Overcoming your fears with starting a new online business can be a challenging time. You will have many thoughts passing through your mind,such as:-
Is it true or is it a scam.
Does the product produce expected results
How can I sell the product
Who can I sell to
Will I make money
What will my Friends and Family think
How can I find the money to start.
Who will support me
What if I fail
You need to carry out due diligence, this generally means checking how long the company has been in existence, what is the track record of the people, running the business , carry out searches on Google and generally avoid new start up companies.
Many people choose the Multi Level Marketing (MLM) route. Which is both popular but also likely to fail due to over priced products, leaving distributors with a stockpile of products which they are unable to sell to friends and family.
There is an easy way to check on the value of a product by searching on the likes of Amazon and E bay for the products you are looking to sell and see what price they can be brought at auction. If the auction price does not reach the price you have to pay as a distributor you are likely to have difficulty finding customers.. Some MLM companies restrict you from selling online as they know their products are overpriced in order to pay commissions.
I would not suggest selling to friends and family unless the product provides a solution to their particular needs, a few might buy because they feel sorry for you but you can lose many friends.
Gather as much information about the products you are going to be selling, looking carefully at testimonials, as well as using the products yourself, this helps you speak from the heart when talking to potential customers.
The truth behind success begins with having a good product and being able to market it to potential customers at a price they are prepared to pay. Few people have experience of marketing, however having access to the right tools could be the difference between success and failure. You see all companies offer you a website but how do you get people to go to it.
I am a member of a social/ business network called MarketHive, which I invite you to join for free as it not only has the ability to promote your products, but we have experienced marketers who will help you be in profit within 30 days. Gone are the days of having a sponsor who starts you off makes money from you and then leaves you floundering. We can show you how to put you products in front of millions of people on social media.
If your start up finances are stretched we have a turn key solution. Feel free to contact me
When you first start a business you need to identify a product that you can sell on the open market at a profit, which usually rules out MLM products as most are overpriced, with even distributors struggling to move products at even the distributor price.
What if I told you there was a popular product drunk by millions of people on a daily basis, made from 100% natural product, which not only satisfies people thirst but has the added advantage of helping people to lose weight..
The number of overweight people throughout the world is increasing alarmingly, such that governments like the UK are considering a sugar tax on popular fizzy drinks. During my work every day I see many overweight people and watch them struggle to complete simple tasks. Perhaps I am one of the lucky few who was throughout my life been able to keep my weight within controllable limits.
Having a product that sells well and makes money online is a great start for any business, however you need also to be able to market the product. The milliennials and older make heavy use of social media, so this is where you need to focus your advertising and any sites you use must be set up to be mobile friendly. I use a system called MarketHive which enables me to get my message across to millions of people with the simple push of a button.
I suppose that the hardest part of the processof making money online is actually writing the blog posts, but even here the MarketHive system has what is called blog swipe where you can edit and use someone else's blog, adding your own twist to the story and pointing it to your own capture pages. It does not become much easier than this.
Unlike a traditional MLM, you will find the members of MarketHive's business and social network are a friendly bunch, willing to help one another achieve their goals, even though they may be in different lines of the business. this cooperation is the root of MarketHive's success.
If you have struggled in the past to make money online, like I have in the past, this could be a life changer, please contact me if you want more details.
Most MLM emers seem to end up to end up with excess products that they can't sell at a profit because the products are overpriced in the first place. You only have to look on E bay and you will see what I mean. Some companies even ban members from selling except from approved sites online.
I have found a company who is different and not only do they have a good weight loss product but it sells at a competitive price so that Independent Representatives can still make a profit even when selling at auctions.
Now some people face challenges when it comes to marketing, partly due to the price of the product as mentioned above and sometimes because the do not know where to start. Now I have teamed up with a company called MarketHive which is making a special offer to all people who join Valentus at the $500 (Ruby) level. Now $499 is a lot of money, however you starter pack product if sold online will recover this cost and put you in profit.
MarketHive special incentive is an upgrade in MarketHive to the Alpha Entrepreneur membership level. This is an amazing deal as it normally costs $5000 and includes One time deposit of $10,000 in Ad credits and contributes $300 in Ad credits per month so long as the member maintains their Ruby level, if you drop below ruby level month credits will be suspended until you return ruby level.
Within MarketHive you will find a new type of entrepreneur, groups of people who will go the extra mile to ensure you can build this business, teaching you how to extend your reach in social media. We currently have Valentus groups in the UK, Europe, and the USA, so you will not be alone, we all help one another, no matter which group you are part of.
