[nabentre] Get The Whole Story

Mon Feb 19 21:36:12 UTC 2018

I've chimed in on the subject of network marketing before and I know there are some who are convinced it's an illegal pyramid no matter what evidence is produced to the contrary.  These musings are rather lengthy, so hit your delete key if you don't want to know why I personally failed at network marketing yet still believe in the concept.

Reputable network marketing companies require their distributors to seek and serve retail customers.  If no products are sold, no commission is paid.

Reliable network marketing companies do not pay their distributors for recruiting others.  The only way the company pays is for the sale of products.

A network marketer is a commission sales person.  The difference between network marketers and traditional commission only sales people is that network marketers are also permitted, and encouraged, to recruit sales people.  The recruiter is paid a residual commission based on the sales performance of the recruited individuals.  Over time, if the group grows large enough, a network marketer gets paid a small bonus on the work of hundreds or thousands.  Andrew Carnegie once said that he would rather be paid one per cent on the work of a hundred people than one hundred per cent on his own work.  Network marketing compounds work as interest compounds the value of investing.  Long term, if there's enough invested, passive income mounts up in network marketing as it does with an investment portfolio.

The "lowest" person in the list of sales people gets paid full commission first.  Anyone "upstream" or "upline" gets paid a residual from the company because it is the responsibility of that "upline" person to provide sales training to anyone he or she recruits.  In effect, the "upline" person is being paid for a training role.

Reputable network companies have protections in place to keep "upline" people from living off the work of the people they recruit.  Unless the "upline" continues to sell personally, he or she will not be paid any residual commission.  That means that anyone in the chain of recruits can become the highest paid person in the group because of hard work and personal achievement.

If you look at the actual performance records of reputable network marketing companies, you will always find someone "lower down the pyramid" who makes much more than his or her upline.  In the end, pay is directly tied to performance, both performance for personal sales and performance for training new sales recruits.

So why is network marketing such a disaster for so many of the people who sign up?  Despite the proven effectiveness of the business model, most people don't make any money at it.  Why?

The simple answer is that the people who don't make money don't succeed in selling very much or in recruiting and training successful sellers.

Remember, signing up only gets a person the opportunity to work extremely hard to sell products and recruit people.  A lot of us, myself included, get discouraged easily and quit, or else they do what I did and go from a determined marketer of a company's products to a timid occasional recommender of them.

The statistics across network marketing companies are fairly consistent.  It's called "the rule of thirds" by most industry professionals.  It works something like this.

In your first month, you ask a hundred people to look at your product and your business opportunity.  Two-thirds of them say "No thank you!" right off the bat.  Most of them are polite about it; some of them treat you the way they treat unwanted religious evangelists who wake them from a rare opportunity to sleep in on a Saturday morning.

Your one hundred potential business customers or partners is now reduced to approximately thirty-four.  So you schedule an hour or two with each of them and work with your sponsor to give them the best information you can.  Again, two thirds say "No thanks," to the business opportunity, but one third become customers.  

Now you're down to eleven people who have signed the application to become distributors.  Of those, one third continue to have pleasant conversations with you, leading you to believe they will become your next super stars, but eventually do absolutely nothing.  Remember, between the initial contact and the hour or two you spent showing them what you have, and all the follow-up calls, you've probably invested about three hours in each of them.  That means you've put almost a complete work week into people who ultimately do nothing with your opportunity.  

But you have eleven customers and eleven distributors, seven or eight who will do something more than just sign the paper.  Celebrate! You deserve a pat on the back.  

Four of the remainder buy some products and start talking to friends about joining the team or buying products.  Their brother-in-law tells them they're being foolish and have been suckered into a pyramid scheme.  After their conversation with the brother-in-law, they talk to ten more people, six of whom say "No thank you."  They don't have time to follow up on the other four who've agreed to an appointment.  By the time they do have time, three of the four people have changed their mind.  They visit with the final person, but are so demoralized that their pitch comes out something like, "Of course I understand why you probably will say no, but you wouldn't want to buy something from me, would you?"

Your initial hundred contacts are down to three people who are still excited.  Your personal sales have been enough to get you to a full commission level.  The three solid recruits will do what you did and the residual from their work helps boost your commission check.  Now you have people in your organization who are working as hard as you are.  You've managed to become only one tenth of the source of your paycheck; even if you get the flu, the chances are high that the people under you will keep working, some of your personal customers will reorder, and you'll be able to increase your pay.

But you know you don't have enough residual business to pay you over the long term.  So you find another group of a hundred people and start the process all over again.

