THE TRUTH AND MYTH OF RESIDUAL INCOME IN MLM

SKILLS=$$$$ PART I

One of the magic formulas for copy-writing is to ask yourself 3 questions about what you're writing. From the standpoint of the reader.

Question number one
So what?
Question number two:
Who cares?
Question number three:
What's in it for me?

Hopefully this post will answer those three questions and give you a clear picture of what I can offer you. This is a blog about principled network marketing so I think that the business should be the primary centerpiece of the discussion in these posts.

So what?

This is what?

Marketing is about illusion, and many times at the expense of the buyer. Network marketing has devolved into mainly JUST marketing in many so-called opportunities. Funnel based marketing, SEO, traffic strategies and lead generation. All those things have their place in today's global web driven reality.

But….

Leadership in this business is about having integrity and serving the needs of others. Mentoring and inspiring people to fulfill a vision to serve a higher mission than just selling some stuff, whatever that may be.

I want to share a quote from an email I received recently from someone I consider a friend, who's been in this industry for over 10 years. His experience led him to conclusion about residual income in MLM being nonexistent:

Re: Walkaway income -

"Kevin, I've been in or around network marketing since 2005 and guess how many leaders I know who have built walk away residual income?

Zero. Not even 1.
I have one up line leader who was earning a million dollars per year in a well -known network marketing company until the company launched a new product and had a big snafu and his income went away.
I have many other up line leaders who were doing well - who jumped ship for bridge money and kept jumping ship and are still today - jumping ship.
I have other upline leaders I've seen jump from company to company to company.
Is this the dream of residual income?
I don't think Network Marketing has as clean of a bill of health as you assert in your email but that's just my opinion based on my experience. Maybe I just don't know enough people but I have been on some pretty high-level inner circles and to the top of 2 network marketing companies…”

End Quote

I then shared with him the specific dynamics in my company and my organization that have been the exception rather than the industry rule and also what it took to get there for me.

Real leadership is what network marketing, and sadly many institutions in this country have been lacking recently.

You need three critical components working in harmony in order to create truly lasting residual income in network marketing. Isn't that why you joined network marketing in the first place?

So here comes the: “Who cares” answer.

You should, and here's why:

To create a long term income producing asset in MLM you will need the following 3 components:

1.Loyalty to a product or brand from CUSTOMERS.

2.Loyalty to a company from DISTRIBUTORS.

3. Loyalty to a sponsor or upline leader from other LEADERS in your organization.

Without those three components you will never create lasting residual income in this industry regardless of what people may tell you. You may make some short term big RECRUITING money, but the truth is the number of people in this industry who have made $10,000 in any given month is pretty large.

But the people who make a consistent 4 and 5 figure income a month for more than 5 or 10 years, is relatively low.

Listen:

Most of the big checks that get flashed at novices are really from recruiting bonuses and initial pack sales, not standing monthly auto ship orders from long-term customers! That is what you want, repeat business, otherwise you're on a never ending hamster wheel of recruiting.

I was joking with my own sponsor the other day about the fact that we've been able to stay in business as long as we have. It hasn't always been smooth sailing, but some things are built to last, despite the storms that we have had to weather.

Let's Start with loyalty to brand or a product.

The product has to be so valuable that non distributor customers will purchase it at the price point from the company without any economic incentives for them to do so...

or in many cases

If the distributors who stop recruiting continue ordering long after the excitement of 5 who get 5 who get 5 has faded into a distant memory.

Here is a prime and very contemporary example that is burning up the MLM community right now:

CBD OIL

It may be a hot, great, and dynamic product right now, but are people going to be purchasing it from you and your company 10, 20, and 30 years from now? Because right now there are literally dozens, maybe even hundreds of cdb oil vendors and certainly tens of thousands of cdb oil distributors with whom you are competing. And many of those companies don't have an MLM pay structure that inflates the price by over 100 percent. The end consumer doesn't care where they buy it from. They are concerned with value. Did you know that most people are unaware that Amazon is selling the identical CBD product for less than half the price of what you're particular company is selling it? Vendors change the label to hide the fact that what they are actually selling is CDB Oil in order to skirt state regulations. I'm not lying research it.

Once this becomes common knowledge, if your customers are not involved in the business opportunity will they continue to purchase it from your company with the high mark up that is needed to pay multiple generations of distributors?

I have customers in my organization that have been ordering for 5, 10, 15, 20, and 26 years anywhere between $70 and $250 on a consistent monthly basis. Most of the distributors gave up on the business opportunity a long time ago. I think it was recently brought to my attention that we have about a 20:1 customer to active distributor ratio. Which is insane in this industry.

So for 26 years this company has proven that it has the kind of product that I can represent, and it's not available in retail chains. with over 100 active patents and years of documented scientific research that insulate me from another company taking away my customers, having zero competition is something I never worry about.

This is not a fad product and the buzz in the healthcare industry is beginning to heat up about this technology right now and virtually nobody in the MLM has the slightest clue, because it is not a new and exciting ground floor opportunity. I believe it is a far better opportunity for anyone who joins now than it was for me 26 years ago!!

Secondly, loyalty to a company.

This is where the company's vision and direction and overall values need to match yours, the customer doesn't care about any of this stuff by the way. They only care that the company keeps shipping them their stuff every month.

So when a company fails to meet the ideals of their Vision and Values that you embraced initially, real leaders with ethics will quit building, because that's what I did and noticed many others did too.

I came back because when I started, I was much younger than most of the other leaders who threw in the towel. I'm just telling you the truth.

Never be afraid of the truth, even if it is not what you want to say or hear.

I wasn't going to work for a company in which I had lost faith. I still received my bonus checks though. I wasn't going to stop cashing those, I earned them, but I wasn't going to risk my reputation in building a business again until I saw some major changes, which have recently occurred. I have a renewed faith in the leadership and direction of where this company is going again.

Loyalty to a Leader

The Third, and really the most random element in the equation is loyalty to a sponsor or a leader in your upline that you personally connect with. This is someone who has a vested interest in your success, and you know that because you trust them beyond the company and the products because they have demonstrated it to you.

I've been fortunate to have someone like this to work with. Most people don't shop for a sponsor, but you should, because I believe that if you don't have a good rapport with someone in your upline, you will probably not be successful. Most “leaders” now don't want to mentor people individually. I think that's a big mistake. But I also believe that our culture has been a major contributing factor as to why this is the case. We don't talk on the phone- we text, we don't read books anymore -we watch videos, we don't meet with people- we do Zoom webinars and Facebook lives.

I'm not saying we shouldn't do those things, I'm just saying we shouldn't not do the others as well.

THE BIG REVEAL

“What's in it for me?”

If.... and that is a BIG IF... you can recognize a real opportunity in network marketing from the 3 factors that will work to your advantage that don't just rely on theoretical organizations that never happen....

THEN Here's your move:

Send me a connection request here to see if we can work on this together. I will not accept any tire kickers or people who want to wait for people to click a website and hope someone buys or joins. I'm only taking people who understand the value of real effort in working towards a common goal.

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