MLM, Split Second Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing, it’s all the same – just Network Marketing. More and more people are becoming interested in Multilevel Marketing “Make Life Meaningful”, MLM in short. Even though Network Marketing has existed since the beginning of time, most people are still unsure of what it actually is and how it works. There have also been many rotten apples that have tainted MLM’s existence with negative outlook and gave Network Marketing a bad name. As people tend to remember negative experiences rather than positive. You may have gone to the same restaurant 100 times, but if the food or service was awful once… what did you do? Probably remembered ‘that’ particular instance over the hundred great times that you’ve been there. With schools all over the world from Harvard to Oxford teaching Multilevel Marketing/Network Marketing; it’s a no brainer that MLM is one of the best ways to build residual income.
Studies by the Direct Selling Association (DSA) indicate that:
- Direct selling accounts for annual sales of more than $190 billion world-wide.
- The US contributes nearly $53 billion.
- 19 million Americans derive independent contractor income from direct selling.
- One in every 10 households has someone involved in network marketing or direct sales.
What is Multilevel Marketing and how does it work? MLM works because people prefer to use products listed by a friend or an acquaintance. It works because the products offered are good and cost fair value. It works because people feel satisfied with the product and indicate to acquaintances who are satisfied with the product and so forth on a scale of exponential growth.
Anyone can be a network marketer, but usually dedicated individuals and entrepreneurs that know they can make money with alternative income, also known as residual income tend to be involved in MLM. We normally sign up for an MLM company that consists of working to promote the products and the opportunity offered. With the main advantage of being able to start without initial investment that a normal business would accommodate. Taking into an account of high cost needed to start any company.
“If I lost everything and had to start again, I would find myself a great network marketing company and get to work!” – Donald Trump
Who should avoid MLM?
Disbelievers in MLM. Anyone thinking about earning money easily without having to work.
What are advantages of MLM?
Possibility of unlimited gains. Without an expensive initial investment. Ability to work on your own time.
What are the disadvantages of MLM?
Moderate level of rejection by those who do not know. Not only by them, but mainly by those who “think they know.” This rejection is created by millions of people who promise unlimited earnings without any work. People who use MLM companies with particular forms of pyramids just to get more people registered without worrying about the quality of products or showing guidance when sponsoring. All this nonsense turns people off from serious chances of success.
Network Marketing
The Evolution of Network Marketing… Marketing in general context, is the junction of Relationship Marketing. It focuses on the quality of customer relations and direct marketing, which happens to be the direct relationship between vendor and customer. Therefore, Network Marketing allows the direct relationship of the distributor (seller) with the client to maintain a quality of relationship between them, since this system only devotes itself to the permanence of a direct relationship in the long run. Network Marketing is a distribution system or a form of marketing that’s moving legitimate goods and services with high market value, from the manufacturer to the consumer through a network of independent contractors. It’s a way to organize and pay for resellers involved in direct sales. It has a compensation plan for direct sales in which resellers can receive earnings with the following common two ways. First, marketers may receive compensation for their personal resale of products and services to consumers. Second, marketers may be paid for their purchases or resales of people recruited and sponsored. Individuals may also be paid from the resale of the group or network that recruited and sponsored them previously. At the end, it is an opportunity for marketers to set up their own business by reselling goods and services and developing and training an organization or a network of resellers they sponsor to do the same. A multilevel distribution company means any person, firm, corporation, or other business entity that sells or distributes goods or services through independent marketers, reps, agents, contractors, distributors, and varied participants may recruit other participants. Commissions, bonuses, refunds, discounts, dividends, and other considerations of the program are or should be paid as a result of the sale of a service, product, recruitment, performance shares, or additional participants.
“I would rather earn 1% of 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts” – John Paul Getty (American Billionaire)
How can you succeed?
Short answer:
Work diligently, work consistently, and don’t give up.
