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Last week, the news of the biggest bank failure in US history is sinking in. And it’s pretty glum around here (Seattle) where the Washington Mutual was based. The truth is, much of the damage created by this is psychological in nature, undermining confidence in the economy. No one has lost their job at WaMu (so far) and no depositor has lost his/her money. The jobs that will be lost at WaMu will likely be those in the corporate center. People at branches will be in the best position to keep their jobs. The big losers of course were the WaMu investors – arguably the group that perhaps deserves to take the fall for this.
And today we get news of Wachovia facing a similar failing. That aside, it’s really a strong indicator of where things are going in the job market – to lower paying jobs. Jon Talton of the Seattle Times writes in WaMu fall devastating for Seattle
The entirely predictable consequence of this deal for Seattle will be the loss of thousands of well-paid jobs, hundreds of thousands of square feet of office space emptied out, and a serious downshifting of local giving.
Times like these actually help in Network Marketing. These loss of jobs and opportunities, cause more people to look at building their own business. There is no better way to build a business than with Network Marketing because of the low cost of entry. People affected by the economy must decide they want to start a business and let that decision fuel their desire to run a business and work their way out of the job market.
In this blog post,I reported that ITV Ventures would cease to exist on October 3, 2008 and it would be replaced by a company called EVS (Elite Virtual Systems). I now have a clearer picture of what EVS is and is not.
It is not a Network Marketing company. That component of the business model has been completely removed from what I can tell.
It will continue to use independent home agents as a call center for infomercials. But the big difference will be that the infomercials will be 3rd party infomercials. Formerly, ITV created, produced, and aired all their own infomercial shows – that will not be the case here. This shifts the risk of the cost of media off EVS.
It’s a bit unclear on exactly what products will be offered, but EVS agents can begin taking calls sometime in mid October. Since I don’t know the product specifics yet, I don’t have commission details. Call agents in EVS will be held to performance standards as well. The measure of performance will be Revenue per Call (RPC). Those with below par RPC will be dropped from receiving calls. I am not clear on how that RPC will be reported or communicated to the reps.
The biggest impetus to joining EVS is that if you were in ITV Ventures, your residual customers will come with you and your residual income will follow. As for me, I’m afraid I am not terribly excited about EVS and will join it only to keep my residuals coming in. I would be crazy to throw that away. It costs $80 per month to stay in EVS and as long as the residuals pay more than that, it behooves me to stay in EVS.
It’s doubtful I will work EVS very much (if at all). There were times when ITV Ventures felt more like a job than a business and EVS will be even more so. EVS will be more like work from home opportunity and there is a huge difference between “Working from home” and a “Home Based Business”.
It’s called SeaAloe. It’s a blend of Aloe Vera and other ingredients to form a drink that your cells can easily absorb. In that regard, it’s like a lot of juice MLMs, but of course its ingredients are different.
One thing that troubles me is that Aloe Vera part. Is Aloe Vera really meant to be taken internally? I remember reading something and I will try very hard to remember where I saw it, but it said something to the effect that while Aloe had exceptional healing qualities on outer skin and external tissues, it was harsh to ingest and actually causes difficulty for the digestive system. Further, it’s effectiveness for treating and assisting internal health is unproven as are most things naturopathic. If it’s not a drug, there will be limited funds for any research. That aside, is this just yet another juice MLM?
Shady NM business but so common now. You type in the name of a network marketing company in Google and up comes all these ‘warnings’ about that company. The ‘warnings’ are in the paid advertisements alongside. Google and Yahoo both line up the sides with paid advertisers who pay to have you click their ad. In this case, they are paying for keywords for their competitors names and often dissing the competition hard and soft. Here is an example.
I typed in “ITV Ventures” in Google. Along the right hand side there was an ad that spoke directly to me: “What Next For ITV IBO’s?”. I clicked on it and it took me to this page:
It doesn’t blatantly dis ITV Ventures, but it does show a bullet list of the most common complaints that IBO’s had about the company. It is a sparse page that only had a few points and a form to fill out. So I filled out the form and it redirected me to a different site (I have XXXX’d out the name).
