In today’s post, I’d like to discuss how to be customer focused in your MLM Business. This is something that took me a long time to grasp and understand.
In network marketing, we get paid to create sales for the company. We are only paid when products move from the company to end users (the customer). This includes our personal consumption, personal sales, and team’s sales. We do not get paid to recruit. We can recruit 100 people but if no one buys or sells the products we don’t earn any money (and rightfully so).
Most distributors are only taught to focus on finding distributors. Recruit, recruit, recruit. And then go recruit some more!
There are several problems with this strategy, as I see it.
First and foremost, it’s almost impossible to ethically promote a “money making” opportunity if you aren’t making any money yourself. If you would instead focus on building up a solid customer base of at least 10 to 20 customers BEFORE you started recruiting distributors, you would have a sound business concept and profitable business. You could then share what you’ve done and teach people how to do what you do. Make sense?
The next challenge with just looking for business builders is THEY ARE RARE. Most people are not entrepreneurial. Most people are not go-getters. Most people do not want a side hustle or network marketing business. Maybe 1 or 2 out of every 100 people do. If you’re only looking for these people, you are leaving 98 to 99 percent of your potential earnings on the table. However, everyone is a consumer. By leading with your company’s products first, you will appeal to more people you talk with.
The third challenge with recruiting, as I see it, is the high turnover (attrition). Sponsoring and recruiting people is tough enough, but keeping the people you do recruit in the business, and getting them to do something with the business, is even tougher. Plus, they require a lot of coaching, mentoring, hand holding, and sometimes babysitting. Attrition is high. People will often join and quit, in the same month! Customers on the other hand, normally stick around much longer, and order more, because they love the products. They order because they WANT TO, not because they need to be qualified for commissions.
The Truth About Customers
Customers are the lifeblood of EVERY business. Without customers, there is no business.
You need customers. You don’t need hundreds of personal customers, but every distributor should acquire and maintain five to twenty customers.
Most network marketing companies have more distributors than customers. That is a problem. If the company is doing their job right, there should be five to twenty customers for every distributor in the company, not the other way around. For this to happen, the products must be priced right, high quality, and be a good value to retail customers. In addition, the company should place an emphasis on products and customers.
Happy customers will keep ordering the product month after month, whether they ever build a business or not. This keeps your volume constant and helps you build a solid residual income.
In addition, many of your happy customers will eventually upgrade to distributors and business builders. They will fall in love with the products and want to get a discount on their purchase, and maybe even refer a few others so they can get their products for free each month.
Some of these happy customers turned distributor will become serious business builders in your team. They will see the value in the products and business opportunity and want to build a business of their own.
And other retail customers will refer you to other people because they enjoy the products and appreciate the way that you treat them.
How to Be Customer Focused in Your MLM Business
Find a network marketing company with products you love. It helps if you love the products. The company should be product and customer focused. The products must be quality and priced competitively if you want people to shop with you.
Next, educate yourself about the products (without becoming an expert) so you can talk with people and make recommendations. Learn the features and benefits of each product your company offers, or at least your favorite products. Use the products yourself and develop a great story or testimonial. Your “story” will be one of your most valuable business tools.
Lead with the products, not the business. Offer solutions to people’s problems. Before you mention a product to your prospect, identify a “hot button, pain point, or problem” you can solve by using your product as a solution to their troubles. This is the secret sauce.
Finally, learn how to sell. Spend the time and money to develop some basic selling skills. Not only will this help you grow your business, but it will also help you in your day job or career. Selling is quite perhaps the highest paying skill in the marketplace (other than leadership).
Other posts you may enjoy:
- Top 27 Customer Service Tips for Small Business Owners
- The Difference Between Leaders, Distributors and Customers in Your MLM Business
- How to Make Money When People Don’t Join Your MLM Business or Become a Retail Customer
- Top 10 Tips for Building Relationships with Your MLM Customers and Downline
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, make it a point to be customer focused in your MLM Business. Lead with the products. Develop a solid customer base before you start recruiting. More importantly, teach people how to sell the products and find customers. This is the smart, ethical, and proven way to build a long-term residual income.
What are your thoughts? Are you customer focused in your MLM Business? Why or why not? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
Much better to be customer focused because at the end of the day its about selling a product not an opportunity. Yes the company wants to build a huge sales team but they make most of their money by selling the products to customers. As you stated most distributors don’t stick around long and so you will never make as much money from them as you will from happy customers who love you and love your product. I also think you’re right when you say happy customers make the best distributors. They are already believers and have a better chance at becoming a rock star only if it is to get their products for free.
