Helping Others To Succeed (written October, 2003)

It’s funny. The reputation of the direct sales industry is that the industry is all about making money. This is an industry driven by greed. Yet the most successful, high earning distributors will tell you a different story – the following story….

But first, yes, it is true that there exists a good number of so called, “heavy hitters” who are more about greed and money, although, this is not true about all successful distributors, sometimes referred to as heavy hitters. These distributors who call themselves heavy hitters have often had a couple of large success stories where they were on top of large downlines and made huge checks. Many of them leverage their success by selling their previous successes to another company for usually a large signing bonus with a promise to build the company a huge downline like the past ones they had built. The truth is sometimes they actually had built those downlines. Other times, those in the down-line, or up-line, actually did the work and created their success. These “heavy hitters” seldom do more than dupe the new company for the large signing bonus and/or to be placed on top of the entire company’s down-line. Most of the time, these “heavy hitters” are strictly about greed and money. I call them “hot and run” experts. What they do best is sell their story to companies who try to take an easy shortcut to success. The companies pay for their greed by wasting their money.

However in my experience, I have found even if a person initially became a network marketer because of the income opportunity, what drives them over time changes. Most distributors become “a product of the product.” They experience life changing benefits first hand from the company’s products and/or services. Life-changing products give “a mission.”

Many of the products that are offered in direct sales and network marketing are life enhancing and even life changing. This is frequently true with health, diet and nutritional products. It can also be true with financial programs, low cost and youth enhancing or longevity products. Once distributors reap the benefit of their company’s products or services, they feel that it is their mission in life to help others. Once a distributor’s primary purpose becomes helping others instead of making a sale or sponsoring a new recruit, selling and recruiting becomes easier. Prospects sense that the distributor is more concerned about helping them than making a sale or the income generated by a sale. It is really true. By putting other people’s needs first, your needs are automatically taken care of in multiples. The more people you help, the more people they will help through referrals and sponsoring. Your business will start growing exponentially. This leads to the next stage of helping and the next level of success. This next level of success through helping others is one of the things I like best about direct sales/network marketing.

The network marketing difference: In network marketing, you can only advance by helping those under you. Your upline can help you, but he or she cannot hold you down. Since in network marketing, the upline’s success depends, in part, on your success, they have an incentive to help you. It truly becomes a “people helping people” business. Your success not only depends on your sales and recruiting ability, but also those under you. Your success does not depend on your boss’s opinion or on favoritism. Your advancement and success depends on your performance and your ability to help those under you to be successful. It is no surprise to me that top distributors report that what they enjoy most about direct sales/network marketing is helping others to grow and become successful. They readily admit that they enjoy the lifestyle that high network marketing incomes provide. They claim that what continues to drive them in their network marketing business is the joy and self satisfaction they receive by helping others. I have heard numerous stories from leaders about their true success stories.

These success stories usually do not center on themselves, but those they have helped to become successful. The stories all vary to some degree but have common threads. They tell of new personal recruits usually who are inexperienced and in great need. They initially have no clue how to start in their business, let alone build it. The new recruits are often in dire need to earn income. Their desperateness and inexperience makes their initial network business slow going. The leaders take the new recruit under their wing. They train, work and support him or her. Soon the new recruit becomes a product of the product and selling and recruiting others become easier because they take on a mission to help others. Soon the recruits gain experience and start helping their recruits. Before long the leaders’ recruits have become leaders themselves. As a network marketer, I am proud to tell you of the number of leaders whom I have seen who have gotten more satisfaction from their “success stories” than the recognition they receive themselves. This is a higher level of success that can only be experienced. It creates a sense of self edification and fulfillment. It is when you know, as a leader, that you have truly been successful.  A success that can only come from helping others to be successful. It is the helping of others to be successful that provides a higher tier of success. A sense of true success.

The author of this article is Larry Costello, President of All-American Print & Mail, 2200 Wilson Blvd #102-57, Arlington, VA 22201.