Making Connections: Meet “Frank”

One of the most common objections I hear from people who are thinking about joining my team is “I don’t know very many people.” To that, I have a three part response:

1. You know more people than you think.
2. If you are building a business, you won’t need to rely on just friends and family for your business to grow.
3. You will meet new people!

However, it is easiest to begin with people that you do know, and here’s how!

Make a “FRANKs” list.

Get a blank piece of paper or start a spreadsheet – whatever works for you to brainstorm. Just make sure you have plenty of room! We’re going to break down the list of people you know into five categories starting with…

F = friends

Start with your besties, of course. They will most likely be your cheerleaders, whether or not they use your products! But then dig deeper:

• Work friends
• Church friends
• Elementary school friends
• High School friends
• College friends
• Facebook friends

R = relatives

Think about what relatives you might have that would be willing to try Color Street. I’ll focus on women since that’s our largest demographic, but if you have a forward-thinking guy, let him try it too! (It’s a whole untapped market!)

• Mother
• Grandma
• Sister
• Aunt
• Nieces
• Cousins
• In-laws

A = aquaintances

We all have aquaintances. These are people we may not know well but that we recognize or encounter regularly!

• The person who works at the front desk of the gym
• The bank teller
• The grocery store clerk (you know, the friendly one whose line you always look for!)
• Co-workers you may not know personally but you see regularly
• Restaurant workers/Bartenders

N = neighbors

Depending on where you live, you may or may not know your neighbors well. But there’s no time like the present to meet them!

• Current neighbors
• Past neighbors
• HOA members
• Apartment office staff

And you can check with your HOA or apartment management company to find out if there are options for you to connect with your neighbors:

• Neighborhood business directory
• Web page that you can promote your business (remember – no deals or discounts in public forums!)
• Social events/mixers
• Welcome bags for new residents where you can provide samples

K = kid’s contacts

If you don’t have kids, you can still browse through this section because it might remind you of contacts from when YOU were a child!

• Teachers
• Coaches (and their spouses)
• Friends’ moms
• Friends’ older sisters
• Volunteer parents (a little twosie gift bag makes a great little “thank you”!)
• Day Care teacher

Here’s a quick graphic that I made to help serve as a visual reminder:

Once you have a FRANKs list, start to connect.

• Unless they are your bff’s – don’t dive right into the business. We’ve ALL had that random person that we haven’t talked to in 20 years reach out and try to sell us somthing. Yuck.
• Decide on a set number of people per day you’d like to connect with, then connect!
  • Check out their social media profiles and see what they’ve been up to.
  • Send them a personal message (NOT about your business!)
  • Comment on a recent post.
  • Let them know you’ve been thinking about them.
  • Ask them a question!
• The goal at this point isn’t to SELL or to get them to join you. It’s to CONNECT.
• Write down or track who you reach out to so you can make it through your list!

Keep posting on social media!

Remember the five pillars we talked about in this blog post? Keep cycling through your list! The funny thing about social media is that the algorithms are smart. Once you’ve connected with someone via personal message, they’ll start showing you each other’s posts. So make sure you’re giving your old (and new) friends something to look at!

My friend Kimberly is in direct sales with another company, and she made a comment that “You shouldn’t have to rely on friends and family to keep your business afloat.” And while this is true, this is the most logical place to start. We call this your “warm market.” And the beautiful thing about connecting with people is that even a small group of people in your warm market, can introduce you to so many new friends and customers that are currently in your “cold market.” And making these new friends has been one of my favorite parts of building my business. I treasure these new friends and relationships so much!

Were you surprised when you wrote down your FRANKs list? Did you have more people than you expected? Let me know in the comments!