To Those Who Are Anti-MLM

[garebear]

What type of information are you seeking? ...and before you decide on what?

I was just making light of the case study you posted on this thread.

[Devon97]

Jag,

I have listened to "Tribes" by SG. I really like it. What do you think about it?

[24KT]

Jag,

I have listened to "Tribes" by SG. I really like it. What do you think about it?

Devon,

I really like it as well. It spoke to me. I suppose that's why I posted it. 

[Devon97]

Devon,

I really like it as well. It spoke to me. I suppose that's why I posted it. 

I would rather make the rules then follow them.

[DavidArgo]

Do you have an opinion on sites like this then: get money?

When I was in between jobs I signed up and it turned out to be pretty close to a scam. Was billed over and over again because I didn't read the fine print - which I guess would be my fault in the end.

Still very unethical, imo.

[24KT]

Do you have an opinion on sites like this then: get money?

When I was in between jobs I signed up and it turned out to be pretty close to a scam. Was billed over and over again because I didn't read the fine print - which I guess would be my fault in the end.

Still very unethical, imo.

Wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.   

[smoothasf]

ahh so mlm is like drug dealing then but at the bottom of the run the customer pays more to pay all the overheads where as in drug dealing you get a poorer quality product as it goes down the chain....  sooner or later you are going to be the person taking 10% of the 1% commission made on the 10% of the 1% profit. you get me

product = £1

90p product 10p commision

now keep passing that down

sales rep gets 10% of plus 10 percent of 10 customers = 10p + 10% of 10x10p@1piece basically you need at least 10 customers and 10 sales reps for every recruitment to continue the profit

[24KT]

ahh so mlm is like drug dealing then but at the bottom of the run the customer pays more to pay all the overheads where as in drug dealing you get a poorer quality product as it goes down the chain....  sooner or later you are going to be the person taking 10% of the 1% commission made on the 10% of the 1% profit. you get me

product = £1

90p product 10p commision

now keep passing that down

sales rep gets 10% of plus 10 percent of 10 customers = 10p + 10% of 10x10p@1piece basically you need at least 10 customers and 10 sales reps for every recruitment to continue the profit

This is an inaccurate oversimplification as well as a generalization of an entire industry.

How much you make is dependent upon a few things.

First: How much you accomplish.

you have to do something in order to get something. There is no free ride. There is work involved.

Secondly: The actual compensation structure employed by the company.

Is it a Unilevel structure, A binary, breakaway, Australian 2 up, Matrix, hybrid etc.,?

The problem is people often judge an industry based on the poor compensation structure of one company within the industry. it's the equivalent of saying "I'd never work in the film industry, because I knew a guy who worked his tush off in the hot sun on a film and he only made minimum wage plus the footage of his work. Well Brad Pitt works in the film industry, and I can assure you he doesn't get paid minimum wage. George Lucas works in the film industry, and shot STAR  WARS for free, foregoing his director's salary in exchange for licensing & merchandising rights. It made him a billionaire.

Every company has their own compensation mechanism for remunerating distributors.
You have to examine the comp plan of a company to determine if you feel it is worth your while to build a business in that model.

[24KT]

As for the profit margin between the cost of the product and what it retails for, that is no different than any other traditional brick n' mortar business. the difference in Network Marketing, is that the margins that normally go to wholesales, jobbers, advertising agencies etc., is re-directed to individual distributors instead.

[Agnostic007]

You sound like you are successful at MLM. You said you have been in it for 19 yrs. In the last 5 yrs, can you give a ball park figure of your annual net from doing MLM?

[24KT]

You sound like you are successful at MLM. You said you have been in it for 19 yrs. In the last 5 yrs, can you give a ball park figure of your annual net from doing MLM?

ALOT!!!
     

[Agnostic007]

ALOT!!!
    

A lot is subjective.. $12 an hour is a lot to McDonald employees.

[24KT]

A lot is subjective.. $12 an hour is a lot to McDonald employees.

Haha... indeed it is subjective. However, let me assure you, I've never worked at McDonalds,
and I do not consider $12 an hour worth getting out of bed for.

For personal, ethical, and legal reasons, I do not disclose my income, and would certainly never post it online, however I will say, my income is pretty much ALL profit. Any overhead associated with my business is negligible... (ie: phone, internet account, business cards etc) things I would still be paying for even without a network marketing business.

I run a lean mean marketing machine.  

The last time I disclosed my income in network marketing was in 2001.

I was working with a Dallas based company at the time, and when asked, I disclosed that I had earned $15,000 USD ($20,000 Cdn at the time) for that month. It literally scared my new distributor away. Her paradigmn was such that she was only looking to earn an extra $300 a month to help her husband out with the bills and thought that kind of income was beyond her and she couldn't possibly achieve it... despite the fact that she had achieved greater results in her first month in the business than I had in my first month. Exactly 2 days later, when asked, I disclosed the same figure to a gentleman, and I almost lost him, because he felt $15,000 USD or $20,000 Cdn, was too little and there wasn't enough money in the business to make it worth his while. Luckily I was able to save him, by putting him in touch with my upline at the time who was earning 6 figures per month. So... as you pointed out earlier... it is all relative.

