Neutralizing Naysayers

We've all had them - the women at the party who seem to have come simply for the purpose of making you feel like you might have chosen the wrong career.  Whether they ask questions, make statements, or simply give you looks that make your other guests doubt the product, they make you feel like the party, and by extension you, is a failure.  How do you stop their negativity while remaining professional, polite, and above all, successful?  Well, you start by being a bit ahead of the game by knowing your product forward and backward so that when you have a Negative Nellie at your next party, you already know how to neutralize her before any harm is done.
The next thing you have to remember is to keep a cool head.  Remain calm, no matter what someone says to you.  I've found they won't be outwardly rude around their friends, but they may make snarky comments aimed to get your ire up.  Remember that, if you lose your patience or are rude to them, their friends will not want to buy your product.
Here are some of the most common negative comments that I hear consultants trying to overcome:

It's too expensive!

As odd as I find it, I hear about consultants being told our product is too expensive all the time.  I've never personally had someone say this to me, but that's because I try to nip it in the bud when I talk about the price.  For example:  "Each sheet is only $17 plus tax and can do up to two manicures and two pedicures.  I challenge you to find one manicurist that will give you two manicures for less than $20!"
If you have a client who argues that painting their nails is cheaper, you can always ask how long painting their nails lasts.  You can also suggest our nail lacquers which give a lower cost per manicure.  You may also run into the argument that store-bought wraps can be purchased for as low as a dollar. In that case, you might want to skip to the next argument.

__________ product or service is better.

There are tons of nail wraps out there.  You can get them almost anywhere from the Dollar Tree to Wal-Mart to Sally's to other direct sales organizations to high-end nail salons.  They range in cost from a dollar to almost $100.  They also vary in material and quality.  When I have a client ask me about other nail wraps, I have found the best option is to know my product and its competitors.  I've found that the following two images help me.  The first can't be shared as-is (logo issues) and the second is not social media approved, but it keeps popping up.  They're both incredibly useful.

So, one of my stock answers when people ask me about store-bought nail wraps, I usually say something like, "Most of the wraps in stores are made out of dried nail polish printed out.  That means that they have the same toxins as nail polish, and the same dangers.  They also dry out once you open them, and that means you only get one application out of them."
You can also point out that, though the less expensive wraps (Dollar Tree in particular) are not made of nail polish, they don't list ingredients, don't claim to be cruelty-free, and don't form to your nail shapes as well as Jamberry do.
As far as the salon-applied nail wraps there.  I haven't had someone who claimed they'd rather spend over $50 to have nail wraps applied, but I'm sure they're out there.  I have no argument for that.
As far as "I love getting manicures," which I do hear all the time, I would suggest to those people that they can still get their mani/pedis without polish and put on the wraps afterward.

I can't wear things on my nails because of my job.

If you get this challenge, I encourage you to clarify what your guest means by this.  This is because there are
four very different prongs to the argument:

• Some jobs, such as food preparation, do not allow any kind of nail decoration.  This is what we all assume the guest means when she says, "I'm not allowed to wear these at my job."  If you run into this, you should mention that our nail wraps can be used on toes.  Even people who can't wear nail polish on their fingernails like to get pedicures.  Megs LeGray also suggested that this is an excellent time to bring up our nail lacquers.  The lacquers offer a lower cost-per-manicure and gives your client the option to paint her nails with the same non-toxic alternatives on a night out and take it off before work.
• Some jobs don't allow eye-catching patterns on the nails.  However, they do tend to allow solid colours, basic ombres, and french tips.  For these situations, you might indicate the Sparkling Solids and French Tip sections of the catalogue.  My line is, "We carry everything from clear to crazy."
• Some jobs don't allow nail wraps.  This is a new one I heard the other day.  Health-care fields are starting to crack down on nail wraps because of a concern that they may trap pathogens under them.  You can't argue with this one, but you can suggest our non-toxic lacquer and, again, with the wraps on toes.
• There are people that think they can't wear wraps because of their jobs.  Their jobs don't actually have rules that say they can't wear nail polish or nail wraps, they just think that an aspect of their job will make the wraps not work. I've heard everything from acetone to hand sanitizer. For this instance...

I can't wear nail polish because of my hobby.

I swear that every time I have a party there is one person that can't wear nail polish because of something she does in her spare time.  I've heard everything from gardening to rock climbing and every person has tried and loved the product.  I've started to nip this in the bud a little by talking about clients I have had that can use our nail wraps.  I talk about my vet tech friend who does surgery in her Jamberrys (we learned that clear-based wraps weren't her friend) or a friend who works in labs.  However, that doesn't always work. Sometimes they are adamant that their hobby is somehow different from the extremes that I discuss.  In those cases, I point out that
a.  They have samples on their nails right now. I suggest they go do what it is that they go do what it is they're telling me about and report back to me about how their samples played out.  If they don't do that within the next 2 weeks:
b. We have a 30-day money-back guarantee. If their hobby is in fact to hard on their nail wraps, I will refund their money, no questions asked. If they aren't planning to do said hobby in the next 30 days, they're probably just giving you a reason to not buy.

I don't wear nail polish.

Okay, so I hear this all the time, and it's one of the hardest to overcome because it's much more complex that "I can't". "I don't" indicates a willful choice to not wear nail polish. Usually, I ask her why she doesn't wear nail polish. If it comes down to one of the many reasons why Jamberry is so much better than nail polish (chipping, cracking, repainting), I go back to "I can't because of my hobby," responses. On the other hand, I've had people who don't wear nail polish because of the toxins. They're my favourites because it's the easiest thing in the world to overcome.
Then there are people who just don't like nail polish. They don't want to wear nail polish, and you're not going to make them. Try to focus on our nail care tools, because they're of professional quality, or the hand care system. Even people who don't wear nail polish like their hands to feel nice.

I don't have any nails.

I swear that I pray for this argument to come up at every party. It is my favourite objection. You know why? Because when I started using Jamberry, I had less than no nails. I had nails that were bitten down to stubs, and were weak and brittle. Every time I tried to stop biting my nails, they would break and I would start evening them out with my teeth and then I'd be biting them again. Then came Jamberry! Jamberry protected my nails from the elements and prevented me from biting my nails (I always tell people "You can't bite through them!"). I have nails because Jamberry exists. There is no such thing as nails too short to wear them.

This is too difficult.

I have never gotten this complaint after someone tried applying the shields, but I have heard it plenty before the actual demonstration part. There are some people who will swear up and down that their non-dominant hand is incapable of doing anything. For this situation, I assure them of the ease of application. If they're very insistent, I give them examples of people I have had successfully apply samples. I've had a woman with Multiple Sclerosis apply them with ease!
If all else fails, just get them to try a sample.

I hope all of this helps; I put a lot of thought into it. If you have any complaints or arguments that I haven't touched on, let me know and I'll add it to the next one.