WHAT NETWORK MARKETING "IS"
AND "IS NOT"
Whether you are brand new with little or no
experience or a seasoned veteran who has been around in our wonderful profession for 20
plus years, take a review of some information on just exactly what "Network
Marketing" really is and what it is NOT.
Others will almost certainly ask you about
"Network Marketing". Having some information available to offer to
the person who is questioning "Networking" can certainly help to put aside any
uncertainties or misconceptions they may have heard from "somewhere".
In understanding what Network marketing really is,
you must first understand what it IS NOT.
Network Marketing IS
NOT a SCAM
Network Marketing IS
NOT a Pyramid Scheme
Network Marketing IS
NOT a Ponzi Scheme
Network Marketing IS
NOT chasing down your friends and family to Buy
Network Marketing IS
NOT sitting at home and never having to "sell" anything to anyone ever
Network Marketing IS
NOT a SCAM
A "Scam" is defined as a
"fraudulent scheme". Now if we look up the definition of "fraudulent"
we find that it derives from the word "fraud" which comes from the Latin which
means "deceit". When you are being "deceitful" or deceiving someone,
you are "Tricking" them by offering misleading and untrue information for them
to base their decision upon.
A genuine Network Marketing company or any
legitimate company does none of this. The exact opposite is true, a genuine Networking
company wants the customer or distributor ( you ) to stay long-term with them. This
ensures the success of the company now and into the future. It would not take their
customer base very long to vanish if their policies were biased on "scamming"
the customer. Any short term gain the scammer might receive, would pale when compared with
the potential long term benefits to be gotten with a strong, stable and loyal customer
base.
Network Marketing IS
NOT a Pyramid Scheme
A Pyramid Scheme is a program where people invest
their money based on the promise that other people will also enroll into the program and
put their money into the system.
Generally, the only monies earned are based upon
the "enrollment of new people" and not a product.
When you do get a new person to invest into the
scheme, you will receive a direct financial reward because when the new person joins, part
of the new person's money will flow up to you and thus you get paid for the
"recruitment" of the person rather than on any 'goods' that are sold.
In fact, usually there is no product at all, there
is simply money changing hands.
In today's world, many of these schemes may have
some questionable "product", often a virtual one you download, but clearly that
product is there to help hide the fact that it is merely a money game where only those who
got in early will make anything at all (maybe?)
A "money game" has no real basis
in true commerce.
Pyramids are absolutely
illegal and work because they take advantage of people and their wish to receive a
supposed huge return on their money with the promise of little effort on their part to
achieve that return. In order for a person to actually make money in a Pyramid Scheme,
someone else has to Lose Money and that someone is very
likely to be YOU.
Pyramid Schemes have unfortunately become
associated with the Network Marketing (or multilevel marketing) business model, because
the Pyramid Scheme often will mimic the way that their members are paid with a multilevel
structure which provides incentives to sell the business opportunity to new prospects.
This Network Marketing Business Model has been proven over and over to work extremely well
in the marketplace. Hence it has become the chosen method for the Pyramid Scammers to
promote their money games because it gives them the "appearance" of being a
legitimate company which then makes it easier to "fool" prospects into joining
them.
Remember, the BIG DIFFERENCE
is that in a Pyramid Scheme the total focus is really on No Support new sales people to
the plan and to make money from their recruitment and NOT on selling any real product or
service. And the entire scheme is greatly dependent on a continual influx of new people or
it quickly falls apart.
So even though a Pyramid Scheme may
"look" like a network marketing company, it could not be further away from the
true Networking Business Model that it attempts to copy.
Network Marketing IS
NOT a Ponzi Scheme
A Ponzi Scheme is defined as a plan where the
"payout" to the person is larger than the income derived from each transaction.
This requires an on-going, endless and ever-increasing supply of new participants to
maintain the viability of the system.
To simplify, in a Ponzi Scheme, you would pay an
amount to the company who promises to pay you a specific return on your investment, let us
say they promise to 'double' what you put in and to do so in a short period of time.
