The Next Step in Network Marketing

For all it’s sometimes negative associations, Network Marketing is a genius business concept and wonderful income opportunity.

I first joined this industry in the summer of 1989 in London, and over the last 30 years have seen all the good and bad aspects. I have been blessed with success in so many areas and worked with countless amazing committed people.

My eventual position in this industry is that of the ‘High Performance’ expert specialising in strategy, systems and leadership working with many of the greatest companies and leaders.

I am best known as a futurist with the world’s best-selling book on the subject which has sold over 1.4million copies in 20 languages, not counting nearly one million audio products, relating my views on where this industry is going. And this is what I want to write about today.

The Bold Truth

Network Marketing, as the dominant part of the global Direct Sales industry, has peaked. It has matured. The proof is in the WFDSA statistics which show that global sales have barely moved for a decade and nor has the numbers involved.

Some countries go up and others down, yet if I look at the statistics I have keep since 1992, we saw that big global boom in the 1990s, and 2000s, followed stagnation in the 2010s.

Companies and leaders will hate these numbers being public yet all professionals want to know the industry metrics and it doesn’t take a Wall Street analyst to confirm that this industry has peaked.

So what is the future?

Potential. There is tons of potential in the main product sectors, this industry is involved with. Health, beauty, services and other consumer products still have huge potential. This could easily be a trillion dollar sector. 500% larger than today.

Distribution. The distribution strategy of using people to acquire customers and support them digitally and personally is probably more attractive and effective today than twenty years ago. Word-of-mouth or Influencer marketing is only getting stronger especially when you consider the declining trust levels in normal retail or online companies.

Companies. There are many great companies with the size and resources necessary to handle dramatic increases in turnover.

Opportunity seekers. Never before have their been so many people in the Middle Classes [ie not Rich or Poor] who need new income sources. This crisis is the power behind the dissatisfaction driving global populism, the Trump era and Brexit. Companies continually are replacing solid jobs with insecurity. The Middle need new opportunities. On a global scale there are at least two billion people looking. When current industry numbers are stalled at less than 150million. There is potential for 1000%+ growth.

So what’s next?

All industries grow in ‘strategic’ waves. We have had two major waves in Network Marketing. One pioneered the industry from 1950s to 1990s with highly speculative strategies to attract people based on just an opportunity. That classic Amway ‘buyers-club’ or the ‘front-loading’ done by nearly every major MLM.

The next wave was a ‘customer/product-driven’ global expansion wave from 1990s to 2000s. All countries were opened from Peru to the Ukraine to Kenya. The digital revolution transformed customer ordering and distributor marketing in every way possible. Online ordering, social media, email support, etc.

YET like all strategic waves, they mature. Just like there’s no money launching cafes, pizza resturants or mobile apps.

So what’s next? What is going to drive the next strategic growth wave?

Or…. has Network Marketing truly hit its peak? When we look at the leading companies, I see so many of my old pioneering comrades still at the top. The same people as 20 years ago. What has happened to the billion people who have come and gone? Where is that new group of top leaders? Does it mean that you really do need to join at the start of the wave to make it big?

The Next Strategic Wave

A new strategic growth wave in an industry is always based on a major new opportunity, a disruptive development or solving a major efficiency problem.

Global expansion drove the last strategic wave in Network Marketing. It will not drive the next one. The digital revolution put that growth on steroids yet the industry is great at digital now.

I cannot see the three big tech revolutions of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things or Blockchain empowering Network Marketing to any extent.

The revolution in Network Marketing, I think, will be a productivity or performance transformation.

Its sooooo inefficient!

The wastage of people in Network Marketing is its major flaw. People join, do little and quit. They are barely productive. The numbers are appalling.

This flaw means that after the initial growth boom for an individual, team, country or company, growth collapses. Its called ‘Boom-Bust’.

It’s why the public don’t believe that they can succeed in Network Marketing. It’s why the media, government and financial analysts are sceptical about the business model and the ‘pyramid’ brand won’t go away.

Solve this performance problem and that will create the next strategic wave.

Performance Transformation

The great thing about Network Marketing is that anyone can join and with no learning or support, they can create results.

The problem with Network Marketing is that anyone can join and with no learning or support, they can create results! LOL.

Anyone can create ‘performance’.

The problem is that the performance created is not good enough to create new sustainable growth to create a new boom.

The real problem

The reason I don’t believe that Network Marketing will go into a new growth wave is that it is still controlled by the leaders who pioneered the last wave. The original pioneer leaders are long gone yet those that drove success globally at still 100% in control and therefore so are their philosophies, strategies and systems. Nothing will change with this in place.

I know how to fix this performance problem. Proved it. I call it High Performance Network Marketing. It produces dramatically higher levels of success and productivity. It takes philosophical and strategic changes to sponsoring, training and language. Its not dramatic yet the results are.

Then I wasted too much time on leaders and companies who said they wanted the outcomes yet would not implement change. It got boring. I lost respect in many leaders who I liked very much. It’s why I have retired from Network Marketing.

This is the classic blockage in all mature companies and industries. Resistant to change. And why would they when the current system works for them!

The future..

The next step in Network Marketing is clear. The only question is when will it happen and by whom?

My guess is that, like other industries, a new company or companies will launch and their results will astound people and they will show the world how they have solved the problem. Junior leaders will flock out of current companies into them. Established companies will panic. Old leaders will retire gracefully like old soldiers to tell their ‘war stories’. The industry I love, will at last evolve.

My guess is that this High Performance revolution will start soon. First within companies as new leaders realise that it is the way forward. Maybe that’s you.

Please take whatever resources from me you like. Join my High Performance Network Marketing facebook community. Lead it. Live it. I am not coaching this anymore yet would love someone to break the mould and produce the next industry leader.

Rock and roll

Ed

PS sorry about the english grammar. I am a better coach than writer!