Following the evolution of network marketing from the past 60 years up to the present, it is simple to see transformation of the industry. The variety of businesses in the industry has vastly increased. Methods people use to recruit and train their organizations have changed. The style of communication has altered completely. Yet one thing has not changed. Creating a network marketing business has always been and will always be about building relationships.
It was a company in 1956 called Amway, which is short for The American Way, that introduced a model of business in direct sales that allowed the average person to make extraordinary money. By using the concept of leverage, the company was able to create a multi-level payout plan that motivates people to want to use, share and sell products as well as create groups of people who want to do the same thing. Today they still market products in the nutrition, health, home and beauty industries.
Over the years, the direct selling industry has evolved several ways, including the kinds of businesses that utilize network marketing. Companies choosing direct sales include those selling legal services, phone services, nutritional supplements, beauty products, baskets, home care, essential oils and anti-aging products, to name a few. Companies differ greatly in compensation plans and the variety of recruiting methods used to attract people to join them.
The direct selling industry is a more open, regulated and acceptable business than in past years when poor practices threw a shadow over this kind of marketing. Companies that did not have a legitimate product or employed shady practices were responsible for people thinking of the industry as a pyramid scheme. Today most multi-level marketing companies have realized the benefits of honest and impeccable practices. We now know to avoid companies with compensation plans that pay by the person signing into their deal rather than the amount of product moved through legitimate chain of distribution.
In the past one could receive a dinner invitation and attend only to find that they had been hoodwinked into attending a business meeting to recruit them for a network marketing company. In an era of people learning to speak authentically and becoming jaded by every opportunity that comes knocking, that approach does not work these days. Honest approaches to the business and companies will go a long way toward increasing the bottom line.
Most recruiters in this industry find that it takes 3 to 7 exposures to a company before a prospect will join. Being open about the kind of person one is looking for and honest in an invitation to check things out, is much more effective in creating prospects that will hold up when they go through the growing pains of building their own business.
Technology has changed the face of recruiting in direct sales forever. An e-mail, webinars, social media as well as online broadcasts allow us to reach out to people, speeding up the process of exposure to the company. Word-of mouth goes a lot faster when it is used on the cell-phone or SKYPE verses sending someone a video by snail mail. Tools, virtually unrecognizable to those early Amway people, have allowed explosive growth with technology.
Building relationships, however slow or fast, using low-tech, high-tech or no-tech methods, has always been the success factor in direct sales. Shared history, activities with friends creates relationships that lower barriers so that people are more open to each other and possibly ready to consider a new project. Things have changed with the evolution of network marketing from the past 60 years up to the present but the basics of human beings have not.
Learn about the evolution of Network Marketing from the past 60 years up to the present now in our overview of how and where to find the best network marketing opportunities