Here's the cold truth about network marketing according to FTC research and other sources:
“On average, 99% of all participants received less than $10 a week in commissions, before all expenses.”
“Less than 1% of MLM participants profit.”
"MLM business plans usually have a failure rate of around 95%."
"50% of people drop out of MLM within their first year."
Why does this happen? There are a few reasons but the top two reasons people don't make money from network marketing and quit the first year is this...
They aren't taught the entrepreneurial skills needed to succeed.
They solely focus on selling the products.
The Entrepreneurial Skills needed to succeed
Many people that join network marketing are stay-at-home moms. Their time is spent running their household not running a successful, profitable business. You have a moral obligation to equip these women with the tools and training they need to have a successful business.
Did you know it costs more time, money and energy to onboard and train new people than it is to pour into your current team?
But you may be thinking "I plug them into the company's training" or "I don't even know what to do myself to be a successful entrepreneur"
**Newsflash** People join YOU not your network marketing team. Investing in sales & marketing courses and coaching for your business is the best thing you can do for your team. This can exponentially grow your income and downline as it will fuel your leadership skills.
And here's how: when you take what you learn and place the key points (with your spin on them of course!) into an online course dashboard for your new recruits, they can learn all the things they need to succeed as an entrepreneur. I'm not talking about product training but actually training on social media marketing, sales strategies, email list building, networking inside Facebook groups.
If you don't feel confident right now to set this team onboarding system up on your own, you can join my affiliate program where I do a one-time free training for your team. At the end of the training, they'll have an opportunity to join my program Connections that Convert. For those that join the program using your affiliate link, you'll receive a commission! You get paid for letting me train your team.
Now, let's talk about reason number 2 of why people don't make money in network marketing and quit in a year.
Solely focusing on selling the products
You're doing your team a disservice when you pressure them to solely focus on selling company products. The company products should enhance a core offer--coaching business, course or membership program. Encouraging your downline to follow a personal brand strategy and have a core offer is going to earn them more money (a lot faster) and keep them happy enough to stick around. (Think: earning $500-5,000 per customer instead of earning a 50% commission from product sales.)
This is best explained below in the case study from one of my clients.
My very first client came to me feeling stuck at the same rank and income of her network marketing business. She was very bummed (ok she was really depressed) because she was at a crossroads of quitting her MLM to go back to her 9-5 or dying a slow death of being her own number 1 customer and maybe eventually getting to a 6-figure income. (Can you relate?)
We went through my Personal Brand Strategy exercise and uncovered opportunities for her to create two different sources of income based on her MLM industry and without her having to face the humiliation of quitting her MLM. What did I teach her to do?
She was very knowledgeable in caring for a diabetic child. In fact, she joined her MLM because of their nutritional products that helped her daughter. As I took her through my method and we started to unpack it all, I discovered she had a passion for teaching. We combined her health and nutrition knowledge with her passion for teaching to create her 2nd stream of income--a support and resource group in which she charged a monthly membership.
Pretty quickly into her new membership program, we discovered that she was recommending some products that weren't her MLM products. I taught her how to get paid when people bought the products she recommended. (Income #3)
She now earns money in 3 significant ways:
Selling her MLM products within her membership
Membership dues (hello recurring income!)
Referral fees on 3rd party products she recommends
That doesn't even include what she gets from her downline production.
A personal brand strategy opens up the opportunities for so much more--income, impact and connections!
Don't let this simple mistake cost you your downline. Want to me do a personal brand strategy training for your team? Sign up for my affiliate program to get started.
