article · March 2011
A Brief History of MLM
In direct selling, goods are produced by entrepreneurs and are sold by them directly or through sales organizations made up of individual sales people.
In direct selling, goods are produced by entrepreneurs and are sold by them directly or through sales organizations made up of individual sales people.
a. 1868 - J.R. Watkins founded the J.R. Watkins Medical Company, one of America’s first natural-remedies companies where associates marketed directly to consumers. b. 1869 - Henry Heinz, a former peddler, created an organization of 400 sales representatives to sell various vegetable products, like ketchup and pickles. c. 1888 - Asa Candler, another former peddler, built a sales force to sell Coca-Cola syrup to restaurants after buying the formula from pharmacist John Pemberton for $2,300. d. 1906 - David McConnell started the California Perfume Company, based out of New York. He had 10,000 sales representatives selling 117 different products. The California Perfume Company changed its name to Avon Products in 1937. e. 1906 - Alfred C. Fuller, another former peddler, started the Fuller Brush Company with a USD75 investment in Hartford, Connecticut. f. 1931 - Frank Stanley, a former Vice President of Sales for Fuller Brush Company, founded Stanley Home Products selling high quality household cleaners, brushes, and mops.
A marketing model where we have a marketing plan that allows IBOs or distributors both to sell products to make a retail income and at the same time to recruit and train new IBOs or distributors under them to make a wholesale income from the sales of the people they recruited and trained.
When MLM is done on proper and strict ethical rules of conduct, it is hard and slow as it takes time to build a sales force. As we like to teach in our training, we are planting apple seeds and it takes time for the seeds to grow to become apple trees to produce apples.
1. Low minimum requirement to move up to the leadership level. 2. One month move up to the leadership level. 3. No reversion. 4. No pass up.
lIt is not difficult for the FTC to effectively legislate the anti-pyramid law to stop the Counterfeits and game playing: Make the loopholes they write in their marketing plans illegal.
1. The minimum requirement to move up to the leadership level must be at least USD5,000. 2. One month move up to the leadership level is not allowed. The minimum must be at least 3 consecutive months. 3. No reversion is not allowed. 4. No pass up is not allowed.
Unless a company is a real MLM company structured as a channel to sell goods and services, it will never be big and in most cases will close down eventually.
If you decide that the time has come for you to do MLM properly, let me warn you, a Real MLM company that is a channel to sell goods and services needs time and effort. Stay focused, work hard and enjoy the journey.