How Network Marketing Works

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By Matt Hellstrom

Network Marketing is a way that companies market their products to the consumer. It is different from most other types of businesses because it doesn't have any advertising, wholesaling, or retailing costs involved in it. It is done entirely by direct selling and referral, word-of-mouth type of advertising. This eliminates the middle man.

What's the problem with "Middle Men"?

When companies use "middle men" they spend money, and lots of it, on things that don't enhance the product. If they don't have these costs, they can spend more on research and development. This means that they can produce a higher quality, more unique offering.

Another plus of the Network Marketing business plan is that some of the money that formerly went to the middle man - advertising, wholesalers, and retailers - is now available to compensate the people who actually promote the products by their word-of-mouth advertising.

These people are referred to as associates, distributors, independent agents, and other terms. They are unsalaried salespeople that basically have their own business, and develop their organization by either building a customer base that buys their company's products directly from the parent company and/or by recruiting a downline of independent distributors who also build their own customer base, thereby increasing the size of the overall organization.

Distributors earn commissions based on the sales efforts of their organization, which includes their efforts as well as the efforts of their downline. Commissions are paid to distributors according to their company's compensation plan. There can be multiple levels of people receiving commission from one person's sales. In addition, distributors can earn profit by retailing products which they purchase from their parent company at wholesale price.

What's the Difference Between Network Marketing and Multi-level Marketing, or MLM?

There is no difference! These two terms, network marketing and multi-level marketing actually refer to different aspects of the same type of business.

Network Marketing describes how the products are marketed, through a network of people in communication with one another.

Multi-level Marketing is how the people in the network are compensated for their efforts. It simply means that commissions are paid on multiple levels of the organization, thereby creating leverage.

And leverage is....

Leverage in this instance refers to being able to earn income on someone else's efforts.

Obviously, this concept is used by most businesses with employees. An employee earns money for a company, and in turn is compensated with a salary, which is hopefully less that he's bringing in. The owner of the company gets to keep the difference. So he is leveraging his income by making money off his employees.

Network Marketing compensation plans are similar in the leverage aspect, but different in one major way: There are no employees, or the associated costs and hassles. They are leveraged off other independent associates instead. These people are also going to work harder, because they own their own business and are more motivated to succeed.

Is This What's Called a "Pyramid Scheme"?

A company is a pyramid if the distributor mainly makes money from new signups or they have to buy more products than they can sell or use. Pyramids are illegal everywhere, but network marketing is legal in all states and most countries.

There are illegal pyramid schemes that try to pass themselves off as legitimate network marketing businesses. If a company is legitimate, the distributor can only earn commission from sales of the company's products or services, and not from recruiting sign-up fees alone.

Want to learn more about the industry of Network Marketing?

The two resources are The 45 Second Presentation That Will Change Your Life by Don Faila, and Brilliant Compensation by Tim Sales. These are both excellent third-party tools that are not only informational, but extremely useful for showing to prospects that are dubious.

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