So Many Distributorship Opportunities - How To Pick The Best One

There are several factors that you should consider when thinking about joining a new network marketing business. This guide will walk you through some of these considerations in order to determine the best distributor opportunity for you.

Does the company actually have a product?

I know, I know… it sounds stupid but there are actually companies out there who start their marketing campaigns before they have a working product or service. I saw a company that had a $40/mo. auto-ship but it didn’t “ship” anything at all. They didn’t even have a service that their distributors were paying for. They kept claiming their product would be out by this date, and then that date, and then a later date, while they just kept taking their distributors auto-ship money.

Don’t get suckered into an “opportunity” that doesn’t actually have a product that you can taste, touch, use, or at least see true evidence of. We all want to get in on the ground floor of opportunities, but you should be cautious when the company does not yet have a working product or service.

What is the company’s policy on marketing?

This one is HUGE, especially if you use internet marketing in order to get leads or prospects to contact you about your business like I do. Unfortunately, there are some companies which prevent their distributors from doing almost any type of marketing, including doing so on the internet.

While it should be obvious that you shouldn’t make exagerated health or financial claims, some companies try to ensure that none of their distributors make any foolish claims by limiting them to company distributed, marketing materials only. Limitations can also include heavy restrictions of any use of the company’s name(s) or trademarks anywhere on the internet, including social media sites.

Being that marketing (and especially internet marketing) is the most effective way to build a large, successful team (unless you are already extremely well connected), you should check and then double-check a company’s policies on marketing to see how much room they give you to be successful.

Does the company or your upline have a system in place that will train you to succeed?

This is one of the biggest mistakes that a new network marketer can make when selecting a company. Being a successful network marketer requires a different set of skills and mindsets which most people have never learned. Many company’s will train distributors on the company information and its products. Many high level leaders will train their downlines on how to share the business with family and friends, share products, and do 3-way calls or meetings. Unfortunately though, neither of these two things are the most important.

Here is the most important question you should ask about any training system: Will it teach you how to market yourself and your opportunity?

Many network marketers fail simply because they run out of people to talk to. After they get done calling their friends and family, they try things like buying leads or sharing the business with people at the grocery store in the hopes of building a bigger team. A good training system will teach people how to market themselves on the internet or elsewhere to ensure their success.

(By the way, if you would like more information about how you can get more prospects through marketing on the internet, grab this free report!)

Is the compensation plan worth your time?

When you get involved with a company, you’ll be putting your blood, sweat, and tears into building a successful team. It should be worth your time. Make sure you understand the compensation plan because honestly, it doesn’t matter how great the product is, how old the company is, or how many trends they participate in if you can’t make good money with it.

Compensation plans can sometimes be difficult to figure out and can vary significantly. A binary is much different from a matrix which is much different from a more traditional compensation plan. I highly recommend looking at the compensation plans of multiple companies before you even THINK about joining a network marketing company so that you can get a feel with how different compensation plans work.

You should also be aware that come compensation plans “code” you and/or your distributors to you. In essence this means that the certain aspects of your commissions are fixed or “locked-in” in a way that could help or hurt your business, depending on how you handle it. You should pay special attention to these types of compensation plans to make sure that you organize things properly right from the start. (For example, the level that you buy into a company at may determine the compensation percentage that you receive for forever. Obviously, you would want to take the route that gets you the most money.)

Is the entry fee affordable for the average person?

Despite how wonderful an opportunity may be, the entry price, the cost of doing business, and/or staying “qualified” for commissions can definitely have an effect on how many people sign up. Even when you are sharing your business with people who have a $1000, $2000, or even $5ooo, you will probably get much less resistance if the cost is in the $0-$500 range. The lower the entry point, the lower the resistance there is in the prospect’s mind.

What is true of the entry cost is also true of auto-ships, staying “qualified” in the business, and getting the necessary training to become successful. In most cases you can expect to sponsor less people if the monthly cost of participating in your opportunity is the same price as people’s rent or house payments is going to be harder sell. The only exception to this is if people are legitimately able to transfer their buying habits over to buying a product and/or service from your company rather than their current provider.

Are the company’s products and/or services something that people already by?

I will admit that this one is not absolutely necessary, because in some cases perhaps people should be using your company’s products or services (like health products, identity theft protection, etc.). This is more of a personal preference of mine when I am looking for another company to dominate in. In my opinion, it is much easier to convince a person to do something they are already doing differently than it is to convince them to do something they aren’t doing at all.

For example, it is probably going to be easier to convince someone to buy toilet paper (which they hopefully already use!) from the company than it would be to convince someone that they should be taking vitamins and then to also buy those vitamins from the company. Like I said, this isn’t a hard in fast rule, but I prefer help people transfer their buying habits rather than create entirely new ones.

Can you get behind the products, services, and company?

If you can’t support the company’s products, services, ethics, or sense of right and wrong then DO NOT JOIN. Money can make people act really weird and even very stupid. It is always more important to have a clear conscious than a fat wallet. If something about the company seems shady to you, wait for the next one to come along.

As it is often stated in the real estate industry, “The deal of a lifetime comes around about once a week.” The same is true in our industry.

One last Consideration

As you can see, there are many important things you should look into when it comes to choosing one of the many home based, distributorship opportunities out there. However, choosing the right opportunity is only half the battle. Learning to market yourself or your opportunity is the other, more important half. If you learn to market, you can build a large team in almost any organization.