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Your MLM Upline Is Not Your Boss

Mike Lewitz — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:56:02 +0000

Because of the techniques taught by most MLM businesses, many MLM distributors feel some kind of a sense of obligation to do what their MLM upline tells them to do. This may be perpetuated by the whole ‘do 3-way calls with your upline’ concept (which is a bad idea, by the way). Sometimes MLM upline leaders feel empowered in some way over their recruits in ‘guiding’ them to their road to success.

Of course, while this is certainly based on the best of intentions, we also know the road to hell is paved with the same. This scenario is no exception. …especially when it comes to teaching MLM techniques that have a proven and documented 98% failure rate for over 40 years.

Nearly all of the people I personally work with express to me at some point the incredible stress they eventually start to experience because their MLM upline is doing everything they can to strong arm them into doing things they do not want to do, such as MLM home parties or making a list of everyone they know to have their MLM upline contact everyone on that list “for them.”

Most people don’t feel comfortable handing this information over to these so-called MLM leaders. And, rightfully, you should NEVER do this anyway, in my humble and professional opinion. Not only is it highly likely to not make you successful in your MLM business, it’s a great way to destroy close relationships with important people in your life. Simply don’t do it. Period.

The short truth is: This is literally a case of the blind leading the blind.

Most upline distributors haven’t been in the business much longer than you, and, even if they have, they don’t know much about true marketing principles.

Here is what I tell everyone:

This is YOUR business, and your business is YOUR business. You are not obligated or required to listen to your upline or do ANYTHING they tell you to do. As long as you are not violating the rules and regulations of your company, you are free to market your business any way you want and grow it as slow or fast as you wish. Your upline is NOT your boss and you do NOT work FOR them. You work for YOU.

This becomes especially prevalent when people purchase my program and they begin applying the proven techniques they learn. When their upline calls to try to get them to have a ‘home party’ or start doing some 3-way calls and my student tries to politely give them the ‘thanks, but no thanks’ rebuttal, many upline reps start to become upset and frustrated at them because “they’re not doing what they’re told.” The MLM upline feels un-empowered and they don’t like it.

These incidences create some awkward tension. I hear many stories where the upline distributor will say their company is giving them all the training they need and they don’t need to look anywhere else for training and then comment on how well it works because they’ve been in only 2 years and already have 30 or 40 people. (Yet, the REAL leaders are doing those numbers weekly.)

So, the bottom line here is: If your MLM upline leader is pressuring you to do things you don’t feel comfortable doing, for whatever reason (likely it’s because your gut is telling you it won’t actually work when they insist it will), you have ZERO obligation to do anything your upline tells you to do. When in doubt, contact the customer service department of your MLM company and verify your legal obligations.

Listen to your gut. You can be polite and cordial and still stand your ground.

While this advice certainly has the potential to make your relationship with your MLM upline rocky, it will re-establish the proper boundaries that, while you may be in business “together,” you are still separate. If they were really concerned with helping you grow your business, they’d be out there with you trying to figure out how the top leaders are consistently growing by 50-100+ people per week.

Your friends and family are not there to be marketed to. Don’t let your MLM upline ever tell you different.

Here’s to your success.
Have an excellent week!

Mike Lewitz
Phoenix, AZ USA

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Mike Lewitz is a professional marketer and international speaker who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small business owners across the globe create abundance in their business through practical, proven marketing techniques. Mike holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Phoenix and is currently working on an MBA at Western International University.

This article may be freely distributed, copied and shared with acknowledgment.

Tags: downline, mike lewitz, mlm, network marketing, upline

Duplication MLM Myth

Mike Lewitz — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:15:10 +0000

The concept of ‘Duplication’ is a widespread idea in MLM and Network Marketing.

Unfortunately, it’s a bad idea.

Duplication is taught because it makes sense logically to most of us. They teach us, “All I have to do find about 3 people myself, then help/teach others to do the same, then help each of those 3 do the same again, and eventually I’ll grow a large organization.”

We can see how the math works here. …and it looks great on paper (or on a PowerPoint). It makes sense to us logically, and then we can rationalize it out mathematically because that’s what works in manufacturing: Make 1000′s of widgets and ‘duplicate’ them to all be the same and perfect.

Then, we get excited because we see how this whole ‘Duplication’ thing works in network marketing, and we start thinking about the money, and this is where the whole ‘residual income’ concept comes from. We say to ourselves, “…and I’m gonna get paid from the activity of all those people!”

Duplication is an illusion. A fairy tale. It’s not real.

The entire Duplication concept has FATAL FLAWS:

Duplication is based on HOPE-marketing. This falls to several levels. First, if you’re new to network marketing, you have no personal experience even ‘getting one, who gets one, who gets one.’ So, your anticipation of getting three times that many is purely on, “I ‘HOPE’ I can get 3 people, and I ‘HOPE’ I can help them get 3,” and so on. Second, if you are experienced and have successfully recruited many people, that does not guarantee each person you recruit will, in turn, ‘Duplicate’ what you’re doing. Oh, sure, it would be fantastic if they did, and, in THEORY, it will ‘supposedly’ work out that way. But, again, if you’re experienced, you know this NEVER happens in real life. It’s a fairy tale. You ‘HOPE’ each person does the same. The reality is… most never will.
Duplication is the OPPOSITE of marketing. Marketing is about being unique, standing out from the crowd, and being different. The more different, the better! You get someone’s attention by doing/creating something that makes them stop and say, “Hey, what’s this?! I haven’t seen this before…” Duplication is copying what someone else is doing. If all 200,000 people in a small MLM business go out and put up that company-provided web site about making money from home, how do they stand out from the crowd? How is that different? It’s NOT. Do a simple Yahoo! or Google search for “make money” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. We’ve all been inundated with so-called ‘opportunities.’ It’s time for everyone to come up with a different angle. Be different. Unique. ‘Duplication’ is actually a VERY BAD idea in marketing.
The TOP leaders in any MLM company are not using ‘Duplication’ methods. Many current TOP leaders in any given company came from another company with a “book of clients” or a down-line they just moved over. This happens all the time. Open any MLM company-specific magazine and out of nowhere someone just appears with their picture at the top of the list. Outside of this, you’re being taught to do manual ‘grunt work’ marketing …bringing the leaders the names and numbers of everyone you know. Just ask the very TOP money earners who they used for 3-way calls when they got started …did they call the CEO with every new prospect they had. No.

Think about this…

If the idea of MLM ‘Duplication’ actually worked, everyone in the world would be an Amway distributor, nobody would be reading this article, and we’d all be sitting on our private beaches on our private islands.

So, what really does work in MLM? Something known as ‘Positioning.’

Positioning is a very powerful technique in marketing that separates you from your competition. Using proper positioning techniques, many people can be marketing the same products and services and never interfere with another because it incorporates the true ART and SCIENCE of marketing.

Please read my article on ‘Positioning’ where you will learn how to stand out from the crowd. Be unique.

Be different.