Does Your Company Have the Support You Need?

There is hundreds of networking marketing/direct sales companies in existence. Some of them have been around for many years; some have only been around a matter of months.

Many of these companies have very creative founders and great products. Some even have good resources for their distributors like a back office and promotional materials.

Where many of them run into trouble is in the infrastructure of their company. Many new companies (and even some older ones) either over look this important step, don’t want to spend the money in creating the business support they need, or don’t update their systems as time goes on.

Assessing whether the infrastructure in a company is good or not may be difficult to determine, particularly when you first join, but there are some things to look for.

Customer service. If you or your customer calls the company do they get an answer or the run around? Is the person that answers the phone able to take care of multiple types of problems? Does someone answer the phone at all? Having a poorly trained call center will wreck havoc on your customer relations.

Returns. Does the company have a policy on returns? Are refunds processed in a timely manner?

Commissions and other payments. Does the company use automatic deposit, load a prepaid credit card, or use some other form of electronic transfer? Issuing checks takes time. This is a benefit for the company not for you. They have two or three extra days to use your money, not to mention the issue of checking getting lost in the mail, taking the time to deposit the check (particularly if you are out of town when the check arrives) , etc. If the company is serious about you making enough money to have the commissions and other bonuses they offer be your primary form of making a living, then their priority should be getting them to you as quickly as possible.

Consistency. Are all customers and distributors treated the same way? Are they all given the same opportunity?

Company participation. Does the CEO or other officers of the company have downlines? If they do, you may be essentially competing with your own company. Prospects that come to the company directly and not through any particular distributor will most likely be placed in one of the officer’s downline.  If the officers don’t have a downline orphans are generally given to a distributor that is in the same area.

Growth. Is the company continuing to grow? Has the company had to decrease commissions to existing distributors as the company has grown? This can be an indication of cash flow problems or a flawed compensation structure.

The company may have great products, but a poor support system and infrastructure will cost you time, money, and customers. Make sure a company has stable structure that can support your dreams!