Many do not understand the business they are into, and that can partly explain their shaky foundation and which more often than not, translates into their not doing well or loss of focus. So, please be guided, as some points are made to stand out.

Swissgarde is a leading international network marketing company, specializing in health and beauty products, with over 500,000 distributors in the whole of Africa. With Nigeria being a key player in its outreach to Africans.

Network Marketing, Multi-Level Marketing, Direct Selling. These names all describe the same system, which we will just call "MLM." So, don’t be confused if your business is referred to as multi-level marketing. It is however important that certain points are made to stand out.

Swissgarde Business - Understanding The Network Marketing Business You Are Into

For more information about SWISSGARDE and/or to become an Independent Swissgarde Distributor call Felix Joshua at +2347038574473, +2348074256315

HOW MLM STARTED

In a typical business scenario where a company has products to sell, the company would pay a bunch of sales reps (called consultants, advisors, distributors, members, associates...) to sell the product to people. However, paying a crowd of sales reps creates problems for the companies, in that not all sales reps are equal. Some are good sellers, and others are not. The company has to manage all the different reps, and it is complicated. 

Then someone came up with the idea: Why not let the reps manage other reps? Just reward the rep who recruited good reps by giving them a share of the profits. The more the "lower" reps (the recruiters) sell, the more the "higher" rep (the recruiter) makes in bonus. So the recruiter has the incentive to recruit good people, which benefits both himself and the company. Thus was born "multi-level marketing", or MLM. The recruiter became known as the "upline", and the recruitee became the "downline."

DEVIATION FROM THE CORE CONCEPT

Later, some who were into Pyramid schemes borrowed this business module and referred to their business as MLMs, the term "Network Marketing" was used. Most MLMs are done wrongly, pitched as a get-rich-quick scheme, and of course quickly collapse, leaving investors and representatives disappointed. Furthermore, it further confuses the issue that many scams disguise themselves as MLMs. So, you need a better understanding of being able to convince prospects who may not be willing to join due to past experiences.

In view of the risks, here are a few things you need to be aware of: 

To succeed in multi-level marketing, you have to SELL things and sell a LOT of things. Marketing means sales. If you already have that gift and can convince people to buy things from you, congratulations; you may have a chance. If you can't sell and are not a people person, then you have a long way to go before you can succeed in an MLM, and you may want to consider another path. Otherwise, you have to consciously seek ways to improve.

And if you were told you don't need to sell anything, just recruit, you are in a "pyramid scheme," not an MLM.

 "Niche Product" Does NOT Mean Sales, Swissgarde has good products, that the products are "cool" or "unique" (i.e. niche) does NOT mean you can sell it. You may not have the right mix of potential customers in your area, or you simply may not have access to that pool of prospects. So, a good MLM company must institute a good training program in order to help their representatives sell. You will agree with me that Swissgarde Nigeria is doing well in this regard. But a pyramid scheme pays little attention to this. All their interest lies in the millions they want you to bring, and the billions they promise you will get. Even those MLMs with products don't invest heavily in training like we do in Swissgarde.

Marketing is as important as the network. In the term "network marketing", the primary word is MARKETING. "Network" is an adjective, modifying "marketing", and this is secondary. The primary purpose of network marketing is to market a product, and ultimately, to sell a product. The secondary purpose of network marketing is to establish a network of reps to form a team in order to expand sales.

It is easy for those pitching the opportunity to you to make the wrong emphasis, to portray the easy life: "Just sit there and let your team do the sales and you rake in the millions." However, this picture is a lie. Finding the right people to recruit is not that simple. It takes more than passion to sell, and selling large amounts isn't easy. So, the right strategy is of the essence too.

Legitimate MLMs, in order to reduce their uplines' reliance on sales commissions and encourage the upline to actually sell something, limit the level of downline sharing. In Swissgarde, the limit is the 9th generation. If you see an MLM that promises to share "infinite levels," or allows you to "stack" (that is, buy multiple positions), it's very likely a scam. In Swissgarde even as a Star 5 or 4, you are expected to do personal sales, and you all agree there is a limit to a leg that can support you. All of this makes the Swissgarde marketing plan quite unique and reduces complacency, with an emphasis on selling at all levels.

Your upline is your boss in this business, and your success depends on finding the right one. He (or she) should teach you what you need to do to succeed. To that end, he should show you, by example, how it's done. Eventually, you will need to pass on the knowledge to those you recruit yourself. 

If he is not teaching you, not arranging team meetings where techniques can be shared, doing more recruiting than selling or doing other things that make you uncomfortable, you're either with the wrong upline or in the wrong business. So, a good MLM must have special designs to take care of all and I believe that both our training and POWER GROUP are doing well in this regard.

A "team" without oversight often devolves into a personality cult, where the upline becomes a cult leader indoctrinating all downlines, and the desperate are often eager to follow a leader who may not be completely ethical. This devolution can turn a legitimate MLM into an illegal pyramid scheme that preys upon new recruits. In a seminar I once facilitated, a participant narrated how she was physically assaulted by her leader when she stepped out of line.

One more problem with the lack of oversight is the lack of a way for a company to regulate or do anything about what the reps are telling people about the company. Legitimate companies should limit their reps to only pre-approved marketing materials. Not-quite-legitimate companies will allow their reps to say almost anything.

This lack of oversight has also led a huge number of scams to disguise themselves as MLMs, by adopting the same buzzwords (matrix, payout, upline, teamwork), emphasizing recruiting, and barely mentioning selling anything. You "work hard" by recruiting a lot of people, and ignore selling. This also leads to a secondary market of "marketing coaches" who try to teach people how to recruit. Many of these coaches are also MLM members, making their tactics very shady. (And a scammer would not care about the company image at all.)

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Summary

In Swissgarde, you will agree with me that we have a good oversight function on our activities.

To appreciate the above piece better, you can refer to my earlier article, “ Why Swissgarde is the best network marketing company in Nigeria”.

So now, you know what you are doing. 

For more information and to start your own SWISSGARDE (now Healthgarde) business in Nigeria, Ghana, USA, Call/WhatsApp Felix Joshua +2347038574473, +2348074256315