Things about which to talk:
Let’s be frank. If your car didn’t start 95% of the time you tried to drive it…
If the lights in your house did not come on 95% of the time you hit the switch…
If your toilet failed to flush 95% of the time you tried to flush…
You would say these were failures, wouldn’t you?
Approximately 95% of MLM Distributors fail. They join an MLM opportunity, enthusiastic, hoping that they have finally found the answer to their financial problems. They are told that they can become financially free if they are coach able and follow the Plan.
Typically, 3-6 months later, they drop out, in worse financial shape than when they joined.
MLM does not work!
Now that we have established that it does not work, let’s look at the reasons and see if we can find an answer to this dilemma.
The basic premise of MLM is that it is the answer to the average person’s financial problems, the “Poor Man’s Franchise” some call it.
Distributors are harangued with stories of average people making as much in a month as they make in a year.
They are shown pictures of successful MLMers posing next to expensive sports cars, of palatial houses, that can all be theirs if they believe, work hard and Never, Never quit!
Why doesn’t their dream come true?
Here are the 5 reasons MLM does not work:
- 95% of the American public are followers, not leaders
- Most have no business skills and will never own their own business
- 90% would rather be eaten alive by an alligator than speak in public
- The average American has no experience in sales, marketing or promotion
- The average MLM company does not give effective marketing methods or systems to their Distributors
What those facts tell us boils down to this: Ninety five percent of Americans would not be interested in starting their own marketing or promotion business, which; since MLM requires these essential skills explains a lot.
The first problem we have no control over. It explains why 95% of Americans are unable to retire at 65, after working 40 years and earning millions of dollars.
The main answer to why the dilemma of why MLM does not work lies in addressing the fifth fact, the antiquated, ineffective marketing methods used by MLM companies.
They tell their Distributors to duplicate the very same methods that result in a 95% failure rate!
Distributors are told to attack their “warm market,” friends, family members, co-workers, etc. Unfortunately but predictably, 95 % of them will not be interested in joining the opportunity or will fail in 3-6 months.
When they have run out of their warm market, they are told about the “3 foot rule”, attack anyone who comes within 3 feet of you as you go about your daily business.
Now, who are they going to run into? The average American who has no interest in starting their own marketing or promotion business and will not sell anything, DUH!
All the while the increasingly frustrated Distributor is spending money; on company marketing material, on flyers, on attending company sponsored events and on unqualified “Leads.” He is getting little return on his investment and eventually spends himself out of the business in 3-6 months.
MLM does not work. What is the answer? How can MLM be made to work?
MLM companies must give effective, professional marketing tools to their Distributors. In these days, that means Internet Marketing tools.
Internet Tools that will allow distributors to quickly, easily and inexpensively sift through the 95% who are unqualified to build a target market of those who are interested and qualified to run their own businesses.
Once this target market is established, the System must qualify them further. Are they interested enough to spend money to build their business? Here the Distributor should get a chance to recover some of their marketing expense when their prospects purchase business building tools from them.
Advertising now becomes a profit center instead of an expense.
The resultant pool of interested prospects who have bought services or products to enhance their businesses, are the diamonds that will have a 10 times greater chance of being successful in MLM than the public.
Amazingly, many of these qualified prospects will contact the person providing them with these tools, as they regard them as helpful and knowledgeable for consultation and advice. As long as the Distributor does not immediately try to Shanghai the prospect into his business, he has a very good chance of actually bringing him into his business, simply because it is human nature to want to associate one’s self with a leader.
Until the MLM companies wake up to these facts, the individual Distributor is going to have to take matters into his own hands and learn Internet Marketing himself if he is serious about succeeding in MLM.