Effective responses to Negative Information
Your prospect goes on google and finds negative information about your company and products or about network marketing.
Or they talk to someone who gives negative information that the products don’t work, create side effects such as diarrhea or constipation, or are too expensive.
It’s important that you learn how to respond to negative business reviews on google which speak badly about your company or products. Your prospects will find these reviews if they are at all tech-savvy.
Just as sure as evening news is where they begin with “Good evening,” and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t, your prospect will find negative information wherever it may be found.
So, you need to have a good response for them.
How to Deal with Negative Information
You have to realize that 99% of the negative information which your prospect reads or has heard about is put out there by someone who is pursuing an agenda and not offering credible information.
For example, they’re usually a disgruntle and former distributor who is blaming the company for their own failures. Or they’re the competition that is pursuing their own agenda by putting down your company and making their own to be superior.
Negative information might also be posted by a distributor who is still active within your own company but trying to generate leads. It does happen.
The remaining one percent are computer geeks who know nothing about network marketing or your company and hide in their parent’s basement, spewing out misinformation about both.
Learning how to respond to negative reviews on google, or how to respond to negative performance reviews that the prospect heard or read about from a third party requires asking them some common sense questions.
Negative information can be discredited by asking them, “What did they see, where did they see it, did they do any checking beyond the one story?”
Ask the prospect where they saw the article or video.
Your prospect may see negative information posted by bloggers or self-appointed consumer experts who don’t like network marketing and take delight in badmouthing the industry.
If the source is suspect, or the information is inaccurate or a matter of opinion, explain this to the prospect (or have someone in your upline do so). This is often sufficient to clear up the issue.
What about legitimate negative information? How do you deal with reports that fall in one of two categories, legal and personal?
The Legal: How do you handle reports of:
- A lawsuit
- A poor earnings report
- Your company being investigated by the government
- Claims disputing the science behind the company’s products
The Personal: How do you handle reports of
- A scandal involving one of your company’s owners, or
- Damaging news stories of complaints by customers or former distributors?
When these issues occur, contact your company or upline and make sure you have the facts: “What happened?” “What does it mean?” “What are the possible outcomes?”
Point out to the prospect that no matter the brand or company out there from Microsoft and Apple to Baptist Churches and peach pie, there are always lawsuits, and damaging negative information among them. It doesn’t, however, diminish the value of the company and the products and services they have to offer.
Whatever you do, be honest with the prospect. Tell them what’s going on. Calmly explain that these kinds of things happen to the biggest and best companies and brands out there.
To drive this point home, have the prospect to look at their smart phone. Tell them to do a search for complaints about the manufacturer of their phone. When they find them, and they will, ask them, “Are you going to stop using your IPhone because Apple has had complaints and lawsuits? Or, ask them, “are you going to stop using your expensive Galaxy GS7 Edge because Samsung had a lawsuit filed against them or complaints from disgruntled customers?” Of course they won’t.
Put the negative information in its context. Show the prospect it’s a minor blemish, relative to all the value the company has to offer them. Build enough value in the company and its services and products that it outweighs all other considerations.
If the prospect reads or hears about a distributor who didn’t make any money and wasn’t successful with your company, introduce them to successful distributors who have in order to counteract the negative information.
Prospects often judge negative information by how they see you respond to it. If you’re nervous or defensive or too quick to dismiss it, they will sense this and may conclude that really is a problem.
Show the prospect you hear them loud and clear about what they’ve read or heard and understand their concerns. Calmly and thoroughly present the facts that puts the negative information in context, or disproves it.
There may be times when you can’t neutralize negative information. It happens, it’s bad news, and it’s out there. What then?
Show the prospect the value with what your company offers to outshine the negative information.
Ultimately, it’s up to the prospect to how they respond to it, but it’s up to you with how you present it. It is the prospect who is going to stop themselves from getting what they want, and it is equally up to them to choose in moving forward.
Show the prospect the value with what your company offers to outshine the negative information.
Ultimately, it’s up to the prospect to how they respond to it, but it’s up to you with how you present it. It is the prospect who is going to stop themselves from getting what they want, and it is equally up to them to choose in moving forward.
