“No… For Now”

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In Direct Selling, a “no” is just a “no-for-now” — providing you don’t offend people when they say no.

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Recruiting in your direct selling business can be difficult, especially if you want to start building a strong network. 

But you shouldn't make things harder for yourself by cutting your prospects short if your sales pitch doesn't quite land right, or is met with anything other than excitement.  And there's nothing more off-putting to a prospect than the stench of desperation. 

Look, I’ve been there, at one point I was begging people to join my business! Did it work? No. So how did I start really growing my business? 

I started to change that instant no from prospects into a no-for-now list where i would keep in contact with the prospect and update them on how we’re doing, but to also get an update on if their timing or situation might be better to join the business and heres an example of how it took shape: 

A few years ago I spoke to a friend named Andrew, who I know through soccer, about becoming a partner with my Direct Selling business. He decided it wasn’t for him.

No problem. It wasn’t an issue, and it didn’t have to affect our friendship. We still caught up from time to time.

Fast forward to a few years later. My friend Christopher, who is a partner in my Direct Selling business and also knows Andrew, shared with Andrew how he was doing our Direct Selling business. In addition to mentioning how he no longer has to work 50 hours a week, he shared how he doesn’t want to miss his son Junior’s first day at school, and how our Direct Selling business was going to help him with that. This got Andrew’s attention better than whatever I must have said to him years ago… plus the timing was right.

So Andrew signed up as a partner later that morning. He had never heard of Direct Selling nor of our company (from anyone other than me or Christopher).

Four lessons from this experience:

1. A “no” is just a “no-for-now” — providing you don’t offend people when they say no.
2. Don’t underestimate the power of YOUR story — and make sure you can share your story in an easy-to-understand friendly way.
3. You don’t have to be a ‘big shot’ to sign up new a new distributor. It was Christopher, not me, who got Andrew to take a serious look. You simply have to speak with enthusiasm, but you do need to actually speak!
4. Avoid getting transfixed on one single prospect — I’ve built a great business in the time between Andrew saying no to me and now saying yes to Christopher.

If i had taken Andrews first no as an insult, and ruined the friendship this opportunity may have never re-presented itself and i couldve lost a valuable recruit but also a friend. 

How I like to make this process work is when I have someone say “oh no I don't think now is the right time” or “no I dont want to quit my job I'm happy” what I do is first ask them if its okay if I keep in contact with them, and then I tell them I’ll catch up with them in a few months (usually around 6). I then take a diary, add their name, and contact details and write up a summary of who they are and their barriers, and just schedule a catch-up with them. 

Once you start building this list of people that you can keep in contact with, suddenly you go from those desperate sales pitches to a much more calm and effective pitch when you talk to prospects, as you know you have a big diary full of potential recruits 

— Wes Linden

In Direct Selling, there is a BIG difference between having a great “run” and having a long successful career. At age 39, Wes Linden has already had a legendary Direct Selling career. Wes has been with just one company for 19 years and his organization does over $100 million in sales per year. He is also a Mastermind Event presenter.

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