Two Old Fashioned Ideas of What Network Marketing is All About and How Things are Different Today

Welcome back!

If you’ve decided to start a network marketing or MLM business, and done some research, you’ve no doubt read a lot of opinions about this business. You have probably found some intense debates between pro-MLM business builders and others who are very negative and totally opposed to the idea.

There are two issues that seem to come up over and over, and you almost always find these brought up anytime network marketing and MLM is discussed. While there are many interesting points on both sides of these issues, here is a balanced look at both.

The Recruiting Explosion vs Product Sales

This is one of the most popular points that you’ll see discussed. It typically goes something like this. “Potential MLM recruits get fired up at the thought of sponsoring people and seeing their downline explode, but somewhere along the line someone will actually need to sell the opportunity’s products to someone, or nobody makes any money.”

A better way to put this, I think, is to say that product will actually have to be purchased and consumed by someone. In a good network marketing opportunity, with quality and fairly priced products that people actually use, there will be quite a lot of consumption and product usage by the distributors themselves. Retail sales to customers outside the marketing plan will normally happen simply by spreading the word (not everyone will want to be a distributor), so you should see product consumption two ways.

If people try to start a network marketing business without using the products, or referring them to others, this will tend to create the negative situation that MLM critics often bring up. Unfortunately, this can indeed happen if there is strong incentive to recruit based on commissions from purchases of start up packages, in the absence of any real focus on an actual ongoing product or service of value provided by the business.

When you have a situation where the business is built around making money mostly by recruiting and earning bonuses on sign up packages, with little thought of a real ongoing product of true value, you have a recipe for trouble. A good MLM or network marketing business opportunity will not have this problem. While recruiting will be emphasized as necessary for building a profitable business (after all, this is NETWORK marketing), there will be a product or service of value to drive the business and create income for everyone who desires to build the business.

Recruiting Friends, Relatives, and Acquaintances

This is a topic that pops up often in MLM discussions. It goes like this. “You sign up for an MLM business, and make a list of everyone you know. You approach all these people and present your business. Once you’ve worked through that list, and aren’t rich yet, who do you approach then?”

This was a problem for many in years past, and still can be when new distributors are shown only the traditional “warm market” approach to recruiting and sponsoring. It sounds really good, and in theory you sponsor many of these people and they in turn contact their entire warm market and duplicate the process. The net result is that you get a big downline and make a lot of money.

Unfortunately, most people aren’t able to build a strong business solely through warm market prospecting. In most cases, it will require moving beyond their warm market list. We have greater opportunity to do that today, thanks to the Internet and evolving technologies for connecting with people worldwide.

Making money in network marketing and MLM is no longer a function of how many people you know personally, and how well you can persuade those people to sign up. With proper guidance and coaching, anyone now has the ability to reach a vast number of people they’ve never met, who are actively looking for ways to make money from home and are receptive to new business ideas.

The world of network marketing and MLM is different now. It isn’t all about hunting down and persuading your friends, relatives, and acquaintances. The best path to success now is to attract the opportunity seekers, and present them with business information when they are ready and desiring to take action. It’s a whole new ball game.