Food For Thought: Is the Network Marketing Industry About To Be Reborn?

The Direct Sales Industry, or as most of us call it, Network Marketing, is about to change. Can you feel it?

Back in the early 1900’s the auto industry was in a place just like where we are now. First, many people questioned the validity of the auto. Hard to believe, but true. Do you know anybody who questions the validity of Network Marketing? Second, as Henry Ford forged ahead to develop an assembly line approach to manufacturing, all kinds of entrepreneurs were making cars of their own. It took years to flush out the “Big Three” in America.

Look at what’s happening in the car industry now. It’s shaking out again, not just nationally but globally. Watch- there will emerge a new “Big Three”. Toyota will be there. Looks like Ford might make it too. Then there’s Honda among many others. Maybe a new global player with some superior innovation will take a top position.

How about fast foods? McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s.

How about WalMart, K-Mart, and Target?

How about NBC, CBS, and ABC?

Think about it and I’m sure you will see a pattern well beyond the examples I’ve given here. It seems as an industry matures there are a small group of key leading companies that dominate their market.

So here we sit at an amazing time for Network Marketing. If you study the industry you know that there are well over 1,000 different MLM opportunities, and dozens that have just launched- or are about to- more now than any other time in our industry’s history! Most of these have only a handful of true leaders who have recognized the major opportunity that comes to our industry when the people of the world are more than concerned about money. Some of these leaders will pioneer past the time proven 80% failure barrier of their first few years. Those who find themselves in a sinking ship will scramble to escape to a more secure opportunity, and they’ll do everything they can to take key leaders with them. If you are watching closely, you are seeing a lot of that movement already. Mark my words- this shifting will not only continue for the next few years, it will accelerate.

The strong will survive. There are a small number of companies out there that have huge membership and have already gone through “popular growth” and are still adding new marketers, but opportunity for explosive growth as a new marketer is extremely limited. Will the leaders from the 80% of the new companies that don’t make it join these older, post-popular growth companies? No. These leaders will seek out a home with the potential for dynamic growth.

Who will they align themselves with? Well, there will be some time tested criteria they’ll use to make their choices. They could start another company, but pioneering is not fun. You know how to recognize a pioneer? He’s the guy with the arrow holes in his back. So after pioneering without success, these leaders from the 80% who fail will look for an established company. But the will insist on a company that has yet to go through momentum. Will these leaders stay with a company that is limited to the old traditional methods of strictly warm market, in-home and hotel meetings, and belly to belly presenting? No. The internet has changed that paradigm. Will these leaders select a company that turns its back on those traditional methods? No, because real Network Marketing leaders can see that there must be a balance of warm market with internet lead generation. It’s a given that whatever products they represent must be consumable, properly priced, and be proprietary.

Is there a company who will lead the charge toward credibility of Network Marketing and change the stigma that has crippled our industry for so many years? Is there a company that will satisfy the requirements of the displaced leaders who lose at their current attempt at pioneering? Will a “Big Three” emerge?

Food for thought!