Network Marketing is changing

Well the headline could be applied to anything. Everything is changing. Nothing stands still. But sometimes people tend to think that there will be a new "normal" state of things. There won't.
The playing field has changed completely, will keep changing and we need to change with it.

Network Marketing. The name implies two basic functions that must be fulfilled. The "Networking" part and the "Marketing" part. This combination has huge potential.

But the generic view of Network Marketing has been different. The bad reputation that the industry has at times or certain places is partly due to obsolete high pressure recruiting methods. Traditional, old-school sales techniques have been applied to the recruiting process, leading to too many people being "persuaded" to join. That is not a good starting point for a long-term business relationship.

I think those of us in Network Marketing could learn a lot to learn from professional networkers in other fields. Networking is the art of expanding your circle of influence by people. People know people. We provide services. We offer products, solutions and a business. There are enough people that need what we have for us to find the right people without high pressure selling.

That leads to the other point. "Marketing" has not been emphasized enough in our industry in the past. Since direct selling / network marketing has acted as a direct channel to the customer, companies have seen Marketing as a support function in terms of production of catalogues and brochures.

But the world has changed. Competition is much more fierce than it was a few decades ago. Now we also compete for people's attention and time. This requires a much more orchestrated Marketing effort from the Network Marketing companies, since not all networkers can be expected to be marketing professionals on top of being the networkers.

Our Nutri5 launch has been an important journey in redirecting the company to focus much more on the retail customers and their needs. This journey will continue and we will keep developing strategies and materials that help our Consultants to build their businesses more effectively. You perform the networking function and we help with the marketing function.

Your ideas and feedback on how this should look like in the future are most welcome. We are building the future now.