MLM Success - The MLM 7 Figure Business Plan? What’s That?

The path to MLM Success has a dark side to it.

It’s usually not spoken about because it is so negative but we all know the ugly word is there. It’s called “Attrition”. So what exactly is it that leads distributors to embrace an MLM opportunity with the passion of a true believer and then a few months later, they are gone, disappeared into the “Black Hole” of network marketing. Well in a word, frustration…. We have all been there of course as we try to achieve success in the world of MLM. Now what can be frustrating about Network Marketing? It seems so simple really, just talk to a few who talk to a few who talk to a few and suddenly we have on organization of 20,000 distributors and we are making $10,000 a month. What could be more simple or fun? I mean we have all been to the opportunity meetings and company events where they parade out the latest MLM success story and they make is seem so darn easy! So why the frustration? Sometimes it’s the follow up calls and the endless chasing of prospects who at times seem to be brain dead. I mean we have a great MLM opportunity to show them, what is their problem, why can’t they just open their eyes and see it? I mean really….. Sometimes it just makes you wonder, if we are we the only intelligent person left on the entire planet? You know you have been there, that’s the discussion going on inside your head as you relentlessly pick up the phone day after day and hammer it trying to achieve MLM success, or maybe you just part of that other group that just sits there and stares at the phone trying to muster the courage to do it one more time. Well we know the cure, a quick call to our upline leader and after they tell us about how many zeros are on their latest check we are back at it again. That is until the 2^nd most insidious obstacle in the world of MLM success attacks and this beast takes no prisoners. Doubt….. So what’s wrong with us? Is it some kind of genetic defect?

Are we missing the critical MLM success gene?

Maybe we are just not destined for the big money and MLM success and the vacations and the…. OK, just stop it! Look building any business is hard and especially one with the type of upside income potential that Network Marketing has, but what really helps is to understand what you are doing before you start. To map out an actual business plan that can actually get you to your goals.  

The path to MLM Success

  Most people start into their journey of MLM success with absolutely no business plan other than making a list of their friends and family and maybe chasing people down in grocery stores. They have no idea of how to develop a “7 Figure Business Plan” for MLM success and the sad thing is their upline doesn’t either. So how do you develop a “MLM 7 Figure Business Plan”? First you need to understand what it really takes to achieve MLM success, and also the illusion and traps that most people fall into. The illusion is what we see when we go to company events and they parade the latest MLM success story up on the stage who proceeds to tell you how magically easy the business is, and their success is usually based on just talking to a few friends who talked to a few and then…. Presto, the big checks just start appearing! The truth is that their success in finding a bunch of dead serious business builders from just a few prospects was pure luck. The sad part of this is that there are so many people out trying to build a successful Network Marketing business based on luck. Now if you want to base a business on fact, then marketing teaches us that the more people we talk to the luckier we get. So if you want to ensure your MLM success, you have to treat MLM like a real business and develop a marketing system that allows you to develop a large enough number of leads that you just can’t miss. Now all approaches to MLM lead generation work to some extent, so that tends to be the confusing part,  but the success of low volume approaches like working your warm market are based on the assumption that you have a 1% Percenter lurking there somewhere. That’s someone who will come in and explode your organization, and there very well could be, but the chances are there’s not, and the time it takes to use low volume approaches to build an MLM business, it pretty much guarantees it will probably take you years if ever go reach your goals and achieve the MLM success you are after. So if you are looking for massive MLM success, you need massive activity, and you generate that by using high volume marketing approaches. Using high volume approaches allows you to generate such a high volume of numbers that you can’t miss finding the dead serious people.

The high volume MLM success formula really has 4 basic elements

1. A way to generate a high volume of traffic, a supply of leads that keeps flowing to you on a consistent daily basis. 2. A sifting tool that allows you to automatically separate the prospects from the suspects 3. A presentation format and 4. A follow up strategy Today the real key to the Traffic formula is going online. It was recently reported there are over 1.7 billion people online as of Sept of 2009. Imagine for a moment just begin able to reach out and tap just a small fraction of that traffic and direct it to your MLM business. Petty exciting isn’t it! Now that you know the illusions of the MLM business and a basic idea of where you want to go, I need to tell you that there are two potential challenges to achieving that MLM success you desire. Number 1 is that you need to close that knowledge gap of understanding and learn how to generate  internet lead traffic, and you are also going to need a MLM marketing system, websites, and e mail auto-responders to effectively process it. Now forget trying to do this on your own, it’s too complicated and will take too much time. The solution to problem 1 is to simply use an “out of the box” MLM online marketing system such as My Lead System Pro, it’s kind of like a combination of an internet marketing university and an online marketing system.

