Who Makes All The Money In MLM?
Listen to Tim’s recorded MLM Training Tips teleclass about handling the objection “Who Makes All The Money In MLM?”, originally broadcast in October 2007.
When prospects say: “All the people at the top make all the money, and everyone below has no chance of success” – it’s a question easily answered when you know what to say. Here’s some very logical MLM training advice you can use to confidently, truthfully and logically answer this common objection.
Continuing the series on how to handle objections, let’s talk about one you have probably gotten at least once. Here’s a version that a reader emailed to me: A prospect commented that “MLM is about helping the top few people to earn money and the rest just earn peanuts.” How do I handle this objection?
First let me state that I LOVE THIS OBJECTION! Because in handling this objection I can let MLM “shine:” Let’s back up to the Objection Handling Remedy found in Professional Inviter. You may recognize this formula from previous MLM training articles; it is the formula of how to handle all objections.
1. Listen completely through the question/objection.
2. Confirm understanding.
3. Make the question or objection valid to the prospect.
4. Handle or facilitate handling Questions and/or Objections.
5. Complete the handling and return to the previous step of the Inviting formula.
When your prospect makes a comment similar to the one above, listen completely through their objection, then confirm for the prospect that you understand it. With this particular objection, you have to make sure you differentiate “people at the top – are making most of the money” versus “people who get in at the beginning – are making most of the money.” You handle these two objections slightly differently.
When you acknowledge that you understand the prospect’s objection, let them know that you appreciate them telling you this, or asking you about this. Say something like, “that’s a good question” or “thanks for asking that” or “thanks for bringing that to my attention.”
Then you want to handle or facilitate handling this objection. Facilitate of course means you assist the prospect in handling his or her objection instead of you “telling” the prospect the answer.
When the objection is handled, you return to the step of the Inviting Formula you were on when the objection came up. To help you with step 4, handling the objection, let me explain why this objection comes up and give you some valuable information about how to handle it.
(On this month’s recorded training, I will go into much more detail, teaching you how to ask the prospect engaging questions that will facilitate them handling their own objection. But for now, here’s the short version.)
This objection comes up because there is a perception that it’s ONLY in MLM that people at the “top” make most of the money. Factually, when people have built large organizations they do make more money than those who have not built large organizations. But it’s not any different than other business models!
If you research traditional executive and owner compensation of most companies you’ll see that “only a few people at the top make the majority of the money” in every business model! CEOs of large U.S. companies last year made as much money from JUST ONE DAY on the job as average workers made over the entire year. According to an Associated Press survey of 386 Fortune 500 companies in 2006, the executives averaged $10.8 million in total compensation, that’s over 364 times the pay of the average American worker!
If you study this graphic and the text above, I think you will agree that MLM “shines”. Why? Because, in MLM there are people layered through-out the organization who are making more money than the people who brought them into the business. You don’t find this in other business models.
In MLM, your productivity determines your earnings and if you’re more productive than your upline, you’ll make more money. In a conventional business model, you’ve got to deal with office politics, seniority and other factors that often outweigh the productivity factor. That’s why I say that MLM is the fairest business model of all.
In closing, keep this very logical MLM training tip in the forefront of your mind as I’m sure you too will come up against this common objection. Your ability to handle each and every objection with logical explanations will play a big part of your MLM success.
Don’t miss the free teleclass on Wednesday, Oct. 24 as I’ll share additional information about this issue and how to handle the objection in a professional manner.
Making MLM shine,
Tim Sales
Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the skills necessary to be successful in MLM His MLM training is based on his personal success of building a downline of 56,000 people. Instantly access Tim’s free MLM training and learn the steps to achieve success at http://www.firstclassmlmtools.com/MLM-Training-W13.aspx
October 24th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Hi Tim,
I must say that these tips absolutely are fantastic !! I als recently got a chance to listen to Professional Inviter and have als watched your DVD Brilliant Compensation and I believe that you absolutely deliver the best support a networker can get ! Your tools are by far the most complete to really DO this business instead of other tools where you only learn about the success of other people but not their ‘how’… Your total website is worth millions of dollars in information and it is for free… lol
I also believe that lots of people actually believe that MLM is a hiding business, meaning that lots of them are not telling their prospects immediately the truth with good conversation. They act very secretly about the whole industry. When they get your tools, I believe it is all they will ever need :-)
I also got a little question for you : in your course professional inviter you sometimes say to prospects that you exchange businesscards and you call them up to discuss things. Could you give an example of a good businesscard ? I mean I fully understand the steps of working, but how do you create an interesting businesscard that draws attention but also curiosity ?
Kind regards,
Bart Hungenaert
Belgium, Bruges
October 24th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Hi Tim,
I just got off your call a bit ago and it was a great help. I just 2 days ago came up against that objection and wish I had your facilitation to help him along. Now I will have to talk with him again. He’s a good friend but as you say, not informed on the subject.
Thanks again my friend Michael
October 30th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I have always thought that people positioned in the top level of any Mutli-Level-Marketing business made the most money. Everytime somebody wanted to get me involved in MLM I put to them that the only people that made any money in this business were the ones that were introduced at the launch of it. However looking at your explaination above I am now looking at it from a different point of view and realised that like any business model you need to work in your business and expand your network to make money. The bigger the organisation the more money you make..
February 19th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Tim, this is a wonderful explanation. You are certainly adept at all facets of interacting with a prospect. Meaning that you explain so well what we all can benefit from. One of the things that I believe we should also remember along with getting the best training we can when talking to potential partners is that there is real value in hearing rejection or objection. Meaning we grow with that, in that it keeps us humble for one and secondly it makes us stronger. Why would I say this? Simply because it is part of this business and the more we hear it the less it will bother us, as long as kept in perspective, assuming of course that we begin to see a pattern of increasing “yes’s”. This is of course off point, but an important aspect. MLM success certainly out weighs, in my opinion, any successes we might see in a regular JOB, since we are only limited by our own efforts (persitance and consistence), rather than the limits put upon us by, as you say, office politics, senority and etcetera… Thanks for all the great training and the huge classic: Brilliant Compensation.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Hi Tim~
Thank you for all of your insights! I’m just launching my business. My husband vehemently disagrees with my decision. You made a good point that people can make more than those who brought them in, as my first recruit has resoundingly outsold me in her first 6 months! What do I say to my husband, and other naysayers, to the objection of company sponsored trips. My company will send those who sell a certain amount to the Bahamas (trip for two). I said I want that trip, and we would go together. We got into an argument because he said “Why don’t they give that money to you? You have to pay taxes on that trip, and we could sure use the cash more than the trip!” He is a successful businessman, and former sales manager of a large company, whose brother was into MLM, unsuccessfully. How do I help him understand?