Multi-level marketing is a powerful tool to gain new customers as well as numerous supporters for your product. It has been used by many large companies, including Avon and Mary Kay cosmetics. There are many different ways that you can incorporate MLM into your business, and begin to see spikes in sales. Unlike many other marketing plans, MLM can be used in whatever dose you see fit. If you want to change your entire company over to MLM, that is possible, or you can just have a few MLM associates.

The first step to getting MLM rolling in your company is to draw up a detailed plan of how the entire thing will work. MLM plans work by recruiting individuals who act as miniature versions of your business. These individuals take it upon themselves to go out and sell the product of the mother company through events such as parties (or plain old one on one marketing). They receive a commission of the sale price, and the company receives all of the remaining profit. This is the basic premise; however in the past there have been many different ways to execute this.

One way to reward MLM associates is to simply give them a cash payout for each of the products they sell. This can be a fixed amount for each one, or a percentage of their overall earnings. These funds can build up in an account, and then pay out when they reach a certain amount (or when a certain date rolls around). Another option is to offer the associates rewards from a catalog of products. Their funds build up in the same way, but then they are only redeemable for the various reward items. This is usually a money saver for the company, since the reward items can be purchased at below retail price.

The trick do being a successful MLM-based company is to make the associates happy with what they are receiving for labor, while keeping the cost of the rewards down. When companies can reach the perfect balance, they will earn a good amount of money on each sale, and many people will be lining up to become representatives of the company. Since the associates can increase their own rewards by selling more, they are personally motivated to get the word out and sell as much of the product as they can. MLM companies would say that this works better than any other form of marketing.

Once you have drawn out the plan for how the rewards in your MLM plan will work, you can start to recruit associates. Usually a good place to start is the family of current employees. After people start realizing that they can make some money and sell products, interest in your company will snowball. Just be sure that your plan is attractive to potential representatives, and that you reward them fairly without cutting too much into your own profit. It may also help to look at the business models of popular MLM companies such as Tupperware, and find out what they are doing to be so successful.


Brian Hackett, CEO
MLMNetworker