Today, I want to talk to you about the most crucial skill in Network Marketing.

This skill is what I like to call the “Gateway Skill”, which you know it as inviting – the skill of encouraging people to attend your presentations and company events. 

I want to clear up a huge misconception about inviting.

Inviting is all about getting your people to take a look. That’s it. When you’re making the invite, you’re not supposed to worry about persuading anyone to explore your opportunity yet. That’s what the presentation or the event is for. 

Inviting is only your Gateway to that part of the Recruitment process. Make sense? 

There are eight steps to a professional invitation. That might sound complicated, but with a little practice, you’ll find it’s an easy skill to master. Let’s dive in:

Step One: Be in a hurry

People are always more attracted to a person who has things going on. If you start every call or face-to-face conversation, giving the impression that you are in a hurry, you will find your invitations will be shorter, there will be fewer questions, less resistance, and people will be more respectful of you and your time.

Step Two: Complement your prospect 

This is critical. The sincere compliment, (and it must be sincere), opens the door to real communication, and will make the prospect much more agreeable about hearing what you have to say.

Step Three: Make the invitation

There are three kinds of invitation approaches for the Network, Marketing Pofessional:

• The direct approach – This is an approach that should be reserved for people who know and respect you or for people that you know are searching for something better. We call this your warm market.

• The indirect approach – This approach is for people who may not know you on the level of your warm market. Here, it’s more about asking your prospect for their help, input, or guidance to play up their ego. 

• The super and direct approach – This approach is incredibly powerful, because it works on a number of psychological levels. Here, you tell the prospect they aren’t a prospect and you are just interested in finding out if they know someone else who might benefit from your business. It’s very effective.

Step Four: “If I, would you?” 

This question has been my secret weapon for a very long time. It is by far the most powerful phrase I’ve come across while building a large and successful network, marketing business. 

Step Five: Confirmation #1 – get the time commitment

You’ve asked, “If I, would you” and they said yes. The next step is to get a time commitment: “When do you think you could do XYZ?”

The key here is to never suggest a time for them. Just ask the question and wait for them to respond.

Step Six: Confirmation #2 — confirm the time commitment

If they tell you they’ll do the thing they said they’ll do by Tuesday night, your response should be something like, “So, if I called you Wednesday morning, you would have done it for sure, right?” The key is, this isn’t an appointment, or a time, or anything that you have set. 

This is something that they have set.

Step Seven: Confirmation #3 – schedule the next call 

this step is simple. Just ask, “what’s the best number and time for me to call?” They’ll give you what works best for them, and now you have a real appointment. All you have to do is be sure to remember to call when you said you’d call. 

By now, they’ve already confirmed three times and they are now much more likely to follow through.

Step Eight: Get off the phone

Remember, you are in a hurry, right? Once you’ve confirmed the appointment, the best thing to say to someone is some thing like, “Great, we will talk then. Gotta run!” Too many people make the appointment, and then unmake it by talking and talking and talking. Remember, our goal is education and understanding, and we are going to let the third-party tool – the presentation or event – do most of the work.

There’s no requirement to be perfect at all eight of these steps from the get-go. 

Be willing to mess up. Be willing to face potential embarrassment. Be willing to learn from your “mistakes” and be willing to figure it out. If you’re ready to embrace this attitude, I promise you, you’re on the right track. If not, then there’s little I can do to help you.

As always, my wish for you is that you decide to become a Network Marketing Professional, that you decide to Go Pro because it is a stone cold fact that we have a better way. 

Now let’s go tell the world.