Retailing in Network Marketing

I was discussing the Passport business with someone over the holidays and the subject of product sales came up. This person I was talking to was involved with Quixtar and she said that one of the things that attracted her to Quixtar was that she wouldn't have to sell. I said "huh?", and she said "they told me I wouldn't have to sell anything". This was not the first time I had run into these words and while I pride myself on not having any canned responses, I pretty much say the same thing when people say they don't have to sell in Network Marketing....."the FTC has a different opinion than the person that told you that".

"I don't like to sell" is different than saying, "I don't want to sell". If you don't like to sell, but would be willing to learn some things about selling in order to get some customers, Network Marketing may still work for you.

I would never kid myself into thinking that Network Marketing is for everyone, but without a doubt there is one segment of the population that Network Marketing is not for. Those who refuse to sell products. If you want to operate a legal Network Marketing business in the U.S. you must sell your product or service to customers.

It's time that Network Marketing embrace selling, not only to keep your business legal, but also to add immediate cash flow into your business. Sell. Sell. Sell.

Comments

[JBNET1]

AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!!!

[Elisabeth]

I agree totally that there's a need to do retailing in MLM. MLM is a duplication biz.

If an inexperienced distributor (who refuses to do retailing) recruits someone who's like him, then MLM is producing a group of losers, in which case we can see from pple who mourn endlessly abt. being cheated.

On the other hand, if a distributor learns to do marketing and sales at his own speed, he'll be able to transfer that knowledge to his downlines as well as into other forms of biz which are more traditional and require more capital to start-up.

Unfortunately, Amway, Herbalife, and a couple of the MLMs are using the breakaway compensation scheme, which is to a distributor's disadvantage to train his downlines. This is 'cos if the downline becomes more successful than him, then the downline will "break away" and the distributor will not earn residual income from him.

Hence, Amway remains a rah-rah motivational training / seminar centre.

What's happening to the network mktg industry is a stronger emphasis on retail sales, not just pestering and recruiting friends / relatives into the organisation. Just take a look at the compensation schemes of the newer MLM companies and you'll understand.

I strongly believe that MLM is not meant to be for everyone, at least not for those who want to sit on their butts, waiting to make a quick buck and refusing to use their blains (I mean, brains) to analyse and plan for their own success.

[MLMBlog]

Great Post Elisabeth!

[Rob]

I love selling things I truly believe it. If I don't believe in the product than I have a hard time selling. And another thing is I don't believe in hard selling at all.

[herbsguy]

Most of the high profile "gurus" in mlm focus on duplication,but duplication of what? There's a plethora of training books and cds all pretty much teaching how to prospect/sponsor/close(yuk!)/use nlp/hypnotic selling etc.They virtually all presume you have all the great loyal customers you want re-ordering month in month out.Sadly,this is not reality.Most distributors struggle to get a meaningful number of customers,primarily in my opinion,because virtually nobody teaches the new distributor how to.

Try to find training on significant retailing-its hard to find.I can only assume its because few people actually retail,and I don't mean to a few friends.

WhenI hear about a "heavy hitter" having a downline of 100,000 distributors,and he's making $80,000/month,I cringe.Work out the math.Even if only 5% of the downline are active it means most "active" distributors are not retailing at all.And if it takes this number of distributors to earn the heavy hitter $80k/m,it means you will have to buld a group of 10,000 to earn $8,000/month.

We must all realise that the market for consumers of our products is soooo much larger than the market for loyal distributors.Doesn't it make more sense to have a group of active distributers who have between 30-300 loyal customers?Many distributors have the hallucination that its not duplicatable or realistic.

Its so much easier to sponsor distributors with posture and conviction if you have 40,50 customers and are already earning $400-$1000/month just from your customer base.

This level of income is what will keep a new distibutor involved and its much quicker acheive this through retailing.

If any of you have come across any good resources on retailing in MLM please let me know.The best I've found is Kim Klavers material.

On the subject of selling,when you find a company who's products you fall in love with,reccomending them to others is not only natural but extremely powerful.It is not selling!

Hey,I could drone on all day....