WOW
I sure didn’t expect the response to my 3 day rant last week.
The biggest response was to the last of the 3 posts…basically that companies are acting irresponsibly by not setting retail requirements.
A lot of what I was sharing was visual so I shot this quick video to make it clear and share a simple concept of how to rectify the flaw in the MLM model when everyone is doing the minimum.  Should help you increase the volume in your groups right now. Just shoot them this post and ask them to view this video.
Tomorrow I’ll share with you one sentence that will double the amount of prospects and create $1000 in new volume per rep, per month without any additional work.
Which type are you?
See, there are only 2 types of reps in the world who work an MLM model.
Those who preach minimums and lead people to believe they can make the maximum and those who preach sound business principles and teach their people how to create $1000 minimum in new volume every month and help them do it.
We just have to decide which group we want to be in.
This is a very simple skill called Fusion, it’s as old as dirt and non-sales types love it…and you’ll love having 9x the volume flowing through your group. And more importantly, you’ll really love the new found conviction in your heart and head by representing an authentic business model.
Minimums to make maximums? Â Puh-leeze…everybody knows, in their soul nothing could be further from the truth.
Build your Customers
And, I gotta tell you, it’s easy to tell the truth and have people buy instead of trying to sell a lie.  As Papa Bush said, ‘Read my lips’. My point? No business can survive without customers.  Common sense.  The cool thing is that you’ll only need to learn one sentence.  As The Fabulous Davene likes to say about duplication, “If a 10 year old can’t do it, don’t do it and don’t teach it.”  Most people can learn one sentence.
You’ll be able to use and teach this in 60 seconds.
The thrill of helping others learn something in 60 seconds that dramatically increases volume and profit is a thrill. Seeing others teach to still others just as effectively and quickly manifests a joy that elevates your spirit as you authentic the business model for yourself and your team.
I’m also going to share with you how to get all those “fibbers” who say, “I want to think it over,” (wink-wink) to buy your product.  There is a very short story you can tell and they’ll paint themselves right into a corner with their ‘fibbing’. It’s hilarious to listen to them stammer as they reach for their credit card. 🙂
Catch you tomorrow…
believe
mark januszewski
So are you talking retail and building a customer base Mark?
Hi Mark,
As I have learned from you, there are always assumptions, sometimes hidden, behind any point of view. I was wondering, the assumption behind this great presentation of yours seems to be that everyone who enrolls as a distributor does so to have a business.
In my case, I have many “distributors” who are really customers getting a price break on the products. In actuality, since they are really customers, they would be, in your presentation, losing even more money because of the higher “retail price.”
To really find out the percentage of “distributors” losing money, don’t you need to know how many are actually doing the minimums just to maintain a position, especially in the sense that they are purchasing more than they use?
I think the companies, or at least mine, are doing the right thing, that the wrong thing would be to have retail requirements because that narrows my options. As it is now, when a “distributor-customer” gives me a good referral, either to a prospective business builder or another customer, they get a nice little money gift that they appreciate and may lead to more referrals, and possibly in the future, another business builder.
My company, at least, is saying that I can make that choice. To your point, I also know that many in my company load people up with product that gets returned after they fail because no one teaches the skills you are teaching. However, I do not think my company would be more responsible by removing my option to move product this way. Having companies act more like government in trying to regulate behavior is like saying the answer to disease is to apply more germs.
Hi Joe,
I used to think the same thing. Then I went to GNC and compared what it would cost to get all the ingredients there that are in one serving of what I have. The cost would be well over 3 times as much at GNC. My guess is that if you made the same comparison with your good product you would find the same outcome.
Warmest regards,
Don
Great Blog Mark, if NWM companies would adopt this retail minimum attitude we, and therefore the company would have a much better reputation. The naysayers (about NWM in general) will always be out there but bring in extra bucks will definitely help the team morale and the bottom line.
The good thing is we don’t have to wait for the company to adopt this plan. We can put it into action in our own teams.
Anna
Mark,
I think one of the reasons network marketers don’t do more retail is because of the difficulty associated with the market. Their company’s products, because of so much overhead, are so over priced it becomes almost impossible to compete. This is clearly seen in Health & Nutrition companies. You can get the same products at GNC or various H & N outlets for about 1/3 less. That’s a tough sell and it forces distributors to just recruit.
I agree wholeheartedly about building a customer base, I just feel strongly that it doesn’t have to be a “retail” customer base, and in fact may be better for both the customer and the rep if it has some advantages (price, for 1) over being a retail customer.
Again, looking at the math open minded rather than from a single, narrow perspective does offer choice, not whether or not you have a “real business” but what kind of a business you want to have based upon your own criteria and what your company allows. If there is an ethical question, and I can imagine some possibilities, it certainly does not revolve around whether I decide to give my customers advantages of pricing, and incentives for referrals, things about which my company permits me to decide. It also lets the customer decide to order things other than what’s on the ADR…..and indicate it is a one-time ADR, thereby qualifing for 20%-30% ADR product credits even though it is a one-time purchase.
As far as companies “promoting” retail sales by for example, incentivising reps to sell at retail prices, that seems to me to be missing a value proposition for the customer, i.e., paying more for the same thing and lacking an easy way to be rewarded for referrals. When I sold million dollar pieces of packaging machinery there had to be value in its use for the customer in terms of their ability to get more money, sooner, and with more certainty than from the competition. I apply those same criteria to this business.
From my perspective, I can’t stop anyone from saying I don’t have a “real” business. They’ll probably still be saying it long after what they call “real” businesses are gone from lack of an important value proposition for the customer by putting the customer last.
