Monday, April 9, 2007

Sell Jerky

I would venture to guess that at least 9 out of every 10 people have tried some form of multi-level marketing at some point in their lives. And why not? It seems the most successful of such schemes have mastered the art of "selling opportunity". Of course, like many of you, I must count myself as one of the 9. I caught the bug rather early as I was still in high school. The parents of the girl my brother was dating were Amway distributors. As would be expected, one sunny afternoon, they arrived for a scheduled presentation at my parents house and I had nothing better to do, so I sat there and listened to them build up my parents dreams of financial freedom. All the while, I was crafting my own dreams of financial independence. I was "going Diamond" if it was the last thing I did. At school, I would eagerly tell my classmates about how wonderful life was going to be in just a short while.

Well, those dreams shortly fizzled, but I had "caught the bug" that is MLM and soon found myself joining other schemes as well, constantly searching for the easy way to financial independence. Needless to say, just like many of you, those dreams never came to fruition. However, I don't entirely fault the MLM model. I think the majority of success or failure in such endeavors is largely due to the direct efforts, or lack thereof, of the principal. I would be so amped about each opportunity that came my way, expend some effort, and get no results, which led to discouragement and later to the abandonment of the business. In my journey through the world that is MLM, I've reached some conclusions about what I think an MLM plan needs to have in order to give its constituents at least a fighting chance at success. Here is a short list of my findings:

  1. The product must be consumable: How else do you expect to earn a residual, passive income without repeat business. If you can successfully sell people on your product, whether it be from the superiority, convenience, bargain or other any other angle, then you'll undoubtedly win some loyal customers. People won't keep coming back to buy another widget if they've already got one; however, they will keep coming back for the consumable goods you're selling.
  2. The compensation plan must be easy: If you've committed yourself to build a strong team, at some point you'll have to pitch the plan to people. You don't want to get all wrapped up in circles, Venn diagrams, flowcharts and what not. A simple plan is easy to discuss, easy to understand, and easy to duplicate.
  3. You must believe in the product: Who in their right mind would want to waste their time hawking some piece of garbage they don't like? If you don't believe in your product or your plan, people will notice. Few things are more difficult than pitching an idea or product that you don't believe in. Thus, in order to be successful, you've got to believe in the product and be excited about it.
  4. There must be a variety of product offerings: You'll soon find that not everybody likes the same things, nor is evereyone interested in the same things. Thus, your system must have more than one product offering to broaden your potential customer base and afford you alternatives when selling your products and building your business.
  5. You've got to sell the dream and help others achieve it: I believe that this is the single most important element of success. Everybody needs some form of motivation that drives them to excel. If you can successfully build a dream for people, then earnestly strive to help them achieve their dreams, then you, in turn, will achieve your dreams as well.

Consider Jerky Direct, which offers a variety of meat snacks, as well as fruit snacks, vitamins, and now beauty products. The compensation plan is easy to understand, and is easily duplicatable. You'll find that it's fun to sell jerky, and with such a simple compensation plan and low-cost products, it should be easy to build a solid team around you. Just remember, the secret to success is to build other people's dreams and in so doing, you'll be building your own.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

will you give me more information on MLM As i like to do this and leaved many MLM Companies Reasone Of No Response In the Market

IBOFB said...

Nice post. Taking personal responsibility for your success (or otherwise) is one of the first keys to success!

Best of luck with the Jerky :-)

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Maverick said...

Nice Post and some great points. I would agree with all the points made.