The Eighty Percent

I have confidence in the 80-20 rule. 80% of the people get 20% of the results. 20% of the people get 80% of the results. In network marketing, a good plan could be shown to 100 people, and only 20 of them will get in. Of those 20, only 20%, or 4, will actually work it. Of those 4, only 1 of them will get any real results. 1 out of 100 actually makes it in Network Marketing . . .

. . . Using conventional methods!.

Now - we could say that, well, then I will work it hard enough, persist long enough, offend enough friends, burn enough bridges, so that I become the 1 out of 100!

Or, we could reformulate the equation. We could turn the 80 into 20, and the 20 into 80. Would it be worth it, all you Network Marketers out there, to take the time to understand our market, so that out of 100 people seeing the plan, 80 join?

Let me use an analogy. When the automobile was introduced a hundred years ago, only eccentric nuts bought one. (One of my favorite movies, Big Jake, illustrates this point). At the very beginning even fewer than 20% of the public had a car. Even people that could afford one had to think twice. You did not want to be thought of as out of the mainstream! Better to put your money into a bigger stable for your horse and buggy!

But today, a person refusing to buy a car is considered non-mainstream.

If Network Marketing is so good - then what is keeping it from becoming mainstream?

I put it to you . . . we are! By insisting on using conventional methods that only reach, at best, 20% of the people seeing the plan, we are keeping our friends and family from sharing in some good money!

How do we mainstream out network marketing plan? First, we re-position it so that people realize it is the smart thing to do! It will take some up-front work. I would suggest that we need the following pieces in order to make our program mainstream:

* Develop a real network, where people are motivated to help those lateral to them.
* Do real marketing, where we actually care what our market wants, and then we response affirmatively.
* Continuous improvement. Constantly learn and adapt. Work on getting better results all the time.
* Effective leadership, including giving people the opportunity to select their own leaders.
* Form high-performance teams. Allow social interactions, brainstorming, creativity. Let all members contribute based on their skills, talents, and interests - and have fun doing it!

Any group of 12 people, working according to the above five points, will outperform 12 people working according to the conventional model. In fact, they will get four times the result of the 12 working alone.

Anybody interested in putting it to the test?