Network marketing and direct sales is an increasingly popular business model in the 21st century. Technological advances have made communication easier and cheaper than ever which opens up new markets both within the nation and abroad. A lot of older companies still teach the recruiting techniques that built their businesses in 1986 even though the market has changed. The sad part is that many of the same lies are still being taught to newbies in this industry. It's these destructive lies that create false hope which leads to unmet expectations which lead to depression and failure.



Great big lie number one: You only ever have to recruit two or three people.

Yeah right, ask anybody who is in your upline that has at least a year of experience. One of the flaws in most recruiting methods is that they teach the compensation plan and people see the minimum required to stay afloat and think, "I can do that, it's not much at all." Once these people successfully get their two people into the business, they give up on building their own downline wide and get sucked into helping their new recruits build theirs. This creates a weak and dependent system that eventually breaks down. The people you train don't know how to build their business and can't teach it to their downline because you did it for them.

Great big lie number two: Give your referrals to your sponsor and they'll get them into the business.

There are network marketers who are the slimiest liars on the planet who will steal your prospects for themselves after the fact saying, "I did the work to get them in, I deserve to benefit from my efforts." Or worse, not even tell you that they joined the business yet you find out later. These types are the minority but they do exist. The majority will legitimately try to get them into your downline to get you promoted so they can in turn get promoted. Once again, you become dependent on their work and may tick off everybody you know in the process. Since your sponsor has nothing to lose, they won't be nearly as nice as you. While this gets results in the short term, in the long run it tends to fail.

Great big lie number three: You never have to sell product, that's what your downline is for.

Hum, so what are you supposed to do for your sponsor? If the hook to getting people aboard is that no product sales ever need be made then you may have just fallen into a scam or ponzi scheme masquerading as a legitimate company. One of the biggest benefits of participating in an MLM is learning business skills such as sales. If you try to build a business purely on referring others to the company, you position yourself as an incompetent leader when it comes time to conduct transactions. Rely on relationships initially, then learn to branch out at approach the cold market, as all salespeople must eventually do in order to grow.

Most people nowadays are aware of what's involved in MLM and network marketing. I personally use products distributed by these companies because I honestly believe in the superiority of the product. I never would sign on to promote these products to other people, however, because many of the distributors in the company don't know how to really market their business or use referral systems. It's unfortunate that over 90% of these types of business owners have negative cash flow, but it doesn't have to be that way. If distributors would get educated to the truth, share it with others to prepare them to join, and learn how to market the business without bugging friends and family or buying leads then the percentage of successful home based business owners would climb dramatically and restore more respect to the industry as a whole.