I also can’t stop anyone from saying I am unethical. I don’t pretend to know the real issues around why they would do that. However, I would have no problem laying it all out in front of a prospective customer and letting them decide.
What do you have without customers?
If your ADPs deterine your check, you don’t have a business………and all the reps ‘who just use the product’ don’t count…..it’s denail to think product users in our groups constitute real, honest to goodness customers.
If everyone in your group had 10 bona-fide customers and are adding 1-3 a month……how would your business look versus the self-consumtion, deals we have not?
AHA!!
We don’t have to wait.
It’s out of integrity to represent that we have a ‘great biz opp’ to people when we merely have a self consumption deal.
I LOVE……’we don’t have to wait’
Your correct
This decision needs to be made upon enrolling……
Once one considers an MLM…..s/he needs to evaluate the authenric potential of building a customer base…..and if it is not there…..pass on the deal.
The arguement that ‘they are just juice drinker’ or they are ‘just vitiam takers’ does not absolve us for the ethicial question……do we have a real business that we are representing.
So make it really easy…..and cut through the fluff…..
How many reps in your group are purchasing 10x the minimum a month?
How many reps reps are purchasing 3X?
Does the company does not have a customer retail side?
Is there a reward for retail customers?
How much volume does your group do?
How much is paid back to your ?
Is the volume paid greater or less than the checks earned in your organization?
The bottom line is ….without outside volume, what do you really have and really represent?
For some……it’s fine that the model of ADPs detemines a check…..for others…….it is not.
Personally, I hold myself and companies equally responsible for not promoting retail and driving more volume through the organization than merely volume off the backs of distributors and ‘fake’ customers they/we want to call customers.
The cool thing is we get to choose but choosing without looking at the math…..is not really choosing, is it?
Hi Don,
I, like you, am with a company that offers a phenomenal product/service at a great price. But, many mlm’s do not and it can be very difficult to acquire customers. Mark hit the nail on the head when he said:
” evaluate the authenric potential of building a customer base…..and if it is not there…..pass on the deal.”
Mark…!
You hit the nail on the head and what most of us miss (including me for years).
I hope people watch this video 2-3 times before shaking their head and thinking that this doesn’t apply to them or their business or that somehow this is not possible…
In fact, when people “get it”..they will question lots of things in their business and will need to steer clear if their products don’t support this “customer” idea.
Good Stuff….
Al Rod
The age old arguement against ‘selling’ disguises itself in many ways…..
People want to turn it into ‘ethcics’ and ‘choice’ …..but at some point, as we grow in awareness, we need to move from the ‘theoritcal’ look at the math…..
Many of us have the ‘aha’ moment and rationalize…..while others have the ‘aha’ moment and chart a different course……Most people never have the ‘aha’ moment.
So let’s move off the ‘theory’ and adriot defenses of ‘biz as ususal. What people fail to realize is a phenomon called ‘Affirmation bias’ …..which means, particularly for those of us over 35 and 3 or more years experience in a career…..is we tend to look for things that validate our affirmations, rejecting things that don’t as ‘choice’………while claiming to be open minded…… 🙂
Math generally solves this challenge we all face….in many areas of our life…..math of course representing….evidence…..
Real simple…..look at your team…..would 2-3 real customers a month…..since they all joined, make a difference in the volume, checks and attitude? Of course.
Why not get them?
Because, and it sure was the case with me too, we don’t want to tell people we have to do some selling…….oh, heavens…..so, and companies adroiting support this by avoiding it…….we tell people we’ve got a real business and we don’t have to sell anything…..
Which begs the question…..if we believe so much in the value of our product….why is moving 1-3 units of it a month…..such a big deal?
If we can just get off our ‘affirmational bias’ and realize we [most companies in MLM] are in the DSA and tell people the truth…we need to move a few of these a month to make the kind of money we tell people they can……it ends up not being a change…..but a shift….
You simply need to trust that the truth is easier to sell than the fairy tale that we don’t have to sell anything…….it is a myth to believe we can build a big business without customers and the sooner reps look at the math, in their own group…..dead in the eye for what it really says [the math] ….we quickly relalize that people with real business minds had every right to tell us we are nuts!!
Now people can continue to ‘spin’ the idea that product users are ‘customers’ ….but in any honest assessment of the math model…..we all know it is not true in that there is less money being paid by companies to our group than the company pays back to the group [no company can pay out more than it takes in….and neither can your group]……
It only becomes an ethical issue when we realize the truth and do nothing to change our course……to promote retailing, customer collecting…whatever…..
If 100 reps pay in 100…….in one group
and 100 reps pay in 100 in another group but also generate another 400 each in real, flesh and blood customers…..which group makes more money…..no brainer…….but the bigger question is which group has a self consumption model and which one has an authentic business model?
[…] and share this with your team……have them view yesteday’s post first….then shoot them this one…….and you’ll develop a team of reps doing far […]
Well, this may be off the point but it is where I am right now ……”when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” I believe I have been ready for some time, but no teacher ever appeared until Mark J. I still don’t know how the connection was made. I do know that it is so important to me and so exhilarating to be a part of all this………..a special group of people with a special leader of rare insight and talent. I believe. Thank you.
Is this a coincidence ?
I spoke w/a company owner this morning about keeping his high
retail pay out and do more business.
I think he watched this Mark J. teaching because he will continue
to reward the “Doers” who do more than just the minimum purchase
each month & expect the paycheck to go up.
Great presentation and content.
Thank you,
Leonard in Minnesota