In the beginning, our industry was called MLM (multilevel marketing).
MLM evolved as a result of a marketing team who began marketing nutritional products for a company that became nutrilite. Nutrilite is said to be the first true MLM.

    Nutrilite, now an Amway subsidiary, began marketing vitamin and food supplements back in the 1920's.

    Because marketing has always been a large portion of the selling price of a product (even in traditional sales), MLM was born for more than one reason. 

1. It allows the manufacturer to keep a larger percentage of the sale price.
2. It helps hold the sale price of their product down for the consumer.
3. It helps the company to reduce the costs involved in  presenting their product to the public.
4. It opens new market territories more quickly and economically.
5. And (for you and I---their sales force) it gives average people an opportunity to become independent business owners, at a low start up cost.
6. Their sales force can achieve incomes only limited by our imagination and/or our lack of determinination.

    Direct Sales/Network Marketing is a SYSTEM. Every form of marketing is a system, not just MLM. It is a system that markets products and services directly to the end user (consumer) by using Independent Distributors to introduce (recommend) these products and services to our "warm market" (friends, family, and those we do business with).

    The independent distributor concept has several advantages. Not the least of which is---the company doesn't have to provide a "benefits package" usually associated with traditional marketing. This helps reduce the cost to the company.

    Some of that savings is passed on the the consumer. It allows these companys to produce a better quality product at a more reasonable price. Even services such as telecommunications marketed through MLM can greatly reduce the cost of these services.

    Lower long distance charges are a direct result of MLM. Some may argue it was because of deregulation, but my phone bill didn't lower significantly, until Excel Telecom came on the scene. Deregulation only "allowed" Excel to enter the telecommunications industry.

    Because they can reduce their distribution costs, it enables them to add more of the sale price into the pay plan.

    Regardless of how you and I view MLM, the industry has enabled thousands of average, ordinary individuals with little formal education to become independently wealthy.

    No other type of marketing or industry has enabled an inexperienced sales person to begin a private business at such low start up costs and offer the potential that MLM has provided.

    The MLM industry has faced many challenges in its quest to become accepted as a viable and legitimate form of marketing.

    The most widely recognized case is now a household name. They have withstood the test of time and even the test of a court battle for their vary existence.

    If you aren't already saying to yourself, "he's talking about Amway", I'd be surprised.

    Because MLM was, and still is, described as a system of marketing that uses "word of mouth" advertising as "all you need to do" to promote it, It drew a negative response from all media forms that depend upon advertising for their vary existence. And I believe that response was justified.

    However, trade publications sprang up and captured a share of the advertising budget. Tight controls, with just cause, placed on independent representatives, still hinders and discourages the average distributor from placeing ads. 

    I've not yet found one single MLM company that promotes advertising and trains their distributors how to work within the restrictions they must place on their distributors. Also, the cost of advertising prevents most new distributors from advertising their new venture.

    One trade publication I researched asks you to form  a co-op of 20 to 30 individuals who can afford to invest $200 each to generate interest in your product and opportunity. With full page ads costing thousands of dollars, very few new distributors can afford these costs.

    Closer investigation (research) will reveal an ad co-op with an MLM pay plan that can help your organization leverage their income into affordable advertising.

    I think I should also clarify what I believe to be an incorrect paradigm. The term "word of mouth" advertising is a phrase our industry should not use.

    I say that when we have a vested interest in recommending a product or service that we are, in fact, SELLING. 

    I have no problem telling someone that I am selling a product or service. Because I will only recommend a product or service that has a value equal to or greater than the price, I can recommend these to my friends and family.

    The plain truth is, MLM is "direct sales". 

    I realize that MLM has only been around for a relatively short period of time, and that it is just now coming of age. We must shed some of these barriers, and begin the transition to a true profession. Teaching and learning traditional marketing concepts that will still apply to Network Marketing.

       Most of the barriers or obstacles that those involved in this industry face have been solved by the introduction of the PC and its software. Anyone who doesn't have a PC will still experience the obstacles that "old school" MLM'ers had.

    Anyone who has built a large organization without a computer certainly has my respect. However, anyone trying to build one these days without one, has my sympathy.

    Our industry is growing into a true profession and therefore, many changes are occuring. We should embrace these changes, and recognize they are necessary (and they're a goodthing).

    Many colleges around the U.S. are now offering courses in Network Marketing. Dr. Keith Laggos, owner of a well known trade journal wrote the first college textbook for Network Marketing.

    "Direct Sales---An Overview" by Dr. Keith Laggos, owner of Network Marketing Business Journal, is being used in colleges throughout the country, from Berkeley to Harvard, from UTEP to Utah Valley State College. It has been used in federal court cases as the standard for direct sales/network marketing.

    Direct sales/network marketing is truly "coming of age". Those who resist becoming a true professional will continue to hinder its growth.

    There is enough free information on the Internet that someone with enough time on their hands could do enough research to become a professional network marketer.

    The future of network marketing depends upon us educating ourselves or being educated by others. Professional training seminars and college credited  cources are the "wave of the future" for direct sales/network marketing and Internet marketing.

  Become involved in education and training, or be left behind.

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