The Great Dilemma: Products or Recruiting?

At any given moment, we concentrate on one or the other -- recruiting new distributors or selling products. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses. And while you can certainly do both at one time, to be successful you must concentrate on one.

That isn't to say that this week you can't work mainly on one and next week on the other; just that you shouldn't divide your attention too much at any one time.

Selling Products - Strengths and Weaknesses

When you are primarily selling products, the biggest advantage is instant cash. You buy your product for $20 and turn around and sell it for $27. Maybe $7 isn't a whole lot, but what if you sold 50 in one day? I'll take $350 profit anytime!

The weakness is that you have to buy lots of products in order to sell them, which can be costly up front. Not to mention finding a place to put them all! And what if your product doesn't sell well - will you be able to use it yourself? If not, what is the company's buy-back policy?

Selling can be a strength if you have a replicated website that you can use, and your company drop-ships for you. That way you don't have to buy product ahead of time. Plus you don't have to worry about taking credit cards or other payments yourself. But (and you knew there was a "but") if you use a replicated website, you may not get access to those commission dollars right away.

If your have a consumable product that does what it claims and is fairly priced, you may find most of your customers this month are also customers next month, which is another benefit.

Recruiting - the Good and the Bad

Recruiting for many companies pays a commission up front and royalties behind. For example, you may be in an organization that pays you $100 for each Manager you sign. Then you earn a percentage of your distributor's sales, as well as a percentage on their sign-ups and sales, etc.

The advantage -- if you have a good team, those dollars can grow quite large. And in many cases once they reach a certain "critical mass", you can ease back some and the system will continue to work for you. Take that nice long vacation! In general, building a good team will ultimately make you more per month with less work than selling products.

The disadvantage -- you may sign up some new distributors, but what if they do nothing? You've got your initial commission, but you're not earning anything on an ongoing basis. And you are very likely to have that happen -- many people sign up for the business with great intentions but then bail at the first bump in the road. The real strength in network marketing is in the distributor structure.

Remember...

You can sell and recruit at the same time, no doubt about it. Just devote the majority of your time and energy to one or the other...or you will wind up with neither sales nor distributors!