Multi-Level Marketing Realities - Part 16

So our October commissions were big, paid in November but our commissions for November and December were near zero because everyone stocked up in October and demand had dropped off quite a bit because of the 20/20 interview in October.  Our website sales had dropped to nothing in November with our price change but we were selling to regular monthly customers at the same price we were selling at before.  I was not worried because it would come back and we would build our commissions up bigger than ever.

We did have a lot of stock though for the amount we were selling.  That had me a little worried, especially because we had borrowed to buy it.  Getting through the end of the year was fine but by the first of the year I was getting very serious about wanting to consult or do something.

In December we had planned to go to Disney World with my son's baseball team and we decided to go even if they didn't make it.  We had a good time for a week, not thinking about the business, and we told everyone that we were unemployed without an income.  We had actually sat through a timeshare presentation for a future week at the resort, so I guess that was the context of using that line.

By March, I had gotten a job with a consulting company so now I was employed again.  The MLM company had not only lowered the price of the product by March, they lowered it even further to try to generate some sales.  We lowered our website price back down and were starting to see some sales come back in.  Our March commissions were back up to about $5000.

And then... we found out that the MLM company was going to start selling the popular dietary supplement at Wal-Mart.  That pretty much does it for us.  In fact, that is when they said that they would no longer allow sponsoring of new sales people.  We were given the opportunity to convert from being a distributor to a consultant that spied on the Walmarts, Targets, Walgreens, and other stores near us, and fill out an online report.  The MLM company paid us $1500 per month for two years to do this, and converting to a consultant meant no more sales commissions from selling product.

I had a lot of the dietary supplement at the first of the year (2000) and I couldn't sell it fast enough, so I found a distributor that bought a lot of it from me at a discount.  I looked for ways to cut expenses and free up my time after I started my new job, so our websites went, the telephone system, and as much money I could cut from our budget I did.  Although we did try to start with another product briefly, we gave that up for more time and less spending.  We had a rough time but we got through it.

In 2001, I started with the University of Phoenix to get my BSM degree, and after I got it I went for my MBA, finishing in 2009.  I am on my third job since the end of our business and things are going well.  My middle son starts his third year of college this month and wants to be a screen actor.  My daughter wants to become a country music writer.  My oldest son is soon going to be the general manager of a tire store and gave us a grandson last year.  We tried to instill in our children that they should go for their big dreams because you only live life once.  We are trying to support them every step of the way.

THE END

The Skill Of Selling - Part 4

Delivering your mini-marketing message to your prospect is about networking or advertising.  When you network, a qualified lead can be given a very short introduction to what you are selling, then invited to review your sales presentation.  A sales presentation can be either printed or delivered, so depending on how you do it, you can either offer to send the prospect your presentation or invite him to attend one.

With advertising, we do generally the same thing by delivering a message to a targeted audience through print, radio, television, internet, or other media.  Our advertisements will similarly entice the reader to take the next step and view or attend our sales presentation.

Make sure to read more about advertising and networking in the following resources:

• Advertising - Wikipedia
• Advertising How To Guides - Entrepreneur
• How To Network: For Introverts
• How To Network Effectively - eHow

Multi-Level Marketing Realities - Part 15

At the end of part 14 I said I would talk about the 20/20 story on the MLM company and how the MLM company raised the price of their popular dietary supplement to their distributors at about the same time.  But first, I must review some interesting events that happened before this.  Early in 1999, the MLM company decided that they were changing their marketing plan from a 6 level plan to a 3 level plan.  That means that instead of making commissions from 6 levels of distributors you would now make commissions on 3.  They would grandfather in any existing distributors so those with more than 3 levels already would not see a major cut in their commissions.  This didn't affect us much as most of our distributors were on our first level, though our future commissions would be affected.

New Website Coming

I am moving my blog to a new website soon!  I am going to host it myself and it will be a Wordpress blog, so it'll be easier on me to write my posts.  I am guessing that it will be ready around the first of March or so.

The new blog will have fewer advertisements and will have a bulletin board with several forums.

I thought I'd give an early notice to all of my readers, and just take a break from posting serious articles for a day.  For those of you who wonder, I actually write several articles on the days when I write, and they post at noon day after day.  I don't write an article a day ever.

Thank you for reading!

Multi-Level Marketing Realities - Part 14

At the end of part 13, I said I would talk about the telephone server I installed in my home and a product launch by the MLM company.  Right away after we moved I had Ameritech install four business lines in my home, as well as our home phone and fax line, so that I could install a telephone server I had just bought.  The telephone server was to replace our off-site telephone service that we had been using for so long.  With the telephone server, which looked like a computer server, we could do the same general things as the telephone service but I would have more control over what it sounded like and how it worked.  The telephone server was one of my early projects after I quit my job.