All the tools you will ever need, blogs, auto-responders, rotators, combined with active social media media, messaging and conference rooms.
Many people join an MLM company as a distributor, only to find, that their so called sponsor, offers little help or advise, because he or she earns from sponsoring you and is in reality in competition with you about building his business. You can be left with draws or cupboards full of product which you are unable to sell to friends or family. Does this sound familiar with you.
People tend to recruit distributors, who in reality are little more than customers as they do not recruit many in any customers. Customers are the key to building a success business, so you need to carry out some preparatory work in the area of marketing to start making contact with potential customers.
One thing I have learnt in the years I have been working online is it is easier to to become successful if you are supplying customers with some thing that suits their need, rather than trying to persuade a potential distributor to part with money to set up a business.
One problem a distributor faces is that they become a one man band who has to do everything, however, I have found an answer thanks to the foresight of Tom Prendergast, and his development team who have created a social media and marketing site, where budding entrepreneurs, gather and discuss and help one another to build each others business. It does not matter who you are, what you know or where you live, you will be helped along the road to success.
One example is the promotion of a company who has realised that customers are at the centre of success for their independent business owners. The resources of MarketHive are used by interested groups who work together blogging and sharing information, on social media ,within not only their own sphere of influence but also those of other members involved. The result is you communication can reach millions of people at the push of a button.
It is a mind boggling concept that is starting to stir the industry, if you would like to learn more about swarm marketing, I would like to invite you to contact me
It has been my agenda for nearly 20 years to reform an industry that is for the most part built upon a shifting and unreliable foundation that has always been broken and is heading for total annihilation. If you have attempted to build a business in MLM Network Marketing) you will relate to what I am addressing.
For over a decade this vision has grown in urgency and definition to help direct a broken industry towards developing a customer based centered direct sales model. All of this was originally inspired by a maverick move towards customer acquisition by a company called Trivita. In 2001 I was introduced to this new direction in MLM by the simple statement, just buy your customers. I had already been engaged in the MLM industry for nearly 10 years at that time. My first exposure to MLM was in 1992 with the first to market a consumer (customer) based ISP, nationwide dialup Internet access for $20 per month.
I have been an entrepreneur my whole adult life and a good portion of my teen years as well, with my first business started at the age of 14. Prior to my exposure to MLM, I was and still am a traditional business entrepreneur. Therefore to say, I found the MLM model of exclusive distribution to and consumption by distributors and only motivated to this action by pursuing profit; "alien, illogical and disturbing".
Let me explain:
My introduction and very successful sojourn with Trivita helped me discover the stark contrast between the artificial economies of a distributor based sales company in contrast to a customer based sales company. I studied this comparison for many years and it became painfully clear, the reason traditional MLM fails, regardless of the compensation plan, regardless of the motivational speakers, regardless of the training to sell the “Hope and Dreams” as that is the only way to promote when the products and or services are frankly, always overpriced and usually underwhelmingly ineffective. There are very few exceptions. So the glaring difference I found in Trivita was the fact that for every distributor I recruited, I averaged 100 customers. Then the fact, I did not have to sell Hope and Dreams and instead, the pitch was just buy customers. The reaction from the potential distributor was always extremely positive and the close rate of a distributor was very high. When you factor in that every distributor usually meant 100 customers, the potential success was superior to anything else like it.
This was just a company that offered co-op acquisition of the leads and customers Trivita acquired via their infomercials and not much else. Even Trivita’s products lacked true demonstrability and the pricing was not competitive. The only viable benefit regarding being customer centric was the fact you could just buy customers, that for the most part, only about 20% stayed a viable reorder over the years.
Because of this one aspect with Trivita, I have enjoyed a significant income for over 10 years with little attention, a true residual income. Over the years as a vendor to the MLM industry, occasionally getting involved with a few companies because I was promised they were going to offer customer centric solutions. None of them ever did and in my opinion, the super majority of MLMs are run by greedy sociopathic owners, that understand the game and that being the 3 month rule. They build their businesses to inspire, motivate and separate their new distributors from as much money and contacts they can. They know their business model only attracts distributors seeking some semblance of financial success therefore they lay their snares with grand claims of Hopes and Dreams. I consider it borderline criminal. Now we finally arrive to the meat of this article, that being what is a true Customer Centric direct sales company look like. Being that there really isn’t any yet, we have to go to the imagination and vision that to some part is guided by good business principles and look at some of the true customer centric businesses on the scene today.
