Choosing a Network Marketing Company
This is Part 4 in my series about starting a home business. You can start at the beginning here.
There are thousands of network marketing companies doing business today and more open their doors every week. Some of them are fly-by-night scams, some are poorly run and some are solid companies led by people with integrity. Sadly, determining who is who is not always obvious.
With that in mind, here are the four top points you should look for to help you in choosing a network marketing company that you can grow and prosper with for years to come:
The Company
When you are going through the process of choosing a network marketing company, look for a company that is a fit for you in style and values. You will be doing business with this firm, hopefully, forever. Making sure it is a good fit up front can help avoid the heartache of a messy “divorce” down the road, if you find out too late that the people running the company don’t share your values for doing business.
Product
You must absolutely love the products that you will be selling. It must be a product or product line that you would buy forever, whether or not you are a distributor. They must also be products that you would recommend to other people without reservation.
This isn’t something you can fake. If you don’t genuinely feel this way about the company’s products (what will be your products), take a pass and move on. Keep looking for the right product for you.
I’ve made this mistake in the past. I got involved with a company that had a product that got results and other people were wild about. I just didn’t personally connect with it. As a result, I was never able to enthusiastically promote that product and ultimately did not do well with the company.
You should also be looking for a product that is consumable, rather than a one-time purchase. You are looking for products that you and your customers will continue to buy on a monthly, ongoing basis for a long, long time. Ask yourself, “Will this product still be in demand in 20 years?” Think long term.
Upline
This is the person who will sponsor you into the business and the people above him or her in the group. Are they committed to helping you learn what you need to learn in order to achieve success? Is there a plan in place for you to acquire training and a path for you to follow in building your business?
Are they people you want to hang around with? If you are successful (and the right upline can help you enormously toward that) you will be working with them, going to events with them and spending time with them for years to come. Are they dedicated, trustworthy, helpful, compassionate, diligent? Are they the kind of people with whom you would want to spend time? Are they people whose advice you will take and follow through on?
Make sure you are a good fit for their team and they are a good fit for where you envision yourself being in the future.
Compensation
There are almost as many different compensation plans as there are companies. There are different styles of compensation that have their fans and detractors in the industry. For example, I’m not a fan of what’s called a binary compensation plan. I have my reasons, which I won’t get into here, but I avoid them. Other people are raving fans of that style of comp plan. That said, choosing a network marketing company shouldn’t be based exclusively on the compensation plan. Product and upline are much more important.
Even so, you should be able to look at the compensation plan and have it make sense to you. You should understand the basics of how it works and what you will need to accomplish to grow and succeed at it. If it is Byzantine in its complexity, either have your prospective upline help you understand it, or move on. You need to have an understanding of the mechanics of how you will get paid.
While there are lots of other things you might consider in choosing a network marketing company to call home, these are the most critical. If you get these four right, put your head down and go to work. You will find success.
Next up: OK, I found a company. Now what?
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Steve Norris’ blog
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