The Beach Coach...

My name is Tricia Bard, & I'm a Beach Coach... I enjoy living at the beach and working in my flip flops (those darned high heels are just too uncomfortable with sand in them!)... I come and go as I please. I invite my own money to myself. I get paid for thinking, and I think abundantly. I get paid for making a difference... I help others break-free from ordinary and break-through to extraordinary... Perhaps I can be of service to you as well...

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Money talks...

Kim Klaver posted this compelling information on her blog today-

ARE THE MONEY-DRIVEN REPS STILL IN CONTROL?

In the 90's, NSA's top recruiters sold water filter packages of $5,000 - $125,000.The money-driven top bananas pulled in tens of thousands of dollars per month selling those big product packages. At meetings with thousands of newcomers, hundreds of reps lined up each night for the chance to tell their rags to riches stories on stage. Money was unbelievably good. Those who couldn't sell their product or get anyone else to buy in were belittled as complainers, uncommitted and negative, or small thinkers who couldn't see the big picture. (I was in those meetings.)

Understandably, the company didn't put on the brakes - it was good for them, too. Millions of dollars were rolling in each month. But when too many people complained they'd been talked into buying product they couldn't sell or get a refund for, the regulators stepped in. Tens of millions of dollars in refunds and fines were paid out by the company. Today they're very customer focused.

Enron also had a fabulous run because of their money-driven energy traders. Their management too, became very rich. And the stock zoomed. But the energy traders who led the charge were discovered doing all manner of unethical and illegal things, and the company collapsed when those stories were told. The company's stock price tanked and eventually, so did the company. The chairman, Key Lay, convicted of fraud last month, died of heart failure last week.


Quixtar (SIDEBAR FROM ME: This is the 'new' Amway) is also discovering what money-driven reps have done to the image of their company. Not being strong enough to put a stop to these practices (by terminating the offending reps) is one of the biggest reasons Quixtar's reputation is what it is. Who hasn't heard a story about those business meetings where no one will tell you what it's about until AFTER you get there - so fearful are they that people wouldn't come if they knew.

In an interesting post yesterday
(thanks, Ty), Robert Scoble notes that Quixtar is trying to shore up its image and declining sales.

Unfortunately, the image of any network marketing company is created primarily by the reps in the field. If the money-driven types are allowed to continue to hype and misrepresent income, and how easy it is to earn it, dead bodies will continue to litter the network marketing landscape, bringing down not only the companies who condone this behavior but the whole industry as well.

For things to change, the incentives need to change. For example, how about some big rewards and recognition for those who bring and take care of regular long term customers? (AMEN, KIM!)

So long as big recruiters get the most stage time, the most recognition, the biggest rewards and the most access to the company management, the image of our business will remain what it is...


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Kim, I couldn't agree more... Having experienced firsthand more than a dozen MLM companies, nearly all allowed leadership to promote building from the 'top down'- going after the business builders first. That's where the big money was at, or so they said. And I believed that for years too!

Nothing was ever really said about gathering real Customers and then retaining those customers. What they said was 'get the business builders first- you will slow down your business by years, if you go after customers first. Your business builders will also be your customers, and those that quit will still be your customers.'

I remember being with Rexall Showcase International in the 90's, and watching sales plummet in 2000 when the company changed the comp plan so that people weren't coming in with big $2,000 and $4,000 orders. (Front-end loading, anyone?)

During the years the company allowed those high front-end orders, we were told 'oh, you'll sell these products in 90-120 days', but I can't begin to tell you the number of distributors who ended up with closets full of products.

The products were great, but overpriced, and when business builders quit building, most did not remain as customers. Even though they might have lowered their cholesterol or lost weight, the first month the budget got a little tight, the first thing to go was those high-priced nutritionals.

Not to mention the fact that most people are not salespeople and HATE SELLING! But that's a post for another day (stay tuned for Network Sales vs. Network Marketing, and why most people are doing Network Sales and miserably failing at it!).

Rexall merged with Enrich, and I remember being totally amazed at not only Enrich's annual sales volume in previous years (much more than Rexall's), but also the phenomenal Enrich 'culture'- their passion for the products and their incredible customer retention rate. From what I've heard, the merger 'killed' many of the Enrich reps' businesses because the culture after the merger totally changed.

Marketing guru Dan Kennedy had this to say in his book, "Prospecting Sucks!" (don't you just love that name?!)

"Make no mistake about this: the long-term prosperity of an MLM company as well as the distributors' businesses depends much more on the retention of inactive distributors as lifetime wholesale customers than it does on what the active business builders do."


This is an extremely powerful statement. My advice to anyone looking at affiliating with a Network Marketing company is to do your homework- find out whether the company focuses on customer acquisition and retention, and if you will be compensated well for gathering long-term customers.

Be forewarned: Oftentimes, you will not be able to discover the customer retention rate- generally because it's too low to advertise!

I also would recommend you ask yourself this question- Would I buy these products (at this price) if I were not participating in this business opportunity? If your answer is "NO", I'd advise you to keep looking! You will not be able to create long-term residual income in that environment.

If you are, in fact, looking for income diversification, may I recommend our free 7 Day Insider Secrets online seminar? You will learn what really works and what doesn't work in Network Marketing. You will also learn the critical factors necessary to create long-term residual income.

I just wish I had known this stuff 12 years ago when I first got into the industry. I would have saved myself lots of trial and eroor, not to mention time and money!

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