Today, I want to talk about the Power of 5 in Network Marketing. I learned about this concept from my upline mentor, Don Failla. He talks about this concept in his book “The 45 Second Presentation.” If you’ve never read that book before you should definitely check it out.
The Power of 5 basically states that no one can EFFECTIVELY lead or manage more than five people at a time. The military, large corporations and even non-profits seldom have ANYONE personally supervise more than five people at a time.
They use this principle because they know that leaders have limited time and they can only invest so much in each person they supervise. It takes TIME to nurture, develop, train and help your direct reports. And if you had more than five people, to supervise and coach, you wouldn’t have enough time to work with each person properly.
Well, the same holds true in network marketing. You should NEVER have more than five personally sponsored people that you are working with at one time.
Ultimately, you want to sponsor 15 to 25 people as quickly as possible UNTIL you find five leaders who really want to build the business. At that point, your job is to spend 95% of your time helping those five people become successful. You keep working with them UNTIL they are self-sufficient, have a big team of their own and no longer need your constant support.
In most cases, it will take you at least 6-12 months to properly train and help your new serious distributor. You have a big commitment and obligation to help them. The only way to really do this properly is to spend time with them in person or on the phone.
Once they are self-sufficient and have duplicated your success, you can replace them by finding someone else to become one of your five. It really is that simple. You always want five serious people to work with at any given time. Anything more than that is unmanageable.
Once your person is self-sufficient, and duplicating your success, the best thing you can do is replace them with someone in THEIR TEAM, down in depth. When you find a leader in depth, under them, repeat the same process with them as you did with their upline. This will give added security to your team and let you work smart.
Many people make the mistake of sponsoring too many people too fast. They’re good sales people and they are good at recruiting. The problem is, they never take the time to help their new SERIOUS people get started. They just keep sponsoring others and most of the people they have sponsored drop out and quit, because no one helped them.
If you are a sponsoring machine, I hope you will reconsider how you build your business. It’s much SMARTER and EASIER to work in depth than it is to keep sponsoring personally. And if you do keep sponsoring people while you are helping your five serious people, place them in DEPTH, under the people you are currently working with This gives added support to that leg and helps everyone. Talk about a win-win!
To clarify, I am not telling you to just sponsor five people at stop. What I am telling you to do is to sponsor a small group of people as quickly as possible, UNTIL you find five really serious people. Once you sponsor five serious people shift your efforts and spend most of your time helping THEM sponsor people and build a team. Drive each leg deep, at least ten levels deep, so it is self sufficient and growing on its own.
And remember these key points.
1. The real money in MLM comes in depth
2. It’s smarter to work in depth, at the bottom most point of your organization
3. It’s better to have 10 legs, 10 people deep, than 100 personally sponsored legs
4. When you work at the bottom most point in your organization, you motivate everyone above them
5. You can only effectively work with five people at a time
Final Thoughts
There you have it folks. This is the Power of Five Concept that I learned from my mentor Don Failla. After spending years doing it the other way, I have to tell you that this method really does work!
As a final point, I have to say this. Some people will fool you and tell you they are serious. You will know if someone is serious is they are actually doing the work. Ignore what they tell you and watch what they do. If they don’t follow your lead and do what you tell them, replace them with someone else who is serious. Your time is valuable, too!
What are your thoughts? What do you think about the Power of 5 in Network Marketing? Leave a comment below to share your thoughts. 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.
Five happens to be my favorite number. It’s big enough to build with but small enough to manage. We teach children to count in fives because its the most manageable number. So think building a business in fives is a great idea. Even if you end up with a 100 member organization you can break it down into groups of five and spend most of your time with the top five. I’m going to have read Don Failla’s book.
Don’s book is awesome. You really should check it out. He is one of my mentors and he has done a lot to help me out.
It makes perfect sense that you can only effectively sponsor 5 people at a time. Anything more than that runs the risk of stretching you too thin and robbing those you are sponsoring of your full energy and attention. And ultimately if you do a good job at leading those 5 and they go onto sponsor 5 individuals, you are well on your way to building a large network of successful team members.
You can sponsor as many people as you want to, but you can really only work with five people at a time effectively.
Five seems to be a great number. You are not taking all your time trying to lead more, and the five will receive a “better you.” To lead more than five takes too much away from you and you will not provide all the leadership your team needs. Great post Charles. The power of 5 makes great sense.
Glad it makes sense to you. Five good people can keep you as busy as you want to be! That’s the truth! However, you will have to go through a lot of people to find those five people. Once again, it’s five SERIOUS people, not just any five people.
I had never heard of the Power of Five concept before, great post and information.
Glad you enjoyed it, Kevin.