Meanwhile, the three who have stuck so far do what you've done with approximately the same results.  Two of the three of them say "Man, this is just too much work for the limited return.  I've averaged my commission check over the amount of hours I worked getting it, and figure I was paid about $7 per hour.  I could do better at WalMart."  But one of the three individuals keeps going and replicates your leadership.

If you spend three months reaching out to a hundred people a month, you have the chance of recruiting three good leaders who will do what you've done.  Over time, two of them may drop out, but they are likely to have recruited someone who will stick with it.  You have your three solid leaders and it is likely that you will make a very good living at network marketing.

Of course, you have to continue priming the pump and bringing new people into the process to replace those who drop out.  After a few months of going flat out, you won't have to bring in quite as many new people, which is good because you'll need to supervise those whom you've recruited.  However, you can never completely stop looking for new customers or business partners because inertia will take over if you stop working and your team will follow your leadership, or lack of it.

The people who are willing to put every waking hour they can spare into sales and marketing for the
 First three or four years do very well.  The people who get discouraged and end up saying somewhat sheepishly, "I know you probably don't want to, and I understand it, but you wouldn't want to buy something from me, would you?" are road kill on the network marketing highway.

Nobody can guess how any individual will do, but the statistics bear out the "rule of thirds."  When you join a network marketing company, are you the one who will sign the application and then do nothing, the one who will get discouraged when your brother-in-law laughs at you, the one who decides the network marketing pay averaged over the hours is just too low, or the rare individual who has enough faith and desire to fight through all the discouragement until you succeed?  

Statistics show that fewer than one per cent of network marketers ever reach the million dollar sales benchmark.  About three to five per cent earn enough to make a living with the company.  Of the ninety-five per cent who remain, about two thirds of them never earn enough commission to rise in the company ranks.  It's the rule of thirds all over again.

All this may sound very discouraging or like an indictment of network marketing.  Remember, though, that these statistics are similar to most sales statistics.  Sales is the single highest paying profession for top earners in the world.  The number of top earners compared to the people who become sales representatives is very small.  Sales can pay so well because succeeding at it requires grit and determination.  It requires a willingness to be told "No, thank you," far more often than "Yes, please."  

Reputable network marketing companies lay out precisely what is required to succeed at a particular level.  Most publish statistics about what percentage of distributors earn at each level.

If you want to make a lot of money in network marketing, you can do it.  You must be willing to work harder than most people, survive more disappointments than most people, and keep at it longer than most people.

If you want to earn a little extra cash in network marketing, decide how many hours you want to spend, then spend those hours actually talking to people about your product and your business.  Most people with financial difficulties report that an extra five hundred dollars a month would make a substantial difference.  It's possible to earn an extra five hundred dollars a month in network marketing working part time.  You need to contact potential customers and distributors, probably at the rate of two new people a day, provide them with good information and first rate customer service, and put your major efforts into serving.

There's one other benefit to network marketing.  You meet a lot of extremely nice people in the industry.  You also have the opportunity to receive very good personal growth and sales training at a nominal price.  Finally, but by no means least, most network marketing companies have first rate products.  If you find a product line you believe in, you can contact people about it with pride, knowing that letting people know about your products is a genuine service to them.  That's a kind of psychic paycheck that's very worthwhile.

-----Original Message-----
From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue via nabentre
Sent: Monday, February 19, 2018 10:48 AM
To: 'NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List'
Cc: Peter Donahue
Subject: [nabentre] Get The Whole Story

Hello,

	Update your information and stop destroying opportunities for the blind. Remember it's a networking opportunity that allowed us to buy the Braille-Edge without rehab's help. If anything we've found our team gatherings to be a far more positive environment than NFB meetings. I never thought I'd see the day when one of our team leaders greeted us as if we were one of his former military buddies. This happened last fall at one such gatherings. This is in sharp contrast to the NFB who would rather we not be around.

	If anything more blind people need to be involved in professional networking to help these companies address some of the concerns you mentioned. This exactly the same approach the NFB and others take to addressing similar issues and concerns in other industries. Mary and I are doing exactly that. It just paid off for us in our buying the Braille-Edge and a new and improved Jaws For Windows.

	This list needs to be a place where blind entrepreneurs receive credible, accurate, and positive information about all kinds of business opportunities not as a means to spread misinformation,and to continue to spread myths and stuff concerning particular opportunities that have long since been proven not to be true. See our other posts for additional details or get informed correctly. All the best.

