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| Photo credit: Microsoft |
Why does MLM and/or Network Marketing have such a bad
rep? The different levels are like
status achievements for people. Just
like in corporate America where an IC strives to get to a higher level such as
Manager, Director, Sr Director, VP, etc.
Why is that a bad thing?
People by nature are title-driven to show achievement. Just as it’s a bragging right to say you
reached X level in that popular video game, it’s the same to say you reached a
certain status with a direct sales organization.
What some may not realize is that some MLM/Network Marketing
pay structures aren’t a pyramid (not to be confused with pyramid scheme, which
is not a legal setup and where goods are not exchanged for money). What I mean
by that is the pay structures aren’t such that those at the top get the most
amount of money for the least amount of work and rely on people below them to
bring in money. If you want to get paid
and make a certain amount of money, you must hustle just like everyone else.
In fact, many of the pay structures are set up to reward
those that work hard and those at lower levels can even out-earn people above
them by doing a higher volume in sales because of how the commission is
structured.
Why isn’t it a good thing to reward people for the hard work
they do? Compare MLM/Network Marketing
to Corporate America jobs where you are fighting with other people for a piece
of the pie, and at the end of the day, you may be the highest performer, but
you may not even get the highest raise because of how a company does their
annual review system. If you’re in a
ranking or calibration-type system, your performance is subjective, based on
who is discussing you and how well your manager can speak about your
accomplishments. And what about those
managers that don’t even attend, and their people are never even discussed and
get the short end of the stick when their money is divvied up? Yes, I speak from experience.
We work at corporate jobs because they give us a sense of
comfort. We get health insurance, we get paid on a regularly basis, and we feel
relatively secure that our job will always be there. Really, it’s a false sense of comfort. Anything can happen to the company and you
could either not get paid, be laid off, or even be fired for some mistake you
or someone else did.
People miss out on their potential because it’s
uncomfortable to go out on your own and not have a consistent hourly or
salaried paycheck. It’s also
uncomfortable to have to buy your own health insurance if you work for
yourself...or get the other perks you enjoyed at your corporate job. But if you stop and think about it, really
think about it—is your comfort really outweighing the cons of working for
someone else? Could you have untapped
earning potential that is being held back by your inability to get out of your
comfort zone?
To conclude my thoughts, I leave you with this: just because a few bad apples got into the
box doesn’t mean all the apples are bad.
Before you make a blanket assessment and think all MLMs or Network
Marketing businesses are a scam or a pyramid scheme, I urge you to actually
look at how the comp and title structures work.
I think you’ll be quite surprised, and it may even have you jumping from
your corporate job to working for yourself.
As I finish out this post, I’m reminded of a meme circling
the interwebs. It’s a picture of a sea
of cubicles and the words, “No thanks, sounds like a cubicle scheme to me.”