Every distributor should have minimum five to ten customers. If everyone did that, our industry wouldn’t have 90% of the problems that we do now.
Customers are the business; plain and simple. They are the ones who purchase what you are selling and if you don’t treat them well it doesn’t matter how many distributors you have, your business won’t go anywhere. Customers who are sold a good product by people who are attentive, kind, professional, and filled with integrity will boast and brag about you and more importantly, promote you. It is this sort of tell a friend model that has brought me numerous customers and it is my focus on people that has kept customers loyal to me.
I agree Diamond. All businesses need customers. If the only people buying the products are people doing the business, get ready to be disappointed!
I am in full agreement of this assessment Chuck. If the MLM has all distributors and few customers, it will fail for sure. I am back to a system you have wrote about…the 80/20 rule; or even 90/10. If we spend 80% of the time getting customers and 20% after distributors, success will fall in place.
I have seen where some people just have customers and no distributors and they do quite well. It is keeping the main company selling products and that person is making money. If it works, don’t change it
All businesses need lots of customers, even MLM Companies!
Super advice for anyone in the business world! I like your comment, Chuck, about customers being loyal even after a distributor (who never really got started) has long left the organization. I think if we focus on our customers and then start to add to the downline that businesses will flourish. It takes customers to keep the product or service moving, after all. I enjoyed everyone’s thoughts, especially those who are doing home parties and door to door sales.
Having customers is where the real money is at.
Great idea, Chuck. I sell Avon products and I have over 200 personal customers. I earn several thousand dollars per month, and sometimes more, just from my customers. I only recently started building a team of reps, and that will provide additional income, but my primary focus will always be acquiring and keeping retail customers. Avon is really big on having customers and best of all it has a product that people want and can afford.
Good for you, Alice. I have to agree with you that Avon is really a customer focused company. That’s one thing I really respect about Avon.
I sell Mary Kay products and I spend at least 80% of my time getting customers. I know you can earn more by sponsoring other ladies, but I don’t feel comfortable trying to frontload a new distributor with $1000+ worth of products. I’d rather have lots of satisfied customers who order from me every month. At the moment I have 68 customers who order from me each month. These 68 ladies pay my bills and keep my business strong and profitable.
Sounds like good advice, Martha. But don’t neglect sponsoring too. Many of your customers would want to join as a consultant if you ask them to.
I prefer direct selling over MLM for this very same reason. If you only focus on recruiting you won’t make much money. Attrition is too high and only a small percentage of your prospects will ever join as a distributor. It is much easier to simply go out and get 20 to 50 retail customers and make an extra $1000 or more per month doing that. I sell Mary Kay and this is what I do. I sponsor a few people here and there from my customer base, but most women are just happy to have me take care of them as customers.
I agree that getting customers is easier and wiser to do.
I’m in Amway and it wasn’t until recently that I started focusing on getting lots of customers. During the past four months I have acquired 52 new customers. Of those 52 folks, about 30 order products each month, which gives me a nice profit. The average order is about $75 per person, so I end up doing a couple thousand PV each month just from customers. Add that to my team volume and my business is growing leaps and bounds. For years, I only focused on recruiting distributors, but I can see I left a lot of money on the business table doing that. In Amway, if you can get 10-20 customers and build a small team that does the same, it’s very easy to get in Platinum qualification.
Good for you Eddie. It’s important to remember that the key to success in MLM is to get a lot of folks doing a little bit, not a few people doing a lot.
All I focus on is finding customers and I can tell you that this strategy works! Get customers who love the products and they will reorder every month, give you referrals and many of them will sign up as distributors.
Good for you, Peggy. I agree with you that it works!
I teach everyone on my team to go out and get 10 customers before they every try to sponsor anyone. This advice really works, because once people have 10 customers they are normally making a few hundred dollars per month, they get their order for free and they end up sticking around longer.
This is great advice, Amy. Teaching people to get 10 customers is a great idea. Sponsoring is great, but if you want to build a big team, you need to get your downline to get customers, so they can actually make money!
I have more than 100 customers in my Shaklee business and it provides me a VERY NICE monthly income: $2k to $3k consistently. I have a small team too, but most people who sign up as distributors quit within 90 days and then stop ordering the products. Over the years I’ve learned that having customers is much better than having distributors.
Good for you Stacey. Having lots of customers is a great idea. Keep up the good work.