Amazon could easily be the epitome of customer centric.
Wow. “Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company.”
That is big, it’s bold, and it’s risky for a brand to make the promise to fulfill on that 24/7 every week of the year.
Service recovery design pays off
Of course the shopping and purchasing experience on Amazon has been exceptional for years. But what if a customer has a post-purchase problem? A big part of customer experience design is a focus on “service recovery,” or designing and refining the process when something goes wrong for the customer. Beloved brands like Zipcar know this is a critical opportunity for delivering moments of delight.
The latest results from the American Customer Satisfaction Index reveals Amazon.com as the reigning and undisputed champ in both Internet retailing and across the entire department in overall customer satisfaction. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos perhaps more than any business leader has taken the philosophy of truly caring for the customer and ushered it into the digital era. Bezos has built a company from the ground up purely based off of the unbending, unyielding philosophy of serving the customer across all departments. With a 164 million Amazon customers, few would argue Bezos as the key architect of building an authentic, customer-centric company.
1. Don’t Just Listen to Your Customers, Understand Them
Everyone has to be able to work in a call center.”
2. Serve the Needs of the Customer
“We’re not competitor obsessed, we’re customer obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.”
3. The Empty Chair
The Most Important Person in the Room “Focusing on the customer makes a company more resilient.”
4. Never Settle for 99%
“We’re not satisfied until it’s 100%.”
5. Respect Today’s Customer
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet,
they can each tell 6,000.”
6. Strive to Create a Customer-Centric Company
“If we can arrange things in such a way that our interests are aligned “with our customers, then in the long term that will work out really
“well for customers and it will work out really well for Amazon.”
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Apologize
“We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”
Over the past two decades, Amazon has held a steady pace of positive press due to their industry-altering company and great customer service. However back in 2009, the foundations of the online book mogul were shook when they remotely deleted copies of the books “1984” and “Animal Farm” from users’ Kindles. The incident prompted an outcry of Internet users to see the dark, “Big Brother” side of Amazon – one that Bezos had worked hard to steer clear of. Amazon quickly made an apology with the usual dry and inhuman statement from the press team. But what really turned people back towards Amazon, was an informal and heartfelt apology from Jeff Bezos:
From “MLM” aka “Network Marketing”,
to a sustainable Coop Customer based Marketing Platform!
Now the vision for a better kinder direct sale company
I have run MLM companies, built them, serviced them as a vendor and engaged with them as a distributor for more than 20 years. I have touched and serviced and influenced over 100 million associates over this period of time. The following is my agenda to change this industry to service the little guy and gal, offering a real solution to build a middle class sustainable income for everyone, not just the elite few, we know as “leaders” in their respective company.
1. A Viable and Competitive Product
First and foremost, the “company” must offer a viable product and or service that does what it says and better than any of their competitors and better yet, have a product or service that has no legitimate competition. I could go into great detail here about the MLM industry and their underwhelming and over priced products with many making spurious claims to eventually be shut down by the FDA, etc.
2. The Virtual Warehouse
This may be putting cart before the horse. Inspired by Amazon’s virtual warehousing for their merchants selling in Amazon, it is time the MLM industry moves forward with a similar solution. Storing and paying additional shipping, your monthly product commitment in your spare bedroom, garages or den has been the standard fro decades. With today’s technology and database management abilities, there is no excuse to not move toward a virtual solution for distributors. This can be done in house by the company, or, use Amazon’s virtual warehousing that is available on a global scale.
This one upgrade to this industry will make reselling, shipping and distribution automated and easy for every distributor, regardless of location or available storage abilities. Bottom line is a doubling or greater movement of product.
3. Customer and Lead co-op acquisition
This is where the company marketing people run ads, driving vertically targeted prospects to an 800 number or website, acquiring quality pre enrolled prospects or customers who have purchased or best have enrolled into auto ship. The distributor’s contribution enhances the company’s budget and the “partnership” enhances the customer’s retention. The company also makes available to the distributor mailing lists to their “enrolled leads and customers” to assist in the continued purchases etc. It is a win win situation and is a proven technique as proven by Trivita.
