I have just finished reading a fascinating newsletter by Perry Marshall, an acknowledged leader in online marketing, about the pitfalls he faced whilst being a member of an MLM, in his case, Amway. In it he makes the point time and time again that he worked his fingers to the bone. He would be out of the house by 8:00AM to give presentations, he wrote articles and emailed and cold called and attended seminars by the gross but never got anywhere. In fact he lost money and it was only the fact that he had a ‘day job’ (and an understanding wife) that kept him afloat.
In this newsletter, he berates himself that as a person with engineering mathematics behind him, it took him 6 years to come to the realisation that the only real value being sold was not the product but the tapes, letters, books, pamphlets and business cards on sale at the numerous Amway seminars. And these were being sold not to the public where one would assume the sales should be directed to but to the actual distributors of the products. In other words, those who were meant to be selling the product were spending most of their money in buying peripherals about the product under the understanding that by doing so they would increase their knowledge and thus their sales cred.
The most telling point he makes though is that when he tried to question his up line about the profits they were making he would invariably be fobbed off. When he tried to press the point, it would be made obvious to him that he was the problem, not the businesses model itself and that he was either not trying hard enough or that he had yet to grasp the finer details of the business model.
In a nutshell, the lesson here is that if you rely on the continual purchase of your product by those in your team then the business model itself is suspect. In fact Perry makes the point that it was his day job that kept his family afloat, not the marketing of that product as he lost approximately $5,000 per annum trying to sell it.
Therefore, if you are looking to start your own online business by joining an organisation, there is one important, no vital, point that you must ensure BEFORE you sign on the dotted line and that is: how many others on this person’s team are having the success that you have been promised? That is, how many others on this team are duplicating the leader’s success? That is assuming of course that the leader is having success in the enterprise and is not feeding you bs. In addition, if you don’t want the hassle of a residual income by creating a team for yourself (and why should you if you don’t want think it worthwhile?) then the product you are selling must be able to stand on its own merits and be worth something to others for you to make an income from it.
If the sponsor’s success is not being mirrored within their team then the business is, in my humble opinion, suspect and should be treated with caution. The only caveat I can give about that is if the sponsor themselves is new to the business. When that is the case, do your homework with even more diligence, make sure that their sponsor‘s team is going gang busters for a start. If their success can’t be duplicated then don’t sign on the dotted line, instead pick another business where it can.
It is for that reason that I promote a financial services package that I use and have profited from immensely – I personally recommend it. I have also found education about how to sell on the net most profitable; once again this from a source that not only I recommend but also many others within this industry do as well. Finally, if you’re new to all of this, search engine optimisation is a term that you may not be too familiar with then here’s one site that can assist you greatly and it’s FREE! I must warn you though, the input process can be a tad tedious.
