How to use F.O.R.M. To Build Relationships and your Business

March 4, 2014May 12, 2020 Mike MacDonald

Building relationships and meeting new people is a key factor to building your business. This was huge for me when I first started in the industry of sales and direct marketing. I used to have no people skills, I was super introverted, and had a hard time holding a conversation with people and building relationships and making friends. One key factor when working with people is they usually don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. I was taught this acronym F.O.R.M. to get to know people and also If I chose to I would be able to expose my business or opportunity or product or service naturally with people. F.O.R.M. Stands for Family, Occupation, Recreation, and the Message. This guideline is simple because you are simply asking questions to someone about themselves. The great part is, is that the person will never feel uncomfortable because they are answering questions about themselves, most likely their favorite topic, and they should always know the answer and they can’t be wrong because it’s their own story. You can also probe to find out people’s strengths, weaknesses, interests, needs, wants, and how your product or service may help them in their life.

Family – This is pretty simple, you can ask them about their family, do they have brothers, sisters, kids, wife, husband. How old are they, what do they do, where do they live. You can ask if they are from xyz originally, if they aren’t you can ask them what brought them to this state, part of town, the east coast, etc. They will tell you their likes and dislikes about where they live. This can give you a sense of what brought them to where they are at today.

Occupation – This is simply asking them what they do for work. You can add on to that by asking how did they get their start in that area or line of work. Most people have gone on quite a journey to get to where they are at today and will be happy to tell you and be proud of what got them to where they are today! You can also ask them what they like best or like least about their job or work. This can start to give you an insight into how your product, service, or opportunity, may benefit them in their lives. So take note if you hear something that your business can help them with, but don’t instantly jump on them with it.

Recreation – What do you like to do for fun? When you have a day off from xyz what do you like to do? If money and time wasn’t an issue for you what would you do? Do you like to travel? Where would you like to go? Why do you want to go there? What are some of your hobbies? All of these types of questions can let you know what they like to do or what they might prefer to be doing rather than working. This could be a way to lead with your business by showing them a way they could do more of the fun things they enjoy. Also you can be trying to find something at this point that you both have in common and enjoy to do. When you are able to find something you both have a natural interest in, rapport jumps up immensely, conversation flows more naturally, and people’s guard will drop significantly.

Message – This is basically where you can link that person to your product, business, service, or opportunity. There are several ways to do it at this point. One way is you can say ‘I couldn’t help but overhear when you said xyz’, you were looking to make more money, you don’t like the hours at your job, you don’t see your kids enough, you hate your job, etc. Fill in the blank with whatever you talked about previously. Then you can follow up with for example ‘I may have a way you could get more xyz’ Time to spend with your kids, get paid what you’re worth, fire your boss, etc. Again you can fill in the solution there. You can say at that point something like ‘Would you be open to a way to do xyz’ or ‘Kinda random, but when you mentioned xyz, I remembered that my company is looking for some key leaders to help with expansion. I don’t know if it would be for you or not, but if you’re open, it may be a way for you to get xyz’ Again when you are doing this you are just seeing if they are open to a solution to their problem. If they say no, then that’s all you do. You don’t hound them and be needy and creepy. You are in the job of collecting decisions, just because they said no, that can just mean not now. You at least have planted the seed for your opportunity or product and then you can always follow up at a later date, or they may come to you at a later time since you mentioned it before. Also if they do say they are open, don’t feel bad about talking about your opportunity because they now want what you have and that will put you in a great position.

F.O.R.M. is a basic way you can start developing relationships and making new friends and to see if they may be open for your opportunity or product or service. You don’t have to be an expert right away or expose your product or service every time, but it is a great way to make more friends and help more people. I urge you to practice this and work on it every time you meet someone new so you can get out of your comfort zone and you can improve your people skills.