Before you decide to sign on with a multi level marketing company, here are 10 questions you should ask before making a commitment to selling their products and services.
1. Does the company have more than 7 years in the business?
If you want your marketing efforts to succeed in the present and future, choose a proven long running company. Keep in mind that 90% of multilevel companies fail in the first two years. No one wants to invest precious time and resources, not to mention their future, into a venture that might not be in business tomorrow, next week or next year.
2. Is the multilevel marketing company well capitalized?
Does the company you’re considering have the money and capitalization it takes to grow, to maintain a solid infrastructure and to attract talented leaders? Are they up to date on technology? Most importantly, do they pay their affiliate commissions accurately and in a timely fashion?
3. Does the company offer unique products and/or services?
Companies that offer unique or specialized products and services are more likely to be able to sell them based on the fact that they aren’t available everywhere. This selling point will make if difficult for competitors that don’t have the product or service to sell it.
4. Is there a genuine need for the product or service?
One of my favorite sayings is “Find a need, fill a need.”
Successful multilevel marketers know that product is everything, and if there’s no demand for the product they’re selling, low sales are sure to be discouraging, even to MLM veterans. Lack of demand could be devastating to someone new to the business of multilevel marketing. If you’ve been researching multilevel marketing opportunities, you’ve probably heard horrible stories of people with a garage full of health products, cleaning supplies or expensive water filters. Your product or service must have a real demand at a reasonable price, and it should be an untapped market. It should also offer benefits to the end consumer so that they’ll want to buy it again and again.
5. Is the product or service a trend or a fashion?
Short lived trends or fashions aren’t enough to build a strong residual income, especially if your product or service is only available for a limited time. Think of a product or service being in demand for a long time and build strong customer relationships, instead of trying to sell a fad for a short duration. If you’re trying to build up money for retirement or for savings, being able to distribute your product for many years will have greater success than trying to sell something once, and having the trendy product lose all interest suddenly. Once interest is lost, your customer base stops buying.
6. Can you produce immediate income?
Once you’ve established yourself as an MLM seller, will you be able to recover start-up costs and make a profit within a short period of time?
7. Does the marketing system offer up to date technology and support?
Not everyone is a salesperson by nature. Does the multilevel marketing opportunity you’re considering offer technology to help you track your sales, expenses, working hours, customer order information and when you can expect to restock? Can you easily contact someone in the company if you have questions or need support for the product or service that you’re marketing?
8. Are you committed to the success of your MLM business?
If you are, and you have the backing of a strong company, and a product or service that you think is a “right fit” for your sales efforts, chances are high that you’ll become a success. As with any type of employment, if you have a proven track record there are opportunities to advance within the parent company. A successful multilevel marketer can advance to “sponsor” status. Sponsors responsibilities are to teach, motivate and assist others in the business. Another position is that of recruiter. Recruiters jobs are to find new affiliates to sell the parent company’s product or services.
9. Can you build your business working part-time while receiving a full-time income?
One of the benefits of running an MLM business should be to work part time and earn a full time salary for your marketing efforts. Although this might be difficult to do in the early stages of your MLM business development, a strong, loyal customer base and underlings make this easier to do in the future.
10. What are your current living expenses?
It’s easy to understand why being employed for someone else might be considered more stable. If you make an hourly wage of $15.00 and are scheduled to work 40 hours a week, you know that you’re bringing home roughly $600.00 before taxes.
When you start a business endeavor, this might not be quite as predictable. If you quit your full time job to pursue an MLM opportunity and don’t make quite as much money, will you be able to pay all of your bills and still have money left over in which to live? If not, you may want to consider getting started on your own MLM business in your free time until you can build your revenues to a comfortable level before putting in your official resignation at your 9-5 job.
I hope that these 10 considerations will help you make an informed decision on whether multilevel marketing is a good choice for you. Just like anything in life, MLM marketing businesses take hard work and dedication in order to make them successful and they have the potential for unlimited growth, something that a traditional job might not offer.