My Lead System Pro

 

// The training portal of the system will provide you with an in depth MLM Marketing Training were you will learn the skills of tapping into the online traffic flow using fairly simple MLM marketing approaches such as social media marketing that use Facebook, Twitter and My Space, or even using the more advanced marketing approaches such as Article Marketing, Video Marketing, or my favorite, Pay Per Click advertising. Once you have learned some basic MLM lead generation skills then you will be ready to use the online marketing system which will give you an online presence to drive the traffic to, including websites, lead capture portals, and a customer management system using follow up e mail auto-responders to help maintain contact with your prospects. With these systems, you don’t have to be a computer wiz since all of this has already been pretty much pre configured. Now to successfully build a business organization in network marketing you are going to have to use your new marketing knowledge to drive traffic to your website. I coach my students to have as their initial target 10 MLM leads a day. That will give you about 300 leads a month and once you gain some experience you should be able to recruit 3% to 5% of that traffic into your MLM business, which will give you on average about 10 distributors a month. Now what do you think 10 distributors a month in your Network Marketing business would do for your bank account? Now if you are working a “Standard MLM”  as opposed to a “Top Tier MLM”, then your “7 Figure Business Plan” for success is to sponsor 10 reps a month, of which on average 5 are going to go to sleep on you or drop out within a few months,  5 will do the business at some level and 2 of those will be your 20% Percenters. Focus your support on your 20% Percenters to get them up and running, and then do it again next month, get the 10, find the 5, indentify the 2, and then do it again and again. Rinse and Repeat, Rinse and Repeat. Over the course of a year you should be able to generate about 24 or so 20% Percenters who will actually be doing the business and duplicating you efforts and you will start to see your income steadily increase. Now you actually have a business and can probably look to the kind of income you were hoping for in 12 to 18 months or so. What you say?  I was told I could get full time income in 6 months? Sorry, that s the business plan based on luck. This is the real world of achieving success in a Standard MLM. Keep in mind that in a Standard MLM your success is dependent on building a very large organization, and it’s going to take a team of several thousand distributors in your MLM downline to generate a monthly income of several thousand dollars a month. So even when you learn the Online MLM Marketing skills to become a high volume recruiter, it still takes time to get the duplication going. But look, any business worth building is worth taking the time to build. Compared to what it takes to achieve high level success in traditional business, MLM success can be pretty quick. Now there are business models that can be used to generate the income more quickly, such as Top Tier MLM where you can achieve full time income in 3 to 6 months using a GPT Model,  as opposed to 12 to 18 in a Standard MLM, so if getting to a certain income level in a certain period of time is a critical factor for you then start examining some alternative business models. For now, start with the basics you are going to need to start your “7 figure business plan” by learning how to market, and step on to the path of true MLM success.  

When I first started using online marketing systems I generated over 3000 leads, sponsored over 50 new reps and generated over $30,000 in affiliate commissions in just a few months. For a inside look at some of these powerful marketing strategies check out my free Video Training Bootcamp

 MLM Success

FantaZ Review – Does This New MLM Success Story Have Viral Growth Potential?

FantaZ is one of a new crop of network marketing companies trying hard to figure out a way to tap into the rapid growth of the online gaming market. Now FantaZ which recently entered the world of MLM has a totally virtual product, online gaming, and hopes to be able to capitalize on what is by their accounts a $4 billion online gaming industry.

FantaZ’s Target Market

  Now this is a strong niche market, and I think that is what the founders of FantaZ are counting on. If this new MLM company can reach enough of the online gamer market and convince them that this is the way to go it could explode through the industry and grow virally and of course the people who push it could make a lot of money. However it seems that as popular as online gaming is, the lion’s share of this market belongs to the big game developers who have branded themselves over the years and developed a fanatical following. The success stories such as the of  World of Warcraft who by some accounts had 12 million subscribers as of October 2010 are legendary.  They are currently the world’s most-subscribed online gaming site and hold about 62% of the MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) subscription market. Now of course not begin a gamer myself I am observing this world and business model from the outside so a gamers view may be different, but it seems that the big franchises in this market all developed highly designed computer games with massive content and then branched that into the online world so they already had a natural market following for this. Now the company does seem to have a pretty wide variety of games such as golf, pool, fantasy sports, and many others, but it would seem that to enter this market as a new company with no followers, that the best approach would be to develop a killer game app but I am not seeing that.

FantaZ Compensation

This MLM is counting on the general popularity of online gaming combined with an MLM business profit structure to drive a marketing explosion, but then developed a rather tame 7 level unilevel compensation so there is really not a lot of money here unless you develop a really big group. Now if online gaming is your passion and you like the business model then by all means go for it.

