Relaunched it with new products and new leaders, which grew for 7 years, before I sold it all to a $1.5 billion dollar a year company of which I am now a sales leader.
1. Ownership tries to grow too fast … too much hype and too many promises … like it is some kind of race to a record. Fools rush in and they think the exits are locked. If your company is boasting about setting records … take a deep breath.
4. Too many products. New products create spikes in growth, but weigh down the growth for new distributors. Companies get hooked on the growth spikes of new product introductions resulting in years later a bloated product catalog. The product offering ought to always be viewed from the perspective of a brand new rep looking to build.
5. Mediocre products that would never succeed in the marketplace without an opportunity to drive them. This is the biggest mistake companies make in even launching. If your product will not thrive outside of a compensation plan then your company will likely not make it long term. In my estimation, 90% of the MLM companies in the world have products that cannot stand on their own.
6. Mismanage the cash flow. I did this one too. Such that you do not always have the cash to do the most important thing … pay your staff and sales force ON TIME. I never missed a check, but I did call top leaders a few times early in the company’s history and ask them if they would hold their checks for a few weeks … The Kiss of Death. How can people recruit with this in mind? They cannot.
7. Mediocre or no tools to tell the story. Tools to tell the story are critical to duplication. 99% of new distributors cannot tell the story and for those that try, they generally get it wrong … often repeating hype that is not true. But the biggest problem with mediocre tools is people just do not tell the story at all … no recruiting … no duplication … no growth.
8. Not embracing the Network Marketing model. The difference between traditional direct sales and Network Marketing is recruiting. Network Marketing by definition allows and encourages EVERY distributor to build their own team. This creates the compounding effect of growth and the residual income opportunity. Many Network Marketing opportunities would like the world to think they are still just a good old direct selling opportunity … a culture of non-competitive slow or no growth. It is not illegal or immoral to recruit ethically. In fact, it is imperative to growth.
9. Creating a culture of money, houses, cars, bling, and “We are Number One.” We are the fastest, we are the best, we make more millionaires, our products are the best … blah, blah, blah. This is just about the worst culture imaginable and inexcusable in today’s marketplace. Run for the exits.
Telling the sales force what your sales and recruiting numbers are to motivate them. If the company is public it has to. If it is private it does not. Here is the mistake. I tell the sales force what the goal is. I tell you The Great News … sales are up … we hit our goal. I keep telling you this as sales increase. Every month or quarter is good news. I train you to expect to know. You are excited. Everything is great … because we are playing the short-term game. But if I am in it for a 50-100 year business plan what I KNOW is sales some months, some quarters and some years are going to be down … maybe way down. Why? Because we are a business run by and driven by people. Our marketplace is people.
Every company that has been in business for more than 20 years has had major downturns. And when the sales force knows about the downturn … when they know sales are down, recruiting is down and incomes are down … they slow down and their reaction perpetuates the downturn.
Once you start telling them the good news you cannot stop gracefully. You are either forced to tell them the bad news, go dark on them or lie. You would be shocked how many private companies just lie. I guess that is the upside of being a public company. At least you know the truth.
I believe in you,
P.S. Comment below! Tell me what you thought as you read this blog and watched the video. What questions do you have for me?
P.S.S. Do you know what’s definitely NOT a mistake? Grabbing a copy of The Four Year Career® and passing it along to your prospects. This little book will make your opportunity a NO-BRAINER. Grab your copy HERE.