Quinton Des Fountain.com

Welcome Back, I appreciate and encourage you to leave comments and suggestions to any of my posts. Thanks for visiting!

The following is based on a free training that Michael Dlouhy did and was summarized by Bob and Anna Bassett

Here are several questions to ask before you choose a

company to work with for the next five or ten or twenty years.
Your future and your reputation are at stake. Getting the
answers to these questions will save you years of failure
and frustration.

And remember … IT’S NOT ABOUT THE PRODUCTS.
You can have the greatest products on the planet,
but if your company does not have all five pillars,
you can have everything taken away from you overnight.

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1. Company Management Experience with Integrity
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read your Policies and Procedures. Look for the words
“termination” and “ongoing”. Find out how safe you are,
how your downline is protected, and whether you can
ever retire.

Rule of Thumb: The longer the contract, the more
overhead the company has, and the less you earn.

Do a Google search on the company and the owners
of the company you are researching. Add the word
’scam’ to your search. Check reliable websites like
www.mlmwatchdog.com, etc. for warnings.

Beware of companies where you can buy your way
to the top. Check ebay to see if the company’s
products are being sold there.

Beware of sponsors offering you a “good position”.
There can be no “deals” in an ethical company.
There must be a level playing field.

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2. Timing in the Company / Timing in the Industry
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beware of “ground floor opportunities” and start-up
companies. 99% of companies don’t last two years.

Most people don’t make money in the first two years
while the company is dealing with problems.

Profit comes AFTER two years. Join then.

Do not join a company with a product with no profit
margin, e.g. long distance or vinyl records!

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3. Remarkable Product
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be sure your product is unique – not invisible among others.
Read Seth Godin’s “The Purple Cow”.

Warning: If the product would not sell without a business
opportunity attached, it is ILLEGAL.

If you can’t pay online with a credit card, and if you can only
pay by cash or money order, it is ILLEGAL.

If distributors collect the money while the company stays
at arm’s length, it is ILLEGAL.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
4. Compensation Plan That Pays Part-Timers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
95% of networkers are part-time. Make sure that people can
make a decent income working a few hours per week.

Beware of companies that advertise how many millionaires
they have created. Make sure it’s not at the expense of
those “at the bottom”. Everyone should be able to benefit.

Ask the question “How many people must I have in my
business to earn $10,000 per month?” There are companies
out there that require as many as 10,000 and as few as 400.
It’s not unusual to see well-established companies that
require 3000 to 7000 people, and still attract new distributors.

If your upline won’t or can’t answer this basic question,
you should run.

If a company stresses “Recruit, Recruit, Recruit!”, you should
“Run, Run, Run!”

The key to success is moving product from the company to
the end consumer.

If you are making only 5% to 8% commissions, you are
being extremely underpaid.

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5. System for Success
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The company must have a duplicatable system for success.
People are not duplicatable – systems are. e.g. If you have
to rely on upline doing presentations, this is NOT duplicatable.

DO NOT MAKE A LIST OF YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

STOP BUYING LEADS.

These methods do not work anymore.

I hope this short summary has been informative and useful.

If you’d like to read more, please download the free ebook at
http://freesuccessbook.info

I look forward to helping you in any way I can.

Email me at mlmroadkill@gmail.com
or call me at 425-753-2275

All the Best

Quinton Des Fountain

A Good Thought on the Difference between a Boss and A Leader.

The boss drives his men.

The leader coaches them.

The boss depends on authority.
The leader, goodwill.

The boss says “I.”
The leader says “we.”

The boss says “Be there on time.”
The leader gets there ahead of time.

The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown on you.
The leader fixes the breakdown.

The boss knows how it is done.
The leader shows how.

The boss says “go,”
The leader says “Let’s go.”

The boss uses people.   The leader develops them.

The boss sees today.   The leader looks at tomorrow.

The boss commands.
The leader asks.

The boss never has enough time.
The leader makes time.

The boss is concerned with things.
The leader is concerned with people.

The boss lets his people know where he stands.
The leader lets his people know where to stand.

The boss works hard to produce.
The leader works hard to help his people produce.

The boss takes the credit.
The leader gives it.

-unknown

Every 2nd “guru” and “heavy hitter” these days seems to be promoting some kind of great, new, turnkey, unbeatable, frustration free, downline builder system that supposedly will catapult your network marketing business into the next galaxy.

You’ve seen the ads online, “98 leads in one day”, $50,000/month, some kid standing next to a yellow Ferrari in front of a huge mansion.  If you were to believe these guys it would be as simple as sending them your money, making a few youtube videos and the money would come rolling in.

Network Marketing Systems in itself are not a bad thing.  In fact you should, have some kind of system that you use to work your MLM business.  What’s the problem then with the systems these guys advertise?

Well typically  two things.  They are usually not Proven (how long have they been around and has anyone actually build an organization using them?) and, even if the creator of the system is successful himself with his system, has anyone besides him, been able to duplicate his success.    Those are key points to find out before you invest any of your money.  Is the system Proven? Has it been successfully duplicated by someone other than the inventor of the network marketing system?

