What Makes A Good Network Marketing Company?

Ever hear someone say, "My ORAC is higher than your ORAC!" or "My company is better than your company."?  There is little doubt that there are good companies and bad companies in this industry, the question should be what attributes make a good company?

We will touch on this subject over the next few weeks in this multi-part series.  Your comments are welcome and encouraged.

There are attributes of a Network Marketing company that are important and then there are attributes of a Network Marketing company that people love to toss around as a perceived benefit, but these make little to no difference in whether or not you are able to build a profitable business. Let's talk about a few of these attributes...

1. Size and Longevity Of The Company - This is a very important piece to the puzzle when choosing a Network Marketing company, but it really comes down to stability, not size and longevity. You want a company to have the resources to grow and the stability to pay out bonus checks on time, ship products on time and support your business through providing excellent customer service.  I normally suggest that people stay away from start-up companies, but if Bill Gates and Warren Buffet start a company, is it really a start up or is it a new company? It's important to look closely at the ownership.

Remember, just because a company is the biggest and oldest, doesn't mean it is the best place for you to carve out your own success. This is about your personal success in your marketplace, not about a companies 50 year track record and billions in sales in other countries. 

I will take a stable, innovative and growing company over a billion dollar, 50 year old company that is in chaos in my marketplace.

2. Number Of Products: More Is Better? -The myth is that more products choices leads to more volume. But the facts tell a different story.  The fastest growing companies in the last 5 years in Network Marketing have been one product companies or companies with a very narrow product focus (like weight loss). Here is the reality of Network Marketing...people do enough volume to quality for the bonus schedule, regardless of the number of products and then if the product is innovative, reasonably priced (it doesn't have to be the cheapest) and solution driven, distributors will naturally sell the product to customers, creating more volume.

Hundreds, thousands (or even millions) of products do not significantly increase the volume or more importantly, profit per distributor.  It's really all about the impact of the product.  Network Marketing companies have always been innovative when it comes to products, but if the product is easily copied (then sold for a lot less in stores), a drop in sales will naturally occur.

I would rather have one impact product that is reasonably priced than a million products that are priced 20 to 50% higher than the stores.

Comments

[Levi]

Economics plays a integral part in any business model. Product must be avaiable at a price the consumer is willing to pay. This is called "value".

In the absence of value, hype and overstatement enters the arrangement (to artificially increase the "value" of the product). People have an inherent "sense" of value. If they're not being offered value, or not offering value to others -- either on the product/consumption side, or the business/production side -- they will be hard to budge...and you become a "salesman" pushing ropes trying to convince other why they need your widgit.

[Art]

I completely agree with Ty on this one. The money is in the upstart and in the solution based mentality of the company.

[Ty Tribble - MLM Blog Author]

Art,

I want to be clear. My definition of start up and upstart may be different than yours, but I normally would suggest people stay away from start ups...unless the ownership has tremendous experience.

[Frenchi1955]

I think that any company that are in business for years and have a product that anybody can use and need will be successful using network marketting as a engine to get new customer,as long as their pay plan is simple.I am in one that do just that