Thanks, everyone, for the tips. I feel so overwhelmed right now – trying to get my BB website updated, create a blog, print business cards.
One thing I know works well are those buttons BB sent with their coaching package. I wear the Press Play all the time and it opens up conversations. I’m gong to order some shirts, as well (decide – commit –succeed).
Any other tips/tricks would be great. Once I figure out my blog, I’ll have to get everyone’s feedback J
Donna
Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 6:17 PM
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Heather-
Great questions, and I gotta say that I LOVE that you are thinking about how to grow your business and putting in effort. It is not a get rich quick thing, but for people who plug away, it builds and builds. And it is only just beginning!
I think Derek answered this one beautifully. I've talked to servers and people in the past who are outgoing and enthusiastic that "I have an online fitness coaching business and I'm always looking for good people to partner with. Here's my card, why don't you check it out. Email me if i's something you want to learn more about."
I think keeping the part of the conversation short and sweet is important. I've heard stories of well intentioned people who talk themselves into and out of a customer in the same conversation by getting so excited that they get "diarrhea of the mouth!" Just tell them you work with this great company helping people lose weight and get in shape and win money at the same time. Then point them to your new coaches web page. BTW, I changed the text and added my before and afters to
my new bb webpage If any of you like my text, feel free to use it.
I agree with Barbie that it is a great idea to keep cards with you. You never know where they will end up. Even if someone doesn't think it is right for them, they may see a friend the next day and pass it on to the friend.
I have to run. I'd like to write more tonight if I can!
Great idea for the discussion, Heather! Everybody please feel free to chime in. the more ideas, the better!
Kevin
| Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 1:16 PM |
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I am loving everyone's input on how to talk to people about BB. I want to quote our man Derek, who hit the nail on the head. Derek wrote:
So I said “Yeah if you can’t tell I’m kind of watching the way I eat because I’m on this “Beach Body Fitness program” (Now she responded back the way I thought she would) She said “Oh, that’s cool I wish I could get myself on a decent plan, but I always start them and don’t finish” (BINGO! Just what I wanted to hear!! That’s when you step in and let her know exactly what you do, and that you are a free online fitness coach for Beach Body products! Now is when you should hand them your card and say to just check it out sometime if you get a chance!
Derek is so right--if you just mention fitness, chances are the person is going to say some variation of this: "I need to get myself on a fitness program" or "I used to work out..." or "I could use some coaching." Yes, Yes, Yes, THAT is your entryway to INTRODUCING folks to beach body, not to talking their ear off and pushing them away from what you are doing (as the FITDOC stated). Guys, in the past week, I have found myself talking about my GETFITWITHBARBIE BLOG to 1. the financial rep at my car dealership 2. the woman who helped me open up my account at the bank and 3. a phone rep for the motivational guru, Zig Ziglar. Out of the three in the past week, the girl at the bank signed up for me to coach her and started Slim in 6.
The key: Be willing to put yourself out there. If it's not in your nature to "just talk to people," then you better start nurturing that ability. IT IS A SKILL you can DEVELOP. Trust this teacher, will ya?
Josh, we're waiting for your FINANCIAL SERVICES perspective. ;) Let's keep sharing!
Barbie
Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 12:39 AM
Throwing my two cents into the ring! J |
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I’ve been watching all the awesome ideas being shared as they’ve popped into my email box, but have not had the time to sit down and formulate a well thought out reply, myself. Well, here I sit on a plane to Philly, so now is as good a time as any! J (I’ll have to send it after I land and hook in at the hotel)
This brings up a VERY good line of thought. Milan talks about having your “elevator story” – for those quick moments where you connect with someone in line at the store or bank, or wherever. For me quite honestly, this has NEVER led to someone going to my website and checking it out. I have been places where friendly people have handed me their cards in a friendly conversation that suddenly turned salesy (in a gentle way, but salesy nonetheless) and I personally have NEVER gone to their website. Instead, I’ve thrown that card away. Mary Kay, Shak Lee (sp? Remember I’m on a plane and cant access the internet to spell that company correctly :o)~) no matter how nice the person is – I’ve just never gone there. I don’t like to feel sold. I always think “If I’m going to buy Mary Kay, I’ll buy it from my neighbor”. No matter how you sugar coat it, when you hand a stranger a business card – they see you as a salesperson. And the majority of them aren’t REALLY looking to buy something from an online coach while they are thinking about putting their pay check in the bank, etc. I have heard of TBB coaches who drop four or five business cards on the floor, or on top of a cereal box, or coffee can when they go into the grocery store – I have yet to hear of one who have heard from someone who said “hey – I found this card in the store….” Its worth a try – cards are cheap – but I’d guess you’d have to drop quite a few cards before you got any return on that “investment”.
