Get Paid Today - MLM is Dead

Marcello asked:


Even minimum wage sales jobs that high school students are doing require realistic volumes of sales…at least 3000-4000/week.

If MLMers were required to actually sell the equivalent of even the minimum wage sales people they would quit in droves.

So essentially MLMers are doing less personal sales than minimum wage salespeople yet they will tell you MLM is about sales and not making money by recruiting people. Well, if they are not doing real sales volumes, then they are making money recruiting. HMMM.

How do those in MLM justify this?
Brad H - the question was clearly addressing the money made by recruiting versus sales. Thanks for completely avoiding the heart of the question.

What could I have expected though, this is normal MLM mentality; when confronted with a question you don’t like, change the subject. Nice work.
Laura J - A+ for your long and seemingly educated answer. However, a few points I want to bring up. A good portion of your answer describes the benefits of building a customer base. If you have a large customer base providing you residual income that is terrific, but if that was the norm in MLM than this question would not need to be asked.

The clear point is directed to bulk of people making (or trying to make) money by building a downline. Surely if everyone built a massive customer base first, then it would indeed be about sales, not recruiting. But the fact that nearly all MLM compensation plans reward recruiting over sales speaks volumes.

If you are making more money from your customers than you represent an extremely low percentage of MLMers. If you want to suggest that everyone be like that, then bravo, but we know the reality is people try to make money on recruiting instead of sales in MLM.

Thanks for your answer though.
Edi - Thank, but you clearly missed the point. If you are recruiting and not selling, what value do you offer to the company?

You admittedly don’t know how to sell, so your value is not in teaching anyone. The difference between a bank or any other company that recruits sales people is that the people being paid to recruit and train them have clear value else they would be out of a job.

Merely making money recruiting is the very definition of a ponzi scheme.

Sorry to be harsh, but what you described IS the exact problem with MLM.

Artis

Marcello asked:


Has it been proven enough yet that these generally are set up as ponzi schemes, and those that are actually legal have products that no one could make a living selling on their own, thus making the recruiting part necessary?

I am sure there are those who will respond with their company being the best and wanting to get my email etc…or those who are making big bucks but won’t show me a financial statement despite calling this a business opportunity (who would start a business without seeing operating statements?). But I want to hear from those who are actually convinced about network marketing/mlm without having to sort through the above mentioned replies.

So, is anyone out there, or is is this industry dead?
ibofightback - thanks for the answer, but going over your numbers I had to comment.

You say Network Marketing Firms distribute over $100 billion a year in goods and services and there are 8-10 million distributors…well simple division means that is $10,000-$12,000 annual sales/distributor!!! Even at 50% commission you could earn more with minimum wage in a year!

With all due respect, your numbers give more credence to the belief that network marketing/mlm is a pure ponzi scheme than anything I have heard.

It seems to me more than ever that the issue with network marketing/mlm is that its all about recruiting others to do the work, and not selling the products themselves. Of those 8-10 million distributors, how many can possibly be distributing enough on their own merit to make a living? Its all about making money off the efforts of others isn’t it?

Chris