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

In network marketing, it is of critical importance to build a relationship with potential partners and team members. Network marketing is definitely a relationship business and each relationship typically starts out with two complete strangers. Good relationships don’t just happen they are built on Trust.

Relationship building is critical because everyone prefers to conduct business with people they know and like. Michael Oliver of Natural Selling says,  “A relationship is born from a desire to understand someone. In return there will be a desire to understand you.  Personalizing your discussion around what is important to others will do this for you.”

Developing any relationship is a process.  In order to cultivate trust you invest time in the process by asking the right questions.  When you show the ability to ask intelligent and relevant questions, your future partner will automatically perceive a higher level of credibility.

There are tons of tips and good advice on how to understand others. This statement “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood”, from Stephen R Covey centers around understanding others wants, needs and aspirations as well as their motivations and mindset.   Unless we understand them, we can’t help or influence the situation, as we don’t see the world through their eyes.

Asking good questions is the most valuable ammunition for improving your relationships.  The famous sales trainer J. Douglas Edwards was among the first to utter this phrase, “Questions are the answers.”  Asking a series of questions respects your potential partners and helps them to make a decision.

In this short (4:56) video Jeff Nischwitz discusses the role of questions and a commitment to helping others in building relationships that will grow your business

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