MLM Industry Trends

by
Michael Brosnan
Achievement Quest Consulting

Part 2

The Evolution of Buying

Are not buying habits what drive every commercial venture? Over the years the buying/producing habits of the general populous has formed and shaped economies and even complete societies from the dawn of time.

For thousands of years people would gather at centralized street markets to buy, sell and barter for the things they needed to survive. As the industrial age came about masses of people were populating larger cities and street market gave way to downtown shopping districts. Then came the baby-boom generation where the urban population started to move out of town to the suburbs. This brought about the birth of the shopping mall and grocery stores. In the eighties and nineties, superstores were all the rage, offering a mind boggling assortment of merchandise that had never been seen before under one roof. As we entered the technology/PC age, the Internet fast became the future of all buying.

The 100 billion-dollar question is “What is next?” Well it is painfully clear to all that bet their fortunes on Internet/tech stocks in the late 90’s that e-commerce, though still a force would not be the next evolution of buying. Most surveys conducted regarding Internet shopping pointed to two painful realities that e-commerce did not offer; first is it lacked personal one on one service and second, most people liked to touch the merchandise they were buying.

“what is next?”

Certainly e-commerce is still a powerful tool for buying and selling and is a channel of distributing products and service that can not be ignored. It is with that in mind that the answer to the question “what is next?” is revealed.

This is where network marketing comes in. It has been said that never before has there been two industries better suited for each other than network marketing and Internet e-commerce. The answer to the 100 billion-dollar question is simple. It is that of combining the high tech tools and convenience of e-commerce with the high touch service of the person to person industry of network marketing.

There is much available in the way of technology, which is affordable and extremely powerful, providing a major element to the success of a new network marketing launch.

What are the key factors to launching a successful company in today’s MLM climate?

There are many important variables to the successful launch of an MLM company. Often it is simply having enough of the most important of these variables in place. To list all of these things would be impossible because it would be a different list for each company. It is important to determine what is most important to each company, what is the core purpose for the companies existence.

With this said, there are certainly several things that are important to every new start-up company. Here are several things that need to be at the top of any attempted list, though not in any particular order.

• Timing – It has been said that timing is everything and for certain MLM ventures that has been very true. If you are first to market with a product, service or a concept then timing will mean everything to the success of your business. Even if you are not necessarily first to market but have a product or service that is in high demand, your timing in the marketplace could be the difference between success or failure.

• Innovation – this is an industry where you either innovate or evaporate. If you have been around network marketing or researched the industry then you know that there are far to many “me too” type companies. You can spend just one hour on the web looking at MLM company sites and you will find dozens of companies saying the exact same thing, “we have the best products”, “we have the best compensation plan”, “we have the best support”, etc. As important as it is to believe your company and its products are the best not everyone can be. The key is to set yourself apart from the pack, is to invent or re-invent something of extreme value as a basis for the very existence of your company.

• Products – This goes hand in hand with “Innovation” however there is more on this point. In today’s MLM climate it is not possible to exist on the premise that it doesn't’t matter what the product is if the opportunity is strong enough. The first thing any good company in its early stages needs to ask itself in today’s MLM market is would our product or service be something people would buy even if there was not an opportunity attached to it? Will our product drive interest and excitement on it’s own? Remember that an opportunity without a viable product in today’s highly regulated climate is likely illegal. The opportunity is not and can not be the product for a company to stand the test of time.

• Compensation – It is the view of so many star-up companies that the compensation plan is by far the most important single issue necessary to be successful as an MLM company. It is true that compensation is extremely important however it is absolutely not the most important factor for success. Again in no particular order the issues bullet pointed above are more important. According to a survey conducted several years ago asking MLM distributors to list why they were involved in network marketing, the social aspect of network marketing was ranked first. An income opportunity was fourth. (More detailed information on compensation plans will be provide later in this report.)

• Recruiting Strategies (Attracting Leaders, Distributors and Customers) – If there is one thing that is arguably more important than anything else it is this, attracting people to your product and opportunity. You may have the best of everything i.e. product, compensation, technology, etc. however if you do not have a strategy and or system for recruiting distributors and selling product you will get nowhere. There really are three phases to this; first the initial strategy of finding your core leaders, sometimes referred to as your “Founders Group,” many of these people are brought in through the original founders of the company. The second phase is developing a training and marketing system for your initial group and all future distributors to follow that will give them a clear track to run on. Finally the third phase is that of expanding the warm market of your distributors through innovative direct marketing campaigns that target potential recruits and customers. A company can employ a variety of approaches with each phase depending on the types of people you are trying to attract and the amount of money you are willing to invest toward attracting leaders, distributors and customers.

• Technology/Support Tools – This is an area of great opportunity for modern network marketers. The amount of cutting edge tools to support your distributor base has never been greater. Anything from high tech to high touch tools that help your people tell your company story can be available to your distributors at little to no cost for them to use. Web based tools are now a must for companies to compete and for them to spread there message efficiently within the markets they seek. Your distributors can now have complete web based businesses with full e-commerce solutions, they will be able to have vital information about their growing businesses anytime, anywhere. There are also enormous amounts of technologies available to you as a company to manage all critical areas of your business from anywhere in the world. Software for managing a network marketing company is more affordable and simpler to use than ever before..

-----------

Next Month: Part 3, Compensation Trends

About the Author:

Michael Brosnan is the founder of Achievement Quest Consulting (AQC) which is an MLM/Start-up consulting firm with 6 years of operation and over 25 clients to date. AQC has developed and executed content and strategy for existing and mainly start-up MLM companies in the areas of compensation, marketing, training, corporate messaging and image; budgeting and projections, project coordination, product development and recruiting strategies, policy and procedures, forms and applications, just to name some of the services provided.

E-Mail: mikeb@max.com