What is MLM and How to be Successful – Important Tips to bring You Success
What is MLM? Have you heard about MLM and thought is was just a Ponzi or Pyramid Scheme? On the contrary, it’s a $182 Billion dollar Industry, with $37 Billion in U.S. sales alone.
MLM stands for “Multi-Level Marketing” which means “distributors earn commissions not only from the product or service they provide, but they also receive commissions from other distributors in their organization.
MLM is also known as network marketing, “word-of-mouth” marketing, Direct Selling, and Home-Based Businesses. Individuals are usually called “Independent Business Owners” or Associates.
The beautiful thing about the MLM business model is that the owners of the corporation use this model of “word-of-mouth” marketing to cut out traditional and sometime futile advertising, and passes the profits onto the Independent Distributors. Everyone wins, i.e. the company saves millions on advertising and the distributors earns a higher percentage of commissions on sales.
Let’s see how many people are involved in the U.S. alone:
Industry statistics from the Direct Selling Association
As you can see, people’s interest in MLM is exponentially growing, and the rate of growth is even faster in Europe and Asia.
The Benefits of MLM
There are many benefits to becoming a home-based entrepreneur and business owner, here’s a few key points:
Top-Notch Products: The most successful network marketing companies spend millions on research and development of their products, which usually surpasses similar products in retail stores.
Your Own Boss: You are an Independent Business Owner, this means you can promote and work your business any way you like, without a BOSS micromanaging you. Some MLM companies do have guidelines against excessive promotion, so don’t SPAM your business opportunity.
Leveraged Income: You do not have to go-it alone in MLM. You also receive commissions from other distributors you recruit into your business. The more your distributors “duplicate” your recruiting process, the more people will be in your organization and the more money you earn. There’s a beautiful quote from Getty which sums it up:
4. Residual & Passive Income: Every time someone in your organization places an order or recruits someone new, you get paid. You could be snorkeling in Fiji and you will still get paid. Jordan Adler calls this “Beach money” and it’s the most intriguing aspect of the MLM and network marketing business model. Of course this doesn’t happen overnight, network marketing is a business and takes a few years to gain momentum, but the alternative is working at a dead-end job and retiring broke. People in MLM can replace their job with this residual income or supplement their retirement, because the sad fact is most Americans retire nearly broke:
Student loans have surpassed credit card debt and is at 1 Trillion now. Food stamps users have skyrocketed as well:
Our financial situation is dire, and living paycheck to paycheck is digging a slow, shallow grave.
Here’s our savings when we retire:
This might look good to you, but this money needs to last you 10 to 25 more years. We can easily burn through half of this in one year!
MLM: A Viable Option
Network marketing is unlimited to anyone who wants to build an unlimited residual income. There is no income cap in MLM and the average income of a moderately successful network marketer is $20,000 a month. Does $20,000 a month sound good to you?
Network marketing can supplement or replace your job’s income, sometimes in as little as two years. The choice is yours: either work 20 to 40 more years at a JOB, or work hard 2 to 5 years in network marketing, then retire.
The benefits of network marketing and MLM go way beyond income. People in network marketing become Entrepreneurs and Leaders. They enrich the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people, whether it be financial, physical or lifestyle.
Network marketing works only when you work on yourself. The more you incorporate self-development and learn about the industry, the more you people you can help, which equals more income. Income is the by-product of helping solve the problems of people on a grand scale. Yes, we all start with one distributor, but through the regular ups and downs and hardships of being an entrepreneur success is inevitable if you don’t quit.
The Myths of MLM
Myth #1: It’s a Pyramid Scheme.
Actually, Corporate America looks more like a Pyramid as depicted here in a Walmart example:
Network marketing is called the “great equalizer” for a reason. Everyone starts at the bottom and anyone with any education, any ethnicity, or any background can rise to the top ranks in MLM and earn a doctor’s salary. This is unheard of in Corporate America, where you usually need superior education, work experience or special connections.
Myth #2: “Work One Hour a day to Earn $5000 a week.”
Network marketing is a real business and that would be like saying, “Hang an open sign in your window and watch hundreds line up outside!” There is work involved in the beginning and it takes consistent effort to get your MLM business going. Some people will not be interested in joining your business and prospecting hundreds of people may be involved to find a few good leaders.
Also, your income in the beginning is small, because you’re only getting commissions from your personal sales. Once you get a few good distributors on your team and they start bringing in new distributors will your residual income start to grow.
Myth #3: “You only need to bring in two people.”
This is like saying, “You only need to play the lottery a few times to win.” Yes, there are those very rare occasions of someone bringing in two huge leaders in the very beginning, but the reality is you will have to keep recruiting new distributors keep growing your organization.
One of the biggest mistakes network marketers make is that they stop recruiting people once they get a sizeable organization and go into “management-mode.”
Management mode is when the MLM leader starts teaching their distributors what to do without doing it themselves, this is also called micro-managing and will shrink your organization very quickly. You must keep bringing in “new blood” to keep everyone excited and to keep growing, this creates momentum and success loves momentum.
Promoting Your MLM Business
Network marketing’s landscape has dramatically changed since the advent of the internet. Now more than ever, it is easy to get your opportunity seen by the world. One of the first platforms that helped me become successful was Twitter, not Facebook.
Most new network marketers go immediately to Facebook, join a dozen MLM Facebook groups and spam their links. This doesn’t work anymore, no matter how outlandish your message is, like the message I stated above, “Work One Hour a day to Earn $5000 a week.” It doesn’t work. The days of “Interruption Marketing” are over. Corporations still use Interruption Marketing, a.k.a very loud annoying commercials and we don’t buy that anymore.
What we do buy is valuable content. We buy from people that constantly provide value with little or no promotion attached. So, if you’re going to promote your network marketing on social media, point them to some valuable content you created on your blog. If you don’t have a blog yet, share success quotes relating to success, Entrepreneurship and network marketing and make sure you have your opportunity URL in your bio.
Most new network marketers are told by their sponsor to create a “list” of friends and family to prospect. This is risky, because the new distributor does not know how to prospect yet and handle objections that may arise. Rejection from family and friends is the fastest way to get a new network marketer to quit the business.
Here’s some quick steps for starting your MLM
Create a website in your name, like www.johndoe.com, and post once a week 1200 words of original content. Don’t promote right away. Gain readers by just being yourself and introducing yourself, hobbies and interests.
Post 2 to 4 minute videos on YouTube or Dailymotion. Again, talk about your feelings about MLM and your hobbies and stay away from product promotion. But, after you do use your product and have a strong testimonial, then share it. Nothing is more powerful than your personal testimonial.
Post your videos and articles on social media. Right after I publish an article like this, I share it on Facebook, Twitter, and G+ along with some other bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit.
Read powerful books on Network Marketing, like Go Pro and Recruit and Grow Rich.
Work with your sponsor to devise a plan of how you are going to work your business.
Attend all company events, webinars and trainings.
Summary
Network marketing is an exciting industry to be in, either as a part-timer or full-time. I have been an online marketer for five years and have never found anything like it to produce steady residual income.
There is literally no risk in starting an MLM home-based business. If you are not satisfied, you simply cancel your “autoship” of the product. In some companies, you can receive a full refund within a certain time frame.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to find out more about MLM, take a free tour by clicking the button below.
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