FantaZ could be that unique opportunity for you to combine something you love with getting paid to do it.

However remember that every MLM compensation plan requires a different business plan to really drive it and capitalize on the growth. With the potentially low dollar payout on volume based on the monthly membership fees ($25 to $50) and not a lot of meat in the sigh up package ($99), you are going to have to build a very large group in this MLM company to make decent money and your market niche is going to be fairly limited. Now FantaZ is not a MLM business I would sign up in, I tend to favor more of the Top Tier MLM business model,  but if I was going to build FantaZ  my approach would be to use an online marketing model to generate a high volume of prospects and target the online gaming market specifically. There are some great out of the box systems that can be used to teach you how to market online like My Lead System Pro  and they can also really automate the lead process for you. I would also use some viral tools such as a downloadable PDF with game tips or some other game giveaway with embedded links back to my capture page so that your prospects would take your “free gift” and share it virally through their network.  

Ready to take your MLM business and income to the next level? For a inside look at some of the powerful online marketing strategies that allowed me to sponsor over 10 reps a month and earn over $30,000 in affiliate commissions in the process in just a few months, check out my free Video Training Bootcamp

FantaZ

MLM Success - The Truth & The Illusion of Network Marketing

So Monday’s sometimes makes me a little philosophical, and yesterday morning I was thinking about the several calls I got last week where people who were still totally immersed in the MLM success business philosophy of traditional MLM, who had called and tried to prospect me. There is always the discussion of  the game changing product of course and then the description of the company’s latest MLM success stories, and how ordinary people finally hit it big time just by sharing this great Network Marketing opportunity. Get in now! Now in the early days of my MLM business career, I might have bit, but I found instead that I was totally immune to the pitches thanks in part to what I have learned over the years as I studied MLM marketing and found that the real opportunity is not so much in the deal as it is in the marketing (MLM Success-The Tyranny of The Deal Blog Post). Now if you look closely at the business models that are used in a traditional MLM building process and then compare it to people that instead build their business using MLM online marketing you will see there is really a huge philosophical difference. Traditional MLM success philosophy is that you need to build a huge group through the process of recruiting and duplication. It pretty common knowledge in the industry that entire MLM organizations can be split up into 3 groups. The 80% Percenters ,  the 20% Percenters, and the 1% Percenters. Now the ultimate goal to achieve MLM success is of of course to find the 1% Percenter, you know, that’s the person who comes into your Network Marketing organization and just explodes it overnight. The Japanese refer to it as “Lightning Striking”. Now sometimes they are a MLM industry leader who already has a following, but sometimes they are a nobody who has never had MLM success before, but this time something unique happened, a totally random occurrence. Then there are what I like to refer to as the “Naturals”. A “Natural” is someone who is either a major center of influence, (knows lots of powerful people), or maybe someone who just got really excited and was a natural networker. 1% Percenters come in all shapes and sizes but they are in fact the pivotal factor for your MLM success especially if you are working in a Standard MLM (as opposed to a Top Tier MLM). Now the standard MLM building process is to sift through the prospects to find your distributors, then sift through the distributors to find the 20% Percenters, and then with enough 20% Percenters working in your group, you should surface a 1% Percenter somewhere in your organization. Now of course if you are in a unilevel Network Marketing compensation program, then you hope the 1% Percenter is near the top of your organization rather than somewhere downline out of your pay levels. MLM Binary comp plans of course are much more forgiving of a power player who comes in deep in your organization. The analogy I would sometimes use when I did MLM trainings to explain this building process needed to achieve MLM success was to visualize yourself on a big beach in Washington State, the kind that has those rocks all over the place, and you are out there picking up each rock looking underneath it for gold. Now there are thousands of rocks on that beach and it’s going to take you a while, so you need to develop the skills of focus, determination, and persistence. I used to call it the “Blue Diamond” mindset. Now once you have sponsored your first 20% Percenter, now there are two of you picking up rocks and so on. Once you have twenty or thirty 20% Percenters in your Network Marketing group and each of them has a few hundred people in their group, you now have a small army picking up those rocks looking for the gold.

That’s the way MLM success works, with a large enough organization, you just can’t miss.

