Network Marketing Involves No Selling

Tired of the 9-to-5 rat race? Tired of making your boss rich while you do all the work? Interested in starting your own business and making yourself rich? Have an idea for a business opportunity? Did you find a business opportunity that looks “promising?” Does it involve “no selling?”

Time and time again, there is somebody we know who has approached us with the “perfect” business opportunity that claims that there is “NO SELLING” involved. Then our friend or family member claims that this business opportunity looks promising and you will make a lot of money doing it.

Just exactly what is selling? According to Webster’s dictionary, selling refers to “influencing or inducing (someone) to make a purchase.” It also means “giving up of goods or services in exchange for something of value such as money.” I would like to redefine it as “convincing (others) to buy into your products, services, or ideas.”

In this article, I will attempt to explain what network marketing companies mean by “No selling” and how they have used this tactic to get you to sign up with their exorbitant sign up fees.

Over the years that I have investigated home business opportunities that promise you the world and yet they do not deliver. There are some network marketing a.k.a. multi-level marketing (MLM) companies that are reputed to do such things. Unfortunately for them, they are now out of business.

One of the catch phrases they promote is that there is “no selling” involved with their “perfect” business opportunity. No selling! What a crock!

The truth of the matter is that there is no such thing as a business that does not involve the sale of products or services. I can guarantee you that if you try to set up a convenience store and NOT sell your products to your customers, there is no way you will be in business. You simply will not survive.

Similarly, if an MLM company did NOT sell their shampoo or their weight loss pills, they would not be in business.

So why would an MLM company profess that there is no selling involved? It is simple. To get prospects to sign up as distributors for the company. Those pie-in-the-sky MLM opportunities exploit this “no selling” catch phrase in order to lure unsuspecting prospects to sign up for a business opportunity that will otherwise be financially draining and time-consuming.

Little do these newbie distributors know that those weekly new distributor sales meetings end up teaching you how to “sell” the opportunity to a potential distributor or “sell” the products to potential customers. Then they feel uncomfortable doing the selling part and end up regretting that they forked over the $500 or so non-refundable sign up fee.

If you have good face-to-face selling skills or if you feel that you have done well in sales presentations in the past, then perhaps MLM is for you. If you do not think you can do face-to-face selling, then you should not be in network marketing. The fact is all MLM distributors must have good rapport or relationships with others. If you have good rapport with a prospect and that prospect decides to sign up with your business opportunity, then you have sold your prospect on your business opportunity. This, my friends, fits the definition of selling. Does it not?

I have several friends who have approached me peddling their business opportunity that involves no selling whatsoever. Then I kindly explained to them the fact that they are trying to get me to buy into their business opportunity is also called selling whether they believe it or not. In fact, that is what you will be doing when you DO sign up for any MLM. You will be selling to others your business opportunity.

There is one friend of mine who called me up on the phone and tried to get me to sign up for a new MLM energy company. He mentioned to me that there is no selling and I will not be selling anything that people already have, which is electricity service, and that it is promising. Being the skeptic that I am, I questioned if he had already signed up for the opportunity. He replied no. Red flags immediately went up in my head. How in the world could he convince me to buy into this business opportunity when he is not sold on the opportunity himself?

Then a week later passes. I discover he is no longer interested in that same pie-in-the-sky business opportunity after I explained to him the definition of selling and the truths about network marketing.

Having said that, be on the lookout for friends or family members who approach you about a cool business opportunity that looks “promising.”

Does that mean MLM companies are bad? Of course not. Only unscrupulous MLM companies will tell you that there is no selling involved. Reputable companies that have been around a long time will not attempt to tell you otherwise. A real MLM takes work. Lots of work. Work that involves selling the opportunity to MORE than just your friends and family. You have to find prospects through advertising, networking with your friends’ friends and your family’s friends, and more prospecting.

Selling your MLM opportunity via prospecting is time-consuming, but if you are good at it, you can make a lot of money. If you suck, then MLM is not for you. MLM is definitely not for everyone.

Fabiola Castillo is an online marketer for the website NinjaCOPS.com. This virtual store specializes in selling stun guns, kubatons, pepper spray, nunchaku, air Tasers, pen knives, hidden cameras, GPS devices, and many other self defense products.