A FRESH LOOK AT MULTI-LEVEL MARKETING

MLM? It hasn’t been all that long since just hearing those three letters would make me cringe. How many times had I tried that way of making a living, only to fail miserably and, in the process, drive most my friends and relatives away from me?

It has a more user-friendly name these days and you may know it better as Network Marketing. I have to admit that this has a much nicer ring to it. However, I tend to think that a skunk by any other name would smell the same.

But then, I also have to admit that the concept of direct selling seems to make sense. There can be no better way to sell any product than one-on-one, or face-to-face. I'll also concede that there are definitely some products that just can’t be sold off the shelf in a store; products whose particular brand of mystique requires some explanation or personal testimony to show why they are so much better than all those apparently similar products on that shelf.

And who among us can deny having a unique network of friends, relatives and acquaintances who love us and/or trust us not to steer them wrong. Now, add to that the fact that each of those in your network has his or her own unique network of people whom you have never met and whom, if not for your mutual friend, you probably never would meet. And, theoretically, this process should go on ad infinitum.

So, what’s wrong with this picture? Why is it that only 3% of those getting into an MLM succeed in making the big bucks, while the other 97% only succeed in alienating all those near and dear to them? What, for that matter, is wrong with the three foot rule? This is the concept of pitching everyone who comes within three feet of you. It certainly sounds like a way to sell a big bunch of whatever it is that you’re selling.

After many years of beating the bushes in this way while hawking a variety of products ranging from soap to soup, I suddenly realized that I was trying to push something on people who just were not in the market or, for that matter, not even interested in what had me so excited. Wouldn’t I do a whole lot better if I only sold to people who were actively looking for what I was selling? But how could I do that. It’s not like I had a store in the window of which I could display my wares, so passersby would see them and be enticed to come in and buy. Or did I?

That’s when I realized that about three feet away from where I’m sitting right now sits my computer, through which I can access the Internet. It was then that, in my mind’s eye, that computer screen turned into a store window with between two and three billion people passing by at any given time, day or night. All I had to do was dress up that Window Display, thereby enticing not all but some of them to come into the store, browse a bit and buy.

To that end I began studying the art of Attraction Marketing and finding ways to get people beating a path to my door for my products and business opportunities.

If you have had a similar experience, good or bad, and would like to add your comment, I'd love to hear about it.