Of course that just gets you there, there are numerous other factors that can make or break your MLM success such as product longevity, company viability, competition, and of course that nasty word, attrition. However those are all factors for another discussion. Now the goal of MLM online marketing involves that same process, it’s just that we can push more people into the equation much quicker, but it’s still the same basic model used to generate MLM success. So at this point there is no divergence of the business model. However the philosophy of how you get there differs dramatically and this is what I refer to as “The Truth and The Illusion of Network Marketing”. The truth of Network Marketing is that to find the people who are really serious and committed you need to be able to go through a large number of prospects to get to the gold. Another truth is that every approach to MLM prospecting and lead generation works to some extent, although some are painfully slow. The “Illusion of Network Marketing” is what we see when we go to company events and they parade the latest MLM success story up on the stage who says: “I just talked to 4 of my friends and they talked to a few people they know, and all of a sudden I have 10,000 people in my group and I am making $40K a month and this business is so easy and so much fun!” Now let’s be truthful here, you know it just kind of ticks you off when someone else succeeds big time and you don’t. So let’s see, our first thought is to go out to the parking lot and cut the tires on their car (just joking), and the next one is to go back to our warm market again and try to beat them into submission, there has to be gold in there somewhere. Now the truth is, it was pure luck that they found that much gold that easily from just a few prospects. The sad part of this truth is that there are so many people out there trying to build a successful Network Marketing business based on luck. They are out there every day hoping to stumble into MLM success by just by taking to a few people here and there. Sorry, that’s a total illusion.  

The True MLM Success Formula

  Network Marketing is a business and just like any other business you need treat it like one and learn how to market. Now there are many MLM marketing approaches that can get you there but your true MLM Success will be based on volume, the more people you can get information in front of the luckier you get. Now as I pointed out in a recent training webinar I did on blending traditional MLM marketing approaches with the online world there are lots of really good ways to generate high lead flows other than just doing it online, but of course online is the most powerful. Now the traditional MLM building philosophy at this point starts to stress things like bonding the distributor to the company, having lots of events and recognition (“Hey team, Bob just made his first sale and it only took him 2 years….. way to go Bob!). Now the entire culture is designed to form kind of a self reinforcing social cult, (yes I did call it a cult). Now if done properly, you now find yourself in a social group where you would never think about leaving even if you are not making money. The MLM company realizes that with enough foot soldiers on the ground, promoting the company, someone is going to hit “pay dirt” and they will succeed. They just have to keep everyone in place. (This of course is the same philosophy your upline uses). So what do you hear when you go to MLM company events…. Stories of perseverance, persistence, and luck. Funny story here, I talked to a prospect recently that was really excited when I called. She told me that she knew my MLM Success story and so did everyone in her upline, and they all loved the story. Then she went on to tell me about a story where I had joined an MLM and then after 6 mo got frustrated and then just stopped working, but of course stayed active. Then a year later my MLM organization had exploded and there I was making over a million a year because my organization went on without me, and also because I stayed active on autoship. Now of course you can sense the moral of this fictitious story, don’t ever quit, and even if you do, be sure to keep your autoship active because you never know what you might leave behind. Now she was a little surprised to learn the real story, which was that I did indeed get frustrated in my early days and probably quit 5 times just in the first 6 months, but then I discovered marketing and developed a high volume lead strategy using newspaper advertising. I then sponsored 250 dead serious people into my MLM group in about 2 years and I hit so much gold I couldn’t miss. Totally different story. I guess the thing that really ticks me off about the traditional MLM low volume building approach is that it kind of uses people. Now not that basing your life on persistence hope and trust is bad, on the contrary those are great principles to base you life on, but not your MLM business. As online marketers our philosophy is very different, we understand that  MLM success is volume related.

You see…. we have this magic fast forward button we can hit and shorten the growth curve and the time to achieve MLM success by years.

The average person in MLM usually brings in about 1 to 3 people per month. What are their chances of finding a 1% Percenter? Slim to none. With MLM online marketing mastered, you can push 10+ people into your deal per month and surface the key players with much more ease. It also gives you the ability to use that fast forward button to stress test the company’s business model and see if it actually delivers as promised. Now using this accelerated building process, I have learned that if I can’t get a company business model to sing and dance in 6 mo it’s probably not going to happen. Next …. Because of this bottom line business orientation, online marketers are both powerful and dangerous in a MLM environment. I wrote about this recently in a blog post called the “MLM Success-Why Your Upline Hates Online MLM Marketing”. MLM Online marketers slowly learn what entrepreneurs have always known, time is the limiting factor. They realize that there are many Network Marketing opportunities out there that they could focus their attention on, and also that it can be almost impossible to predict in advance which companies will fly and which will die. So rather than push a business plan based on luck and chance, and spend 5 years slow growing a company that just never makes it, Just push the fast forward button…..

The good news is that you can learn how to use the internet as a tool and generate tons of leads to power your business and generate MLM Success by using powerful Online Marketing Systems like "My Lead System Pro" that will teach you how to use the internet as a powerful resource for your business.

