Professional athletes make it all look so easy. They run, they jump, they catch, they throw. They win and they lose, but it all looks so easy. The young person in an age-appropriate setting does the same thing and younger siblings just know that they will do that too someday. The desire to be a professional athlete dies hard in some people. I know. It died hard in me. I have told you the story that it took an honest coach's plain talk to make me come to my senses.
It came home to me then, that many think they can, but can't, or won't. So many do not have the raw talent, others have the talent but don't pound it into full reality because all they look at is the glamor, the fame and the money. Crrrash!
You got the picture. MLM is like that.
I am fairly confident that many of you have been to a presentation by Amway, Avon, Mary Kay or someone else, maybe even Fuller Brush! :-). At first the presentations strike you as being really great and the concepts put forth are so clear and the objectives that they describe appear so easy to achieve. The beginning of such an endeavor for so many people starts on a high and withers and dies because the reality rarely matches the hype. That is an easy way of putting it. The more realistically profound way I think is this:
It is wrong-headed propaganda. The one that I attended the other night was some of the same and I realized what was happening. I was hearing a recording of the same stuff that I had heard 40+ years ago. It always starts with the assurance that all you have to do is to dedicate 10 or 12 hours per week and before you know it the money will begin to roll in. The math matrix that appears on the screen suddenly morphs into a pile of money bags and the listener is left with the impression that this is fruit from 12 hour weeks. The copies of the large monthly residual income checks start to appear and before you know it the temptation to say "yes" is too great to resist. But, wait, wait!...
Remember that you still have a day job. Remember that you still have your family responsibilities and a ton of other things. The most difficult reality to confront is the fact that for the most part, you and I do not have the training that it takes to be a good salesperson. That is the key to the whole commitment. Multi-Level-Marketing is more than anything direct, hard-driving sales work combined with training your partners for success. Ask any professional sales person how much effort and savvy it takes to be successful and you will walk away convinced that 12 part-time, easy going hours will never translate into $10,000 per month. That is the insidious part of the approach...It does not put the accent on the bedrock foundation of success, which is nothing but hard work along a professionally defined line.
I have nothing against Multi-Level-Sales organizations, per se. I am just expressing my wonderment at the amount of time that it took for me to realize how warped the recruitment approach is. Serious industries spend a lot of time training potential sales persons. Not more than about 15% of the trainees make it through the training and fewer than that become successful. None of them sooner than five years into it. This is well-known truth. Yet the MLM people keep hammering away at the "easy money" approach.
I am not going to let you down. I'm going to share a secret with you that will perhaps surprise you. Here it is anyway. It's not rocket science, it's common sense career preparation.
1. You take charge. Don't wait to be invited.
2. Study. If only on Google. Spend some time informing yourself about MLM companies.
3. Make a list of about 10 questions that you think are the tough ones concerning any job.
Pick your three favorite companies
4. Find a successful person in each of your three picks and ask for a one-on-one meeting. [not more than 60 minutes] No product demonstration this time.
5. You drive the agenda. No fluff. No B.S. Work. What does it take to be successful in the company? Ask each one of your ten questions. Take notes.
6. How much real money will it cost you, out-of-pocket on a month to month basis to make yourself self-sufficient in 12 - 15 months. Don't leave anything out. Phone, gas, fast food, samples, monthly product buys, stationery, stamps, Internet, printer ink, etc...you get the point.
7. Support team, training, etc.
8. Be polite. End the meeting on your terms. Promise to get back to the individual within 5 working days. If the individual calls you after two days, politely say that you're still considering your options. Remember, you're in charge. It's your life. When you do call the person, tell the truth. Yes or no, up or down.
9. If you have one company chosen, you have no doubt developed more questions. Call the person to whom you spoke and ask for one last meeting. This is the time when you ask for the product demonstration along with the opportunity to meet a colleague of the person whom you interviewed the last time.
When you request this meeting, you might want to tell the person that this is the last meeting before your final decision. It is also polite to announce that there is no one else in the running for your services at this point. Have the meeting. If you want to join, say so. Make an appointment for a sign-up session and a short orientation. You'll be on your way.
Sound like a lot? Yep. Look at it this way. It's your investment. Knowing what you put into it will make you work harder at making it work. After all, it's your life, not M-L-M's. Right?
Yes, there is good money to be made in this field. Serious money for serious, hard working, smart people.
God bless you.
As a general rule i dread MLM sales opportunities for the reasons you mentioned plus one most important reason of all. As a sales professional, the most important reason that will convince me to sell a product is the quality of the product itself. I have yet to see an MLM product that would sell if marketed in the real world non-MLM approach. If the product is inferior - quality, pricing, texhnology, etc. - i simply woll not sell it. And so far all MLM opps ive seen only refer to the product as an afterthought and instead docuses on the opportunity to make money. If the product is weak, no amount of sales talk can make it better. And the opportunity is bound to fail. But thats just me.
ReplyDeleteHi Paul,
ReplyDeleteWell, all I an say is that you and I have been down the same road but never met. Amway (1959) was my first venture into the world of MLM. Amsay was just starting out and so was I. I did very well getting customers to buy the product but because the products were consentrated this became a new world. Most of my customers, and I had many of them, could not get used to the codensed idea and I had to re-educate them every time we met. I got so frestrated with this problem I decided to quit. I was spending more time educating then selling the idea or product. Had I persisted I could have been a wealthy man today. At least that is what I tell myself. As the years went by I tried other MLM offers until I finally faced the fact that I could not sell a hot dog to a starving man. I had little ef any selling ability and this MLM stuff was not for me. Even now here in CA I occasionally get invited to some MLM party but I turn them down because I know my limits. Let me tell you it was a humbling experience for me to finally realize my lack for selling but now I can look to other things to do.
Stay well, Patrick