10 Questions to Ask When Selecting The Right MLM

What should I look for when selecting the right MLM company? This seems to be a very common question among current Network Marketers that are looking for a new home and brand new entrepreneurs that are looking to get involved in Network Marketing. With over 4,000 MLM companies to choose from this could get very challenging especially with so many new companies being formed on weekly basis.

What are the TOP questions (criteria) you should be looking into?

I’ll give you the top 10 questions you should be asking when selecting the right MLM. These questions are not listed in the order of their importance.

1. What am I passionate about? This is a question you should be asking yourself in regards to your desired niche, if you have one. This many be important to some seeks but not all. If you’re strictly making a business decision regardless of the company’s niche, as long as you can get behind the product/service and become a product of the product, then this question may not be so important to look into. On the other hand, if there is something you absolutely feel passionate about, (weight loss, wellness, travel, technology, etc.) and money isn’t a great motivator then I’d analyze this question thoroughly.

2. How credible is the company? How long has the company been around? Are there any 3rd party credibility that endorse the company? Do your homework on the owners, medical group (if it’s a health and wellness company). Do some research on the Corp staff prior to their current company. If it’s a fairly new company (less than 1 year) do the owners and/or Corp leadership have any experience in the MLM industry prior to running this company?

3. Is it a startup? If the company you’re considering joining is less than 12 months then you face about 95% chance of being out of business in the next 6 to 12 months. This is a statistic from SBA and a general rule of thumb within MLM. On the flip side, you wouldn’t want to join a company that’s passed their momentum and is already a recognized name (this normally would happen when the company reaches between 5 to 10 years of maturity). There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing a solid, mature and established company if you want security and stable growth. But if you want to join a company where you have a chance to make a significant amount of money faster then joining a company that’s pre-momentum is key.

4. Does it have a WOW factor? This question may seem abnormal to many but in the new era of marketing and business this question could decide how fast and how big you want to build your business. A WOW factor is when you can ‘WOW” your customers almost instantly. With our “microwave society” people want faster results with almost everything they do. Their attention is being pulled in a thousand different directions and your job is to have their attention 100% when making the right decision. It could be done with a product or service based MLM.

5. How is their training? How does the company support and build culture in the field? Are their trainings held regionally, nationally, monthly, quarterly, or annually? Is there an established training platform for new team members to plug into? Is there any robust website/central hub for training and updates? The last thing you want is to join a company where you have to teach and train your new reps yourself. Blind leading the blind is the fastest way to fail.

6. Is the company “online friendly”? While most MLM companies have very rigid and almost “choke-hold) rules about marketing online, there are some pioneers within our industry that are embracing marketing via social media and other method of Internet Marketing. Every company has to protect the field and company itself but how they do it is a whole other question. Make sure your company has flexible policies about marketing online. With Facebook’s membership at over 800 million and Online Marketing growing so fast it’s foolish to turn your back on it and stick to marketing methods from decades ago.

7. Does it have competition? Competition is good! There are reps that beat their chest screaming they “have ZERO competition”. I laugh only because I know my Economic History. If the company y you’re looking at doesn’t have any competition than the demand for it’s product isn’t significant. Starbucks, Expedia, Cheesecake Factory, Zappos, and countless other companies entered an existing space of their respective industry and did a few things differently to become a (Multi)Billion dollar company. On the other hand, when choosing the right MLM for yourself, having too much competition may diminish your chance of success. Health & Wellness is notorious for this. With over 4,000 MLM companies out there more than half of them are in the wellness segment. Yes, the demand is huge and it’s growing, but the total attainable marketing reduces with too many choices available to the consumer.

8. Is the company positioned for massive growth? With so many companies focusing on the Baby Boomers this is one example. Wellness, Beauty and Travel are the top 3 industries that WILL capitalize on this bubble. Some more than others. Other trends include   Technology (Video communication, Social Media, ) and Energy Deregulation.

9. Does the company do business Internationally? It may not be a big factor in your selection if you’re considering an Energy company but overall this is something I’d look at very carefully simply because of the massive growth of online marketing. Chances are if you’re on Facebook you have some friends that live outside of your country. “Service to many leads to greatness.” – Jim Rohn
Make sure that the company is either doing business internationally or at least has room and plans for expansion. This is the future. We are no longer a one-country economy. We are a one-world economy. Many of late major changes in our economy prove that. Read  the book “The World is Flat”

10. Is the startup fee more or less affordbale? What does affordable mean? Well, in general it would be under $500 US. Network Marketing is a great profession and it’s designed to give a chance for success to anyone from any walk of life. In this NEW economy (it’s not a bad economy) more people are struggling because their current plan in the OLD economy has failed them. Hence they need a new plan. If you can cater to majority with an attractive price point then duplication becomes easier.

Some additional things to look into when choosing the right MLM are;

Company incentives – bonuses, lifestyle bonuses, car bonuses, etc (are these all attainable without “giving up your 1st born” Of course I’m kidding about that but most MLM companies have their BIG incentives positioned so high up in the compensation plan that you can spend a lifetime trying to achieve them.
Upline/Sponsor support - how many people has your potential upline help go full time? What is their availibility? What is their method of support?
Marketing Tools – do they have their own marketing funnels available to distributors besides just have a replicated website?
Top Earners – If the company is more than 2 years old and the top 20 income earners are the same faces than chances are the comp plan isn’t designed for a new person to win.Many will argue with this but I’m calling it like it is. A compensation plan that’s designed to feed the top producers but leave the change for the new rep is guaranteeing high attratition within the company.

If you want to acquire ultimate success with ANY company you will need to learn how to Brand and Market YOURSELF before your business. Success requires you to become more valuable in the market place and it will require you to generate great quality leads for your home based business. Learn how to generate more leads for your MLM business HERE.

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