Have you sat down and made a list of what you are looking for in a sponsor in your Network Marketing company?
Why not? I’m sure you’d agree that if you were looking for your dream job, you’d have a vision of what you’d expect from a boss – right?
Why would it be any different in making a sound decision on who to join in a Network Marketing company? Ideally, your sponsor is going to be the person who will help you to soar in your business. As such, you’d expect certain qualities.
There are a few criteria I’d expect in my perfect sponsor. The first quality, loyalty, is gone into in depth below. You may have more to add, and I welcome your input in the comments.
Your Perfect Sponsor in Your Network Marketing Company ~
Quality #1 – Loyalty
Downline raiding is a despicable act that wrecks dreams and friendships built on TRUST.
If I’m going to invest my blood, sweat and tears into building a downline that will pay us residual millions, I want to be CERTAIN that my sponsor and upline are loyal to the company. The worst thing I can imagine is my upline jumping ship to go to another company, and taking MY team with them!
How would you determine if your upline is loyal to their company and there for the foreseeable future, barring any major company upset that would cause them (and everyone else) to leave? Do you just ASK them? Asking if they are loyal is not nearly enough. People can, will and do say ANYTHING to get you to come to their team. Not all people are honest…
But things you could ask them are -
How long have you been with the company?
Do you attend company events?
Do you work any other MLMs/Actively promote and sell affiliate products to your downline/sideline?
When you came to this company, did you bring team from your last company to this one?
And you can research some of this yourself. I encourage you to find someone who has been with the company for at least a year or more and who attends all company training events. You want someone who is knowledgeable about the system in place to build, and who has implemented it with skill to help others in their organization have success. After all, you want them to lead you to be successful, right?
Of course, if they work more than one company, run. That’s a major red flag. And if they sell affiliate products to their downline and market them to the other reps in the company… flee. That’s a pirate looking to skim more off the organization, rather than focused on building the checks of the downline with the actual opportunity. I could clarify here and say certain really valuable training materials, like script books, are sold through affiliate links. I certainly wouldn’t say that is a red flag – because all Network Marketers need script books – thats necessary education! But if you have to buy a bunch of add on products and ‘online systems’ with a ton of affiliate links to work with them, on top of your start up costs to join their primary company … run!
Did they come to their current company with a team? There is a huge difference between team moving and team building. Team moving means they took someone else’s downline with them… and if they didn’t come over to the new company – they LOST their work. They were raided.
There was a bloodbath where dreams were crushed, and trust ruined forever.
If they have done it once, they may do it again. Run from the MLM jumpers!
I’d love to hear your feedback on how you would determine if your sponsor is loyal to the company in the comments!
Next, I will Describe Your Perfect Sponsor in Your Network Marketing Company ~ Quality #2 – ???
20. February 2012 at 11:44 pm
I totally am in support of this article. The person who sponsored me in my current business has jumped ship twice
21. February 2012 at 12:58 am
One of the reasons that I chose to join you was because I knew of your reputation before hand – AND because I had been burned in a previous opportunity by an upline that did exactly what you describe – “downline raiding”. I swore to never do another network marketing opportunity again – that is, until I spoke with you.
Thank you for your loyalty and commitment to helping me to achieve my goals and dreams – I KNOW I would not have gotten as far without you.
21. February 2012 at 1:51 am
I really agree with this article. So here is a question. What if you have done your research before joining a group and you have found that someone in the upline that you are looking at joining is still involved in another company? They have been open to say that they can’t just jump from the other company because they are getting a nice residual check. My concern is if people in my downline find out it would confuse them and perhaps cause them to question why this person is trying to build two businesses.
21. February 2012 at 1:56 am
Collecting a residual check, and working two at the same time are different scenarios. So are they working two, or just collecting that check? Cause working 2 is confusing as anything – indeed!
21. February 2012 at 2:03 am
Great post Melanie. I had lack of loyalty in my first few attempts with networking marketing but I believed in the industry. Then I found you and Deborah Tutnauer and I finally found a home. Thank you for your incredible leadership.
21. February 2012 at 5:06 am
GREAT post! Melanie, in the almost 3 years that I’ve had the blessing of working with you, I have never see someone with more integrity, backbone, focused passion and unwavering loyalty to ViSalus and to the Dream Team. You are a LEADER in the truest sense of the word!!! Glad to be on this journey with the BEST!