Tuesday, October 28, 2008

MLM Strategy - Dangling the Carrot

Your success has nothing to to with your upline having a two million dollars home
and driving a Lamborghini.
I see people joining opportunities based on hype. I also see people that join and stick to a company with a terrible compensation plan just because '' the upline is making $900.000 per year''.
So what? What does that do for you?
That the upline can sell ice to eskimos does not matter.
It's you that matters, and what works for your personality type.
Sell...sell...sell...recruit...recruit...recruit does not work for most of us. That business model is sooooo not duplicatable, even if it does work for a small number of network marketers.
Remember... the heavy hitters have no problem replacing people over and over again...
Someone drops out, so what ? They can recruit another in no time.

They can, they are very good at it, they have the pesonality type to do it and I think that's great.

But that does not mean you and I can do it, and that's perfectly OK. We can be successful without having to try to become a heavy hitter.
Please don't listen to the ones that tell you that you have to change who you are to be successful.
Don't listen to the ones telling you that in order to be successful, you have to recruit your neighbours and make a list of your friends and family.

Another point I want to make when it comes to dangling the carrot strategy is getting paid very little, lets say 1%-2% on your first few levels of your compensation plan .

I know what most of you are going to say: ''But...if I reach level 10 I'll get 40%''.

Here is a reality check:
Most people don't go over levels 2 or 3, and that's statistics, that is not an excuse like some of you might say.
Most people are part-timers and they need to get paid early and they need to get paid fairly and often. Otherwise, what's the incentive for them to stick around?...
And please don't say ''the 40% on level 10''...

I appreciate you,
Daniela Riess

Get Your FREE Success in 10 Steps e-book HERE

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Vampire Network Marketing - Why No One Sells Retail To Mom!

If you talk to 100 people, 99.9 of them will tell you they’ve never sold product retail to Mom. Why?

It’s because:

1. Products are too expensive.

2. You don’t feel right making money off Mom.

What’s the answer?

You must have value-priced products that you’re not ashamed of. The problem in network marketing is, companies have such massive overhead, they have to charge tremendous prices for their products in order to pay a commission.

When that happens, you cannot sell to Mom retail, because you know the price is way too high. So you’re always selling wholesale - and probably, not just to Mom. Most people can’t sell MLM products retail to anybody!

If your payplan is all about wholesale - in other words, it’s “recruit, recruit, recruit” - where is your retail profit?

If you’re in a business opportunity and it’s always about “recruit”, new blood, new blood, new blood … it’s called Vampire Network Marketing. You need to ask yourself whether you can have long-term success in a business where nobody sells products retail.

Hint: there’s a real logical answer to this question.


By my good friend and mentor - Michael Dlouhy

I appreciate you,
Daniela Riess
772.418.0950

Get Your FREE Copy
of the Success in 10 Steps e-book HERE

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Two Little Words That Scream, “Network Marketing Scam!”

Word #1: probably the biggest scam ever run on people in MLM network marketing is the powerline.

The worst thing you can ever do building your business is to create fear of loss. It’s the worst way to build your business. Oh, yes, it definitely works … to get people in. But you have a totally false business, because you’ve got a bunch of people, and none of them ever does anything.

Word #2: Many companies that do a powerline - or even a binary or a matrix - focus their promotion talk on spillover. Now, I have met people who have gotten spillover, definitely. BUT - none of the people that were spilled over on them ever did anything! Why?

Because the promise of “spillover” creates a welfare mentality. What happens when you tell people, “Oh, get in NOW, and you are going to get spillover!”

They’re afraid of losing something for nothing. So they do get in now … and then they sit and wait for all that spillover to make them rich.

Isn’t That A Wonderful Business Plan?

It’s like joining a binary because you can get a position that already has $1 million volume in the strong leg. The reality is, you don’t make a dime, unless you build the weak leg, But people get so worked up about losing that “$1 million position”, they join … and never do anything, and never earn any income.

So never forget those words, powerline & spillover. Anytime you see them, their purpose is to promote the welfare mentality. Something for nothing, something for nothing, something for nothing.

The fact is, you are in network marketing. Network marketing is a business that takes work. It’s net-work marketing, ok? it’s not net-free marketing. It’s not net-spillover marketing. It’s not net-zero marketing, it takes work. Anything you do that promotes the “something for nothing” mindset will not work. End of story.

But you will draw in a bunch of couch potatoes who are convinced that you are going to build it for them. Matter of fact, you can even give them your bank account number, and you’ll just pass the money directly to their account. They don’t have to leave the couch. They can stay on the couch, drink their beer and watch a football game. No problem.

Use Those Two Words As A Tip

Whatever company or whatever distributor is saying them to you, that is not the company or the person you want to depend on long-term. They will not be successful. Keep on looking. There are lots of good companies & MLMers out there. Keep looking, and you’ll find the right mentor.

by my good friend and mentor Michael Dlouhy

I appreciate you,
Daniela Riess

Get your FREE Success in 10 Steps e-book

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Handling Criticism in Your MLM Business

I have a plaque on my wall that says, “What anybody else thinks about me is none of my business.” I like that sentiment, because it’s easy to get caught up in what other people say about you, or to you. You have to please yourself first. It’s always possible that criticism may give you a helpful hint, but too often, it’s just misplaced anger. Somebody else sees how you do things and it doesn’t match with how they would do things, so you must be wrong. Taking comments like that to heart can really hurt your network marketing progress.

Sometimes we attack the criticizer. That’s not too productive. It just puts more focus on the negative, makes you think about it longer, takes you away from result-producing activities.

If the guns are being fired directly at you, the real key is to stay cool. Keep your focus. Do whatever you need to do to not begin some back-and-forth battle. What works for me is thinking of my perfect day. Anytime I feel the start of an outside attack, I picture my perfect day in great detail. The result is, the anger does not draw me in. I’m able to stay calm and talk to the person, and the mean words just roll off my back.

One thing I know for sure is that if you react to it, the battle will ramp up. The criticism will get harsher and there will be more of it. The better able you are to relax and maybe picture YOUR perfect day in great detail, the beauty of that day, the sooner the other person will just let go and relax, too. You can’t fight long with no opponent.

by my good friend and mentor Michael Dlouhy

I appreciate you,
Daniela Riess
Success in 10 Steps

Monday, October 13, 2008

Business models drive the behavior


Business models drive the behavior in the field.You cannot change the model. You can only work with it.

Some companies have a business model of very high-priced products which could never be sold to the public on product merit alone. The only way they can be sold is as a money-making opportunity. THAT business model creates an atmosphere of “recruit, recruit, recruit.” And you’re setting yourself up for massive failure.

Think about this. Marketing Principle #1 anywhere in the world is that a business sells products or services for a profit. If your business can’t do that, and you only earn profits by recruiting people … who recruit people who recruit people who recruit people … THAT is not normal! THAT is absolutely not sound marketing. THAT will end up getting the attention of the feds.

Companies that only recruit instead of retailing products or services usually have a very good reason. Which is, their products or services are way over-priced, so no one could ever actually sell them. Don’t put yourself at that competitive disadvantage.
By Michael Dlouhy

I appreciate you,
Daniela Riess
772.418.0950

Powerful Networking Secrets

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Why Most Network Marketers Do Zero Retail Business


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.

by Michael Dlouhy

Get your free copy of Success in 10 Steps ebook HERE

I appreciate you,
Daniela Riess
772.418.0950