In fact 97% of all sponsors in any MLM activity do.
They lose their money because they don't know 3 things:
- How the business works as a business.
- How to build a team.
- How to generate leads economically.
MLM is quite simple, and the majority of these companies follow the same pattern - you have a payment to start, you have to buy a certain amount each month personally, and there's a minimum order you have to achieve each month to qualify for any commission at all.
If your uplines hasn't told you this - he or she isn't running this as a business, either.
And is very probably breaking even, if that.
So in order to "make money" in MLM, you are going to be spending money every month for quite awhile.
You simply need to know this right off.
Any Network Marketing or MLM is a business and needs to be run as such.
Most of MLM's appeal is in the emotional involvement it brings.
Many of these products cannot compete on price.
They literally depend on word of mouth appeal to succeed.
Sure, the quality is great - but in a down economy, people will go out and buy the cheaper dollar-menu items even if they know the food isn't as healthy for them.
So a product which can't compete on price cannot be marketed on this basis.
And if you have to find people who are willing to pay more for quality, then you need to know this to begin with - that is going to narrow down who you are going to market this stuff to.
Second - you have to be able to build a team.
If you have run across this phrase "recruiting leaders", that is exactly what you need in your downlines.
And to do this, you need to be a leader of leaders.
Leaders have a goal, they have figured out how to achieve it, and the work daily toward this.
They also are training daily to learn anything and everything they need in order to succeed.
This is key.
There is a lot to marketing which we can always learn - it's an ever-changing scene out there, especially since the Internet sped up things so much.
But that same scene makes it possible to get the tools you need to learn even faster.
You are going to want to surround yourself with mentors who help you forward your own dream.
That brings up another point.
Get anyone and everyone off your lines who is negative about what you are doing.
If a guy keeps bringing up someone who went bankrupt because of MLM - either quit talking to that guy or simply never bring up your MLM progress with him present.
He factually is insecure in his own scene and tries to tear down anything around him as he's simply afraid of his own failure.
Around these people, you'll find an intolerance for anything except the "conventional wisdom" and you'll also find them very dependent on their JOB.
Leaders in MLM are very independent of approval from others, and are constantly listening to truly inspirational people for their guidance.
If your own uplines isn't supportive, then fire them.
You won't be able to make any fast success in any MLM if the person who is supposed to be leading you won't.
Find people above and below you who are real leaders and work with them to build a team who knows what they are doing and help everyone around them succeed.
Third - you have to be able to generate leads within a self-sustaining budget.
This is the biggest stumbling block in MLM.
At the start, your "day job" will be financing your Network Marketing efforts.
But you have to quickly make your MLM opportunity pay its own way.
Otherwise, you are in a lose-lose proposition.
You want to go full time at your MLM opportunity to really get ahead, but practically you have to work at your job to pay for it.
And your job suffers because you are distracted, perhaps even resentful that you have to work there.
Once people get past the 3-foot rule, and lists of their friends, family, and associates - most sponsors in MLM dry up.
If they haven't proved that they can make regular income by this time, they will quit and try something else.
Usually, it's another MLM system somewhere else.
Because people know that the system basically works, but it's just a matter of learning what they don't know.
The real solution to lead generation in MLM or Network Marketing is the "Funded Proposal".
While there are some details to this, the simple explanation is to offer them a high-value, low-cost product which they are looking for.
The commission you get from this product finances your marketing costs to find them.
At that point, you can use PPC Ads, Classifieds, or any of the various online marketing methods to find people who are already looking for what you are offering.
This is also called "attraction marketing", because you are simply putting offers out there and letting them attract people who are already looking for that solution.
And you see that this is quite different than chasing down customers to get them to buy your product - the common problem of MLM.
Summary: To succeed in any MLM, you have to -
- Run your business as a business.
- Build a team of leaders.
- Generate leads from a self-sustaining marketing budget.