Since it was a site with live chat I took advantage of that feature:
XXXX: Hi ross, welcome to XXXX, how may I help you?
ross: how is this marketed?
XXXX: internet, direct mail, word of mouth
ross: Ok no infomercials?
XXXX: we are making some as we speak
XXXX: radio and tv
ross: and how will those work?
XXXX: are u a current customer or distributor
ross: neither
XXXX: ok well for more information please listen to our conference calls 212-990-8000 ext 2542 thursday at 5pm pst
ross: Ok thanks for your time
I didn’t really expect to get far in live chat and who knows, perhaps I might tune for that call. Too bad it’s not toll free. So maybe that type of advertising does work after all? In all fairness, I suppose ITV Ventures is fair game since it’s a dead company. These sites probably feel that they’re justified in serving the niche of former ITV Reps. However the truth is, this tactic is used all over from just about any NM company. Type in Mona-Vie, Zrii, Agel, Lightyear, MaxGXL, Sea Aloe, Liberty League, whatever, and see where those paid ads take you! Most likely it will to the competitors for those NM Companies.
Since the disappearance of ITV Ventures, I am actively looking around for other NM opportunities to join. Naturally that takes me to a lot websites and I have to fill out a lot of forms. One in particular was very unclear as to what I would be getting into. I wasn’t even sure of the company name.
This I have found to be quite common. For some reason, certain NM companies feel their name is Intellectual Property and shouldn’t be used freely. This flies in the face of how most businesses work and I have to admit, I have never fully understood this. Most businesses are more than happy to throw their name out there and let people talk about it; create some buzz around it.
Not all NM companies practice this by the way – only some. I find this most common with companies that have something to hide and I see it as a red flag. I see it in companies that have had high profile legal trouble for example. If you see this on your research, I say give them a red mark!
I mentioned a bit about the warm market yesterday. Let’s take this into the so called 3 foot rule. The idea behind the 3 foot rule is that you simply talk to everyone that comes within range of your voice (3 feet) about your network marketing opportunity. 3 feet is metaphorical of course, but you get the idea.
The problem with the 3 foot rule is the same as the warm market. Not everyone you meet is going to be interested in your opportunity. In fact, if you’re lucky only a very small percentage of the people you contact will be interested. Say for example you’ve determined that for every 100 people you talk to, you enroll 3. You might take the “glass half full versus half empty” approach and say ok, but I do get 3 out of every 100 for my troubles.
Ok but aside from the problems faced with the other 97, a big problem here is time. How much time have you wasted by talking to 97 people to aren’t interested? A lot! And time that could have better been spent working on other methods of promotion that would serve you better by drawing in interested parties.
There are instances where the 3 foot rule might make sense. For example, at a convention of networkers you might have a higher likelihood of people being interested. But leave the people on the street alone and spend your time doing focused marketing.
After having read Ann Sieg’s “Renegade Network Marketer”, I will never work a warm market again. Furthermore, after reading her advice, I know that there are others who feel that way about warm markets, including Ann Sieg’s followers. I have never really felt right about working a warm market since I was first introduced to Network Marketing back in the 1980’s with Amway. In those days, that was the only way. There were no blogs, no internet, no email lists, no online forums, etc.
So if it didn’t feel right then, no wonder it has given me so much trouble over the years. Now Ann Sieg says it perfectly ok to not want to work your warm market and there are plenty of reasons not to. The most apparent reason (although it was never apparent 25 years ago) is that the NM opportunity simply isn’t going to be right for everyone. If you’re lucky, it might be ok for a small percentage of the people you know, but the reality is that it’s not going to be for everyone. So why force your opportunity down unwilling people’s throats? Those aren’t prospects. Those aren’t leads. They’re people who may be perfectly happy in their day job. Save the marketing for those who are interested!
The Church of Network Marketing 