I don’t care how good your “pitch” is, people don’t trust people instinctively. It’s the day and age. Now before people start throwing rotten tomatoes at the screen and calling Kevin saying “Hey – whats up with Eeyore Traci? I thought she was passionate about this????” J Hear what DOES work for me. Let me tell you how I became a coach. Carl Daikeler is a personal friend of mine. I trust Carl. I believe him when he says something, and I’d be willing to go out on a limb if he asked me to. He called me in to his office in January 2006 and told me with excitement all about this idea. I listened with enthusiasm, already a fan of the company and its products, and with running Tony Horton fitness camps around the company; I was sold, hook line and sinker. I told him “This will be AMAZING Carl! I know people will grab hold of it. I personally wont do it because its not me; I’m not a sales person, I know nothing about that type of business and I don’t want to do something that makes me feel uncomfortable or feel insincere to those I’m coaching…blah blah blah….” He listened to my reasons, and then hired me to be the host of the site for 2006, where they trained me to basically do all the things we do as coaches, except I was the only one. WAAAY too many customers to handle and I fell way behind trying to single handedly take care of every customer the company brought in. I had no idea that was a thumbnail sketch of what it was to be a coach. I did it for dollars an hour, and alone, except for my bosses in the office. A team of one. I was drowning in wanting to help these people but having nowhere near the time to get back to them all!
I was called in again in the month of August or September 06 to hear about the now maturely formulated and nearly ready to launch Million Dollar Body, now Team Beachbody, Coaching opportunity from then President Chris Simonian. It was awesome. I loved it. I KNEW it would be way better than just one person doing it. I still said no. Chris called later that week to follow up. I said no thanks, gracefully. Carl called me into his office and I said “Carl, it sounds great, but I don’t see how I can help someone if they think I’m selling them something”. He called me the next day and said “Traci, as your friend I’m asking you to give me one year. I think you are a natural for this. It might not feel uncomfortable at first, but you don’t have to change who you are to step into this role. Give me a year and if at the end of one year you hate it, you can come back on staff – I’ll have a job for you.” I agreed. Not because I felt suddenly like it was a fit, but because I trust my friend and knowing he has my best interest at heart; I’ll try something solely because my friend asked me to. Chris had convincing arguments as to WHY I should, and how it was fail proof, and he was enthusiastic, and he told me all the ways it would bless my family, but in the end, it was my friendship with Carl that made me say yes.
THAT is coach recruiting. Relationship. Many coaches on my team started out doing it only because they trusted me as their friend. Some signed up as a needle in the haystack recruit, but the ones who came on as my friends are the ones who have DONE something with it. I have a PS coach who just signed up a PS coach. She said to me LAST NIGHT “I wouldn’t have done this at all, even as good as it sounds, if Ricky hadn’t told me “Tina, you gotta get in on this.”” You know a lot of people. Whether you realize it or not. Your friends in your hometown, your cousins, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers, in laws, neighbors, friends from church, college room mates, former co workers, present co workers, friends from the gym, your old trainer, your house sitter, babysitter, house cleaner…. People who will do something they ordinarily wouldn’t have done solely because YOU ASK THEM TO. THOSE are the people you can have the best success with. Relationships take time to build, so why not start with those you have already existing relationships with?
Yes, stand in the same checkers line at the market, the same bank tellers line at the bank, the same table at the restaurant you frequent. Develop relationship with those people to where you can share with them. As you develop new relationships while cultivating the old, you are building your business continually. New friends become old friends; then share it; when they trust you. Then make more new friends. The whole point of what we do is to get into the lives of people and that takes time, just like changing your body takes time. I like to say “We’re changing the trends of obesity – ONE relationship at a time.” Its not as flashy as signing up tons of people in the grocery store line, but it far more long term. J And people will see that we really aren’t after their money but truly out for their well being.
Find your “people” by looking at those you already know and love, invite them to hear it and have some coffee or green tea J with you, and then say, in your excited YOU voice that your friend will recognize “Michael, Suzie, Mom, Sister….this is an amazing opportunity – lets do it together. Lets give it a year – give it all we got, and then reevaluate at the end of the year. But I think THIS is what we were made to do!!” And then have them do the very same thing.
I hope that helps and inspires you to think of your list of established relationships that you’ll bring in. After all, who DOESN’T want to do business with the very people we’ve chosen to do LIFE with?!?!? J
Xox
TRACI J
(Morrow)
| Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 7:48 AM |
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THANK YOU for this, Traci. It certainly adds another, more "human" perspective.
Can I share just one more anecdote and I'll be done adding in my pennies?
As I was reading Traci's email, I thought of my ex-husband, now friend, who signed up as a "phantom coach" to help me out when I wanted to become Emerald. The other day I called him and found myself telling him, "Khai, I really want you to get on this. You and I really struggled financially when we were kids and when we were together. The 'coaching thing' is really happening for me. It's going to EXPLODE, mark my words, It's going to explode and I want you to be able to share in that. It would be really sad if you didn't." Well, wouldn't you know it, after HOW MANY MONTHS, the man is finally on this email list, X'ing it, ready to make it happen! Truly, now that I really think about it, my getting my ex-husband for God's sake (!) and my closest friends who are into fitness to get "on the coaching wagon" is an act of love and friendship, NOT OF BUSINESS.
Wow. So, thank you, Traci for the great reminder.
Time to bring it for me...
Barbie
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