From: cdb@waikato.ac.nz (Craig D. Beere)
Newsgroups: alt.business.multi-level
Subject: Re: multi-level marketing
Date: 24 Jul 92 14:42:13 +1200
Distribution: alt.business.multi-level
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

In article <black.16@beach.csulb.edu>, 
 black@beach.csulb.edu (Matthew Black) writes:
> The typical method for earning large quantities of money in
> the multi-level marketing business is to find other people
> to earn it for you.  

Not quite.  The method is to find a large number of people who want to do a
little bit, alongside you doing a little bit.

A network is like a whaka (a big canoe) - a lot of people each doing a little 
bit.

> Granted, these top money earners are
> far from lazy, stupid, or innocent.  In fact, they had to 
> work very hard to find other people with the same ambitions
> who would do THEIR work.  

Again, just because you have found them doesn't mean you can stop doing YOUR 
little bit.

> One doesn't get rich selling Amway
> or NuSkin directly to end users; 

Why not?  I know people who have made $1000+/month selling products.

> you only get wealthy by
> selling to other distributors

You can't 'sell' to other distributors.  That would be a pyramid scheme.  Each
distributor should get the products at the same price.

> and then leaching, 

Interesting choice of word.  Why did you use it?  The money you earn from
downline efforts does NOT come out of their money!  They lose NOTHING.

> I mean earning
> a commission, from the people you brought into the business.

I have had this complaint from a few people.  They seem to think that the
people at the top get all the money while the people at the bottom do all the
work.

Some points I use in rebuttal are:

1. The people at the top started at the bottom and got to the top by hard
   work.

2. There is nothing to stop the people at the bottom getting to the top. 
   All they have to do is do some work.

3. What does "at the top" mean anyway?

> Like the popular $1000 pyramid parties from the 70s and 80s,
> you had to find someone else willing to put up $1000.  Eventually,
> there's nobody at the bottom with $1000.  In Amway and other MLM,
> there are plenty of people willing to work for you.  But honestly,
> can you tell me that my neighborhood isn't already saturated with
> Amway salespeople?

Yes I can.  In a poll conducted recently by Network 21 (an Amway support
network) the results were (+/- 4%):

85% of Americans had heard of Amway
7% had seen the marketing plan.

Generally a networking scheme can NEVER saturate!  There are always people
dying and people being born.  How can it saturate when 30,000 people turn 18
each year in New Zealand (3M pop) alone?!

> Just had to add my $.04

Ooh, 4c.  Has inflation hit the humble 2c contribution? :-)

The fact is, saturation is a myth.  Which as we all know is a female moth...

There is heaps of room at "the top", there is no limit on the number of
top-level distributors, no limit at all.

Don't let this saturation bogey-person thing put you off joining something 
which can possibly make your goals and dreams come true.

{*******************************************************************************
** Craig D. Beere  (a.k.a. ++Byron)
** University of Waikato, New Zealand
** CDB@waikato.ac.nz
*}
{$I standard_disclaimer}
{$I witty_quote}