Stacey,
That is probably something most people figure out very early on. It is a lot easier to keep a customer than it is to keep a distributor, so focusing on good customer service is essential. This means operating with integrity, being respectful, and consistently providing a great product that customers will return for. Once a customer feels slighted in some way you run the serious risk of not only losing them but also ruining your chances to gain new customers too.
Treat your customers well and you won’t have to worry much about attrition. Most businesses suck at customer service. If you can figure that out, people will be happy to do business with you. My grandma had loyal customers in her Avon business who ordered at least once a month for nearly 30 years!
This is really a great tip, Chuck. If more distributors simply had a few customers, they could have a profitable business and at least get their products for free. Most distributors are only taught to sponsor and I think that is a big mistake.
I agree. If every distributor had to three to five customers, downlines would explode.
I’d bet that 95% of all MLM distributors do not have any customers. In most cases, the products are priced too high at the retail price and no one in their right mind would pay that price for them when they could get the products on Amazon or ebay for a fraction of that cost.
I agree that many products are overpriced. That’s why you need to team up with a company that has good products at good prices. You also need to focus on the benefits of your product line.
This might just be the most important tip on this website, Chuck. If more distributors understood the significance of getting customers and retaining them, more folks would make money. It isn’t rocket science. Without sales, you don’t make money!
So true, Debbie. All businesses need customers.
Chuck,
This is some great advice. I wish every distributor would do this and teach their team this valuable lesson. If every distributor had three to five customers ordering each month they could get their products for free and even have some money left over. Customers are so important, especially in MLM.
I agree Ross. And if you can get your team to get customers, they will make money, get their products for free and stick around longer.
My advice is to find customers, treat them well and upgrade them into distributors. That is how I build my business.
Lucy
This is great advice, Lucy. I hope you teach your team members the same thing.
Being customer focused is really important. Without customers you will spin your wheels and not make anywhere near the the type of income that you could. At a minimum, try to find five to ten personal customers so you can get your products for free and have some money left over to market your business.
Good point Will. Lots of customers equals lots of profits.
I really like your idea of being customer focused. This is one of the easiest and fastest ways to make money in MLM. When you have retail customers who buy from you every month, or on a regular basis, you can make some serious cash. Most companies have a 20-50% retail markup so if you make a $100 order you would earn $20 to $50 profit, plus you would get paid for the volume. Try doing that with a distributor on your team.
So true, Annie. Thanks for the comment.
Chuck
I like your advice, Chuck. I spent a few years in Amway and not once was I told or mentored to get customers. Instead, everything was all about recruiting. Knowing what I know now, I would have just focused on getting customers. I could have made more money and not had to buy any the overpriced business support materials.
Me too, Jennifer. I spent 2.5 years with Amway and everything was about recruiting and getting people plugged into the system. That is totally the wrong approach, except for the Diamonds making all the tool money. When you have customers you make money! And that’s the point of any business. Business education is also important, but it shouldn’t wipe out all your profits.
This is so true. During my time in MLM no one in my upline ever told me about the importance of having customers. I wish they would have.
If you ever rejoin the industry, learn from that mistake and go out and get a bunch of customers.
Great advice, Chuck. I try to teach all my new distributors to be customer focused. If everyone could find just 5-10 customers they could have a nice $200 or more profit each month and get their products for free. I think it’s a must do for any new distributor.
It is a must do. And good for you for teaching your team how to do that.
Your approach to be customer focused is spot on. Just because you recruit people to join the business doesn’t mean you will earn anything at all. Unless people are buying stuff, you won’t make anything. That’s what makes customers so great. You get the retail profit and you get paid on the volume. It’s the best of both worlds.
People forget this important message all the time Billy. But it’s important to remember that companies pay you based off your GROUP VOLUME. If you aren’t creating volume it doesn’t matter what you do, you won’t make any money.
Edward, I was part of Amway as well, back when it was Quixtar, and I had the same experience. At the time, I had no knowledge base to evaluate my approach and did what my up line told me to do. Focusing on sponsoring completely kicked the great products out of the way, which is unfortunate, because they have some really good products. Like you, I can look back now and see that a focus on products and customers would have made a difference.
Having customers would have much a huge difference. During my time in Amway, I didn’t have any customers either. All we were taught was to recruit. I think that’s because the tools and system money was the most profitable thing for the successful Diamond distributors. They could make 5 to 10 times more by having people buying the tools than by distributors selling products to customers. Just my two cents.
Chuck
It’s easy for me to see customers of Avon deciding to work with the company. Avon is a company, Destiny, that offers a lot of value to its customers, with quality products at reasonable prices, top-notch customer service, and extensive selections for women, men, youth and kids. They are also strong supporters of some very worthy causes, and they contribute substantially to all of them. Avon, anymore, sells itself to customers and distributors.
