Mlms Balancing Act
Should I spend all my time sponsoring or working with my downline members? Even seasoned MLMers rarely discuss this balancing act in training materials. Typically were told to sponsor sponsor sponsor. Its a numbers game.
Some will some wont so what. And on it goes.
Not making enough money? Go talk to more people.
But while that answer is correct its also rather shortsighted.
Managing the growth of your downline levels is one of my favorite topics to dig into with inexperienced members. Lets start with an overview of the business arena weve chosen as a source of income.
MLM or Multilevel Marketing aka Network Marketing is simply a business model used by thousands of companies yes thousands to market and distribute products or services via independent business people. The sales people in MLM referred to as distributors associates agents reps or dealers earn commissions and bonuses on their sales. Sales are generated through retail efforts and the sponsoring of new sales agents that is recruiting new distributors who also make purchases.
As each new sales person joins they are placed in the electronic downline of the agent who recruited them. This allows for tracking of generational bonuses and commission overrides. The beauty of this business model is that distributors are compensated in direct proportion to the people they help. The more sales they help their team make the more money they earn. It is without question the fairest and most equitable business model in existence.
Since the play field is so level and the rewards so gratifying then one might question the need for coaching or training.
How can you go wrong? Just keep sponsoring new recruits and making sales right?
Successful income earners in MLM bring two schools of thought to the table on this issue. Yes sponsor recruit enough people and eventually youll make lots of money. But and this is the pothole this approach leaves you doing most of the work and offers less longterm income security than most business people want.
The other opinion is that you only need to sponsor a handful of people and then work with them to duplicate the process over and over until youre living like a fat cat. This approach basically gives you the opposite results of the abovementioned strategy. You teach others to do most of the work and some day maybe eventually you may enjoy large residual earnings. The pothole here is that there arent many people who can afford to wait that long. Nor do many want to. We want money now!
Well and we want it later too.
After all the primary goal is residual income.
Having stated the opposing strategies it seems logical that one should attempt to strike a balance. And you would be correct. Heres how I often explain it to my MLM rookies.
Attrition Rates: Probably the one thing you NEVER see or hear about in any type of business promotion is attrition. But its a fact of life. It is what it is. People drop out. They quit give up lose interest or never get off the ground.
You could fill a library with the articles about the reasons people quit or fail in MLM. But all the articles in the world wont change this simple fact. So its important that your new recruits understand its going to happen. Not everyone will stick. Be prepared for it. Accept it. But dont let it slow you down.
Disappointment is a direct result of expectations. Give your sales people realistic expectations.
Because of attrition we know for a fact that for every 10 members we recruit its possible even likely that half may fizzle out. Of the remain 5 3 or 4 may show some moderate results. You are fortunate if ONE will get as excited as you are and actually go crazy to build their new MLM business. If you get more than that consider yourself blessed.
Weve learned over time that there are some things you can do to improve the results of the 3 or 4 moderates. Furthermore our historical statistics have shown us that typically you need 3 to 5 of the 1s to build a large income. Your goal is 3 to 5 members who will stop at nothing to be successful.
Gold miners know they wont find nuggets in every bucket of dirt. And they know they cant stop if the first bucket only yields a little dust or a few flakes. Youre also prospecting for gold one bucket at a time. Welcome the flakes appreciate the dust and relish the nuggets even if theyre few and far between.
Monthly Income vs. Financial Security: With the exception of binaries most MLM pay plans consist of levels or generations. And they represent 2 factors that need to be considered. WIDTH and DEPTH.
Remember this fact: WIDTH = Money Now DEPTH = Money Later
Fast money is in the width and longterm security is in the depth. Build with that in mind and temper these 2 factors as you grow.
You have the most immediate impact on your first 2 or 3 levels. These are the people you can influence the most. You have an obligation to offer support but not to do it FOR them. Its the old teachaman to fish scenario. It is in YOUR best interest and THEIRS to help your people achieve their early goals and the Point of No Return. I elaborate on PONR in other articles
If you do nothing but sponsor first level members you will make lots of short term income. Your first level is where the fast money is. However sponsoring WIDE only brings only shortterm money. Youre doing all the work for quick gain.
