In the world of multi-level marketing, there is a big emphasis for distributors, especially in this last 10 years or so, on recruiting. Originally, in the industry when the MLM model was created by companies like Amway in the 1950’s, this was not the case. In fact, any serious study of the way most compensation plans are structured these days makes it wholly obvious that recruiting is the only real way to make money in MLM. Hence, there’s a big push for ongoing, structured MLM Training on how to recruit.

If you were to go back and take a look at the compensation structures of some of the original MLM companies back in the 1940 and 1950’s, companies like Watchers, Nutrilite, and Shackley you would find a very different model than you see today. Those comp plans were much more heavily weighted on paying distributors for product sales. These days, you’re lucky if you can find a company, even those with very good MLM Training programs, that pays more than 5% on product sales. It’s not uncommon for a modern day comp plans to pay very small commission on upfront sales, which makes it very difficult for someone, who wants to set up a real, legitimate distributorship for that company’s product or service, to survive and stay in business for any length of time.
What you see, instead, when you look at most MLM Training programs these days is almost no emphasis on how to setup “shop”; you’ll see almost no MLM Training on how to market products or service, either through traditional advertising methods or through internet marketing. Instead most MLM Training programs focus, almost exclusively, on how to recruit other people and how to teach those people to recruit other people, etc. This strategy, when you look at most company comp plans these days, makes perfect sense. After all, if making money and maximizing your income is the goal, you’re not going to spend your time selling products, when most of your money doesn’t kick in until you have a huge downline consuming that product.

What the MLM industry has created, although it did NOT start out this way, is a never-ending deck of cards that gets re-built by every new company launch and which falls again in 2-3 years, only to be re-started again by the next new launch. Does that mean that MLM is a scam or a pyramid scheme? No, I didn’t say that. The original idea is a good one. And, I personally love the way the math works when you have thousands of motivated people out there hustling. But, in my opinion, most MLM companies and most MLM Training programs are a waste of time for the serious entrepreneur these days. Until the industry shifts the focus back to offering a quality product at a reasonable market price; products and services that stand alone as a good value, without the requirement of having to be distributor to make that product worth the money. And, until the industry starts to then change the compensation plans to rewards individual achievement in moving that product, it’s not worth my time or effort.

There are a few good companies out there that have embraced this idea and made the switch – they are at the forefront of what I believe is a huge industry shift that’s underway. I, for one, am avoiding traditional MLM Training and instead am placing my focus on promoting the products and services of one of these companies. If you’d like more information on what I’m involved with, you can learn more about it at www.MLMRescuePlan.com.