they talk to you. Something such as:
“Part of what I do is giving individuals a brand new income stream to supplement their income.”
“I help people diversify their income streams.”
“I like my job because it allows me to help people set up their very own home business.”
Tell them that you’ll be more than happy to tell them more, if they’re open to it. If not, you can tell them that it’s totally alright, and that you’ll be happy to see them again in the same spot next time (if it’s a place that you frequent, such as a gym, a class, or a coffee shop), and stop at that.
Say you have to go.
Part of a successful strategy is knowing when to leave. This is to make sure that you get a definite time to discuss the nuances of the business, at a moment where they’re more ready and open to hear about it. Make sure you tell them how much you enjoyed talking to them, and whether it’s possible to set up another meeting.
If they’re open to it, you can ask if it’s ok for you to give them your business card, or it’s ok to ask for their email/connect on LinkedIn.
“If you’ve ever thought about working on a side project, I’d love to talk to you about starting your own home based business!”
“I really had fun talking to you today. I’d love to learn more about you! I think you’ll love this project that we’re currently working on. Will it be possible for me to get your info so we can talk about it over coffee or something?”
Why Cold Market Strategies Fail
Cold market recruiting gets a bad rep, and undeservedly so. It’s a marvelous way to find leads. Here’s some of the reasons why cold market recruiting scripts never get positive responses:
- Some marketers forget that they’re talking to another human being. Once they’re in for a profit, they forget to see their leads as people with dreams, fears, and priorities. They lose the key ingredient to a successful cold market recruiting strategy: empathy. This sounds obvious, but you have to remember that success means nothing if you’ve managed to alienate everyone around you. Be a person first, and marketer second.
- Some marketers are too pushy. They want people to sign up on the spot. That shouldn’t be the goal at all! The objective should be to get someone to agree to talk another time, to open them up to the possibility of a more in-depth conversation where they’re more ready and willing to listen to what you have to say about your business.
- Some marketers forget the core of network marketing. Network marketing is all about one thing: helping people. Once you lose sight of that, it’ll show. The goal of the business is to uplift yourself, others, and your community.
Tips to Make a Successful Cold Market Lead
- Don’t dominate the conversation. No one likes someone who just can’t stop talking.
- Be genuinely interested in what they have to say. You can’t fake authenticity, and there’s no one more trustworthy than someone who’s purely interested in what you have to say.
- Listen, and listen attentively. Listen to people’s stories, to how they’re feeling, to their opinions. People appreciate being seen, plus listening to people will give you an insight on their motivations, their attitudes about work, and what inspires them. This will provide you with a good angle from which you can open with the opportunity later on.
- Learn when it’s time to walk away. Don’t be pushy. If they express an aversion to the opportunity that you’re offering, be graceful enough to understand. Do not keep on asking about it. To paraphrase a well-known saying: people might forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. Leave a positive mark and they will 100% call you once they’ve had a change of heart!
- Don’t be afraid of, or threatened by rejection. Rejection will always teach you something. It’s a chance to ruminate, and to improve your strategy and techniques. Most of the time, the rejection has nothing to do with you — people are on their own journeys, and the opportunity might not be resonating with where they currently are in life. Don’t let this drag you down: keep going.
- Be confident. This tip might sound like a cliche, but it’s important! Confidence manifests as calm. People, especially strangers, can smell insecurity and fear from a mile away. Ward off insecurity by remembering one thing: what you’re offering has the capacity to change people’s lives for the better, so there’s no need to oversell it. People will tell you exactly in which ways your business can change their lives. You just have to be calm enough to listen.
Conclusion
These cold market recruiting scripts are a guide. The goal is for you to eventually come up with your own. At the core of these scripts and tips is one thing: genuine interest in the person that you’re talking to. Be sensitive to their words, their pain points, their stories. Sometimes, you can do everything right. You can come from a good place, and still be rejected. That’s ok! Just try again, and do better next time.
While these tips are tried-and-tested cold market recruiting steps, it’s not the path to ultimate freedom. Ever imagined a life where you don’t have to reach out to individuals who might not be ready for the opportunities you’re offering? Do you want to receive droves of messages from motivated, excited leads who are more than ready to listen to what you have to say?
If you’re ready to achieve more freedom, stability, and prosperity, it’s time to step up your business, and your life. Fill out the contact form — it will change your life!