4. Becoming an E Retailer (automated back office shipping)
Now that the distributors have their inventory, products and samples (if applicable), online, in an offsite virtual warehouse, the process to send product or samples becomes effective and easy. As simple as logging into the back office of their respective MLM company, entering the product (pulling from existing inventory and/or purchasing additional inventory), quantity, and drop ship address, with a simple click, the product or sample is easily on the way, while the distributor is still talking to their prospective client, prospect or distributor on the phone. This seamless process makes the potential growth of the company and distributor 100 times greater than the typical cumbersome processes today.
5. 800 telemarketing service platform
Today’s technologies not only make this proposed service affordable, but extremely effective. Typically, new distributors are assigned an ID# number. The number resides within the servers database to track sales, commissions, etc. of the distributor. Thus the hardest part is already done for an 800 sales number. [A little explanation of current tech] 800 number technology software interfaces display the originating number, or forwarded number. IE: If the distributor develops a radio commercial with a phone number (toll free or not) then forwards that number to the company 800 number, all he or she needs to do is register that number (via the back office) or calling it in. This way the telemarking operators receiving the incoming calls, or the technology, know who originated the call and the orders are taken and assigned appropriately to the distributor.
It can be as simple as the distributor takes a call from an ad, the prospects decides to buy the product. The distributor can easily 3 way into the 800 platform and assist the sale. It can be as easy as an ad running offering a product with the company main toll free number offering free shipping and handling with the special pin number. It can be very easy to build.
Imagine the projected results with the distributors taking the initiative, no more need for mentors, no more need for narcissistic leadership, no more need for motivational events, because the motivation is found in the system and the results. Imagine!
6. API (Application Programming Interface).
Distributor selling on Amazon, Ebay, Alibaba, etc.
Basically, the MLM company has an API developed that interfaces with Amazon, Ebay, etc for the distributor. This allows the distributor to develop an online store on Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba, etc, drive and support the prospects and customers, but the sale interfaces through the company. Thereby the company controls the pricing, collects the money (connected to the distributor) and ships the product. All the collecting, shipping, tracking and commissions paid out is done by the company.
API: In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types.
Basically allows the company to remotely control pricing,
merchant collection, shipping and communication via the
Traditional MLM companies give a distributor a self-replicated web site that is upfront and focused on selling the Hopes and Dreams of the opportunity, the money, the comp plan, the hype and flash of it all, designed to recruit more distributors. This is death to a retail customer. Very few MLM companies even consider a dedicated self-replicated retail sales only site for their various products. I have yet to even hear of any companies making a simple widget that allows the distributor to have the retail site hosted via the widget on their own domains, much less the ability to add any customization to it. Below is one of the first and rare MLM retail sites I am aware of. It sells the coffee, the coffee benefits offers one off sale and free shipping with autoship.
Marketers, merchants, etc. need a portfolio of tools, to get the message out, to build awareness, to build a sphere of influence and to build a customer and distributor centered loyalty program. Very few people, even entrepreneurs have all the skill sets to achieve this. However, automated marketing, email auto responders, social broadcasters, coop advertising, blogging platforms, materials and videos are necessary tools for the entrepreneur. When you do not supply these types of tools in a controlled environment, the message being broadcasted may not meet the criteria of the company nor abide by regulations.
There are solutions and Markethive is one of the best options. Markethive supplies all of these tools and more, integrated and easily configured and controlled within the communities vertical structures built for DSA companies like yours. It is called the company Directories and within a company portal in Markethive, your distributors will find all they need; Broadcasting platforms, self-replicating personalized PDF documents, Coop advertising systems, blogging platforms, email auto responders, everything needed for marketing, in one place.
9. Training and videos
I do not mean motivational speakers and cheer leading. I mean, real world training how to build the businesses. Daily classes offered by competent experienced teachers, so the distributors develop a strong understanding, expanding their customer territory and acquisition and operate like a real business.
Summary;
With the accelerated market place awash in innovation and technology, technology that puts the human element right into the center of the equation, you can understand why you see the MLM industry sluggish and many companies dying on the vine and others falling flat on their faces with their much heralded launches. Entrepreneurs (distributors) that once upon a time, a flashy video, a charming pitch man, and a compelling comp plan, worked to explode the next greatest MLM launch.
Not today.
It is only a matter of time a young bold, innovative entrepreneur launches the first true customer centric MLM similar to the framework I have discussed here. And when they do, the world will quake, the swamps will empty and the first multi trillion MLM enterprise will rise to srtand head to toe with the great innovations today like Facebook Google, PayPal etc.
