Creating Intrigue when you are asked "What You Do for a Living?"

The most common action most people want to know about you is what you do for a living. Someone asking you about what you do for a living is a business opportunity falling in your lap.

Few things are more important in prospecting than knowing how to answer this question and creating intrigue.

When someone asks about what you do for a living, you want to shake them up as a network marketer. You want them having a first impression which sticks in their mind. You want them asking more about what you do for a living and your products and services.

Network marketing is about finding prospects. Without them you fail. With them you win. The question about what you do in life is a great avenue of finding quality prospects.

When your warm and cold market lists are exhausted, go out and meet people anyplace you can and inevitably they will ask about what you do for a living. How you answer can add another six to eight reps or customers per month in your business.

One of the most well written books on the subject is by Joel Bauer and Mark Levy in their great read “How to Persuade People Who Don’t Want to Be Persuaded”.

The answer you give to the question, “So what do you do for a living,” per Bauer and Levy, is called a “Quick Pitch”.

I like to call it the “Definitive Answer.” It’s a conclusive answer summing up what network marketing is about. It’s the assertive answer of what drives and motivates you about the business. It’s the query which gets the other person curious about what you do for a living and asks for more information.

Answering the Question about What You Do for a Living

Network marketing success stories are built upon answering the question, “What do you do for a living?”

In a former life before network marketing, someone would ask me, “Dale, what do you do for a living?”

“I am a medical coder who processes treatment and related record data from doctors, medical clinics and hospitals and translates them into a secret code for insurance companies.”

You can see that response wins the hearts of many…not exactly a knock-me-dead introduction causing hundreds of people eager with anticipation wanting to join the ranks of medical coding.

Let’s see how most network marketers answer the question:

“What I do for a living is show people how to earn income working from home while losing weight.”

Or,

“I show people this awesome opportunity which makes millions of dollars while helping them lose that middle age spread.”

Talk about inspiring the dead and putting the living into the ground…geez, these are it.

Let’s give an alternative answer.

I’m at a party and someone says, “Tell me about what you do for a living.”

Opening with one of two responses I say,

“I perform miracles with major companies. Major companies like us enlist me to represent them among different groups of people from all over the world. I act as a human magnet with products and services in the health and wellness industry, attracting hundreds of people to me and making incredible amounts of money.”

That is called the “Declarative Answer.” Use this answer on non-professionals.

A second way of responding is the “Query-based Route.”

“Have you ever seen a business-performer engage and surround himself daily with people from all over the world to experience demonstrations in the health and wellness industry which are attractive and compelling in nature? A business-performer representing major companies like us, who compels his audiences to leave their valuable contact-information with him and want the company’s products and services? You’ve never witnessed such a performer? Then you’ve never seen me.”

The second answer takes the declarative route in question form. Professionals relate well to this answer.

The two responses are attention-getting. They are what create intrigue and curiosity and beg the hearer wanting more.

Breaking Down the Answer

“You want your answer as 20-second coming attractions. They’re collages that show pertinent credits and exciting action scenes. If you’re curious to learn more about its subject after hearing one, the “Definitive Answer” succeeded. If you yawned, it failed.”

Each opening is an advertisement that explains:

1. Where I work (among people from all over the world, the health and wellness industry).
2. For whom I work (FuXion).
3. The experience of what it is like seeing me work (miracles, give demonstrations attracting hundreds, magnet).
4. The payoff of those who get involved with me (I attract prospects, get contact information left with me, make money, get people wanting my products and services).

To create a curiosity-seeking and entertaining opening, consider these questions by writing them down to clarify your response.

1. Who are your prospects? Do they see you as typical or atypical?
2. Why would anyone join your company and purchase your products? Find the pain and give solutions.
3. What stories can you incorporate to generate results with your prospects?
4. What effect will your products or opportunity have on those who buy or join?
5. What other network marketing companies in the field are your competitors and how are you different?
6. Are you a leader, been awarded by the company and given praise? Give citations.
7. How do you guarantee your products, services and opportunity? 30-day back guarantee? 90-day back guarantee, etc.?
8. What business success stories can you tell?
9. What metaphors and similes can you phrase around your products and opportunity?

When you deliver the opening of a “Declarative Answer,” you’ve captured your listener with intrigue and story.

What you do for a living is the opening for creating new reps and customers. It is the opening scene to action which leads to success.