My income is really irrelevant, because it's not how much I make, it's how much YOU could make.
You may earn more than me, ...you may earn less than me. YOU may have a better work ethic than me, you may not have any work ethic at all. I cannot predict your income, it will be based solely on your results, and the skillsets, and attributes you bring to the table.

...'sides, my income should be irrelevant to you because ...you don't get to spend a single dime of it.  

[Agnostic007]

Haha... indeed it is subjective. However, let me assure you, I've never worked at McDonalds,
and I do not consider $12 an hour worth getting out of bed for.

For personal, ethical, and legal reasons, I do not disclose my income, and would certainly never post it online, however I will say, my income is pretty much ALL profit. Any overhead associated with my business is negligible... (ie: phone, internet account, business cards etc) things I would still be paying for even without a network marketing business.

I run a lean mean marketing machine.  

The last time I disclosed my income in network marketing was in 2001.

I was working with a Dallas based company at the time, and when asked, I disclosed that I had earned $15,000 USD ($20,000 Cdn at the time) for that month. It literally scared my new distributor away. Her paradigmn was such that she was only looking to earn an extra $300 a month to help her husband out with the bills and thought that kind of income was beyond her and she couldn't possibly achieve it... despite the fact that she had achieved greater results in her first month in the business than I had in my first month. Exactly 2 days later, when asked, I disclosed the same figure to a gentleman, and I almost lost him, because he felt $15,000 USD or $20,000 Cdn, was too little and there wasn't enough money in the business to make it worth his while. Luckily I was able to save him, by putting him in touch with my upline at the time who was earning 6 figures per month. So... as you pointed out earlier... it is all relative.

My income is really irrelevant, because it's not how much I make, it's how much YOU could make.
You may earn more than me, ...you may earn less than me. YOU may have a better work ethic than me, you may not have any work ethic at all. I cannot predict your income, it will be based solely on your results, and the skillsets, and attributes you bring to the table.

...'sides, my income should be irrelevant to you because ...you don't get to spend a single dime of it.  

well, your income would be relevant for someone who was contemplating joining your company as it would be a metric by which a person could get a ballpark figure of what they could make, even with the unknowns about your work ethic or mine. But I appreciate you taking the time to give me a.......answer of some sort, as vague as it was 

[Agnostic007]

I went to your website in order to learn about your products. I suppose it is by design but I ran into more things promoting joining the MLM than I did learning about the products. I clicked "products" and other than the L-arganine there was little else.  Is there a place where one could read about the products rather than focusing on the recruitment part of the business? And B TW, I agree with many of your answers in the political section, just trying to adjust to your MLM side 

[24KT]

I went to your website in order to learn about your products. I suppose it is by design but I ran into more things promoting joining the MLM than I did learning about the products. I clicked "products" and other than the L-arganine there was little else.  Is there a place where one could read about the products rather than focusing on the recruitment part of the business? And B TW, I agree with many of your answers in the political section, just trying to adjust to your MLM side 

I'm not sure which one of my websites you went to, however, I can assure you there is more than just l-arginine. A 2-way conversation can assist me in guiding you in the direction of your choice, as there are literally thousands of products to choose from and gather information about.

[Cy Tolliver]

[24KT]

Hahaha, ...let me put it another way then. MLM shifts the income from traditional middlemen to individual distributors who are better suited to and more deserving of the profit margins inherent in the products.

[Cy Tolliver]

Hahaha, ...let me put it another way then. MLM shifts the income from traditional middlemen to individual distributors who are better suited to and more deserving of the profit margins inherent in the products.

i dont get it, but you seem like a nice trustworthy guy.

[24KT]

i dont get it, but you seem like a nice trustworthy guy.

What part isn't clear? How can I help to clarify it?

Perhaps this example can clarify it better?:

Built into the price of every Nike product, is a small percentage that goes to advertising & promotion, whether through TV ads, celebrity endorsement, product placement etc. All the methods are used to increase sales of Nike products, and the end cost is inherent in the price the end consumer pays. One of those celebrity endorsers of Nike is Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods is less deserving of the millions Nike pays out imo. No disrespect intended towards Mr. Woods, but for the most part, he is just a "face" for want of a better word. Yes, he's a very gifted & talented athlete, but how does that relate to, or enhance the experience of Nike customers? it doesn't. Whereas, an individual MLM distributor, would be able to speak to the customer from personal experience. They would be able to better assist the customer by explaining the differences between a Nike athletic shoe vs. a Reebok athletic shoe etc., because they are right there at the customer level interacting with the very customers themselves, understanding their needs, and providing them with the kind of assistance & focused attention that only the one on one encounter provides. In the MLM model, instead of paying Tiger Woods millions of dollars a year to promote their products, Nike would instead pay those millions to individual distributors like you & me.

Consider reading: http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=264882.msg3726050#msg3726050

Hope That Clarifies,

ps: I'm a nice trustworthy girl. 

[Migs]

i dont get it, but you seem like a nice trustworthy guy.

hehe, she is all woman