Network Marketing or MLM businesses are effectively organisations or networks of people who are all building the same business. It is very similar in principle to the ‘franchise’ principle. That is to say that in franchising, the franchisor develops a business model, be it product or service based, and he (or she) figures out how to make it work, they put in place a ‘system’ or ‘success formula’ that a franchisee is able to duplicate or copy, therefore guaranteeing success. At least, that’s the principle. We all know there are many other factors which come into play in the franchised business arena such as the requirement for a degree of business acumen, financial planning, management and of course, people skills.

Network Marketing or Franchise

Network marketing or MLM is similar, in that a business model is developed, either a product or a service and a compensation plan is put together for the business owners. The chief differences between franchising and network marketing or MLM are:

  1. The network marketing business owner not only has products and services which they can promote and sell, they also have the ability to set up other network marketing business owners.

  2. Depending on the compensation plan, the business owner will also have the ability to make revenue from the efforts of his ‘sponsored’ network marketing business owners. That is, if those they sponsor go on to sponsor other business owners, the original network marketer will usually benefit.

  3. In the MLM business, start up costs are generally much, much lower. The franchise is usually a relatively expensive business to start as a franchisee, not only that, the franchisee does not have the ability to set up other franchisees.

Caveats

There are indeed a few caveats, each Network Marketing Business is different, they are governed by rules and regulations, each will have their own compensation plan. All of these factors should be considered before deciding or committing to any opportunity.

A Common Trait

There is a common trait which runs through all massively and even moderately successful Network Marketers, they have all applied this very simple principle. The principle they have applied is that of ‘duplication’. Duplication is an absolute corner stone of success in Network Marketing and MLM. I will even go so far as to say that if the network marketing business does not posses the ability to duplicate their efforts, business is doomed to failure!

Your Success Depends on This

Fortunately, duplication is one of the first principles that any successful leader in the MLM industry will teach to their organisation. After all, another key success principle in MLM is that in order to succeed, you absolutely must help others to succeed first.

A Working Example

I would like to share a working example of duplication in action. Any active network marketing business owner will be faced with this at some point in their career, so let set the scene.

The network marketer contacts one of their prospects to discuss the idea of the prospect becoming a network marketing business owner, the prospect responds with “Yes, that sounds great, but, are you making any money?”

How should the network marketer respond to this question?

You will notice that we don’t know if the network marketer in this example is incredibly successful or if they are brand new to the business. In either case, the response is critical, and in either case it should be the same. You see, we teach by doing. In MLM people will need to be able to duplicate your efforts.

So, the wrong response would be “Yes, I’m making xxx thousand a month and it’s great, you should look at it!” Why is this wrong? Quite simply, it cannot be duplicated. The new network marketer will not be able to say this to their prospects, at least not honestly.

The correct response would be “My upline team are incredibly successful, they have developed large organisations and we are working together to find more like minded people to work with” Why is this correct? Again, very simple, it can easily be duplicated! The new network marketer can use this exact same technique in their business.

This is just one working example, there are many, many situations where duplication and the ability to duplicate need to be considered. The principle of duplication must be taught very early on in the network marketing business owner’s career if they are to succeed and achieve and experience rapid growth in their organisation

In Summary

The key to success in network marketing and MLM is duplication, it is also in the ability to teach duplication. Teaching this principle early on will help your organisation grow and duplicate rapidly. Helping others to become successful in this technique is a cornerstone of building large network marketing organisations.

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Filed under: mlm • network marketing

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