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MLM thoughts (Read 187 times)

zonykel


    Thanks for the responses.

     

    David Batchelor, you seem to have your agenda. If your business works for you, fine. I'm not looking for alternatives to MLM.

     

    In my case, I was approached in the early 2000s about an "e-business" opportunity. The term was hot at the time, so I said why not? Turned out to be Quixtar, which is another name for Amway. After the initial meeting, I did some research and turned it down. It was an awkward situation, since this person was senior to me.

     

    fast forward a few years, and this close relative of mine is approached about Amway. I said no way, no how, explained why it was so bad, gave a link to a book called "merchants of deception", iirc. The book details the inner workings of Amway and how the training materials actually created a bigger profit than the products themselves. A total scam.

     

    anyway, now money is tight and this relative is looking for other avenues of income (no, I'm not looking for suggestions). We even had a telephone conference with this shady company trying to charge $5,500 to teach us how to make money with eBay, selling with drop shipping, etc. I said no, but it took a long conversation. Unfortunately, I couldn't make my case convincing enough. If we had that cash, it would have been spent!

     

    Anyway, thanks again for the help. This has been stressing me out for a while now.

      One of the best ways to make a case convincing enough is to ask the actual person direct questions such as

       

      How long have they been in the MLM business themselves?

      How much are they spending per month?

      How much money are they actually making etc?

      TJoseph


        From what I have read, somewhere between 20%-40% of new small businesses fail within the first year and less than 50% will see three years.  Those are some long odds, but I believe most of them fail due to underfunding and it can be worth the risk if the payoff in the end is good and you love the business.

         

        davidbatchelor stated that 99% of MLM members fail.  That seems like a very poor investment to me even if you are a good salesman.  If you are in the top 1% of salespeople, you are probably already making good money and don't need to participate in an MLM.

           

           

          davidbatchelor stated that 99% of MLM members fail.  That seems like a very poor investment to me even if you are a good salesman.  If you are in the top 1% of salespeople, you are probably already making good money and don't need to participate in an MLM.

           

          The only issue with been a good sales person is creating that elusive passive/residual income.

           

          I have tried for years to create it (passive/residual income) and had some success in MLM doing it, but nothing like what I am now experiencing.

          TeaOlive


          old woman w/hobby

            SPAM?

            steph  

             

             

            TJoseph


              If you are having success at what you are doing, it is hard to argue with that,.  However, if 99% of MLM salespeople fail, that isn't a bet I would take.  I am not a salesperson, but I have owned businesses for nearly 20 years, hired salespeople, and have done sales in the past.  Still I could be off base.  My point is that if you are that good a salesman, you can sell something else more profitable to yourself.  My previous employer sold data storage systems to banks and technology companies like eBay.  Individual sales were in the millions of dollars and the top salespeople made seven figures a year.  It is important to have a steady income you can count on from residual sales and repeat customers, but that shouldn't give you a license to slack off.  This is a pet peave of mine from when I had salespeople working for me.  If you really are that talented a salesperson you can make much bigger money from working your base for referrals, networking, and cold calling.

              TJoseph


                SPAM?

                 

                He is certainly self promoting a little bit, but it seemed like it was in the context of the thread to me.

                  If you are having success at what you are doing, it is hard to argue with that,.  However, if 99% of MLM salespeople fail, that isn't a bet I would take.  I am not a salesperson, but I have owned businesses for nearly 20 years, hired salespeople, and have done sales in the past.  Still I could be off base.  My point is that if you are that good a salesman, you can sell something else more profitable to yourself.  My previous employer sold data storage systems to banks and technology companies like eBay.  Individual sales were in the millions of dollars and the top salespeople made seven figures a year.  It is important to have a steady income you can count on from residual sales and repeat customers, but that shouldn't give you a license to slack off.  This is a pet peave of mine from when I had salespeople working for me.  If you really are that talented a salesperson you can make much bigger money from working your base for referrals, networking, and cold calling.

                  Are you saying you are against passive/residual income?

                   

                  That should be the goal of every business owner, shouldn't it?

                   

                  To be successful in sales, I would call someone making at least 70k successful.

                   

                  As far as a 7 figure income goes, now that is beyond exceptional. How much would they make though if they took the next 6 to 12 months off?

                  TJoseph


                    I think we have strayed from the original MLM topic.  I am not against passive/residual or repeat customer income, it is very important to a businesses cash flow to have it.  However, many sales people rest on their laurels once they start making it and stop doing the harder work of cold calling.  Does setting a number of $70K as a measure of success mean you go on cruise control once you reach it?  That actually happens a lot in my experience and at a much lower number than that.

                     

                    It is easy to get caught up in the day to day business of taking orders from existing customers and secretarial tasks and not make time every day to cold call.  No matter how loyal your customers are, there will always be some attrition.  You need to replace those customers and hopefully add to them if you want to grow your company.

                     

                    The seven figure income is unusual, I was just using it as an example of what a salesperson that is in the top 1% of his profession can make.  I don't theink there were more than two or three people making that out of more than a hundred salespeople at the company.  Your question about the sales person taking six months off just proves my point about sales people resting on their laurels after they reach a certain level of income.  As a business owner, I wanted to discourage that.  Realtors made millions when the market was good and some still do today.  There are many industries where a very talented salesperson can make themselves wealthy.

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