Network Marketing – Retail Sales and Recruiting

A lot is said about retailing products vs sponsoring and recruiting in network marketing and MLM. Some network marketing leaders teach a “no selling, just sponsor” philosophy. Others believe in doing a blend of retailing products to customers and sponsoring new distributors.

What is right?

Personally, I believe that some retail sales are a good thing. If you have a truly excellent product and spread the word (as you should), you’ll usually get retail sales as a result. This will occur without you having to specifically focus on retailing. Not everyone will desire to become a distributor. Some will want to try your product.

If you’re new to your network marketing opportunity, you can put some focus on retail sales in the beginning to help raise money for advertising your opportunity and other expenses.

Over the long term, in general -

• sponsoring will produce a much larger, residual income that will continue to grow and come in even when you take a break from your business activities – your income doesn’t depend entirely on your own personal efforts

• retailing will provide immediate income, but is limited by how much time you can spend selling the products

If your goal is to make a substantial long-term residual income, focus on sponsoring and let retail sales come as a natural result of spreading the word. Focus more on retail if you need to raise some money as you begin your business – just remember that sponsoring and building a group is what network marketing is all about. That’s the power in the business.

If you don’t like the idea of sponsoring, you might want to consider a straight direct sales opportunity. In direct sales, the money available to pay distributors is concentrated in the discounts off retail, so you can typically make more on retail selling activity this way.