MLM Success Guide

Problems With Traditional MLM Companies

Posted on September 27th, 2010 by Brian Downs

One of the main problems with traditional MLM companies, is that many of them ask you to get your friends and family members involved. For most new salespeople, this is just a bad idea — not to mention it will make you a pest to many of them. Some of your friends and loved ones might say yes, but most will not. This can in turn make your future relationships quite awkward.

Getting friends and family involved is called the 3 foot rule. This rule is an extreme hindrance to most would be MLM marketers. You are taught to contact everyone that you know through work or school, and then approach anyone that you’ve just met — within 3 feet of you. This can be so embarrassing. In addition, it’s a largely unsuccessful method for finding interested leads.

People that have no interest in what you’re selling are called, “untargeted prospects”. When it comes to untargeted prospects, you might find a few that want your product, but the numbers will usually be low. It is okay to ask new MLM recruits to target people that they know only because they know that the person will be interested in what they are offering. But it should not be recommended that new recruits make a habit of targeting indirectly.

Many new MLM sellers not aware that once you’ve reached the end of your list of friends and family, that there is no other place to go and search for leads without spending some money on marketing your new enterprise. You need to buy leads, publish marketing material, or hire a marketing service. Most new sellers can not afford to do any of these things, and their company dissolves relatively quickly. Another problem with traditional MLM is that it encourages unusually high expectations for very little marketing efforts. Handing out business cards and flyers can be a good way to bring attention to your new MLM business. But the only problem is that you can’t always expect sales from this sort of promotion.

If you have a prospect list of 2000 friends, acquaintances and family members, you could realistically make 3 sales. Most new people that enter the field of MLM, have no clue that this is what should be expected.

Many people at the top of the MLM food chain, offer very little advice to new marketers. These individuals are simply hungry for the money that the “new fish, ” pay to become a part of the program. Once that money is already paid, the up-line has earned its commission. They tell you to contact your friends and family, and when that doesn’t work, go make a new list. In this way the traditional MLM system is very flawed, and new salespeople have a hard time finding success.

One of the main problems with traditional MLM companies is that some of them have not evolved with the times. Get rich quick scams are so abundant on the internet, and many people will avoid them like the plague. When you go into MLM, you should go into a growing market — like the wellness industry, or makeup and beauty. These industry have product offerings that are in consumer demand.

Another problem with traditional companies is that many of the higher ups will often only target new sales people. But a healthy MLM business will target both consumers and business builders. You can’t just go into business planning to sell the business. There is an inherent and growing public distrust for that sales model. This growing distrust for financial, and recruitment based MLM programs is one of the main problems with traditional MLM companies.

Have you heard about the Get Paid Today (GPT) Program yet with Brian Downs? This is a fantastic alternative to traditional MLM that we want to share with you.