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[Derek Alvarez Contribution Level: 3]

I mean, your MLM company is a REAL business, right?

With real products (or services) and real customers who are willing to hand over their hard-earned cash every month for those products?

I just wrote an article on this topic. Here's the link:

http://www.betternetworker.com/articles/view/sponsoring-and-recruiting/product-sales-training/how-important-are-customers-to-your-mlm-strategy

I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject...

[Peter Fuller Company: AdzZoo Contribution Level: 3]

I just went off and read your article, excellent, thanks.

[Chris Brown Contribution Level: 3]

Most people focus on recruiting one thing we are told in marketing is be different stand out from the crowd one way to do this is to sell our products.

Report have shown that 65% of happy product users when they are really will join your business. You have a long term success with product sales too. If you have been in MLM for any time you will see that 80% will drop out in 90 days that is just the way it is.

If you first selll them the product the are a happy product user and then they join your team lets say they decide that running a business in not for them they drop out of the business. You still have a long term success a happy product user will continue to be a happy product user.

I created a FREE video series that teach the art of product sales. In my first company I was not the best recruited but I did sell a lot of product. Because I hada good sponsor my sponsor help me to sell $5,000 in product in 60 days.

[Derek Alvarez Contribution Level: 3]

Hey, thanks Peter -- glad you liked it.

Chris, those are some great points -- I'll have to check out what you have to say. It's kind of an "old-school" way to look at it -- but it's worked for as long as Network Marketing has been around.

It's all about finding a good angle to get those customers...

[Thomas Von Ohlen Contribution Level: 2]

Great Article! I agree if you have to reach customers in order to make your money then there needs to be a strategy in place. I guess the most different thing about the MLM that I am involved with is that the company does the sales. They sign contracts with major telecommunications companies and we sit back and reap the reward. So we don't have to sell to anyone.

http://true.voiparty.com/opportunity.php

[Chris Brown Contribution Level: 3]

I have created marketing system and sales funnels like the ones we have to build sales teams. I created same type of system in order to sell my MLM products. I have online systems and off line systems.

So true what you said it is something no one is doing.

[Rich Hazlett Company: PRO U Contribution Level: 2]

Thanks for sharing the article. The whole "real customer" thing is a "real problem" in most network marketing companies.

If you have an organization that is filled with loyal customers who love your product, you are golden. Unfortunately, it seems like most organizations consist of distributors "pretending" they are customers because of the opportunity.

Loyal customers that purchase product regardless of the opportunity create long-term residual income in this business. I think a lot of reps fool themselves into thinking that their business is built on solid ground, but if most of your organization's product purchases are coming from the reps in your downline, you are building a house of cards. It's easy to tell, though. Just answer this question, "If 80% of the reps in my organization quit, would I still have a residual income from the customers in my group?"

If you have an organization built on real customers and you are fortunate enough to have chosen a company that allows you to keep the customers in your group even if their rep quits, the answer is yes.

I know this situation is not very common(but does exist), which is why I believe there are some serious flaws in most network marketing businesses...but not all, thankfully.

[Steven Downward Contribution Level: 2]

Rich

I have to agree with you on the part about most people are reps pretending that they are customers. I have found that many people sign up people in the business only because the cx gets a bigger deal on the products. Then they are treated as a business person when they are not.

Or you get people that sign up for the business but all they really want are the products and they get annoyed with being talked to about the business.

I feel the best thing is to sort out the right people to recruit and then have everyone else become a cx. That way, you will have residual income comming in from your cx base.

[Monique Alvarez Contribution Level: 3]

I have to say this aspect of Network Marketing can be either extremely rewarding or incredibly frustrating.

In the beginning I did a crazy amount of sales, but I soon got FRIED. I was running around with my hair on fire and I soon hated selling product. Not to mention that so many people I encountered were completely fed up with MLM companies offering mediocre products at high prices. And I can't blame them. How many times have I bought product from someone I hit it off with only to find the quality was poor. I didn't want to be just another MLM pusher.

In order to be happy in my business I had to ask myself would I purchase these products if there was NO business opportunity attached to it?

It's been months in the making but I am thrilled to be finding a happy balance in this fascinating world of Network Marketing.

[Timothy Norton Company: AdzZoo Contribution Level: 3]

You have hit on some very important points. It seems to me that most MLM companies sell most of their product to their reps and the reps are buying something that they don't really want every month just to be able to "keep their business center active" and to qualify for commissions. I agree that this is a house of cards. An old school MLM guru (whose name and company I will not mention) built a huge organization with a skin care MLM and a residual income of $60,000 a month with that company years ago but a negative story came out in the media and he lost most of his downline reps almost overnight. His income went from $60,000 a month to $16,000 a month in one month. The reason it did not go to $0.00 is because of retail customers who were on auto-ship just as product users. I think this scenario illustrates the problem we are discussing very well. While it is great that his organization created enough satisfied customers to maintain a $16,000 residual income, it is sad that more than 73% of his revenue came from reps who were basically buying something every month that they did not want and as soon as the business opportunity got shaky they stopped buying. He absolutely had a real business because there were obviously a plethora of happy customers but he had built a house of cards because most of his income depended on reps.

This is why I am with a company now that has decided to do something that is absolutely earth shattering and revolutionary in the arena of network marketing? Do you want to know what it is? Get ready......they base the residual income off of satisfied clients and not internal consumption from reps. There actually is very little internal consumption, there are no monthly auto-ship requirements from reps, and over 80% of the company's revenue comes from clients who are not reps. Why don't more MLM companies operate this way? Some would say it is because of our product and the way it operates in the marketplace and that other MLM companies could not do the same. I say bull#%^t. A nutrition MLM could teach each of it's reps to go out and find 4 retail customers and to do that before recruiting a soul. Many network marketers would say there's no leverage in finding retail customers and that to make the big money you have to recruit and build big teams. I agree that to make big money in network marketing you have to build great teams. But what would pay better, an organization of 10,000 reps who each only have themselves as a customer or an organization of 10,000 reps who each have 4 retail customers on auto-ship? I like the latter option. Go out and build a big customer base and you have a real business.

Tim