If your answer is “yes” to these two questions, the next thing you need to figure out is….  Is the system going to attract people that would be interested in your network marketing business?  Not going to help you a lot, getting 98 leads per day but all these people think Network marketing is synonymous with Pyramid scam.  It’s called “target Marketing”

So, the system needs to be proven, be duplicatable and  target people that would be interested in the business opportunity that you represent, in this case network marketing.

Finally, why are these guys selling their systems anyway?  If the systems were really that good, wouldn’t they be better off spending their time building their primary business.   If the systems really generate all these leads, who is following up with the leads while they are marketing their systems?

I’ve heard the argument that the system automates everything, that is- presents the opportunity and signs the new person up without you having to do a thing excepts cash your check from the company.  I don’t quite buy that, even if the system does do everything on autopilot, you are going to have more people quitting your business than any system can sign up.  People still need human interaction.  Someone that depends solely on autopilot will have an attrition rate that is through the roof.

So, you may be making money of initial orders every month but you are not really building an organization that you hopefully one day can retire from, because most of the people your system signed up for you is going to be gone the second month.  No retention equals no residual income. May as well be in direct sales, why bother with network marketing.  Which is what most of these guys are, they are direct marketers, that is they are looking for the one sale, so they can move on to the next one.  Nothing wrong with that but that is not network marketing.  That is direct sales.

So don’t expect to be successful building a network marketing company using a system that was designed by a guy with a direct sales mentality.

If you are a sales type, great.  I’m not, I don’t like to sell and I don’t like to be sold. The following fact  may be news to some.  85% of the population does not like to be sold.  Only 15% of the population have the sales person personality, and half of them, don’t like to be sold.

So my idea of a good network marketing system would be a system that is duplicatable, proven, targets people that are interested in Network marketing and does it in a way that appeals to the 92.5% of the population that does not like to be sold.  It would also be great if the system would be free.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments.

You are probably asking, “What does it matter if my network marketing company is fiscally conservative?  Actually it matters a lot.  Any company that is spending money on sponsoring race cars or are flying the leaders to convention in private jets, are wasting  a lot of money.  Money that should be put into the pay plan to reward the distributors.

Why would the company be sponsoring a race car, sports team etc?   “Advertising” you say. Exposure.  Brand recognition.  Well, the point of network marketing is that the distributors advertise the company through word of mouth.  The money that normally would be spent on advertising is paid out to the distributors for their word of mouth advertising.  In reality, by doing all this other advertising, the company is essentially taking away money from their distributors.  Not a good situation.

This kind of advertising is not even necessarily more effective or cheaper than word of mouth but it does give the company owners an ego boost.  Same reason they are flying around in Lear Jets and have huge corporate offices.  A Network company that makes effective use of technology does not need a bunch of corporate buildings.  Most of the essential functions can be automated, but the big buildings look more impressive to the owners and their friends.

I always find it amusing when someone shows me the picture of the corporate head office or the company jet.  How does that help you as a distributor.   Nada, Zilch.

At the end of the day, all this unnecessary spending will put immense pressure on the company’s financial well being.  The typical response from the owners would be to change the pay plan, make it harder to qualify for bonuses or look for reasons to terminate distributors that are earning substantial paychecks. That is why it is extremely important to read your companies Policies & Procedures before you sign on the dotted line. (The P&P’s are the long one, the distributor agreement are 2 or 3 pages long.)  Have you read yours?

Bottom line: Make sure you are involved with a fiscally conservative company or you and your down line may be paying the price at some stage.

For an in depth , honest look at network marketing. Read “Success in 10 Steps“.

Evaluating a compensation system or plan is fairly simple to do.  Most people that get involved with network marketing never takes the time to really look at their company’s pay plan because they figure that most pay plans are the same, or, that their uncle Bobs up-line guru is making $20,000/ month, so it must be working.    WRONG.

Would you be willing to make 5x the money for doing the same job?   Well, sometimes you can, simply by switching to a company with a different payplan.  Network marketing compensation systems are not created equal.  An easy way to figure out how good or bad a pay plan is, is to see how many distributors or reps it would take to get a $10,000 a month paycheck in residual income.  If you don’t want to make that much, you can do it for say $5000, $2500 or whatever you would like to make.

Keep it simple and don’t factor in group bonuses, space commander overrides or any other incentives.  Just use what the pay plan is paying on the basic level whether it is a binary, uni-level, Aussie 2-up, matrix, stairstep breakaway etc. does not matter. The reason for this is that most of the bonuses are hard to qualify for and only the top guys or so called heavy hitters usually gets them.  What you want to figure out is how many distributors are needed for the average person to make $10,000 per month

You will soon find out that there are huge differences in the numbers, anywhere from 10,000 distributors (no joke)  to as little as 400.  The less people you need the better, especially when you figure in factors such as attrition.  The person needing 10,000 people will have to work 25x as hard as the person that needs 400.  Picture this:  Two jobs are available downtown digging ditches, one pays $25/hour the other one $100/hour.  Which one will you pick?