Today we are going to talk about how to choose a good network marketing company.

First, we are going to talk about what comes first: the product or the comp plan. Next, I’m going to share some important components when choosing a company. Lastly, I’m going to share a major key to understand when you’re picking.

What comes first: the comp plan or the product?

Honestly a lot of that has to do with you, not the comp plan or the product. I know people that have made millions of dollars in a company that if you analyze their comp plan, wasn’t the greatest comp plan. I’ve seen a lot of people get into a really impressive comp plan and they didn’t do the work and they didn’t make money. I’ve seen people that have gotten in with a product that was you okay. I am an ambassador of network marketing or a fan of network marketing. It helped me get out of my very bad financial situation after the real estate market crash. I’m a huge advocate for network marketing. Doesn’t mean I think it’s the only business choice ever, it doesn’t mean that I think it’s the most perfect thing ever.

I just think that it is the business that is the lowest risk, lowest overhead way for the average ordinary person to start a business and that’s why I’m such an advocate for it. I think that this kind of business (unlike a franchise or a mom and pop pizza shop or whatever) this kind of business is something that could impact the most number of people, that’s why I’m an advocate for it. But what you will find is people will say “oh no, it’s has to be the comp plan” because for them it was. You’ll find people say, “no, no, no, it’s has to be about the product” because for them it was. Just know that it really is going to come down to you. You can have the greatest product and the greatest comp plan all at the same time and if you don’t do the work, it’s not going to matter.

It’s just not going to matter if you don’t do the work. There are only four components that create success inside of network marketing. No matter what the comp plan is, no matter what the product or services, no matter the timing of it, no matter what markets it’s open in. The four things that come down to success are pipeline, posture, position and perspective. These are things we talk a lot about here on this blog and our YouTube channel. We are not going to dive into all of them today, but one, I will talk about is pipeline. How many people you’re reaching out to, following up with, setting appointments with, et cetera. It doesn’t matter what the comp plan is if you’re not doing that, doesn’t matter what the product is if you’re not doing that. You have to understand that it is your level of effort, it is your work ethic that’s going to dictate a lot of your success, not comp plan or product. 

What are some important components when you are deciding what company to go with?

Some of the most important components that I’ve seen that would at least influence my decision (and now that you’re going to be educated, maybe influence yours) is culture and community. Let’s talk about those two first.

Culture is how are people made to feel when they enter that organization. Is it hard charging where every person needs to be a rock star or every person needs to have really high goals and high desires. Well if that’s the case, that’s actually going to make it tough for you to make long-term residual because as soon as you’re bringing people in, there’s going to be more people leaving because they don’t feel like they fit in. When it’s that high charging everyone’s got to be a rock star, everyone’s got to win and make big goals, well that’s not reality. Imagine if you were in a corporate infrastructure and no one was allowed to stay at their position for very long because everyone had to be fired up? You became a secretary…”when you’re going to be middle manager?
you better get going, you better be motivated. Well people May feel… “I don’t really want to be middle manager, what’s wrong with you?” It creates an environment of too much aggression and for certain personality types, that’s awesome, they need that. They need that energy to plug into, but for a lot of people, that’s not the case.

This is a combination of levels of desire and timing. I’ve seen people that were in network marketing for years and not make money but then timing changed and they went on to crush it. Had they been pressured all that time then they would have left that company because no one wants to feel like a disappointment and that’s what happens when there’s too much aggression, too much pushiness. Instead of that, make people feel good regardless of their level of desire, level result, that’s good culture. If I came into your organization and I didn’t do a darn thing, would I be chastised? Would I be frowned upon? Would people reach out to me, “hey, are you going to do anything or what? If that’s the case then you might be concerned about that culture because it’s going to chase off people as soon as you’re bringing them in. You’re going to bring in 10 people and you’ll see eight going out the back. You want to be aware of that.

Community, what kind of community do they have? How do you plug in? How do they stay connected as a community? This used to be more straightforward before the internet and before the pandemic. It used to be more straightforward, “oh we are going to have a barbecue or we are going to meet at the picnic tables or whatever.” But now that most network marketers have the ability to build global teams, there’s a thing of timing. I have a client in Australia, I do trainings for them at five in the morning for me, because that’s their best time to be on and so you have to manage the virtual nature of managing and working with teams along with time zones. How’s the company doing that? Are they handling that, are they taking care of that or are there certain time zones maybe yours that’s being ignored that you would not be able to plug into, that’s something to consider.

Another thing I would look at is what is the system. If I come into this organization and I want to build, what is the system, what is it? Most people don’t understand the definition of a system but they’ll tell you a piece of a system. So if I say, “hey, do you have a system?” they will always say yes. Yes, we do, you just follow it. What’s the system? They will say, “well you send people this video or you send people the sample and you follow up with them.” Well that’s part of a system, but when I bring people in, what happens? Do you have a system for that? When they bring people in, what do they do? Do you have a system for it? You want to have a system that is encompassing of you bringing people in, them bringing people in. Can everyone follow this system regardless if they’re an influence or not? Regardless if they graduated high school or college, regardless of where they are as long as they’re in the market that’s open. I would pay attention to their system for building. 

Before I get to my last point, I would love to hear from you.

What is (and please don’t say company names, we don’t have to do that or post links) but what was the number one reason you joined your company? Try to boil it down to something we all can understand without having to know what company you’re in. What was that one reason that made you choose your current company. I would love to know. Is it that you really fell in love with the product? That we could understand. Is it the comp plan? Is it because you knew people over there and they were just the greatest people on the planet? What was the number one reason that made you pick your current company? 

What’s the major key to understand before you decide?

The major key for your success at the end of the day is going to come down to your consistency. How consistent are you? I want to make a prediction and give you a vision if you’ve tried a lot of things and never stuck with them. I want you to ask yourself this question. What makes this time different? If you don’t ask that question, you run the risk of repeating the same pattern. They say that the lesson is repeated until it’s learned. Why weren’t you consistent in whatever those other endeavors were? Why will you be consistent here, what’s the difference? Is it desire? Do you have a larger desire? Is it you’re in a situation where you have to play whereas in the past it was optional. What’s the reason? You have to get that, regardless of the company. They can roll out the greatest brochures on the planet, the greatest videos with rockstar’s Jay-Z and Kanye or whatever. They can have the greatest of everything but if you’re not consistent and you’re not doing the work, you’re not going to make money, you’re not going to build that business.

What makes this time any different. By the way, this is a powerful question if you’re building a network marketing business and you talk to someone who has tried a bunch of different things, ask them what makes this time any different. That’s something I used to ask people and then they would tell me and I would know if they were serious or not. Just know that your level of consistency is such a key to your success. 

This may help.

I’m going to give you a resource that will really help with that as well. Here is the link to me live coaching people on consistency, helping them be more consistent and figure out why they are not, higdongroup.com/breakthrough. If you are serious about growing your network marketing business and maybe doing a little bit of emotional work and understanding that your business problem is a personal problem, it’s not a tactical problem (it’s often misidentified) then click the link above. I think it’ll really help you.

Ray Higdon

Play Bigger. Make An Impact.


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