 

 

MLM Success

MLM Online vs. Old School MLM Marketing - Time To Bury The Dead?

I am in a mastermind group of MLM online marketers and a few weeks ago they asked me to do a webinar for the members on old school MLM marketing approaches. I cringed a little when they asked me, and I thought good grief, this is like being sent back to high school when you are already in graduate school and loving it. I guess I was the logical choice for this “punishment” assignment since I have been in the Network Marketing industry for over 23 years and of course spent years developing, refining, and using a lot of those same MLM marketing approaches. Everything from business warm market contacts, fax broadcasting, e mail marketing, voice broadcasting, situational marketing, resume database mining, opportunity business cards, yard signs, fish bowl marketing, public speaker approach, infomercial marketing, and the list goes on and on. Heck, as much as I hate to admit it, what can I say, those MLM marketing approaches work. In fact I used those same approaches to become a 7 figure earner in MLM over 20 years ago.

MLM Online Marketing vs Old School MLM

  But I struggled to figure out how they really fit into the modern much more streamlined world of MLM online marketing and lead generation today. Of course the confusing thing about Network Marketing is that just about every approach to MLM lead generation works to some extent. But why even bother with the old school MLM marketing approaches when you have much more powerful solutions available today that use technology to supercharge the process. It’s like having two cars in your garage, a Ferrari and a budget subcompact. Of course they will both do the job of getting you from A to B,  but once you have  had your hands on the wheel of the Ferrari? Oh Baby! It’s no contest. Well maybe or maybe not. I guess a better analogy would probably be playing golf. The driver is the power tool and is going to get you the farthest the fastest but it’s not always the right tool for the job. Then it hit me, one of those “Ah Ha” moments and I realized that there is a perfectly good reason to keep the old school MLM marketing approaches in your arsenal no matter how powerful your MLM online marketing skills are. Now before you think I have lost my mind since I am in fact a prophet of MLM online lead generation, I want you to think about a few things. Reason #1 Quicker Startup in building your Primary Network Marketing Business Most people who start MLM online marketing end up coming down with what I call old school amnesia and immediately forget everything they knew about what worked for them in the past and try to totally change business models.

I have seen this time and time again with new converts to the world of MLM online marketing and of course it does cause a certain “stall” factor.

Let’s face it MLM online marketing is a skill that has to be learned the same way someone initially learned old school MLM marketing approaches. Now some are quicker than others but still it’s going to take a little time to learn, tweek, and then implement. Then it takes time to get your MLM online lead generation up to 10 a day, then 25 a day, then 50 a day and so on. It can take a new person a few months to really get cranking and get the lead flow up to lets say 25 a day (magic happens at that number by the way). So in the meantime wouldn’t it make more sense to keep your pipeline full by continuing to do what you have always done even if it was not as efficient just to keep the wheels of your MLM business turning? There is also an equally powerful reason to add the old school MLM marketing approaches to your marketing arsenal. Reason #2 To Create a growth explosion in your group (The Big Al Theory) There was a series of books I read many years ago back in the Dark Ages of the network marketing industry (back when you bought actual paper books and studied doing things like Don Faila’s famous “Napkin Presentations”). These books were called The Big Al series and were written about the teachings of a fictitious MLM upline called obviously, “Big AL. In one of the books he talked about using “Non-Duplicatable” marketing approaches to build a huge front line and then provide your team with “Duplicatable Approaches” to grow. Now I know that in the world of “Old School” MLM business development,  its heresy to even consider using any approach that is not 100% duplicatable by your organization because the “Standard” (as opposed to Top Tier) Network Marketing Business Model relies on duplication. The higher your duplication factor the quicker you get to the money. However the point the book made was that you could create an explosion in your MLM organization by using whatever unique marketing angle you wanted along with your personal skills to sponsor a ton of reps as long as you gave them duplicatable approaches they could use once they were in the game. The idea was “Go Wide Fast” and then push depth from a massive front line. You see, it does not matter how you bring someone in, what matters is that you give them marketing options, show them a track to run on that will get them into action ASAP. So even if you are doing strictly MLM online marketing and you get really good at it, you need to have options for those you sponsor who can’t master the online approach and as an add on for those in your downline who are learning online marketing so they can keep their pipeline full. So here is my recommendation.