You have no longterm security unless you help THEM your members to do the same. The deeper your levels grow the more longterm income you build because you have more members earning in DEPTH.
MLMers who earn commissions dont quit.
Thus your balancing act is apparent. Your time should be divided between expanding your first level and taking time to work with your team members to accomplish the same objectives on THEIR respective first levels. It should be noted that not all members of your MLM sales force with be active or grow. I mentioned attrition above. Make yourself available but dont waste time trying to convince them to produce.
Just to Clarify: By all means sponsor wide. Over time go as wide as you can. But stagger your activities to include support time for some of the members youve already recruited. Dont be so selfcentered and moneyhungry that you overlook the power of building depth in your sales organization.
Work with the workers. For every 10 you sponsor its possible that only 1 will be as active as you. Work with that ONE. Get him/her to the Point of No Return. Encourage the others but move on to find new workers.
The Point of No Return is a goal line. Lead people across it dont drag them.
Apply this balancing act to your success and I’ll see you at the top! You too can enjoy the results of a successful MLM business. Visit http://www.michaelclutton.com to get more details on The Point of No Return and other issues.
Michael Clutton has been successful helping others to achieve their home based business goals since the early 90′s.
About the writer: Living in small town in western NC Michael Clutton has enjoyed over 15 years of success in the home based business field. Most noted for his efforts in the mid 90′s Michael received numerous awards for achievement. Having appeared on stage many times across the country Michael has been blessed with great networks and long lasting relationships that have endured good times and bad.
Online Market Research
Is there demand for my product or service? Are my customers satisfied with our service? How can I generate more sales volume from my existing customers? How can I improve the quality of my product or service? If there is something that you would like to know about your business and industry marketing research is the way to start researching for some answers. Marketing research comprises one of the most important and fascinating facets of marketing. We are going to focus on sharing some Internet resources that can help you to conduct online marketing research. Marketing research is defined as the systematic and objective identification collection analysis dissemination and use of information for the purpose of assisting management in decision making related to the identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing.Malhotra 2004
There are many ways in which the Internet can be useful to marketing researchers. It can be used as a source of marketing research providers a source of secondary data a source for marketing research software and a source for data gathering via focus groups surveys etc.Malhotra 2004
Why do Market Research?
It helps to understand current industry and market trends.
Provides information about target customers.
Identifies market and sales potential.
Keeps researchers objectives.
Becomes a framework for creating a marketing strategy.
Helps business owners to examine customer satisfaction.
Gives a close look at their competitors strengths and weaknesses.
Helps marketing managers create benchmarks for future improvement.
There is perhaps no single best way to search the Web but we recommend the following steps:
1. PreSearching Analysis: Think about the topic or subject you want to explore on the Web. Ask yourself some of the following questions what unique keywords are associated with the topic or subject? Are there any organizations or associations that might have information on the subject through their web sites?
In order to identify trends for your topic or subject you are going to have to put together a key word set to run in the search engines.
2. Run your key word set in any of the search engines.
Recommended Search Engines
Google: http://www.google.com
Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com
MSN: http://www.msn.com
Ask: http://www.ask.com
For example lets supposed that you are searching for a Hispanic Business Directory where you can promote your business. Hispanic Business Directory is your key word set. You are going to open any of the search engines available in the market to find what you are researching for. Use the following variations to get better results:
Hispanic Business Directory Specific search for what you are researching for.
Hispanic Business Directory* Add the star symbol to research for every variation of the word.
Hispanic Small Business Directory You can be as specific as you need to.
Hispanic Business Directory* and result* Helps to find case studies if there are available in your topic or subject.
Recommended Keyword Search Tools
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
3. Learn as you go and be open to vary your approach with everything that you are learning from your earlier findings. Follow leads that can take to what exactly you are researching for. If you need official data we recommend you to visit the official web site of the USA government.
Government Sources
Visit http://www.firstgov.gov. This USA official site provides a gateway to all government sites. You can also visit the official sites for your county or city. They provide very relevant information especially when you are trying to find demographic data.
4. Usually the most relevant information is within the first three to five pages of Google or any of the other Search Engines. If you cant find anything interesting within the first 35 pages of results you need to improve the quality of your key word set in order to get more relevant results.
