What is Network Marketing?

Of the people I have come in contact with over the years of learning this profession and, yes, I do think it is a profession, the idea of what network marketing is, seems to fall very neatly into 3 categories:

1. Those who know what "it" is from their personal experience, usually from the Multi Level Marketing perspective, which we will explore later.
2. Those who are convinced that all the opportunities available through this business model are "scams" and "don't work".
3. Those who are or have been in the corporate environment exclusively and feel that anyone who does network marketing for a profession is either sub par or "couldn't make it anywhere else"

Over the next few days, we will explore each of these ideas and what I have come to understand about them, relative to network marketing. It is my intention to simply clarify and explain what the network marketing business model is. My reasons are that in this time of financial upheaval, the network marketing profession could be an option for those who have not previously explored it because of misunderstandings.

To begin with, network marketing is an absolutely viable business model in the world of business. It is a profession primarily because it takes considerable study, self appraisal and an attitude of certainty to be successful. Within networking marketing, there are two distinct types of marketing models.

The first is the MultiLevel Marketing model or as many refer to it as "MLM". MLM was first introduced as a business model by Amway many years ago and over the years has gained tremendous footing as a way to get products in to the hands of consumers while providing income to those doing the marketing. As first, there was a requirement for the reps to inventory product, but this concept has been replaced for the most part by the manufacturers themselves, who ship products ordered through their reps. The term MLM comes from the way that marketers are placed on their recruiter's down line, all those below them. Each person down to a certain level, receives income from all those whose efforts produce sales below them, down to a certain point, therefore, multi level marketing. In general, the start up investment on those programs is around $100 to get your starter kit.

The second model is the Direct Sales model. This type of plan is generally found in your "top tier" opportunities, those which are a higher investment to start, but also offer much higher income levels in a shorter amount of time. These programs typically have what are called training sales, which are the first one or two sales the rep makes which pass to the sponsor and then afterward to the rep themselves.

Next time, we will explore more deeply, the world of Multi Level Marketing..