I had several web site changes I needed to make and I also worked on them.  I answered the telephone, filled orders, and got out information requests.  I was able to talk to many of our customers and had a good working relationship with Wayne so he, myself, and Chris could trade off telephone duties.  I was able to play some golf while the weather was warm and bowled some.  I got out to the store for walks or walked around the neighborhood.  Back then there were very few people my age off during the day.  When I played golf, other sales people would be golfing so I got a chance to socialize then, but the day was typically pretty quiet.  As the weather turned colder, there was nobody to socialize with and no reason to leave the house during the day, except for maybe a walk at the mall or something.

I realized after about six weeks that this was something I wasn't going to be able to do long term.  I loved my family and being around them, but I also needed more adult interaction.  So I decided that I would try to take on consulting projects.  Unfortunately, I had no clue how to do this really.  So I went several months trying with no success.

In September, Chris and I went to a product rollout for the MLM company in San Diego.  I got to meet with the other distributors Chris had been talking about and we had a good time.  The new products seemed good and hopefully we would be able to cross sell them to our existing customers for more dollars in sales.  The company also talked about an upcoming 20/20 interview that they were going to do.  I got to meet the owners of the company and several executives.

In part 14 I will talk about how the 20/20 interview turned into a disaster and how the MLM company raised the price of their product at about the same time.

...to be continued...

The Skill Of Selling - Part 3

Sorting and filtering potential customers is about finding the right types of people who would be interested in your product or service.  We do this by building a demographic profile for our customer and seeking people that fit the profile.  You can do this through networking or through advertising.  When you network you can find the right people for your product by asking "Do you know anybody who..." type questions, rather than selling to everyone you talk to.  In advertisements, you can find your demographic by advertising in the right places and asking for the right kind of response in the ad.

Sorting and filtering can involve other types of qualifying actions also.  For instance, to make sure your prospect can afford your product you might charge for information or admission into the sales presentation.  The places where you advertise might also qualify your prospect in some way.  For instance, if you advertise in a magazine, you know that the prospect probably bought the magazine.  If you advertise in a free newspaper, you may find that your prospects are less price qualified.

Check out the following resources for more information:

• Demographic Profile - Wikipedia
• Lead Generation - Wikipedia
• Building Your Marketing Campaigns Around Your Demographic Profile
• Demographics - Answers.com
• Qualifying Prospects: Seven Vital Questions To Ask

Also see:

• About Demographics
• Marketing 101 For Small Business
• Small Business Marketing Workshop - How To Market Without A Budget

Multi-Level Marketing Realities - Part 13

Part 13, that's fairly ominous.  Well I still do have good stuff to talk about before I get to the bad stuff.  In part 12, I said I would talk about the summer of 1999 when I quit my job.

Up to this point I had gotten pressure from Wayne to quit because we were doing so well and I really wanted to quit my job and run the business also.  Chris was a little more concerned, she felt we could do both but it was very busy.  We talked about hiring somebody but she didn't want to do that either, so we finally decided it would be ok to quit my job once we closed on our house.

In the spring and summer of 1999 I was advertising in various ways, mainly to try to attract new distributors into the business.  I am fairly positive that our commissions were up to nearly $15,000 per month, probably early in the year, and that was our plateau as we had that commission level for nearly all of 1999.  By the end of the summer we had over 350 distributors in our group.  My advertising consisted of small display ads in Entrepreneur magazine, a card deck advertisement, and I tried a full page ad just once.  I was a little unhappy with the results of these ads although the quality of distributor we attracted seemed to be much better.  Ultimately I went back to the internet and signed a contract with Excite by the end of the summer.  It was about $3000 per month for banner advertisements.

I had contracted out the work to create our advertisements.  Our display ads, card ads, and banner ads were all created by other companies and were generic rather than being specific to the product we were selling.  By being generic, I was trying to avoid the discerning eye of the MLM company's compliance department.

As far as our house goes, we were able to pay off our second mortgage and close on our house in August.  We had also sold our townhouse and were able to navigate both so we only had to spend one night in a hotel between closings.  Our new house was giving us space for living and space for doing our business, as it is a 4 bedroom, full basement, office on the first floor home.  We also got some nice features like a two story family room and 10,000 square foot lot.  It's a nice place to live and we have been here more than 10 years now.

I gave my notice and quit my job, with no place else to go.  This is the first time I had been completely without a job since I went to college (the first time).  I was now able to devote time to the business and I had several things on my agenda, as well as several regular things I wanted to do outside the house.  My kids were still little then so I was able to walk them to the bus and meet them at night.  I really enjoyed my family and got along with my wife very well during this time.  When the warm weather ended the story changed a bit.

In part 14 I will talk about installing a telephone server in my home and flying out to San Diego for a product launch by the MLM company.

...to be continued...