Use MLM online marketing with at least 2-3 other offline or crossover approaches to keep diversified

Then adjust the time spent on marketing approaches based on lead flow. When your online lead flow starts to kick off, drop back on other approaches as necessary, but always keep your pipeline full. It always a good idea to keep a certain amount of diversification in your lead generation efforts at all times Here are the core approaches that I always use:

• MLM Online Marketing (PPC, Facebook, Twitter, Video Marketing, Article Marketing)
• COI Business Warm Market (not friends & family)
• Online Advertising – Careerbuilder, Monster, etc
• Resume Database Mining– Hotjobs
• Voice Broadcasting to specific B2B (business to business) markets

My 7 figure business plan has always had 2 very important elements, high volume and diversification. For more detail on these approaches (and a few dozen others) the recorded webinar I did for the group is below.

25 Killer Old School MLM Marketing Approaches

(Recorded Webinar)

 

MLM online

Wait! Is That A $100 Bill Laying At Your Feet? - MLM Marketing With Money!

Once upon a time in the distant past of my MLM marketing career I actually paid people to become prospects.

Well maybe I should rephrase that, my prospecting approach was that I offered them money.

Humm......

Still not coming out right.

Right now you are probably thinking, "well of course Marc, I could get lots of prospects if I paid them money to listen to me".  Well how about if I showed you a way to actually do that, but without actually paying them.  

Look money talks, and of course it's a great way to get someone's attention.

Think of it this way, if you walked into a crowded restaurant and threw a wad of $100 bills into the air, you would probably get everyone's attention right? Well of course, "money talks" and its a really great show stopper and attention getter.  Enough suspense? OK, here are the details.  

MLM Marketing With Money

It's a marketing approach called "Drop Cards" or "Dollar Card Marketing"

 >>>>>Order Dollar Card Marketing<<<<< 

You may have seen these before, they are a printed card and they look just like a folded $100 bill, and on the inside you print promotional language like..........

"Stop" 

"You May Be Walking Past A Foutune" 

"Earn $10,000 Per Month in 90 days or less......."

Call 1-305-555-1212

(24 hour Recorded Message)

Now back in the day when I had my first huge MLM success, I had armies of people using this approach, and you know what?

It works......... and it still does today! The Key To Effective MLM Marketing? Always Use High Volume Approaches The key here of course is volume, you print them on really light weight paper (not like a business card) and then put them everywhere, drop them by the thousands, the ten thousands everywhere you go.

• Parking lots
• Grocery Stores
• The Beach (that was my favorite) 
• Everywhere

The best part is that its really fun just to watch how people respond. 

I have seen people chase one of these across a parking lot at a full gallop, talk about a marketing hook! Now you have to plug the phone number inside into a voice mail with a sizzle message about your business but I am sure you can figure that out. Anyway ... check it out

To your success

MLM Marketing Tools Mentioned In This Post

>>>>>Order Dollar Card Marketing<<<<< 

MLM Marketing

What Does A $35 Million Dollar Bankruptcy Have To Do With MLM Success?

We all know the old saying

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is..........

That is of course except in the cases where it actually is true.

Quick story here, about my Bankruptcy.........

Humm you weren't expecting that were you. How can a million dollar earner in the MLM world every have gone through bankruptcy?

Well since I never do things half way I have to tell you it was a $35 million bankruptcy.  Back in the days before MLM, when I make my fortune by putting together real estate partnerships, things were going really well. I had make almost 5 million in my last five years in my real estate business and was approaching my 30th birthday and was going to retire. Then BAM! The real estate market crashed in the mid 1980's and I went down like a ton of bricks (pun intended) I was devastated and wiped out in a heartbeat. I went through a $35 million dollar bankruptcy and just sat there paralyzed and depressed for a while, but I knew that there was no way back, I had to re-invent myself and find a way back to the good life again.

The Journey To MLM Success

That is when I ran into the concept of Network Marketing Now I have to tell you that I went into network marketing because there were just no other options available. Actually is was worse than that, I did not believe that the money that successful people claimed to be making in network marketing was real. To me the entire concept screamed of fraud, fake, and scam........... It just seemed too good to be true, there was just no way that someone working out of their home by themselves could make $100,000 a month. NO WAY!  I resisted for a long time but finally was out of options and stopped resisting for a moment and actually took a look at the business model and said BUT WHAT IF IT IS REAL? That one simple thought set me on a track of possibilities that finally opened my mind and I ended up getting involved in network marketing and within about 2 1/2 years I was earning over $1.5 million a year. I thank God that I opened my mind to the possibility that what seemed to good to be true, was actually true. The question is will you? 

