Discussion in the general Forum on What is the Future of Network Marketing

We Don't Spend Millions on Advertising...We pay You!!...Right?

You have to wonder when a Network Marketing company built on cutting out the "middle man" and paying out advertising dollars to the distributor, goes mainstream and starts speinding millions of dollars advertising on TV or other media, it begets a couple of questions right off the top of my head...

1. Ok, if advertising dollars were going to the field in the form of money in the comp plan, where will this additional advertising money be recouped?

2.  If the distributors are not doing enough business for the company that they must spend bookoo bucks for TV, then why do they need to pay the distributor when customers could just go to the corporate website and order?

Just like who pays for the corporate jet, the lavish new gazillion square foot office complex, the 400 employees who staff the building...where does the money come from?

It's not the company, actually it's the distributors.  The more "fat" a company has, the less the company can put back into the compensaton plan.

I agree with some of what you say...

Hi Kevin

I agree with some of what you say, and I know that some Network companies are good, some are even better, and in my experience sadly some are not very good at all. But overall, I prefer to see the positive in network marketing as it can be a great way for many small home businesses to start up, as well as offering a real plan to success for many others. But the path to success is a joint Effort, surely, taken on behalf of the company and the distributor, together?

For if there was no company to begin with, there could be no distributors, and without the growth of distributors, there would be no growth of the company. So the company wants to see its distributors do well, and the distributors wants to see the company grow in size and popularity as it can only enhance their own status within in, surely?

It is a BUSINESS after all, NOT a charity, so why should the company not also profit financially in some way? As long as the distributor works and is paid for their efforts, should the company not reap some reward as a business entity for making this opportunity available to them? Like if you had an employer and you were paid for doing your job, would it matter that due to your diligent efforts the company should prosper? Wouldn't that be better than working for a company who was having to wind down because it was financially inept and at the end of the day you simply lost your job, not matter how hard you may have personally worked for the business because in the end you did not have a job because the business did not make a profit.... and if the business did make a profit, why should you worry what it spends it on? The fancy offices they create might just have a beneficial affect on your own business as their distributor, because when you can say that you are an associate of that particular company - and people know what great offices they have - then YOU look more successful too, because people associate you with the prospering company, and are more likely to want to know more about you and your network than if your corporate offices were in say, someone's back yard with no global connections, for instance!

Having said that, I suppose like you I have been disillusioned with companies who seemed to care more about lining their own pockets at my expense, than lining mine or advertising and promoting the business in a way which would ultimately help mine to succeed as well. And finding the right company with all the right attributes to suit your own lifestyle and work ethics is not always an easy choice. So, I have since aligned myself with a company which (using your example of companies which have too much "fat" to effectively work their compensation plan) is - by comparison - virtually "fat free"! This company has been more interested in helping to save the rainforest whilst making life better for everyone (and has been doing so for years) but they also now offer the opportunity for people to join them in independent business to help spread the word, which helps increase the efforts to make the Amazon Rainforest more valuable Alive than dead, whilst at the same time offering a way for people to earn some extra money.

For that reason, whether or not I personally make loads of money from this, I for one hope that they as a company DO profit and prosper - not only because of course if they do it will keep me in a more viable position than with a company who does not grow, but also because the more people who can see how this business opportunity may enhance their own lives, the more it will benefit other sectors of community and indeed our very planet itself! So maybe, sometimes, we need to look at the whole of the opportunity which is being made available, and if we discover that perhaps the company has got new offices etc, we don't simply assume that this is coming out of our pockets (as distributors) but maybe (just maybe) this is a case of a good and honourable company putting their money where their mouth is, as it were, and making good their own business plan whilst helping us to succeed with ours.

If, as I suspect, you are a very honest, hardworking but possibly disillusioned network marketer, I hope that you can find the right opportunity for yourself again in time, as the job market on the whole is not very promising for many people at this moment in time, and we all have the dream of finding the right "network marketing opportunity" for us. Good Luck with yours!
Teresita