Youâ??re struggling with your MLM or network marketing business mainly because you arenâ??t a salesperson. Only 3% of people succeed in MLM - this stat alone caused my wife and I to consider MLM (Network Marketing) Vs. Direct Sales.

Itâ??s ok, there are many people like you!  Iâ??m not a salesperson either, so believe me, when this direct sales opportunity came, I was elated. If youâ??re in an MLM, which most people are who visit my site, then you know what Iâ??m talking about.

But, like me, most of you have no idea what Iâ??m talking about when I discuss direct sales. So, what is it? Direct sales is where you actually sell a program and receive a commission for doing so.

Let me give you an example - this is MLM Vs. Direct Sales, the nitty gritty.

MLM â?? In an MLM (using the structure my wife and I have been with) you will sell a product and receive $30 for the initial signup, then $5 / month after that for as long as that person sticks with the product.

Direct Sales â?? In direct sales (using the structure of the company Iâ??ve been with) you receive anywhere from $20-$3200 for each sale with revenue on every level of the process while also receiving a $50 / month residual check. Ok, so direct sales (at least to me) seems like the way to go - which is why my wife and I stopped working on our MLM (although still with it, we just donâ??t sell it anymore) and began investing in our direct sales business.

Now, to the costs and the differences that lie therein â?¦

MLM:

Costs/expenses: $160 for signup and $130 / month after that for continued shipments plus a minimum of $50 / month in marketing costs (pamphlets, booklets, videos, etc.). Again, this is the costs my wife and I dealt with personally, so, over 6 months our total expenses were $160 (first month and distributor fee) + $130 / month over 5 more months or $650 + $50 (minimum estimate) / month marketing expense over 6 months or $300.

Total Expenses (6 months) = $1110 Income: Over 6 months, we signed up 3 people and received $180 for our efforts ($30 initial sign up fee * 3 signups = $90; $5 residual / month per member * 3 members = $15 * 6 months = $90; total = $180).

Total Income (6 months) = $180 So, for our net income (income minus costs/expenses) equals -$930 or negative $930. WE LOST $930. Nice return on investment over 6 months. That comes out to be over $2200 for a yearâ??s worth of expenses and a total lost of about $1800. NOT GOOD!

Direct Sales:

Costs/Expenses: $2500 startup (If this number seems large to you and too much for anything youâ??re considering, then stop reading this and wander away, this opportunity is NOT for you! For those who are interested in building a business, welcome to the exciting part of this article) + $200 / month for training, support, website pages, landing pages, marketing training and branding information, credit card authorization account for your websites (allows you to accept credit/debit cards), and more.

Total Expenses (6 months) = $3700

Total Income: Sticking to conservative numbers, suppose you sell the same amount of direct sales products as MLM products, 3. For one mid-level sale in the direct sales business you would receive $1220 in compensation.

You get $20 for the application fee, which is a fee that weeds out tire kickers or people who want something for free and donâ??t want to actually invest in a BUSINESS.

Next, you get $200 for the business in a box sale. The business in a box tool teaches those who purchase it how to leverage the internet to gather qualified prospects to buy into their business, this is the most extensive internet marketing training on the web today (you receive this too when you invest in this business).

Then, you are paid $1000 for a sale of the wealth building training kit, another box of tools to teach you how to reduce debt, build wealth, and live a healthy lifestyle.

Finally, you are paid $50 / month residual for each person you sell to that remains in the program.

Your income after 3 sales is $1220 * 3 = $3660 + $900 ($50 / mo. residual for 3 signups over 6 months) which added up all equals $4560.  For your net income (income minus costs/expenses) you come up with $4560 - 3700 which equals $860.

There you have it. In an MLM you receive less compensation, do more work, and do not leverage the tools of the internet to do your sales and still come in losing nearly $1000 after six months (like we did).

Or, you can use a direct sales system that teaches you how to leverage the internet to sell the products, have a call center make your follow up calls (the system we use has a call center at your disposal), get taught how to market and brand yourself on the internet with full training and support using a 30 day step-by-step marketing plan and make nearly $1000 selling the same amount over a six month period as your MLM. This was an absolute no-brainer to my wife and I, so we switched from our MLM to the Direct Sales business.

If you have questions about our transition, let me know. Iâ??d love to give you advice on how we decided on this.

Also, this is not a sales pitch, I just want you to know how we thought through the whole process. This was so obvious to us, we wanted to make sure that others had the opportunity to see what we saw!

Travis Fitzwater

Travis Fitzwater
http://www.articlesbase.com/mlm-articles/mlm-vs-direct-sales-729123.html

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