MLM Success Today

Now knowing what is actually true in today's marketing can be confusing. I mean before the advent of the internet we looked for validation in an entirely different way, we looked for photocopied check copies showing huge incomes and proof of MLM success, we looked for full color professionally done brochures, we looked for an actual company headquarters made of brick. If we could touch it and feel those bricks and the brochures looked good we felt that there was money and substance behind it, and it probably was real. Today it's a different world, with the advent of the internet its hard to tell what's real and what is fantasy or what is pure fraud. Today we look at sexy websites and they all look good, even if its a 15 year old kid trying to put on a good show, and the variations of the Standard MLM business models have tested the limits of our understanding. I mean you could write a book on just MLM compensation plans: Unilevel (Nuskin Review)  Matirx, Binary, Hybrid Binary (eXfuze, Mona Vie), Top Tier MLM Wealthmasters, Hybrid Top Tier MLM (Empower Network, Family IQ) and the list goes on. Lets face it, there are several thousand Home Based business opportunities launched every year and as enterprising entrepreneurs looked for better and better ways to slice up the income pie and better ways to lure burned out MLM'ers back into the fold, they have tested the limits of our understanding of what used to be 4 or 5 basic business models, and that's just in the MLM universe. Throw into the mix the world of online marketing, and the ability to generate full time income with an online sales model that is not even MLM, and it gets even more confusing, and make no mistake about it, there is big money to be made on the internet just selling stuff. Top online marketers today earn $10 Million to $20 Million a year! What is a poor entrepreneur to do?  Stick with the original business model of MLM Success or move on to a Hybrid Model of online income? Well in the fast paced and confusing and sometimes fraudulent world of "Make Money Online" its more important than ever to link yourself to an expert who can access and review  the business models from a higher level of understanding and perhaps keep you from making a fatal financial mistake. Case in point Zeek Rewards, a recent MLM hybrid company in the world of Online Reverse auctions (see Zeek Rewards Review) had such a seductive lure they amassed, by some estimates, over a million distributors  in a heartbeat and then suddenly they were gone, leaving in their wake devastated MLM distributors and losses in the hundreds of millions. Who would have guessed? Who would have known?  Well, a good  MLM Success coach who knew the market and who had looked at the business model would have known enough to tell you to run the other way. Now I am not trying to say "stick with what you know", and trust the relative safety of a 15 to 40 year old MLM company, that path of MLM success may or may not be a good one for you. MLM success in today's market is different than it was 25 years ago, what brought success then is now ancient history, and traditional old style MLM companies tend to be a revolving door in today's transitional market. Of course that model is safe, but it may not be what you really need if your goal is to get to the magical $10,000 a month in the next 90 days. Also keep in mind that just because you are looking at a new and unique business model does not mean that its a scam, or not real, there are some highly unusual business models in the world of MLM success today that no longer fit any pattern you know of but still represent pretty killer deals. My advice is to..................

1. Determine a company's success by seeing how quickly other reps and generating the income (not the leaders but the foot soldiers)
2. Look at the product to determine if its real and actually has value
3. Determine how quickly the business model can get you to your goal within your time limit. 
4. Does it rely on duplication or is it more of an input output equation? (This is a huge area for mistakes)
5. Does it fit your risk profile?
6. Be skeptical when doing your review try to find the flaws
7. Now Reverse your thinking and think of it from the standpoint of "What if it is for real"?
8. Finally, before making the final jump, get some advice from a coach who knows the market.  (If you were going to buy a business for $500,000 would you hire an attorney to check out the deal? I think so! However the average person feels totally qualified to make a business assessment on something that they know little about and are going to pour all their time into without any professional advice)

Now keep in mind that even if you do your analysis correctly and get coaching advice from a MLM Pro, the vision of the future seen in a crystal ball is never perfect. If something goes wrong and the business model does not work, move on. Don't just sit there and say "Oh my god", get back up dust yourself off and try again. Too many people craw into a hole and hide after suffering some failure or vow never to do MLM again. Remember what that great success coach Tony Robbins says: "A persons success lies in their ability to take action" Successful people fail also, but they also know that they will ultimately succeed as long as they take action and move forward. There is a great book called "The Greatest Salesman in the World" by Og Mandino, get that book and read chapter 10 on "Persistence" , no better yet memorize it! Become Unstoppable.............

Here is a recent webinar I did on MLM Business Models & Success Options in Today's Market 

 MLM Success

MLM Online vs. Old School MLM Marketing - Time To Bury The Dead?

I am in a mastermind group of MLM online marketers and a few weeks ago they asked me to do a webinar for the members on old school MLM marketing approaches. I cringed a little when they asked me, and I thought good grief, this is like being sent back to high school when you are already in graduate school and loving it. I guess I was the logical choice for this “punishment” assignment since I have been in the Network Marketing industry for over 23 years and of course spent years developing, refining, and using a lot of those same MLM marketing approaches. Everything from business warm market contacts, fax broadcasting, e mail marketing, voice broadcasting, situational marketing, resume database mining, opportunity business cards, yard signs, fish bowl marketing, public speaker approach, infomercial marketing, and the list goes on and on. Heck, as much as I hate to admit it, what can I say, those MLM marketing approaches work. In fact I used those same approaches to become a 7 figure earner in MLM over 20 years ago.

