The Realites of MLM's...Why they really don't work so well for the 'Average Joe".MLM Realities
As you all know, we were not too pleased with the money making opportunities that MonaVie offered to the “Average Joe” out there who is trying to make a few extra bucks. The problem, like with most MLM’s, is that the system takes time to work. And even then, it only yields the same amount of money as you tend to put into it. For the fortunate person who has friends or connections with someone higher up on the MonaVie sales chain, things seem to go better for them. However, the majority of us do not have special connections with the higher-end seller…who, by the way, has in many cases been with the company from the very start and have a well established base of customers from which to sell. So as newer people join the sales force within a given area, they are left to rummage through a market area that has already been strip mined by others before them, who were in many cases better equipped sellers. The thing to remember is that those first few sellers to the area are able to get those first pre-sold buyers. For those who don’t know what a pre-sold buyer is, I’ll give you a quick definition. A pre-sold buyer is a person who is already either looking for or is predisposed to impulse buying when presented with an item of interest. Out of any given population, you can find those people…the problem is that they work on a first come, first serve basis. So the first sellers to present our pre-sold people with their item of interest or need are the people who get the sale. These are known as the “Gravy Sales,” as they take hardly any effort at all to sell. Well, once all those people have been found and sold to, then your left with the skeptics, the “long sells” ( people who take more then one visit to sell to) and the non-buyers who, as the name denotes, are not interested in buying whatsoever, either because of lack of interest or lack of money. So…back to the problem. When you sign up as an affiliate of any MLM program, you are signing up to usually sell in the area in which you live. The person, who signed you up more then likely also lives in the same general area you live in, be it the same county, city or neighborhood. Can you see where I’m going with this? The people in your up line have more then likely already hit a lot of the same people that you are now thinking of hitting. Once again, this is leaving you to rummage through an already picked through market area. And to make things worse, you may be the third or fourth person in this same area who is selling the same item, either at the same time or over a long period of time. Now I’m not saying that there aren’t sales to be made. I am saying that time is money and if most of your time is spent with doors being slammed in your face, then you are wasting your time and money. The other idea having to do with time is this - chances are, you will be starting in a part time capacity. Weekends and afternoons will be spent planning, visiting and handling new potential customers. So if you are in a market that has, for the most part, already been tapped into, then you are wasting even more valuable time and personal resources.
So without saying much more about MLM’s, this idea of rehashing sales in the same market area is enough to raise the red flags for me. It is also one of the major reasons why most pyramid companies don’t work. However, like I said before, just because an area has been picked through doesn’t mean that there are no more sales to be made. All I’m saying is to be very careful and to do your research before jumping in head first. An example for something to look into is, see how may company representatives are in your sales area. See how big they are in operational scale. If they are rather large in scale, see what demographics they are big in. Some people just like to sell to one type of customer. Demographic sellers usually leave whole areas of potential sales untouched, which could mean potential sales for you. Either way, trying an MLM sales program, from a person who already lives and sells where you do, is a risky proposition. There are different ways to approach MLM selling (mass letter marketing, internet eCommerce, local distribution to stores, etc.) and I will cover them in detail in later revised installments to this website. But just so that you are perfectly clear on where I stand when it comes to this door-to-door type of MLM selling… know that I am totally unconvinced of its potential immediate success, and I always approach any possibility like that with much skepticism. Where we did find a pleasant surprise was with our internet sales and distributor membership site. Read more about it at...
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