Surprise! You’re ALREADY IN a Pyramid Organization!

Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 5:15 pm

When it comes to network marketing prospecting, I’m not very different from many folks out there. Between my personal interactions and my online marketing, I probably “show the plan” about 2 dozen times a day. And just like the average network marketer, I am confronted with the following statement again and again:

“I’m just not into doing pyramid schemes.”

Now, normally, I respond to this comment by educating the person about legitimate MLM companies versus illegal pyramid or Ponzi schemes. But recently, while speaking with a family member about my business opportunity, the similarities between his job as a salesman for a semiconductor firm and my network marketing compensation plan became apparent. During our conversation, I became aware of a startling revelation, and here it is:

If you have a job, you are already participating in a pyramid organization!

I mean, think about it. The only major difference between my cousin’s sales job and my MLM company is that he has absolutely no leverage to build his income, and I have unlimited leverage. What do I mean? If he wants to make more money at his job, he has to go out and sell more. When I want to make more money, I can sell more product OR I can recruit other distributors into my organization and teach them to sell more product. I can leverage the time, experience, talent, and skills of others and reap the benefits of doing so; my cousin has no distributors. He only has himself. So if he wants to increase his income, it’s all up to him.

One of the major complaints about MLM is the idea that the people on the bottom level don’t make much money. But this is not very different from any average American job. In corporate America, the people at the highest levels of the company make the big bucks. That’s just the way it is. The CEO is compensated on a much higher level than, say, the guy in the mail room. And all the people in between the mail room clerk and the CEO make varying wages dependent upon the value their job brings to the company. But the huge difference between the average company and my MLM company is, for the most part, the only way for the mail room clerk to move up the ladder to a higher salary is for someone above him to create a position for him, either by firing someone else and re-allocating that person’s spot, or creating a brand new position and then choosing Mail Room Guy from a list of other competing applicants. Mail Room Guy has very little control over his ability to ascend the ranks in this company.

On the other hand, if I want to ascend the ranks, I can sell more product or sponsor more distributors and teach them to sell more product. My ability to ascend is completely up to me. I don’t have to wait for a position to be created for me before I can get out of the “mail room.” Furthermore, I don’t have to compete with my colleagues for a limited number of middle- and upper-management positions. Upper-level positions in multi-level marketing are created by the reps themselves, not by some number-cruncher in a suit.

Another complaint is that much of an MLM organization’s profits are built on the efforts of the underlings. Again, if that doesn’t sound like corporate America, I don’t know what does. Let’s use my cousin’s job again as an example. He’s a salesperson for a semiconductor company, and he reports to one of twelve area managers. These 12 area managers report to 4 territory managers, who report to the VP Director of Sales. And this VP reports directly to the CEO. Now, tell me. Within this convoluted organization, who is actually driving revenue? In other words, who is actually bringing money into the organization? Answer: the salespeople, like my cousin; and yet, all those folks up above him are drawing their salaries (which are much larger than what my cousin brings in) from his efforts. Not one single person up above my cousin’s level is actually responsible for SELLING!

Now, parallel this with my MLM organization. In my organization, every single person in my upline is responsible for driving a minimum amount of revenue each month. Every single person has to be selling, teaching, sponsoring, and/or recruiting. Which one sounds more like riding the backs of the underlings to you?

And I can go on and on with the parallels between traditional businesses and MLM organizations.

The bottom line is this: MLM has always gotten a bum rap for being a “pyramid” type organization. But if you have a job, you already work for a pyramid organization, and chances are, that job brings you financial value in the form of income, just like my MLM company does for me. So the next time your friend or loved one asks you to join his/her “pyramid” group, try to have more of an open mind about it. After all, you’re probably already in one!

And, as usually, don’t just take my word for it…take it for checking!