[nabentre] Business Opportunity

[Mary Ellen]

Jim,
Thank you for those very thoughtful remarks. I'll check out that book.
My husband and I have been involved with a network marketing company for ten
and a half years. My husband is the active business builder; I appreciate
the products and want to support him in his efforts. I inform people of what
the company has to offer when the occasion arises, though my activity could
be classified more as incidental than business building.
Nikken's culture is to spread the word as widely as possible, so the company
encourages distributors to work cross line. For those of you not familiar
with the jargon, that means we help anybody in the company whether they're
in our pay group or not. Anybody involved with Nikken can call us from
anywhere in North America to help demonstrate products to someone they know.
We can do the same. We've had Nikken distributors who have absolutely no
business connection with us demonstrate products, and even loan them, to
people we hope will be our customers. We routinely do the same for others.
The culture is all about cooperating to ensure that as many people as
possible are aware of the benefits of Nikken products.
Although this sounds like a commercial for Nikken, my point in telling you
this is to say that network marketing does not require what you describe as
cultish behavior. I personally would run as fast as I could from any company
that tries to restrict my friends or tells me I cannot cooperate with other
groups within the same company.
Business survives only if the products are good and the service is better.
If products of equal value are available cheaper elsewhere, it's ridiculous
to expect to build a business selling them -- unless the customer service
you offer is so superior that it justifies the higher cost. Most direct
sales companies either offer exceptional customer service or products of
much higher quality than commercially available products. If you can't say
either or both things about your product, whatever it is, then you need to
find something else to sell.
I've heard of the three foot rule, where you are asked to talk to anyone
within three feet of you about your company and products. Our company
subscribes to that rule, but with a very important difference. It's
suggested that we talk to everyone we meet, really talk to them, to find out
enough about them to know whether they would be a good prospective customer
or distributor. The emphasis is on learning enough about them to know what
to offer that might meet their needs. That's very different from accosting
strangers and asking"Do you want to buy my stuff and get in on my deal?" The
purpose of prospecting is attempting to determine if we can meet someone's
need. It's not trying to get them to help fill our bank account.
I freely admit that we didn't understand how to prospect in the beginning.
We were so thrilled with the benefits we'd received from the products that
we skipped prospecting for interest and went straight into recruiting. I'm
afraid unbridled enthusiasm like ours is an example of why people dislike
network marketing. We've had to go back to friends and apologize for dumping
more information and sales pitch on them than they wanted. Now we still talk
to everybody within three feet, but the name of the company doesn't even
come up unless the person to whom we're talking says something to
demonstrate that they might have a need. Then we ask their permission to
introduce Nikken. If they give permission, we either offer to demonstrate
products or let them listen to a CD with testimonials from satisfied
customers. At every step beyond that, we ask permission before proceeding.
If someone has listened to a CD, we ask if they want a demonstration. If
they've had a demonstration, we ask if they have any questions that either
we or someone else in the company could answer. If people give us
permission, and only if they give us permission, we proceed to the next
information step. People don't like to be sold. People love to buy, provided
it's their decision and they don't feel coerced in even a subtle way. This
is a slower process than spewing forth information, but the people who give
permission are almost always happy with their purchases and thankful to us
for informing them.
You're right when you say that all business structures are pyramids. If you
doubt it, just ask anyone on the assembly line of a car company whether they
have much contact or a similar salary to the president of the company.
People tend to think of themselves at the bottom of someone else's pyramid
when they join a networking company. That's true, but they're also at the
top of their own pyramid, a pyramid they need to fill in by recruiting and
training others. No one gets the big checks in network marketing unless
they're reached a lot of people. In the beginning they worked long hours for
less pay than they're worth. Then they began being paid what they're worth,
all the work they did in the beginning starts being compensated. Finally, if
they're really good, they get paid more than any reasonable person would pay
for an hour of time. One of the leaders in our group estimates that, if his
time were paid for based on a forty hour week, he would be earning about
three hundred dollars an hour. In the beginning he worked himself to the
bone and probably got about three hundred dollars a month! He decided the
beginning spent working for very little money is more than made up for by
his checks now. Few people have the faith and fortitude to put in the long
hours with little reward in the beginning in order to be paid handsomely
later on.
In our company, about seventy-two per cent of distributors never earn any
commissions at all. That's because they are users of the product who
occasionally refer others. Of the other twenty-eight per cent, some succeed
at making huge livings but most do not. That's because some people just want
to make a little bit to top off their bank account or pay for a luxury now
and then. Others want to make it big but don't stick with it at the
necessary intensity.
Network marketing is really net *work* marketing. It's not a job; no
commission sales position is as steady as an hourly  paycheck. I believe
it's an extremely ethical system of compensation; you get paid precisely on
the amount of work you do, whether selling directly yourself or teaching
those you sponsor how to do it. But it's not a system for everybody.
I hope those of you who have had bad experiences with individuals or
companies in the industry will take the time to differentiate between those
bad experiences and the concept as a whole.




-----Original Message-----
From: nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Homme, James
Sent: June 18, 2010 10:45 AM
To: NFBnet NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nabentre] Business Opportunity


Hi,
I'm speaking purely from my point of view with this message and attempting
to think out loud and not be offensive. Bob or Lauren, if you want to get in
touch with me, use jhomme1028 at gmail.com. This is just my brain dump so feel
free to move on when tired of reading.

I was an Amway distributor for a while. I, personally, had a bad experience.
I don't feel that it had to do with the idea of MLM, though. That was back
when the Internet was either being used not at all for MLM or very little
for that purpose.

I'm a quiet person, unless I really believe in something, and even then, I'm
not going to feel all warm and fuzzy about the whole mind-set of (no offense
meant) cultish behavior. Things like:

* If they're not in your business, you don't need to be friends with them.
* You have to give the pitch to anyone within three feet of you.
* Pitching products you don't believe in.
* Saying that the stuff you sell is cheap, when someone can go to any store
and get the same thing for less.

I'm a musician, and I've written some tunes, so I understand and appreciate
the whole idea of making money on what other people do. Composers, artists,
and authors get royalties that perpetuate to the next generation.

I don't know what makes pyramid schemes legal or illegal, but I work for a
company. Every company has someone at the top with people under them, with
people under them, and so on. No matter how you look at it, that's generally
the structure of any business with multiple people in it. So just saying
that something's a pyramid shape doesn't mean anything in and of itself.

I didn't read every word on Bob's site, but I saw that the structure goes
only five levels down for the business owner. My memory tells me that one of
the bad things about a pyramid structure is when it goes down forever, but I
forget why that is. I haven't run into the compensation plan yet, so I don't
know how fair it is.

I read the following book a few years ago and liked it, but dropped the idea
because at that time I was still uncomfortable based on my earlier
experience. The book made me feel that there may be hope for someone like me
if I ever decide to do MLM again.

How A Shy Guy Like Me Earned Over $1 Million in Network Marketing Joe Brown

Brief Synopsis:
"HOW A SHY GUY LIKE ME EARNED OVER $1 million in network marketing, Without
Selling, Phone Calls, Meetings or Any of that Other stuff That Nobody Wants
to do." Long Synopsis: Explains the system the author developed that earned
him a big income in network marketing. Book Quality: Excellent Book Size:
246 Pages
Publisher:
N/A
Date of Addition:
03/07/07
Copyright Date:
2001
Copyrighted By:
Joe Brown

Jim


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