Master Prospectors have learned the art of bridge building. As a matter of fact, they love to build bridges between the people they meet and themselves.

In this, the 6th Secret of the Master Prospectors, John Kalench share some powerful techniques on how to improve your ratios of people who choose to join you just because you took the trouble and had the foresight to build bridges.

“With the help of the ‘magical genie’, you have seen the future, and you know that your best business builders will come from people you haven’t met yet. You’re now more aware of the power of making positive first impressions with people by building rapport, and you understand the Networking Law of Averages (ten pearls in every hundred oysters). So now let’s take a look at the business and the art of meeting people and making friends.”

Master Prospectors love the idea and the limitless possibilities of making the new friends. They understand that one never knows where pearls are going to surface. They could pop up anywhere anytime.

Master Prospectors know that a “stranger is simply a friend you have’nt met yet”. If your goal is to make new friends, you will never run out of prospects. But, you have to understand this universal truth first:

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

When you want to build bridges you must first show how much you care

Don’t be interesting. Be interested. To build bridges you require one important skill: listening.

You must study and practice the art of becoming the best listener you can be. Here’s the thing, you cannot give somebody your undevided listening attention, if you have your own voice going on in your head while you are suppose to be listening.

Be interested in the other person. Do not try to be interesting! Don’t try and one-up the person, not even in your mind. What do I mean? The person tells you he cought a 10 pound fish and you want to immediately tell him about the 15 pounder you cought. No. No. No. It’s not about you now. It’s about them.

Before you can build bridges, you must first seek to understand, before you seek to be understood

Steven Covey says it best in his books and audios, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, whe he says we must first seek to understand, before we seek to be understood.

The other person is not going to listen to you, unless they feel completely understood by you.

So how do we build bridges?

We start by asking questions. Lot’s and lot’s of questions. And if you are truly listening, you will never run out of questions to ask. Be geniunly interested in the person. Find out everything about them. Let them talk. Make mental notes of what they say and keep listening…

There will come a time in the conversation where the person you are listening to will “change state”. You will notice that they are all of a sudden more relaxed. They might lean back, laugh or just warm up to you.

That’s the que for you to take the second step in building the bridge.

Build bridges that will lead them back to you

The aim is for you to now build bridges from them to you. This is called “transitional bridges”. The goal of the transitional bridge is to move the central focus of the conversation from your prospect over to you.

Why? To see if the person is interested in looking at what you do and what you have to offer. Nothing more.

The objective is simply to get the person to take a look: an open-minded, friend-to-friend look. That’s it. Nothing more.

Build bridges with these and similar transitional phrases

“Maybe you can help me….” (People love to help. Especially if you have listened to them and took the trouble to get to know them first.)

Example transitional phrases to build bridges:

“Maybe you can help me. I have a business here in town, and it’s growing so rapidly that I’m looking for people interested in supplementing their income on a part-time basis with an income of between $500 to $1500 a month…”

“Maybe you can help me. Do you know anyone who’s looking for a career change from a workaday job to an exciting business tha’t got a wide-open future? It doesn’t require any significant capital and the learning curve is the shortest and easiest to master I’ve ever seen…”

“Maybe you can help me. I’m looking for people who want to earn money, but don’t want to go to an office from nine to five every day. You know, people who want to spend more time at home with their kids and …”

“Maybe you can help me. Do you know of anyone who is overweight and would love to quickly adn easily get rid of ten or twenty excess pounds…?”

“Maybe you can help me. Do you have any women friends who’d like to look ten years younger…?”

“Maybe you can help me. Do you know anyone who’s good with people and want more creative control of their work, their time and their life?”

You get the idea. You create these transitional phrases based upon what you have learned by listening to your prospect.

With these “maybe you can help me” phrases you are not asking if the person you are talking to is interested. You are asking if he or she knows anybody. This third party approach takes the pressure off them and allow them to”

1. Think of a number of possible referrals for you.
2. Personally look at your offer from a comfortable distance without getting defensive.

Build bridges by asking for advice

Another form of bridge building is asking for advice.

So, you have been asking questions and listening to your prospect talk about themselves and all the stuff they find interesting in life, or perhaps the stuff that frustrates them. Most people start sharing more and more intimate things with you after you have built rapport and they feel like you really care and are listening to them. If you emphatise with them and ask relevant follow up questions and keep listening, you will find out what their “hot buttons” are.

