How to Profit from your MLM program

In this series I separate the dirt from the gold in MLM revealing:

Why MLM’ers Make the Best Marketers (there’s a twist for ya)

Why Most MLM’ers Fail – And Why They Don’t Have To

Why Being an MLM’er Prepared Me to Dominate Adwords

Secrets of marketing psychology that the network marketing industry teaches better than anyone else.

Even if you have no experience with MLM (and never intend to), what skills and lessons can you “borrow” from the MLM industry to become a more effective marketer?

Were you in MLM years ago, and left the whole experience behind? I’ll put my finger on skills you acquired that currently lay dormant – and activate them

Concept #1: The WIDGET

The most remarkable thing about successful network marketing programs is the amazing quantity and quality of “emotional experience factors” they add to some ordinary consumable product that comes in a bottle and washes down the drain.

The mantra in Amway was always, literally: “Sell Hope Not Soap.”

Hope is a “Widget.” A complex offering with multiple dimensions. Hope comes in many, many packages.

When I was a young pup in Amway I was amazed at the endless variety of ideas, sales pitches and emotional appeals. Here’s a short list:

1. Finally, a business that anyone can do
2. Your children will respect you for finally doing something with your life
3. You’ll build a business you can pass on to your children and your grandchildren
4. You’ll finally learn how to communicate and cooperate with your spouse
5. You’ll walk across the stage as a brand new Diamond and people will rise to their feet in thunderous applause
6. You’ll be proud of what you’ve accomplished
7. You’ll always have a network of people who will come help you change a tire or be with you when the chips are down
8. Moms who take our vitamins have strong, healthy, above-average, smart babies
9. You’ll get things other people don’t get because you’re willing to do things other aren’t willing to do
10. Someday you’ll look back on your life and be glad you didn’t stay in a cesspool of mediocrity like everybody else
11. All the people who said “no” to you will live to regret their decision
12. Dream Weekend will change your life / is changing your life / did change my life
13. Your upline can guide you through any financial decision and you should check with them before making any major purchase.
14. You can and should go to your upline for counseling at least once a month.
15. You can buy any kind of shampoo you want, but only one kind of shampoo is going to pay for your kids’ college education.

Didn’t take me long to come up with these 15 things. In fact you might have heard all of the above in the first 15 minutes of some tape.

Notice: These things have NOTHING to do with soap. Notice how many of them directly presume upon the future.

If you ever deal with poor people, or do social work, or spend time in the “inner city” one of the biggest things you’ll discover is how poor people live in the perpetual present. Sort of like your house cat. For a cat, tomorrow doesn’t seem to exist. Only today, only now. That’s how poor people think.

Successful people think about the future. Some days, they almost live in the future.
Those who sell the future find ways to tie the present to the future and are constantly looking forward.
Those who successfully sell, sell much more than just the “thing.” They also sell the idea, the experience, the
future outcome.

I can’t think of any marketing program, organization or product that loads what they sell with more emotional hooks than Amway did. You could study this sort of thing in a textbook but you’d never, EVER “get it.” You have to *live* it in order to really understand.