Do You Lead With The Product Or The Opportunity?
Posted by Reyn | February 9, 2009
About a couple of weeks ago, I received a feedback from one of my blog readers. He pointed out an interesting topic.
“Where are your resources on how to build a retail base to a mlm business - the foundation to a legal and honest business which is not focused solely on recruiting people as the title of this blog is focused on - leads and sign ups. I can not find good information which focuses on the importance of retail as every one is more concerned with building downlines or what at the end of the day are product based pyramid schemes … very little retailing by dist. and leaders not teaching it.”
As far as I remember, this topic is as old as the network marketing itself, but this is still the most common debate in this industry. So I want to clarify this in today’s post. Additionally, I also want to bring it up a bit further by answering the classic question: do you lead with the product or the opportunity?
Here’s my view…
First of all, regardless of whether you’re retailing the product or promoting the opportunity, you definitely need leads and ultimately customers (sign ups is more common for the opportunity sde). The difference is just in what you’re offering to your prospects - the benefits of your products OR the opportunity to build your own business.
Having said that, yes, the contents of this blog is focused more on helping people to get leads and sign ups for the opportunity side of MLM. Now, if you’re saying that my way of doing business is a pyramid scheme, you might want to reconsider.
First of all, before joining a MLM program, I always ask myself this question: “Is the product useful? Is it going to help me or my downline improve any parts of our lives?” It’s obvious that if the answer is ‘no’, I WON’T join the program no matter how lucrative its compensation plan is.
But once I know that the product will be beneficial to us and get used, I put less details on the products and focus more on the business opportunity the program offers.
So while many people are extreme to either the product or the opportunity, I prefer to take into account of both sides. Why? Because that’s what MLM is all about - a mixture of consumable/usable product and business opportunity. Without either one of them, you can’t say it’s MLM. If you just concentrating on making money, then you’re building a pyramid scheme. If you’re only retailing the product, you’re just in the traditional sales.
Finally, if you ask me the question: do I lead with the product or the opportunity, here’s my take…
I lead with needs in mind. I start with the problems my prospects are facing. If they are interested in improving their health, I lead with a product that offers the solution. If they are interested in making money online, I lead with business opportunity. Use your common sense. You won’t be suggesting biz opp to your vitamin-deficit prospects or multi-vitamins to biz opp seekers, will you?
But for me, it’s quite troublesome to have to ask everyone what he/she needs…so I choose a smarter approach. I actively look for people who are ONLY interested in my business opportunity. This way, I can be sure that leading with business opportunity will definitely fits them.
Bottom line, focusing on either product or opportunity is not wrong as long as it serve the purpose. I’m open to feedback and discussion, so if you have something to say, just post in the comments below.
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Posted in Network Marketing Debate |
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Yes I agree that we need to consider both. We can’t disregard the other because it helps each other uniformly right? B-)
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Yup. In short, don’t be an extremist
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