That’s right, you will find out what the reasons would be why they would consider joining your business.

The bridge building phrases that you will ask them once they have “shifted their state” and opened up to you, will zoom in on these hot buttons. If you use the “asking for advice” bridge building phrases, you are bound to be met by more success. Some Master Prospectors find up to 25 pearls in every 100 oysters with this technique.

Everybody loves to give geniune advice. In listening to your prospect, you will find out what your prospect’s unique area of expertise is, and you will hone in on that. It might be selling real estate, teaching, playing sports, raising kids…

Example:

You are talking to Bob and find out that he is a school teacher who loves to teach. You also found out that he takes a holiday job to earn extra income, but it’s not paying enough or fullfilling enough.

Your bridge building advice seeking question will be:

“Bob, I’m curious. How you go about introducing high school teachers like yourself to an opportunity that would enable them to put their powerful teaching skills to work and turn their long summer vacations into major, part-time profit centers?”

Here’s another example, this time with a house wife:

“Sarah, what advice could you give me about how I can approach mothers and homemakers to let them know about an opportunity where they could be with their families, yet earn a significant income running their own home-based, part-time business?”

Bridge building by offering a solution

This is a creative way to build bridges. In listening to your prospect, you take stock of all that your prospect has told you. Identify their hot buttons, their complaints and unfullfilled needs; their dreams and their desires.

Once you have those in mind, match them up with the words, “If I could show you a way…”

Example:

“Margeret, if I could show you a way, that, over the next six months to a year, you could start the business you’ve always wanted, work from your home the days and hours you choose, earn that additional $1200 a month to build that dream house you talked about and still have more time to spend with your kids than you do now – would you be willing to take a serious look at something that could provide that for you?”

Remember, you are not asking her to join. All you are asking, is that she takes a serious look.

After you have created a friend, listened to their complaints and helped them express their frustrations fully, can you see how someone would be willing to take a close look at a possible solution? And if they aren’t, then you’re probably talking to someone that enjoys living in pain. If so, move on.

When you build bridges, don’t burn them

So you have spent all this time making a new friend by listening to him, building rapport and gone through the whole process above. Then you build the best bridge you can with the information you’ve got, but for some reason or another, the person is not willing to take a look, what then?

Whatever you do, do not burn that bridge.

If the person does not want to be friends, that’s fine. Just back off.

If the person isn’t willing to take a look, that’s fine too. Just back away.

Make sure though, to leave the bridge in tact so they can return some other day if things change for them, or when they are ready for change. Make it easy for them to come back to you. Leave the back door open for them.

Here are a few examples of how you can do that:

“Chuck, I can see that you’re not interested right now. Would you like me to at least stay in touch with you? Maybe check back with you in a month or so to see if things may have changed?”

“Betty, I can see that you are not interested in taking a look at this opportunity now and I can understand why. Could we at least keep networking with each other. Tell me what I can do to help you with what you’re involved with now?”

There is little or no treat in this for them. Most people say yes, especially since they are aware that they’ve just dissapointed you.

Action Steps for Master Prospectors who love to build bridges

1. What are some questions I can ask my prospects to encourage them to open up to me?
2. What can I do to become a better listener?
3. Of the transitional bridges used by the Master Prospectors, what bridges do I see myself using immediately?
4. What phrases or bridges can I create, based on the gift (opportunity and products) that I have to offer, that will move my prospects towards me and my opportunity? (Think of it like a magnet. How can you attract them to you and your opportunity?)
5. What are some ways for me to stay in touch with those prospects who need more time?

17 Secrets of the Master Prospectors Series

Book Review: 17 Secrets of the Master Prospectors by John Kalench

Master Prospector Secret #1: Master Prospectors don’t sit on their assets

Master Prospector Secret #2: Master Prospectors are consistently consistent

Master Prospector Secret #3: Master Prospectors know what their job is

Master Prospector Secret #4: Master Prospectors know what to marry

Master Prospector Secret #5: Master Prospectors have a magical genie

Master Prospector Secret #6: Master Prospectors love to build bridges

Tags: build bridges, build friendships to recruit, building bridges, make friends, recruiting training, transitional phrases