Whenever I explain the way my MLM (Multi Level Marketing) company works, people start running away as if I were a vampire. Which I wouldn’t mind since being immortal is highly appealing to me even if I have to suck some blood here and there. But that is not the case. I am not a vampire, a werefolf or any kind of monster. I am just a guy trying to make my way through capitalism.
Why on Earth do people fear Network Marketing so much? The first thing I hear before they flee running into the dark alleys of poordom is “Oh! That is like the pyramid scheme!” So I am guessing they are afraid of pyramids. I would be too. Heck! The last thing I want is a dead pharaoh waking late at night and feeding on my brain. Plus pyramids being bad, is embedded into our genes as most likely all of us has a slave ancestor that worked building them. Damn! This explains quite a bit!
But the truth is that just because something looks like a pyramid does not mean it is one. So fear not! Pharaoh Totalchaoman will not haunt you.
Network Marketing is not a pyramid. Network marketing is marketing. Let me tell you a very brief story. On 2000 I came up with a product. Superstepper I called it! These were awesome boards for robots, so I advertised it on a robotic magazine. The lousiest of all the adds was a little bit more than $300. When my credit cards were topped at $25,000 and orders were not pouring in as I hoped, I realized it was time to terminate my efforts to work on my own. That is why both Avayan Electronics and Super Stepper are now simple databases detailing my dead project.
What killed it? Marketing! It was an awesome product. Very economical and with more features than others on the market. But almost nobody knew they existed. Hence, they disappeared.
Marketing is one of the biggest expenses a company endures to survive. Clearly large companies can do very well even when they pay billions of dollars in advertising. TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, this stuff is not cheap! It adds up pretty quickly, especially if you want to appear for a nano second on the Super Bowl.
Is it fair then that good products have to shelf-die because marketing is damn expensive? NO! A good product should make it out into the street! (Heck, bad products are doing it anyway!) But how? How will people know of its existence? Word of mouth!!! It is not only the best proven method to let people know about something, but it works like a charm!
A movie comes out. If on the first weekend, the movie does well (i.e. viewers tell other possible viewers how good the movie was), it will keep on showing. It never does poorly on the first weekend and then superbly some of the others. Because what people tell their friends and family, is taken as a good suggestion to follow by these folks.
The same applies to restaurants, clothing apparel, cars, computers, electronic gadgets, etc. If you like it, you will tell all of those that you care for “Man! This stuff is great! You should get yourself one!”. But if you don’t like it, you will tell them “Wow, buddy! I tried that and it sucked. I would not spend a cent on it!” And because loved ones appreciate your input, the cycles repeat itself again and again.
Hence, Network Marketing is not a pyramidal scheme to get riches by tricking others into joining. Network Marketing is doing what you have been doing all along, but getting paid in the process. The question then is... Why Not?