The company can only do this by finding others who are tricked into also believing the
same promise and invest their monies into the scheme. Then their monies are used to pay
the promised amount to the first person.
Let's look at Carlo Ponzi himself to understand
this better. It was back in the early 1920's when Ponzi started his plan. Ponzi offered to
return $1,500 on an investment of $1,000. When person 1 paid him he went out and found
person 2 and 3 and took all of 2's money and half of 3's money and paid the stated amount
to person 1. To keep his scheme going he had to repeat this process again and again.
That he did, very well! He did this so well that
the attention of the government was brought to bear on him. He gained millions, and died
penniless and a convicted criminal. Every since then, many others have attempted to do the
same as he in many different ways to the detriment of everyone.
Network Marketing IS
NOT chasing down your friends and family to Buy
Network Marketing also is not, in today's
world, all about taking advantage of relatives and friends. Some years ago being involved
with Network Marketing meant, more often than not, just retailing to and sponsoring people
from what is commonly referred to as your "warm market" (i.e. family and
friends) of prospects.
There is still a basic foundation of indeed sharing what you
have with those you care about and it is important that you at least offer your products
or services to them, but it is no longer the 'primary' way to market your business.
There are many very sophisticated marketing techniques such as
the Internet, voice-broadcasting, conference calls, on-line web casts, and targeted small
ads to mention just a few, which allow you to reach virtually anyone across our planet and
not just your next door friend or your family.
Network Marketing IS
NOT a get-rich-quick scheme
Network Market is also not a "get-rich-quick scheme"
as so many of the "supposed, just formed today, newest and greatest company ever just
in pre-launch", would lead you to believe. And contrary to much of that misleading
and much hyped information you are given, you actually have to WORK at Network Marketing
to make it successful - gasp! - and you have to become SKILLED as you would with any other
'professional' position, be it a Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer, Corporate ISR or the like.
There really is 'no free lunch'!
Your success or lack of success is very much dependent on your
"work" ethic. The same can be said of ANY employment that anyone has or any
business they may begin. Without "work" ( i.e. effort ) nothing can grow and
prosper.
Network Marketing IS
NOT sitting at home and
never having to "sell" anything
to anyone ever
Network Marketing, nor any other business, can
function if there are no "sales of goods" to a consumer. If a company does not
"sell" to someone, where is the income of the company going to come from to keep
it operating? If a company tells you that you do not have to "sell", they they
are not telling you the truth.
It is very true that almost everyone, when asked,
will say they "do not want to sell". Somehow, the very idea of
"selling" has become uncomfortable to most of us. Before you throw up your hands
and run away screaming, let us clarify what we are talking about.
By "selling", we are not talking about
the traditional concept of a "salesman" type of person, one that can get a
penguin to purchase ice. Here, "selling" simply means a way to "Market" your goods to a consumer and there are an almost
infinite number of ways to do that.
What is factual and true, is that whatever way you
market to your consumer, if you do stay sitting at home and never "expose" (
market ) your product or service to anyone, you can Never become successful and will
Never have any sort of income from your business. That you can count on completely.
It is always required of any business to
"expose" their products to potential customers. If you prefer not to use the
term "sell", that is ok. Nevertheless, you must still find ways to market your
products to customers and they must purchase your products in order for both you and your
company to prosper and grow.
Whether or not we realize it, everyone, everyday,
all-the-time, "sells" to others. On your regular "job", you sell
yourself and your talents to your fellow co-workers and to your bosses; at home, you sell
yourself to your family members, to be respected, liked, and loved; you sell yourself to
your neighbors to again be respected by them. The culture of our entire world is engaged
in the process of "selling" everywhere. We have been raised on it, thrive on it,
and the world as we know it would not exist except for it. Puzzling, then that when asked
a person declares loudly that they "do not want to sell!"
Now that you understand what Network
Marketing IS NOT, let's take a look at what it ACTUALLY IS and how it is being used throughout the world in so
many countries.
NETWORK MARKTING IS:
