Is retailing product a true network marketing opportunity?

On this planet, the lifeblood of any company is retail sales to the end consumer. Think about this, Business models drive the behavior in the field.

Would you agree with me that every product - doesn’t matter what it is - a bottle of water, a coke or Pepsi, an aspirin, a vitamin, a liquid nutritional drink - it could be any product out here … if the quality and quantity of all the ingredients, are exactly the same, I ask people, “Would you agree with me that the wholesale manufacturing cost of any product is within pennies of each other?”

And the answer I get is, “Absolutely, no question about it, that is true.”

Now here’s where the problem comes in.

Marketing The Product To The End Consumer

Let me you a story. Companies A, B and C, these are real companies in real life. Company A hired a doctor to formulate the best vitamin product on the planet - and they did. it’s something you can take all at once. It doesn’t interact with any of the other ingredients. Works great. That company is marketing that product. They are a fairly large company, publicly traded.

Another company comes along and what’s so funny about the story is the COO, the bean counter for the first company, sold his piece of the pie and became a distributor with company B.

company B has a binary compensation plan. Now the first company is a stairstep break away comp plan, second company is a binary. So A is the stairstep, B is the binary. And the binary plan is just one left, one right.

Now, that guy said “Whoa! We had this great product with company A … now we want it with company B. So they go and hire the doctor away from company A to formulate them the best product.

And I would ask you another question. When you are a publicly traded company, you are not spending your money. You are spending investors’ money. So when you put that dot, the comma, the zero on a check, does it really matter to you? Does it really matter where you put it? Absolutely not, it is not your money. It’s like you shopping with my credit card.

So they hired the doctor. What that cost, I have no idea. But they told the doctor, “Make us the best vitamin product!” And he said, “Well … they’ve already got it in company A. But we could take that same formula and I could increase everything one gram.

So He Added One More Gram of Stuff To The Stuff

So every capsule of THEIR new stuff had one more gram in it. Great, no problem, So they created that product.

Now, company C came along, The founder of the company said, “Whoa! Company A, company B, they have got a great product. It’s not patented. Don’t need the doctor. Four manufacturing companies make the identical product. All I need to do is get the formula, take it to our manufacturer, see if they can improve it.”

So they did. So they took the same formula and added to it, improved the formula.

Now, here is the reality, I am going to give you the retail sales price on all 3 company’s products.

Company A: $114 retail
Company B: $104 retail
Company C: $39.95 retail

But Isn’t The Wholesale Cost Identical?

Now, you agreed with me that the wholesale manufacturing cost of any product is within pennies. So why the big spread? If you joined Company B, I know for fact that you can buy that product at the super duper low wholesale price of 79.95.

Now, you got to ask yourself this question, since Company B’s wholesale price is double the retail price of company C. why the big difference? Well, first, you need to understand that the business model drives the behavior in the field. In company A and B, the business model promotes the behavior of recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit. Why? Because normal mortals will not pay that kind of money for product.

They’ll only buy the product to be in the business. So that business model creates the behavior of recruit, recruit, recruit. Now, company C, because it’s $39.95 retail, that creates a behavior of retail, retail, retail. And you can prove it with these numbers.

To make $10,000 a month on the residual auto ship volume in Company A, you need 1400 – 1600 people. Company B, you need 2200 – 2400 people, Company C … you need less than 400 people. Same product. Same people you are selling to. So the big question is, can average part time people ever build a group of 2400? Or can they build a group of 400 easier? Think about that.

So The Business Model Drives The Behavior In the Field. Always!

Why is your product so expensive? Here’s why, the company need a big, big, big, big, big building. It’s so comical. They say, “Oh, we’re debt free.”Yeah. They’re debt-free off the backs of the distributors, they stole the compensation plan to build the big building. Doesn’t help the reps at all.

Think about this for a second. Companies A, B and C, and the breakage … that’s all profits that they make out of you, the distributor. Breakage is the difference between the wholesale cost and the retail cost, that mark-up from 39.95 retail to the 79.95 wholesale. That pays for the big building, the company jet, pays for all that.

A few years back, a prepaid phone card company charged $2 or $3 a minute for prepaid phone calls. You bought a prepaid phone card back then for a dollar a minute. But these were collector’s cards. (”If you don’t scratch the back of the card off, and don’t use the time, it makes it more valuable.”)

So this plastic card, which cost maybe 25 cents to create, was selling for $2 a minute. And the company convinced the people not to scratch it off, so they never had to pay for the phone time.

Isn’t that amazing? It’s no wonder network marketing gets a bad name.

One way to build your business is to sell products at retail. And to do that, you must join a company with value-priced products. It’s important that you look around to find that. Don’t settle for a company that charges 2 or 3 times the product value. Consumers are smart. You will always struggle to build with that company.

We Appreciate You
Michael & Linda Dlouhy
Call 1-352-799-8779 (anytime)
Get my FREE ebook: Success In 10 Steps
“Be A Mentor With A Servant’s Heart!”

You need to talk to your front-line leaders regularly. At least every other day. Sometimes it’s 2 or 3 times a day. Make yourself available anytime for 3-way phone calls. Give your team a system to help them find the people and sponsor them into your business. Make yourself available.

At our 35th wedding anniversary on June 21st, we had 2 of our front-line Diamonds at the celebration. And my sponsor My sponsor & his wife flew across the country to attend. Several others from our group were there. And we had a ball.

Here’s what it’s about.

I have a gentleman in my group, awesome guy, he lives up in Monticello, Florida. On our way back from a seminar trip to Houston, Texas, I stopped by to see Richard & Cheryl. They have a big old hickory tree that was leaning towards their home. It got hit by lightning, and it was dead. They were very concerned it could come down, and it’s a couple thousand dollars to have that cut down & carted away.