The following are a list of Online tools that you can use during your online marketing research:
Online Market Research Sites Services and Tools
Questionpro: Offers survey great design templates and hosting visit http://www.questionpro.com.
Zoomerang: A great site to develop your own online survey http://www.zoomerang.com.
Vovici: Create professionalquality surveys with a comprehensive wizarddriven process http://www.vovici.com.
Surveybuilder: Customizes online surveys and respondent retrieval http://www.surveybuilder.com.
Surveysystem: Sells the research tools or will host your online survey http://www.surveysystem.com.
AddAForm: Create a survey form or use an existing form http://www.addaform.com.
Quantcast: Its a new media measurement service that enables advertisers to view audience reports for millions of sites and services to build their brands with confidence http://www.quantcast.com.
Busreslab: Online employee and customer satisfaction surveys http://www.busreslab.com.
Frost and Sullivan: Excellent industry specific market research reports http://www.frost.com.
GuideStar Research: Freebees and assistance with online surveys http://www.guidestarco.com.
ResearchInfo: Great source of information for market researchers http://www.researchinfo.com.
Email list sources
Emailresults: Permission based email providers http://www.emailresults.com.
LIST: L.I.S.T. Inc. is a leading provider of B2B email lists B2B mailing lists and B2B telemarketing lists http://www.list.com.
If you need help from experts in the topic we recommend you to visit:
Marketing Research Associations Online
AAPOR: American Association for Public Opinion Research www.aapor.org
AMA: American Marketing Association www.marketingpower.com
ARF: The Advertising Research Foundation www.arfsite.org
CASRO: The Council of American Survey Research Organizations www.casro.org
MRA: Marketing Research Association www.mranet.org
QRCA: Qualitative Research Consultants Association www.qrca.org
RIC: Research Industry Coalition www.researchindustry.org
CMOR: Council for Marketing and Opinion Research www.cmor.org
Developing your Internet research skills is one of the skills that a lot of business owners should develop due to the important role that plays to understand your competitors and the market in general.
I hope you find some of these information useful.
Cheers to your success
Jose Aburto
About the writer: Bachelors Degree in Economics from the University of Michoacn San Nicolas de Hidalgo in Morelia Mexico in 2000. Currently completing a Masters in Marketing at the Tec de Monterrey and an MBA from the University of San Diego. Jose has past experience in both the public and private sectors. Joses areas of specialty are in electronic business online marketing market research international business and projects focused on community growth and development. You can contact him at http://www.hiscec.com
2008 Government Health Technologies Conference And Expo
Mauricio feels that Network security doesnt work if its treated as an addon or an afterthought. My job is to make sure that comprehensive ProCurve ProActive Defensebased solutions permeate every product and solution we offer and that network security is always a builtin fundamental consideration for everyone at ProCurve.;
Mauricio is responsible for specifying ProCurves ProActive Defense security technology strategy across all product lines. He also assists in the design of security capabilities into ProCurve products and solutions.
Sanchez currently represents ProCurve in both IETF and TCG/TNC standards bodies. In the IETF he has edited and coauthored a number of standards that improve RADIUS attributes especially its ability to provision network access control NAC policy. In the TNC he is the lead in defining the IFPEP interface that resides between a network access server and a policy enforcement device. In addition in conjunction with researchers from HP Labs he was pivotal in the design of Virus Throttle technology and its incorporation into ProCurve products.
To register for EarlyBird Passes please visit http://gov.wowgao.com/registration OR call 4162920038 Ext. 812.
About ProCurve Networking by HP
The ProCurve Networking business unit of HP delivers wired and wireless enterprise networking products services and solutions. The foundation for ProCurves business model is the Adaptive Networks strategy in which networks are adaptive to users applications and an organizations needs.
About HP
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers ndash; from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure HP is among the worlds largest IT companies with revenue totaling 104.3 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended Oct. 31 2007. More information about HP NYSE: HPQ is available at www.hp.com.
About the 2008 Government and Health Technologies Conference amp; Expo:
The 2008 Government and Health Technologies Conference and Expo will focus on the latest IT products and solutions being developed and sought after in the healthcare and public service sector including Web 2.0 Patient Monitoring Systems Document Management Business Intelligence Mobile Data Systems RFID Solutions Biometrics and much more.