Good points, Amy. I think Avon is the best company in the direct sales industry for people who want to get customers and make money with a retail business. Their products are good and the price point is spot on.
Chuck
Most MLM Companies aren’t designed for people to get customers. The products and services are SO expensive at the distributor price, let alone the retail price, that no one in their right mind would purchase them. I think companies like Avon and Oriflame really have their act together because their prices are good for customers too. If you’re going to join a company, make sure the products offer value to the customers too. Or, you won’t make any sales.
Good point, Betty. Most of the MLM Companies I’ve noticed sell products that are 10 to 20 times higher than something you can buy at Wal-mart. Personally, I don’t think that’s a very good business model. You don’t have to have the cheapest priced products around, but they do need to be competitively priced. Otherwise, no one in their right mind will buy them.
Chuck
Great advice, Chuck. I sell Avon and this is my only approach. Everyone I have ever recruited into the business was a customer first.
Destiny
Good for you, Destiny. Keep doing it!
Being customer focused is a wise move. I have 23 Herbalife customers in my business. They all order between $50 and $200 per month worth of products. From those 23 customers, I make about $1k per month in retail profits, plus I get paid off the volume. I think it’s easy money because most of my customers order right off my distributor website.
Good for you, Ben. I spent some time in Herbalife and I know they have a great wholesale retail markup, especially at the Supervisor level. At that level, you make $2k in sales and earn a $1k retail profit (50%). If you treat your customers well they will lead you to other customers and some of them might become distributors. Keep getting more customers and watch your business and profits grow.
I spent three years in Amway and we were never taught to get customers. All the focus was on sponsoring. Looking back I definitely should have been customer focused like you mentioned, Chuck. It would have helped me make more money in my business.
So true, Edward. Customers are the lifeblood of any business.
Great post, Chuck. I am currently a Mona Vie distributor. I’ve sponsored 7 people into my business and have a team of 46 distributors. Only 2-3 of those 46 are pretty serious and do anything on a consistent basis. But where I make my real money is from my 73 customers. During the past 14 months I’ve really focused on getting customers. Since doing so, I earn more than $3k profit per month in my business. If I didn’t have any customers on my team, I would probably make about $500 per month. I hope everyone who reads this learns that lesson. Get customers. Focus on getting customers. When you have customers, you don’t need a big team to make a nice income in your MLM Business.
Good for you, Keith. What you just wrote proves my point. Get customers and everything else will fall in place. Let your sponsoring be a byproduct of getting customers, not the other way around. Keep up the good work.
Chuck
I can attest to the focusing on customers-first from a different perspective. I am a firm believer in the average person and business, especially small businesses, having access to legal support, and so I signed up with LegalShield. The services and resources for small businesses are so incredible, I decided to market it as well. Theory in practice.
Works every time! Get a customer and then turn them into a distributor.
I think the customer-focused approach makes sense. After all, customers are the backbone of any business, and you could have several people on your team, but minimal sales because the priority is recruiting. You need both, but obviously not in equal measures. If you look at a potential distributor’s point of view, it is best-advised to try a product before deciding to join the company. From a personal standpoint, I don’t think I would want to recruit someone who does not have that product knowledge that best comes from experience.
I’ve built network marketing businesses both ways and I can tell you that customers are much better than distributors. Customers stick around longer and you make more money for having a customer than a distributor. Any many customers will become distributors within a few months, assuming they like the products and you treat them well.
Chuck
I really like the idea of getting customers first. It’s so much easier to share the products or services first, than it is to lead with the business opportunity. If you truly believe in the products, they are easy to talk about. Most people are receptive to try a new product, but want nothing to do with one of these “business opportunities.”
It’s so true, Angela. If you approach people about the products you get less resistance. Once you start pitching money making ideas to people their spider senses start to tingle and the red flags go up. Yet, when you talk about the benefits of the products most people will at least lend you a listening ear and let you share your message. And getting people to try out the products is half the battle. In most cases, a happy customer will upgrade to a happy distributor.
I sell Avon and have been doing so for several years. I have over 200 personal customers and make a very nice income with the company. Yes, I’ve recruited a few women into the business in the past, but all of those women came from my existing customer base. Customers are so important for every business. Without customers you don’t have anything!
Good for you, Georgia. You’re doing things right. In fact, that’s what our industry was designed for: direct selling. Back in the day, distributors were focused on getting customers. Not so much anymore.
Chuck