Why our network marketing prospects don’t “get it” 🙂

We talk facts. Prospects hear … stupid opinions.

What is going on?

Human brains run on confirmation bias. It is a big flaw. We all have it. 

As professionals, we need to recognize this bias in our prospects. Then, make adjustments. But first, what does confirmation bias mean?

Confirmation bias:

A. We want what we desire to be true. We want to keep our beliefs, even when presented with facts to the contrary. For example, people want to believe their jobs are secure. But do companies value the job security of their employees over profits? No. Plenty of proof that when things are bad, companies reduce their staffs. But, most employees don’t want to believe this. They seldom take steps to have a back up plan.

B. We look for information that support what we already believe. If we like this sport team, we love reading about their victories. We ignore what others say about our team. Yes, we cherry-pick what new information we allow in to our brains.

C. We discount, don’t believe, and refuse to listen to opposing beliefs. We want to keep our beliefs. We make up excuses and rationalizations to keep our precious beliefs. We stick our heads into the sand like an ostrich. We refuse to listen to conflicting viewpoints.

D. Repetition works. Political slogans from our favorite party or influencers become beliefs after consistent repetition. After many impressions, these slogans can become our ultimate truths. 

E. We only see the part we want to believe. Warren Buffett said it best. “What the human beings are best at doing is interpreting all new information so their prior conclusions remain intact.”

F. How do we choose to interpret the facts? Think of “climate change.” When presented with the same data, opposing factions will choose how they think the data supports their current beliefs.

It gets worse. 

Our minds are not logical, fact-accumulation machines. We twist facts to conform to our current beliefs. Human brains are a mess. But this confirmation bias effect is not limited to our prospects. We have it too!

Here is a huge confirmation bias many network marketers have.

Ready?

Many network marketers *believe* that showing the company video, or fact-filled PowerPoint presentation … makes a difference.

Ouch.

What is the reality these network marketers refuse to accept?

Prospects don’t want to change their thinking. They won’t believe conflicting information. They will interpret or mis-interpret the facts to fit their current mental models.

And this is why prospects refuse to look at our business. And if we force or trick our prospects into looking, we still lose. They will use their confirmation bias to ignore our wonderful presentation.

What can we do?

 Our first step is to master the art of creating trust and rapport. 

We can only communicate our message to open minds. No need for proof on this. Everyone experiences closed-minded people daily. Talking to them is a waste of oxygen.

So how do we get our skeptical prospects to open their minds to our message? To hear what we say?

Start by telling prospects something they already believe.

Of course they will agree with us. And then they look at us as a trusted source. They will want to believe our message

Examples of statements our prospects will want to believe 

1. “We don’t get paid enough.”

2. “Taxes are too high.”

3. “We need more vacation time.”

4. “Life is unfair.”

5. “Commuting is hard.”

6. “Growing old is inconvenient.”

7. “Wrinkles give us character, but not much else.”

8. “Utility prices just keep going up and up.”

If our prospects belief any one of these obvious statements, they will open their minds to our following messages. Easy. Automatic. 

After all, if we think like they think, we must be a genius just like them.

Prospects can not resist what they already believe!

Before we push our business down our prospects throats, let’s consider this. Creating trust and rapport comes first. If we don’t build this trust and rapport, our prospects’ confirmation bias will prevent our message from entering their minds.

https://bigalbooks.com/book/rapport/ is my favorite book. (Yes, I am biased.)