So...Is It MLM, Referral Marketing or Network Marketing???

A lot of people wonder if their business is Network Marketing or MLM, which is short for Multi-Level marketing.

Typically speaking these terms are used synonymously - they are basically used to represent the same thing.

However, they are subtly different. I’ll show you how in a moment... but first lets discuss why there are two names for the same thing.

The network marketing industry... which is what it is typically called now... has a history of calling itself different things.

We have an article on THIS SITE that explains this history in detail.

Even today, you’ll hear marketers say... we’re not MLM, or we’re not Network marketing... and they come up with novel new names to suggest they have some brand new way of doing business.

Why? Because they want to counter ingrained conceptions...

The reason network marketing became a popular term in the mid 1980’s was basically because many people in the general population had a negative association with the term multi-level marketing. And this was primarily due to some of the manipulative and hype laden marketing approaches used in the industry.

A new name might work for a while... but it won’t solve the underlying problems - which is why learning how to build a network marketing business properly is so important.

So let’s get down to what really matters... what is this business all about?\We all know the typical organizational chart that starts with you and spreads down.

There’s you... the people you brought in to the business - customers and promoters... and then there’s the people they bring in.

Organizations don’t grow symmetrically like this in the real world by the way... what I’m showing is simply for the sake of illustration.

Most of the time you’ll see this go on for a number of levels and when it’s talked about, it’s usually in terms of earning commision on this network. 5 percent on this level, 10 percent on this one... you know the drill.

But that’s not the complete story... and I think it creates a lot of misunderstanding.
Misunderstanding that will lead you to marketing methods that don’t work for this type of business and create the need to reinvent a name - rather than reinvent the way we do business.

Let me illustrate two sides of how this business really works... at least in the most successful way.
On one side of the equation you have your company... your downline customers purchase a product or service from this company. The company in turn pays you a commission based on some published plan.

Now this can happen for each level... which is why we call it multi-level marketing.

On the other side you have the picture of promotion - how does this network get created?

What’s different about network marketing is the level of personalization that’s involved vs. other businesses. Building a network is a lot more than about making a one time sale...
it’s about establishing and creating a relationship with the people in your network.

This happens through conversations... not mass marketing. Even if you generate leads through ads or get them from a lead company like Prosperity Central... you need to have conversations in order to build these relationships.

It’s these conversations... and the mentoring on how to have them, that is the network marketing part of the equation.

What you end up with is a network of interpersonal relationships and it’s these relationships that create a customer and product experience that is hard to find in the retail world.

As long as you don’t lose site of this truth... what you call the business really doesn't matter!

If you want to learn more about how to effectively build network marketing relationships without hype or manipulation checkout Prosperity Central by clicking HERE NOW! or Click HERE NOW to chat with one of our awesome independent, Home Based Business Consultants.