Written by:
Thomas Prendergast
CMO: Markethive
Since this article was written a new comany Valentus is looking to build on this model in conjuction with MarketHive
When we set out to build MarketHive, we recognized WordPress to be the world leader in Blogging platforms. We will never dispute that nor attempt to overcome or replace WordPress.
Our goal is to make WordPress better with our blogging platform and CMS enhancements. Case in point is our WordPress (MarketHive) plugin(s). We have several but this plugin is designed to import and manage your content you produce on MarketHive into your one or multiple WordPress blog(s). Without MarketHive, to manage a (blog cloud) portfolio of many WordPress on multiple domains with unique content on each of them for different agendas and markets, especially with a moderate to large team of content producers becomes a literal nightmare.
Why WordPress Is The Best Website Platform
There are many different ways of creating a website, you can purchase industry standard software like Dreamweaver and take courses to understand how to use it, or you can use content management software such as WordPress that allows you to quickly and easily get a website live within minutes. This is one of the many reasons why WordPress is the best website platform for beginners and professionals alike.
With WordPress, you are getting a system that takes minutes to install on your server, and then access to thousands of free and paid themes. Your website will look professional from the moment you start. Furthermore, there’s a wide range of plugins and widgets that can easily be applied to the site to make it more user friendly and interactive.
And the only skills you need are the ability to write, click the mouse button and add this stuff in. It really is easy to add content, it’s just like posting on a forum really, and has a very low learning curve. But, because of its flexibility, you can be as basic or advanced as you feel, and as you grow to learn more about it, so to will your site grow and utilize new concepts and designs being created for WordPress.
Here’s some other great aspects about the WordPress system:
WordPress is Open Source:
This means it is free, other people can easily create themes, plugins and so on for you to use with it, and it is completely flexible.
WordPress is Quick to Setup:
This means you can focus on having several websites and easily be able to maintain them all without having to create them all from scratch. This is particularly useful if you are getting into internet marketing for example. You can have many websites set up for different products you are selling.
WordPress Gives Multi User Functionality:
Are you a small business or organization that requires more than one person to add content to the site? Again, WordPress can help. It enables the site owner to set up users for them to post to the site. What’s more, certain privileges can be applied to these users so they only have access to posting content, and therefore not be able to mess around with the functional side of the site.
Website and Blog All-in-One:
Although WordPress is set up more as a blogging platform, it is still very easy to configure it to be a standalone site, with a blog attached. There are many plugins which make this even easier to do, and so any small business or organization can have a website and blog created in a couple of hours that looks great, and is ready to go.
Backing Up and Security:
WordPress is very easy to back up, and there are many secure plugins to choose from to make it more secure than it already is.
These are just a few of the most important reasons why WordPress is the best website platform, but there are many more. It’s major advantages are the low learning curve, and speed of having a site up and running. If you are a person who needs a website, but has little time and money to set one up, then WordPress is your friend. It’s a fantastic system used by millions of people across the globe.
MarketHive is continuing its development of its WordPress plugs and widgets to enable its members to quickly and easily set up WordPress sites, which can then gather and distribute information from fellow entrepreneurs across the Internet .
Popular social networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and twitter are a good way to increase your reach and communicate with others. An increasing numbers of businesses are also using using these social networks to get their messages across to customers. Inbound marketing such as this is on the rise whilst the response to Outbound Marketing, such as cold calling, bulk emailing and leafleting is on a decline.
Inbound marketing is permission-based marketing, for example people join interest groups on social media or subscribe to sites or email. They are generally looking for answers or advice to problems rather than a hard sell. Providing useful information is the key to success.
One of the questions often asked is how to increase your social media reach without spending hours and hours working online and this is where MarketHive can help everyone from the work at home mum's, to small and large business, because it provides not only a social/business network, to share success or ask questions but also methods and tools to maximise your reach. In the shortest possible time.
A short while ago my reach was perhaps 500-1,000, however now it is well over 1,000,000 and I am only working one day a week. Potential customers are now starting to contact me, because they are interested, rather than me having to spend time contacting people who may or may not be interested in what I am doing.
Most MLM emers seem to end up to end up with excess products that they can't sell at a profit because the products are overpriced in the first place. You only have to look on E bay and you will see what I mean. Some companies even ban members from selling except from approved sites online.
Many people join an MLM company as a distributor, only to find, that their so called sponsor, offers little help or advise, because he or she earns from sponsoring you and is in reality in competition with you about building his business. You can be left with draws or cupboards full of product which you are unable to sell to friends or family. Does this sound familiar with you.
