We Are Not Direct Selling and We Are Not MLM by Eric Worre

Transcription

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2 Welcome to Network Marketing Pro. My name is Eric Worre and today I want to answer one question, once and for all. What is it that we call what we do? There are people who say that we are MLM, Multi-Level Marketing. There s people that say that what we do is Direct Selling. A lot of people talk about that. Direct to consumer, affiliate marketing, all different kinds of things, and some people say network marketing. Okay? So I m gonna describe what it is that we do, and then I m gonna answer the question once and for all. In my opinion, here s the best description of all of those that I just named, I m gonna give you the best description, and I hope it can become the standard that we all embrace because right now, we re confusing the world. Right now, the only way to let somebody know what it is that we do is to name a company. Oh, you know, it s like this company. Oh, you know, it s like that company. People are like, Oh, okay, okay, okay. I m not interested because I know about that company. So, we need to describe the channel of distribution that we represent, because there are different channels of distribution, right? There s retail, there s franchising, and there s what we do. There s many other forms, but there s what we do, okay? So let me describe what it is that we do, give you a description, and then let s come up with a name for it, all right? So are you with me? What we do ultimately is, we sell products to consumers using word of mouth advertising. That s essentially what we do. Now, we do that with three basic strategies. Strategy number one is personally, as distributors for a company we personally go out there and we gather customers and we sell products and services to those people by sharing with them the value of those products and services. We educate them about the value of those products and services. So we personally create and gather customers and service those customers. That s what we do, number one. Number two, we build a network of other distributors doing the same thing. Okay? And we expand, we re constantly expanding that network. So in other words, it s not just what we recruit, but we have the ability inside of this business to build a group of distributors that we recruit and they have the ability to grow

3 one, and they have ability to grow one, so we can have this ever expanding network of distributors who are also selling products and services to consumers using word of mouth advertising. So, 1) we gather customers with word of mouth advertising; 2) we build and expand a network of other distributors doing the same thing. And three, we, as leaders we apply leadership to that network to improve the productivity of the network. A function of a leader inside of our business is to improve the productivity of that network because if there s two networks out there, one of them isn t selling anything, one of them isn t growing, one of them isn t expanding, one of them isn t moving product, and the other one is moving a lot of products. While one has no value and the other one is very valuable. So, 1) we sell products and services to consumers using word of mouth advertising; 2) we build and expand a group of other distributors doing the same thing; and 3) we work as leaders to improve the productivity of the network that we are building and growing. That s what we do. Now, so if you were to describe that in a term, let s talk about the term multilevel marketing, MLM. Does that describe what I just talked about? The answer is no, it does not describe it. All it talks about is the second aspect that you can get more than one level of benefit from the group that you re building. It doesn t talk about sales. It doesn t talk about the leadership aspect. It doesn t talk about expanding the network. It doesn t talk about any of those things. It talks about one little aspect of our compensation plan. So multi-level marketing, or MLM, is in my opinion a terrible term for what it is that we do. The second one is gonna offend a bunch of people I m just telling you right now. A bunch of trade organizations, a bunch of people put a lot of time and effort into this term. But some people like to describe what I just laid out as the attributes of what it is that we do, they love to describe it as direct selling. Here s why direct selling is a poor description of what we do. A little kid selling lemonade on the street to somebody walking across is engaged in direct selling. Is that what we do? Not at all. A person selling their used automobile to somebody else is engaged in direct selling. Is that what we do? Not at all. As a matter of fact, direct selling implies direct from manufacturer to consumer, does it not? Yet

4 we re in the middle. We re the connector between the consumer and the manufacturer, so it s not direct at all. It s through us; it s connected through us. I watched recently, I went and sat in, there s a couple of professors, amazing people that teach their top marketing experts, their top business ethics experts, and they re fans of what it is that we do. And I watched them; I sat in their class and I watched them try to describe what it is that we do to this group of very high level students. And the students were completely confused, because they kept using direct selling. So direct selling, you mean like internet marketing? No, no, no. That s internet marketing. That s not this. Oh, you mean like getting some product over here, and then selling it to consumers directly, is that what you mean? No, no, no, no, no. That s not what we re talking about at all. So these poor kids were so confused, and guess what, the entire world is confused when we use direct selling. That s one piece of what we do. Yes, we get the product from the manufacturer, and yes we market that product to customers using word of mouth advertising. But most of the world is involved in direct selling of some sort. Anything that s not retail, anything that s not franchising is a form of direct selling and it s incredibly confusing because it doesn t describe what it is that we do. So I m sorry, I m sorry, direct selling is nothing more than confusing to the market place. So based upon the description I laid out for what it is that we do, MLM is a poor description; direct selling is a poor description. Let me give you the best description in the world and I pray that it can become the standard that we all embrace that is network marketing. What do we do? We are marketing products and services through a network of distributors, an ever expanding, and ever increasing in its productivity network of distributors. We are using a network of distributors to market products and services using word of mouth advertising. It is clearly network marketing is clearly the best description to try to define what it is that we do. Now, if we will all embrace this then we won t have to say, when people say So, what do you do? We won t have to say, Well, you know, like this kind of company. Oh, you know, like that company. Oh, you know, like this billion dollar network marketing company, or that billion dollar network marketing

5 company. We won t have to use names of companies any more in order to describe what we do. It ll become like franchising. You ll have retail, you ll have franchising, you ll have network marketing as a distribution channel. Now, and I m gonna give one more thing that I think is gonna offend some people. There are some inside of the network marketing community that run away from defining us as what we are. No, no, no, we re not one of those network marketing companies; we re a direct selling company. Like they re hiding from the fact of what we are. We need to be proud of what we provide. Is there black eye from now and then from people with irresponsible claims on the product, people with irresponsible claims on the opportunity, people who misrepresent what it is that we do and say it s super easy when it s not necessarily easy? It s challenging, it s entrepreneurial, but you know, it s real entrepreneurial work. But instead of embracing the fact that they re network marketing they try and just hide it. No, we re like this... and they try to describe it under these more confusing rules, and at the same time they kind of say, No, we re not like one of those network marketing companies, when of course they re a network marketing company. The sooner the entire profession, the entire industry, all the companies represented say, Yes, I m a network marketing company, Yes, I m proud of it. Yes, for the average person with entrepreneurial dreams it s a better way. Yes, this is what we are. The faster that happens, the faster our entire profession gets standardized around the world, the faster we stop attacking each other and trying to differentiate between each other as far as what we are and we just bring products and services; we re proud of the fact that use it through word of mouth advertising, we re selling quality products and services to consumers using word of mouth advertising. We are building and expanding a network of distributors who are doing the same thing, and we are increasing through our leadership the productivity of that network. So I hope that helped. I know it s gonna be controversial. But if you know somebody that needs to see this, go ahead, share this with them, let them take a look at it. Maybe share it with your company, maybe share it with the people who are working inside of your organization that maybe aren t just as proud of network marketing as they need to be. Do we need to get better? Yes. Do we

6 need to improve? Yes. Network marketing isn t perfect, but it is better for the average person with entrepreneurial dreams. Let s put our shoulders back. Let s put our chins up, and let s go tell the world. Everybody, have an amazing day. I ll see you next time. Take care. Bye-bye. Hey everyone, it s Eric Worre. Did you like this episode? Be sure to subscribe to the next one and tell a friend about us. If you want free world class training on everything related to the great profession of network marketing, visit us at networkmarketingpro.com and enter your name and for our newsletter list. Until next time, make it a great day.