Long answer:
All companies are different, and what works in one company might not work in another. You should learn from your upline – ask them what works and what you should do to succeed. Draw on them for help. They’ve found out from experience what works and what doesn’t and they’re interested in your success. The fundamental ideas, though, are the same in any company. Do what a distributor/associate/whatever is supposed to do in your company – retail products, sell services, consume products, whatever… and find others to do the same. Teach them to do what you do. *Duplication* is the key to success. Wherever there is a McDonalds – there is a Burger King. You’re not supposed to go out and enroll the world, or sell something to everybody on the planet. You’re supposed to find a few people who want to build a business, and help them do it. More importantly, teach them to do what a distributor does and go out and find a few people to work with and teach those new people. Until you have “taught your people to teach their people to teach,” you have not really duplicated yourself. Keep plugging away. Unless you’re incredibly good at this, it will take time to build a group. It takes time to find good people and teach them what they need to know. Sometimes your best people will give up and drop out. Sometimes it can be very discouraging. Sometimes you may be tempted to give up. If your company isn’t working very well, maybe you should. But if the company’s working well, and others are succeeding, you need to take a look at what you’re doing that isn’t working. It may be that you wouldn’t do any better in another company, even if the grass looks greener, because you’re doing the wrong things.
It is a sad fact that a very small percentage of people who enroll in any particular MLM will succeed big. This is not, however, a fatal flaw of MLM; it’s a reflection of real life. 90%+ of small businesses fail within 1-5 years… and the owners lose a whole lot more than the few hundred dollars an MLM person typically invests. 98%+ of corporate employees will never achieve executive levels. 95% of 65-year-old retirees in the US (according to Insurance & Social Security statistics) are dead or broke.
The sad fact is, very few people succeed big in any endeavor. Most people simply will not do what it takes to succeed. MLM is no different in this regard. However, many people get into an MLM with the idea that it’s some kind of “easy road to riches”. It’s not. It takes work. It takes time and dedication. But most people don’t see that, either because their sponsor misled them with rosy predictions of instant wealth, or because they chose to hear the easy story. People like this enroll and don’t do anything, or give it a try but give up after a few months. This is where the vast majority of “MLM failures” comes from.
The biggest problem with MLM is that it’s “too easy” to get into (usually no more than a few hundred dollars), so it’s “too easy” to get out. With only a few hundred bucks committed, it’s easy for someone to say “Ah, heck, I talked to 5 people and none of them were interested. This doesn’t work! Guess I wasted $200.” You should approach your business as if it was a “real” business, one that you had invested your life savings into. If you had sunk $200,000 into your MLM business, would you let 5 “no”s stop you? Hell no!! You’d get back out there and keep working until you made it work, because you had too damn much money in it to give up! Well, guess what? That’s what makes MLM work too – that dedication to keep working until you make it work. If you work consistently, and effectively and build your group faster than the faint-hearted people drop out, your group will slowly but steadily build. And if you’ve taught your people the correct ideas of “work consistently, work effectively, and teach your people how to duplicate your efforts”, you should see a consistent rate of growth. It will probably take longer than you’d like (hey, that’s the way life works), but as long as you keep working at it, your income will eventually build to the level you want.
The problem is, most people don’t do this. Most people who get into MLM give it a half-hearted try, then give up the first time they get a “no” and complain that “It doesn’t work.” Only the people who determine to put in the effort, and actually DO what it takes to succeed, will stick it out and end up on top.
Some questions to ask yourself before entering MLM/Network Marketing Opportunity
Is there a legitimate product involved?
What do you get in return for your start up investment, other than the potential to earn good money? If you’re not getting a product or service or if the training tools appear to be overpriced you could have discovered a scam.
Do you get commissions based on product distribution or on recruitment? If they are paying commissions based purely on recruitment, walk away now.
Consider the following factors that might influence long term success. Does the company have a proven track record?
If the company has been around for a few years then there is a fair chance that governing bodies that police pyramid schemes have already pulled the business model apart and given them the OK.
Is this a get rich quick scheme?
Although there is a lot of potential to earn very good money in network marketing very few have made it quick, most make their millions through consistent effort.
Shop around
If you are looking into the industry for the first time don’t be scared to look at other business models and products, particularly if you don’t know which company to join.
What training do they provide?
A good company has a solid training system.
Say hello to MLM and Network Marketing
Thoughts become things. With self development, business, and entrepreneurial mindset and dedication we must teach people to do their due diligence while progressively enhancing their outlook on Multilevel Marketing and Network Marketing because it is a proven system that has created wealth around the world for people like you and me. Anyone can be a network marketer, but usually committed people that know they can make money with alternative income, also known as residual income tend to be involved in MLM.