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Who Said You Need to Have All the Answers?
Remember in school when you were afraid the teacher would call on you for the one question you didn’t know the answer to? She’d ask, and you’d look down at your desk and frantically pray, “No, no, no, please don’t call on me.”
It’s very difficult and traumatizing to appear like you don’t know the answer, or worse, to give the wrong one! It’s often a lifelong fear of ours that we will look stupid in front of our peers.
Direct selling/party plan consultants are no different! What if someone asks you a question for which you don’t have the answer?
The horror!
Here’s the thing, though: Who said, or where did you read that you need to have all the answers?
Even if you’re a sponsor, team leader, Manager or Director, what is the worst that could happen if you uttered the words, “I’m not sure, but I will find out and get back to you?”
Don’t confuse being an independent business owner with being back in the sixth grade. No one is going to laugh and point at you if you don’t know the answer to something! Rather, it will likely make you look more human and approachable when others see that it’s ok that you don’t have all the answers.
Don’t Let It Stop You!
Starting a new business can be scary. There is a lot to learn. But it’s not nuclear science and you have to remember, that even though it may feel like it, it’s not life or death. Nobody will die if you don’t give an immediate answer!
“I don’t know but I will find out” is a very good response. It shows your willingness to learn and to provide an accurate and timely response to the customer or downline member.
Consultants who are too afraid to take risks will not go very far in this business. Risks don’t need to be massive with extensive consequences. They could be as simple as stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a chance that everything will be okay if someone asks you a question to which you do not immediately know the answer.
Don’t let this fear paralyze you, count you out, or keep you from starting! You DON’T have to know everything to get started! Most of us jump out of the plane and build the parachute on the way down! (truth!) That’s just kinda how entrepreneurship is!
Interestingly, some leaders who are very comfortable around most people will do everything within their power to not meet with fellow managers or directors for fear of not knowing something. That is just crazy because fellow peers don’t have any direct influence or impact on your business, so who cares if you know or don’t know something around these folks?
It sounds downright silly, doesn’t it? Oh, I’d rather not put myself out there and talk to people because I might not know the answer to something and I don’t want to look stupid.
Just stop!
If you are paralyzed with this fear of not knowing an answer to something, consider what advice you might give your child if she came home and told you she wasn’t doing very well in school because she didn’t want to raise her hand to answer a question.
Whatever advice you’d give your child on this subject, give it to yourself too. Then watch your business grow.
To Your Success,
xoxo
Leslie
