Marketing Insanity – A True Case

Richard Dennis
Richard Dennis

It’s worth your time to take a look at the section on “Marketing Insanity” on page 17 of the Success In 10 Steps ebook by Michael Dlouhy. I was talking with a husband-and-wife on a 3-way call the other day. They’re in a company selling water filters. Their basic product is a $4,000 sale.

And they tell me, “But you can buy it over time!”

Boy! Hope springs eternal in network marketers, doesn’t it? They KNOW they can make this thing work. “Heck, they can buy it over time. This’ll work.”

So here’s the deal, which is what I told them:

“FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS?!!!!!!!”

Are you kidding me? You HAVE to be a salesperson. You HAVE to be a salesperson to do that. A $4,000 product is a sales business. They can call it network marketing if they want, but let me ask you a question:

Does your new rep go on autoship for $4,000 a month?

I didn’t think so.

Here’s what I told them:

Success In 10 Steps is a great tool, but it won’t work for you. You can’t use this ebook to find people who’ll spend $4K. Our system is perfect to build a relationship business, but that’s not what you have … you have a SALES business. You need to run ads to find salespeople.”

Again, it’s a $4,000 product. And THEY bought it, because it’s something they really believe in and they wanted. But they are the exception. You need REALLY targeted leads to sell that product. You sure as heck aren’t going to buy MLM leads and sell any $4,000 water filters. There’s no way you can recruit those people, because they won’t buy the product.

There was a time when it was pretty standard in MLM to advertise for salespeople, but not so much anymore. Traditionally, salespeople haven’t done that well in network marketing, for a lot of reasons. Most of all, salespeople can’t train anyone to do what they do, and so what they do is not duplicatable.

What you want in network marketing is a lot of people, with each one doing a little bit. That is the model that works. You can build a big business with that model.

The standard for MLM has always been lotions and potions and vitamins. Outstanding nutritionals & personal care products that get raved about and used up and bought over and over. That is the type of product that creates residual income.

And I would go so far as to say that any product that doesn’t create residual income – people on autoship who buy automatically every month – is NOT an MLM product.

Feel free to argue if you want. But the #1 reason for doing MLM is to create an income that goes on whether you are working or not. And that ONLY happens with people on autoship.

It’s simple. No autoship = No network marketing.

That water filter customer never goes on autoship. So not only is there NO residual income, but you also must be a pretty good salesperson to sell a $4,000 product.

I’m not a salesperson. I cannot do it. Almost everybody out there cannot do it. Can you work and work and work and find someone who can?

Sure. That business has been going for awhile. Here and there, they find a salesperson. But man, what a tough way to build a business.

So it’s really helpful to know where this stuff is in the ebook because when that topic comes up – and it will – you need to be able to direct people to the source that explains their situation. That’s way better than you trying to do it yourself.

That is what I think.

Richard Dennis

PS – I would LOVE to hear your comments on this one …

2 thoughts on “Marketing Insanity – A True Case”

  1. That had to be one interesting conversation. Your working on explaining a system to them and they just want to sell a water filter.
    I couldn’t sell a $150 water system in the past, I cetainly wouldn’t even try to sell one for $4000.

    I hope those folks let some of what you were explaining to them have a chance to sink in. Because like you said, if there not hard closing salepeople who hink people are deadwood till they say yes. They will be in for a lot of disappointment.

    Gary McElwain

  2. Gary,

    When I have a conversation like this with someone, I pay close attention to the sound of their voice. I’m looking to hear an emotion of realization that they might be wise to look at some alternatives.

    I didn’t hear anything like that when this couple was talking. To me, that means they probably need a lot more disappointment before they conclude for themselves that their situation is very, very difficult.

    Richard

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