As one of Canada’s leading annual IT conference and exposition the event features ground breaking IT applications that aim to educate key IT professionals Government officials developers architects engineers and medical professionals with the necessary tools and techniques for the reliable effective management of all public information services across Canada. For more information about the event please visit http://gov.wowgao.com
About WowGao Inc.
WowGao Inc. is an award winning leading event management company that produces since 2003 internationally renowned conferences and expositions that address the latest innovations and developments in the information technology industry. Our featured events include:
Government amp; Health Technologies Conference and Expo April 15 amp; 16 2008
Wireless amp; Mobile Expo and Conference July 15 amp; 16 2008
RFID Forum July 15 amp; 16 2008
Financial Services Technology Forum October 2008
For more information about the events please visit http://www.wowgao.com/
For conference inquiries:
Conference Producer
416 292 0038 ext. 840 conferencewowgao.com
WowGao Inc. www.wowgao.com
Mauricio feels that Network security doesnt work if its treated as an addon or an afterthought. My job is to make sure that comprehensive ProCurve ProActive Defensebased solutions permeate every product and solution we offer and that network security is always a builtin fundamental consideration for everyone at ProCurve.;
Mauricio is responsible for specifying ProCurves ProActive Defense security technology strategy across all product lines. He also assists in the design of security capabilities into ProCurve products and solutions.
Sanchez currently represents ProCurve in both IETF and TCG/TNC standards bodies. In the IETF he has edited and coauthored a number of standards that improve RADIUS attributes especially its ability to provision network access control NAC policy. In the TNC he is the lead in defining the IFPEP interface that resides between a network access server and a policy enforcement device. In addition in conjunction with researchers from HP Labs he was pivotal in the design of Virus Throttle technology and its incorporation into ProCurve products.
To register for EarlyBird Passes please visit http://gov.wowgao.com/registration OR call 4162920038 Ext. 812.
About ProCurve Networking by HP
The ProCurve Networking business unit of HP delivers wired and wireless enterprise networking products services and solutions. The foundation for ProCurves business model is the Adaptive Networks strategy in which networks are adaptive to users applications and an organizations needs.
About HP
HP focuses on simplifying technology experiences for all of its customers ndash; from individual consumers to the largest businesses. With a portfolio that spans printing personal computing software services and IT infrastructure HP is among the worlds largest IT companies with revenue totaling 104.3 billion for the four fiscal quarters ended Oct. 31 2007. More information about HP NYSE: HPQ is available at www.hp.com.
About the 2008 Government and Health Technologies Conference amp; Expo:
The 2008 Government and Health Technologies Conference and Expo will focus on the latest IT products and solutions being developed and sought after in the healthcare and public service sector including Web 2.0 Patient Monitoring Systems Document Management Business Intelligence Mobile Data Systems RFID Solutions Biometrics and much more.
As one of Canada’s leading annual IT conference and exposition the event features ground breaking IT applications that aim to educate key IT professionals Government officials developers architects engineers and medical professionals with the necessary tools and techniques for the reliable effective management of all public information services across Canada. For more information about the event please visit http://gov.wowgao.com
About WowGao Inc.
WowGao Inc. is an award winning leading event management company that produces since 2003 internationally renowned conferences and expositions that address the latest innovations and developments in the information technology industry. Our featured events include:
Government amp; Health Technologies Conference and Expo April 15 amp; 16 2008
Wireless amp; Mobile Expo and Conference July 15 amp; 16 2008
RFID Forum July 15 amp; 16 2008
Financial Services Technology Forum October 2008
For more information about the events please visit http://www.wowgao.com/
For conference inquiries:
Conference Producer
416 292 0038 ext. 840 conferencewowgao.com
WowGao Inc. www.wowgao.com
About the writer: GAO RFID Inc. is a leading provider of Radio Frequency Identification RFID hardware and solutions to end users worldwide. GAO RFID combines best of breed with low cost RFID readers RFID tags and enablingRFID software. GAORFID helps customers bring quality RFID solutions quickly to market.