The Rule of 10 in Network Marketing

Today, I want to talk to you about the rule of 10 in network marketing.  I should start out with a disclaimer to tell you that I am not a scientist nor do I have mathematical data to support this blog post. This information is just my opinion from my own personal experience in the industry. Individual results will ALWAYS vary.

Let me begin by telling you that I am a big fan of numbers.  I believe the numbers never lie. You can look at almost any business in the world, evaluate the numbers, and know a predictable result. Network marketing is no different.

When it comes to network marketing, there is what I call “the rule of 10.”   The rule of 10 in network marketing states that for every 10 people that you walk through your entire sponsoring process, here’s what can expect:

• 6-8 not interested in anything
• 1-2 will become a customer
• 1-2 will become a distributor

To keep it simple for mathematical purposes, let’s assume that 1 in 10 join your team as a distributor.

Just to clarify, these 10 people must go through your entire sponsoring process to count. That means they saw a complete business presentation, tried a product sample, did a three way call with your upline, and/or attended a local event.  It also means you followed up at least 7-20 times.  The exact process you use might vary based upon your company or upline, but it has to have at least three to five steps to be considered a process. In other words, just talking to someone or just showing a plan doesn’t count.

I am not saying that if you just talk to 10 random people about your business that the above things should happen.  They won’t!  You’ll probably have to approach or prospect 50 people to find 10 people to walk through your entire sponsoring process.  Does that make sense?

You can take the rule of 10 in network marketing one step further.  From what I’ve noticed in the industry, for every 10 people who join your team, this is what you can expect.

• 5 will quit (normally in 90 days or less)
• 4 will stop building the business at some point, but stay as loyal product users
• 1 will stay serious about the business

So what does all this really mean to you?

Let’s suppose you know you need to sponsor 10 serious people to build a big team.  Using the rule of 10 and the numbers I mentioned above, this is what you would need to do.

• Approach 5,000 people
• Put 1000 people through your complete sponsoring process
• Sponsor 100 people as distributors
• Have 10 serious distributors

In order to to this in just one year, you would need to approach 14 people per day (5,000/365)! If you approached five people per day, you could accomplish this in about three years.  How awesome is that? I believe that anyone can talk to 5 people a day.

Of course, these numbers will vary slightly from person to person based upon your skill-set, your company, and the quality of prospects you talk to.  But how cool is it to know that by talking to just five people a day, you could completely change your business and life?

I think it’s awesome.  Even if your own numbers were double of what I mentioned in this post, you could still hit your goal of finding 10 serious people in one year, just by talking to 30 people a day.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is that anyone can succeed in our industry IF they work the numbers to their advantage AND they have a solid sponsoring process to walk their prospects through. Most people fail (not all) because they don’t work the numbers and they don’t know what to expect.

What do you think about the rule of 10 in network marketing?  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Just leave a comment below to let me know what you think.

Sincerely,







Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com

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