[nabentre] Business Opportunity

[Bob Clark]

Hello Mary Ellen & Loren:

You both have made excellent points about MLM companies.  WMI is a
direct sales model with a MLM component.  Many individuals that buy
our products never try/want to sell our product.  If they do, I would
receive a portion of the commission.  For example, I receive from $150
to $8,000 commission depending upon the product sold.  This reduces
signifficantly the number of down-line individuals necessary to earn
significant income.

Have a great weekend.

On 6/18/10, Loren Wakefield <isaiah5719 at mchsi.com> wrote:
> Another thing I would ad to the excellent points made by Mary Ellen, is that
> in Shaklee, anyone I sponsor can rise to a higher rank than I do.  He or she
> can make more money, go on more trips, receive more awards, etc than I do.
>
> I might also ad that the only way I would know if you were interested in
> what I had would be if I asked.  You would not know if I liked a particular
> song or movie or restaurant unless you asked.
>
> One of the best motivators and trainers in our company, says he uses what he
> calls "the seven magic questions" to gage interest.  Again, he only proceeds
> with permission.  This is more than most companies do, only there we call it
> advertising.  And no, you cannot always get away from it.  And no, I will
> not believe you if you try and tell me that an ad has never influenced your
> decision to buy or not buy a product.
>
> By the way James, I can really relate to not being able to speak up in
> public and talk with people about what I do and love.  It is difficult for
> me.
>
> But in the longrun, it will come down to if you 1,believe in me; 2, want
> what I have to offer;  3, give our products a try.  I can show you all the
> proof to back up what I say.  I can let you know that right now, you can
> join free with a qualifying order.  I can tell you that if you don't like
> the products you can have your money back.  But if you have it in your mind
> that Any product that does not come out of a store in a mall or business
> district, or some place like that, I am just wasting your time and mine.
> While no business, regardless of the type, can please all of its customers
> all of the time;  if you believe that all I am trying to do is cheat you,
> then frankly, I do not need you either.  One reason for doing the type of
> business I do is being able to choose those I work with.  And I can find
> enough thing to drag me down elsewhere.  So Brian, as much as I wish you
> would give my products a try, (you can just buy, you need not sell them),
> and as much as I know they would help your health, I would not try to sell
> to you because you have a strong bias against them.  I strongly believe your
> bias is misplaced.  But I truly do wish you the best and may you find what
> makes you happy.  You and I will just have to disagree.
>
>
> Loren Wakefield
>
> "The best way to predict your future is to create it."  Dr. Forrest C.
> Shaklee
>
> www.shaklee.net/ultimatehealthwithtlc
>
> 319-433-0145 866-433-3969
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mary Ellen" <gabias at telus.net>
> To: "'NFBnet NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List'" <nabentre at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 8:35 PM
> Subject: Re: [nabentre] Business Opportunity
>
>
>> 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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>> necessarily represent the views of Highmark Inc., its subsidiaries, or
>> affiliates.
>>
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