Whether they’ve been on the market ten years or only a few months, every network-marketing company claims it’s the perfect time to start working with them. Clearly, this makes no sense. How can every point in a company’s timeline be the perfect time?
This is not to say you should never join a network-marketing company, but it’s in your best interest to understand where the company currently stands and how that standing will affect you as a partner.
Ever-Expanding and Always Successful?
Businesses often present themselves as rapidly growing and always successful, but they usually struggle to explain the highs and lows in their past—highs and lows that occur in every industry. In his book The Dip, Seth Godin points out that it’s not possible to create a business without facing some dips along the way.
Still, many leaders and distributors in network marketing don’t want to face that fact. Compelled by wishful thinking, they prefer to believe that success will always come easily, and this attitude works its way into every pitch.
New companies often stretch their timelines to make it seem like they’ve been around for years, just waiting for the right moment to start. This falsehood is a way to dodge the tough truth that 80 percent of all startups fail within their first two years. This applies to brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce sites, and franchise businesses alike.
If a company is still in that two-year window, they have to find some way to communicate a long history. “Our founders have been in business for twenty years. They spent the last eight years preparing the launch of this company, and we’re finally ready to launch.”
What they fail to mention is that the company is essentially an experiment, and potential partners are the guinea pigs.
Look for Real Advantages at Every Moment
Now might not be the perfect time to partner with a company, but you can find pros and cons to joining at every stage of a company’s development and adjust your expectations accordingly. Each point in a company’s timeline has some advantages that could be truthfully leveraged in promoting the company. For example, if you join a company in its early days, after a bit of due diligence, you have a better chance of making a lot of money as an early adopter. As long as the company has solid people and a great product, you will be well-positioned to take advantage of early growth. New startups should promote that fact.
On the other hand, if a company has been in business for ten years or more, they’re less likely to go out of business. They’ve had years to lay a solid foundation that can help the company weather hardships. Herbalife paid a $100 million penalty to the FTC and it didn’t kill the company. They’re still going strong. Every expert said they were finished, but all they had to do was increase sales in other markets.
It might be a little harder to pitch a product with the name Herbalife attached to it, but many of their products still make sense. The company is probably here to stay, so both distributors and customers can have a positive experience.
Beware of Blatant Liars
Many companies embellish their origin stories, but some flat-out lie. Beware of these blatant liars because while their falsehoods often catch up to them eventually, you and other unknowing distributors could get caught up in the mess first. You’ll waste time and money on a doomed endeavor.
Entertainment Express was a Scandinavian company that, for some reason, sold DVDs in the internet era. Even when they were only a year old, they recruited people by claiming that their founders had spent eight years researching the market. They didn’t last long. As it turned out, the founders had spent those eight years studying how to take a lot of people’s money and run away with it.
Another network marketing company, Lyoness, is still around and still lying. They’ve invented their entire success story out of whole cloth. When they started, they merged with another company, but they never mention this in their sales pitch. Instead, they’ve concocted a big success story for their discount shopping system, presenting crazy statistics on the internet and in their presentations.
In reality, they’ve had to relocate from country to country numerous times in order to avoid prosecution. Their numbers are far from reality and their success story is a blatant lie.
The Truth About Perfect Timing
The truth almost always comes out eventually. It’s like dating. If you want to find an amazing spouse, you have to sell yourself by outlining your positive qualities. If you brag about your fantastic mansion and piles of money, while promising to cook, clean, and wait on them hand and foot, you might make a great impression. However, eventually, they’re going to visit your home and see that you live in a filthy one-bedroom apartment, and your hopes of a relationship will be ruined.
There are plenty of great reasons to join both new and more established companies without resorting to lies. When building a long-term company, limit yourself to facts that can be verified.
A sales pitch based on the truth might sound something like this:
“Our company was founded nine years ago, and we’ve been able to achieve success by staying true to our mission. Our company is represented in thirty-six countries, and we’ve produced $50 million in sales. That number can be verified through documents released publicly by the company. We are stock-listed, and here’s a website where you can check it out. Now is a good time to get started with us because we’ve laid the groundwork for stable growth in years to come.”
This pitch sounds exciting enough without adding any embellishments, and the facts presented are verifiable. There’s no perfect time to join a company, but if you hear a pitch that sounds like the one above—and you take the time to confirm the facts yourself—you can join a reputable company with realistic expectations about your future success.