So I got together one day with Linda & our son Matt & a friend, Lynn Rothfuss, from New Jersey, and we made a day of it. We took a picnic up and we cut the tree down, cut it up, stacked it up for them.

That builds relationships. We just did that to help them. When’s the last time your upline did something like that for you?

That’s what this business is about - it’s about building relationships. We’ll be in business the rest of our lives with Richard & Cheryl. I’ll be in business the rest of my life with all our top leaders. It just goes on and on and on.

You’ve got to build it solid. We just sponsored some awesome people down in Puerto Rico, Nestor & Toni. They’re so excited, they’re going on the MLM Cruise with us. When we come back, we’ll hang out there for 2 or 3 days and do meetings and build them an empire while we’re there. They’ll have it started before that, but we’re going to explode that island.

The Mistake That Many Leaders Make

People are telling their downlines all the time, “You have to change. You have to get out there and sell. You have to become this other person that you aren’t right now.”

The truth is, YOU are perfect just like you are. Everybody on your team is perfect just like they are. They don’t need to change. They don’t need to become a pushy, aggressive salesperson.

Ninety-two per-cent of the world’s population is sales resistant. You don’t like to be sold. You walk into a store, looking for shoes. You want to look around, pick out what YOU want. You don’t want some sales clerk coming around, telling you they have a sale on such & such a shoe. You want to shop & buy what YOU want. Maybe you’ll ask for a clerk, once you’ve decided what you want.

So it’s only about 5% of the people in network marketing who tell the others that they have to change, they have to become this pushy, aggressive salesperson, make a list of your friends & family and go puke all over them, force them into the business.

That Is NOT How To Build Your Business!

My belief is, just target the market and find people who already are looking for the business, people who already believe in network marketing. Don’t go out and try to build them a dream to get them in the business.

It’s kind of like religion. Some people believe in God, some don’t. Don’t try to convince the people who don’t believe in God to believe in Him. And don’t try to convince the people who do believe in God to not believe in Him.

Just go talk to the ones who already believe! Talk to the people who already believe, and are looking. Those people are warriors. Those people are ready to take action. Those people will build an empire. They will build a legacy income for you. Those are the kind of people who will drive 6 hours to your house and cut down a tree for you.

Those are the people you want. Build relationships with those people. Get them into your business, and never, never, never quit building the relationship with them!

All these years in the industry, it’s almost comical to me. I hear so-called heavy hitters talking about building relationships. But the truth is, they don’t have a relationship with their spouse, they don’t have one with their kids, and they don’t have one with their business partners. They rattle on about relationships, but they don’t know how to build one.

Bulletproof Your Income!

What if your company went out of business tomorrow? Don’t laugh - it has happened to many, many people in this business. What would you do? Would you have to start over from scratch?

Well … NOT if you have strong trusting relationships with your people! If you have taken the time and made the effort to build that steel-ribbed “know, like, & trust,” then your people will stick with you. They will follow you to your next company. They will trust in your judgment.

If you haven’t built those relationships, your future is very much in doubt. Why take that chance? Work hard at getting close to every person in your group. That’s a strategy that will pay off for you big-time, whether your current company is around forever or not.

We Appreciate You
Michael & Linda Dlouhy
Call 1-352-799-8779 (anytime)
Get my FREE ebook: Success In 10 Steps
“Be A Mentor With A Servant’s Heart!”

I’m 53 years old. A few years ago, on a cross-country flight, I realized that I am living my “WHY”. That was an emotional event.

We don’t do this because we have to. We do this because we love to do it. That’s why we do a dozen or more training calls a week. It’s our passion.

I come from a hard background. I love what Randy Gage says. He says, “My family life … we were the Addams Family on crack cocaine.” I think mine was even worse.

My parents took me out of school in the 9th grade. I don’t have formal education, but I have life lessons. I truly believe that if I can become successful, then anybody can.

My passion is to share that with others, to let them know they can do it, too. It starts with communicating. People don’t listen to people. More than anything else, we teach them how to do that.

One absolute truth I’ve learned over the years …

… plays a very big part in the success we’ve had so far. And that is:

That’s why we put together a complete system to leverage this truth. We offer my ebook at http://dlouhy.SuccessIn10Steps.com/, for free.

And here’s the secret. There are no affiliate links. No affiliate program. We’re not trying to get them in the deal, not selling any widgets. There are no catches. It’s just giving others the benefit of what I’ve learned in 27
years.

And leaders are readers. When you give away a quality ebook, you attract leaders. And those are the people you want.

We used this system for years with another ebook. I have a list of people I’ve been following up with for years. And suddenly, here and there, they call to join my business. And some of them bring a LOT of people with them. It can change your life overnight.

It’s about relationships. It’s about caring. If you think internet marketing is a sales business, you’re sadly mistaken. It is a relationship business.

You can create “know, like & trust” with your copy. If you don’t believe that, just go download my ebook (http://dlouhy.SuccessIn10 Steps.com/) and read it. You’ll see it. To survive, you must create & build relationships.

You need to get the money out of the equation.

When the money’s out of there and you’re talking to somebody with no agenda, you can truly listen and be there for them.

When a boy & girl go on a date, there’s an agenda. Most guys have one thing on their mind. How tense is that? Are they warm & open? No. They’re apprehensive, because they both know what the agenda is. They know what the young man has on his mind.

How would it be if 2 people went on a date and they just wanted to get to know each other? No agenda. How much more enjoyable would that date be?

And how much more successful & happy would people be in business if the money wasn’t the focus? if they had no agenda? The answer is, “A lot.” I know, because we see it all the time.

We Appreciate You
Michael & Linda Dlouhy
Call 1-352-799-8779 (anytime)
Get my FREE ebook: Success In 10 Steps
“Be A Mentor With A Servant’s Heart!”