MLM Online Marketing vs Old School MLM

  But I struggled to figure out how they really fit into the modern much more streamlined world of MLM online marketing and lead generation today. Of course the confusing thing about Network Marketing is that just about every approach to MLM lead generation works to some extent. But why even bother with the old school MLM marketing approaches when you have much more powerful solutions available today that use technology to supercharge the process. It’s like having two cars in your garage, a Ferrari and a budget subcompact. Of course they will both do the job of getting you from A to B,  but once you have  had your hands on the wheel of the Ferrari? Oh Baby! It’s no contest. Well maybe or maybe not. I guess a better analogy would probably be playing golf. The driver is the power tool and is going to get you the farthest the fastest but it’s not always the right tool for the job. Then it hit me, one of those “Ah Ha” moments and I realized that there is a perfectly good reason to keep the old school MLM marketing approaches in your arsenal no matter how powerful your MLM online marketing skills are. Now before you think I have lost my mind since I am in fact a prophet of MLM online lead generation, I want you to think about a few things. Reason #1 Quicker Startup in building your Primary Network Marketing Business Most people who start MLM online marketing end up coming down with what I call old school amnesia and immediately forget everything they knew about what worked for them in the past and try to totally change business models.

I have seen this time and time again with new converts to the world of MLM online marketing and of course it does cause a certain “stall” factor.

Let’s face it MLM online marketing is a skill that has to be learned the same way someone initially learned old school MLM marketing approaches. Now some are quicker than others but still it’s going to take a little time to learn, tweek, and then implement. Then it takes time to get your MLM online lead generation up to 10 a day, then 25 a day, then 50 a day and so on. It can take a new person a few months to really get cranking and get the lead flow up to lets say 25 a day (magic happens at that number by the way). So in the meantime wouldn’t it make more sense to keep your pipeline full by continuing to do what you have always done even if it was not as efficient just to keep the wheels of your MLM business turning? There is also an equally powerful reason to add the old school MLM marketing approaches to your marketing arsenal. Reason #2 To Create a growth explosion in your group (The Big Al Theory) There was a series of books I read many years ago back in the Dark Ages of the network marketing industry (back when you bought actual paper books and studied doing things like Don Faila’s famous “Napkin Presentations”). These books were called The Big Al series and were written about the teachings of a fictitious MLM upline called obviously, “Big AL. In one of the books he talked about using “Non-Duplicatable” marketing approaches to build a huge front line and then provide your team with “Duplicatable Approaches” to grow. Now I know that in the world of “Old School” MLM business development,  its heresy to even consider using any approach that is not 100% duplicatable by your organization because the “Standard” (as opposed to Top Tier) Network Marketing Business Model relies on duplication. The higher your duplication factor the quicker you get to the money. However the point the book made was that you could create an explosion in your MLM organization by using whatever unique marketing angle you wanted along with your personal skills to sponsor a ton of reps as long as you gave them duplicatable approaches they could use once they were in the game. The idea was “Go Wide Fast” and then push depth from a massive front line. You see, it does not matter how you bring someone in, what matters is that you give them marketing options, show them a track to run on that will get them into action ASAP. So even if you are doing strictly MLM online marketing and you get really good at it, you need to have options for those you sponsor who can’t master the online approach and as an add on for those in your downline who are learning online marketing so they can keep their pipeline full. So here is my recommendation.

Use MLM online marketing with at least 2-3 other offline or crossover approaches to keep diversified

Then adjust the time spent on marketing approaches based on lead flow. When your online lead flow starts to kick off, drop back on other approaches as necessary, but always keep your pipeline full. It always a good idea to keep a certain amount of diversification in your lead generation efforts at all times Here are the core approaches that I always use:

• MLM Online Marketing (PPC, Facebook, Twitter, Video Marketing, Article Marketing)
• COI Business Warm Market (not friends & family)
• Online Advertising – Careerbuilder, Monster, etc
• Resume Database Mining– Hotjobs
• Voice Broadcasting to specific B2B (business to business) markets

My 7 figure business plan has always had 2 very important elements, high volume and diversification. For more detail on these approaches (and a few dozen others) the recorded webinar I did for the group is below.

25 Killer Old School MLM Marketing Approaches

(Recorded Webinar)

 

MLM online