Peter Donahue

-----Original Message-----
From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jordan Gallacher via nabentre
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2018 8:00 PM
To: 'NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List'
Cc: Jordan Gallacher
Subject: Re: [nabentre] Illegal Pyramids and Myth Busting

All of the ones I were involved in were definitely illegal peramids, and two of the three had completely inaccessible back offices as well.  So, I would say stay away from any of the MLM companies since they do not care about you.  Fortunately, what I do now is my business and really my only restriction is that my roasters are unable to ship out side of the U.S.
Jordan	

-----Original Message-----
From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Peter Donahue via nabentre
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2018 7:36 PM
To: 'NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List' <nabentre at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Peter Donahue <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com>
Subject: [nabentre] Illegal Pyramids and Myth Busting

Hello everyone,

	Before anyone dismisses MLM as crap know that we just bought a $3000.00 Braille-Edge 40, and a $500.00 upgrade of Jaws for Windows with money earned from our networking business praise God!The terms MLM and Network Marketing are used interchangeably . Not all such businesses ar illegal pyramids. To be considered illegal pyramids they must meet the following criteria. They must:

1. Require those involved to buy a large amount of invintorry a process called invintorry loading.
2. Head hunting is the practice of paying network members for the act of recruiting others that become network members.
3. No one makes money until products or services are sold to non-network members; customers. The company must require network members  to sell products or services to those outside the network, to avoid being classified as an illegal pyramid.  The failure of a company to require network participants to do this classifies it as an illegal pyramid.

	Any company that engages in any or all of the three activities listed above is an illegal pyramid. We would never urge anyone to become associated with such an outfit. It's disgusting that well-known companies in this field are still considered illegal pyramids when in fact they are not. This misinformation only deprives blind entrepreneurs of credible and reliable information about such opportunities. This behavior must stop!And especially in light of the fact that in 1979 a blind individual became a multi-million air through one of these businesses. He used some of his earnings to start a counseling center for run-away teens. And all without the benefit of the Internet, and support systems reputable networking companies now have to support business activities. His networking business gave him an opportunity others denied him due to his blindness. We also know of blind persons in other countries that harnessed the power of network marketing to fulfill their life-long dreams and to kick blindness discrimination in the rear end. It troubles us that blind people in other countries have embraced such opportunities. These countries do not have the kind of services and other resources and programs for the blind that we have here in the states. The fact that there is so much misinformation and false beliefs among the blind concerning such opportunities as busking, network marketing, and most recently crowdfunding it's no wonder why we have such a high unemployment rate among the blind. The blind of this nation should be a shamed of themselves for allowing this to continue. In fact we heard that some of the Olympic Athletes you'll hear about or watch on T.V. used the crowd to enable them to compete for a chance at standing on the top step of the metal podium. If these opportunities are good enough for them they can help increase employment and the independence of the blind.

	Remember that the networking/MLM opportunity you bad mouthed below gave us a way to buy our Braille-Edge 40 and to upgrade Jaws without crawling to stinking rehab for it! That makes us feel real good and sleep well at night! All the best.

Peter Donahue

-----Original Message-----
From: nabentre [mailto:nabentre-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Reece O'Bryan via nabentre
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2018 5:07 PM
To: NAB Entrepreneurs Mailing List
Cc: Reece O'Bryan
Subject: Re: [nab	entre] ideas for work that blind people can successfully do from home

Amazon and eBay can definitely still work. Use the Amazon app and it’s barcode scanner and go to your local flea market or Goodwill for some easy money. Textbooks do great!

Reece O'Bryan
502-827-3725

------Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 18, 2018, at 6:02 PM, Daniel Perry via nabentre <nabentre at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> hello everyone. My name is Daniel Perry, and I'm looking for some good 
> honest work that I can do from home. I'm not looking for any kind of mlm stuff, no amway crap, no sort of pyramid schemes but good honest work from home. I've tried sharing Scentsy, and that just ain't gonna earn me a living, excuse the bad grammar, but I like it enough to attempt it on the side since I've made just a little money with it. I've tried affiliate marketing and that did not work at all, and I've even tried selling on Amazon and Ebay and I've been told to avoid that at all costs since the profit margins are too low if I'm using drop shippers and wholesalers. In fact, I've changed my Amazon business account to a customer account, and I'm not at all sorry at all for doing so. So anything you guys can help me come up with would be considered honestly. Just like the rest of you, I just want to be gainfully employed or working from home, doing something that'll earn me a good living and isn't so sight oriented like Scentsy seems to be. Have a wonderful day to you all, and I look forward to hearing from all of my fellow federationists soon. And I should explain, the reason I'm wanting to work from home is because the way employers pay blind people is a sin and a shame if you can even get hired outside the house that is, and the only place I'd successfully be able to work at around here is a sheltered workshop called blueridge opportunities. And I definitely do not see myself working there the rest of my life I can asure you. So any sort of help you're able to give me along with resources to find the stuff would be greatly appreciated. Have a wonderful day to you all and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
> 
> Sincerely, Daniel Perry
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