By John Counsel, CEO of The Profit Clinic MLM Success Centre

This article originated with an e-mail exchange between several network marketers here in Australia in response to my lead column in the April 2001 issue of "Australian Business and Money Making Opportunities" magazine.

Here's an edited version of the exchange so you can see how the ideas developed over several weeks. It's long, but I think you'll find the ideas of genuine interest.

23 May 2001

QUESTION:

I just saw your article in the latest 'Australian Business & Money Making Opportunities' mag... I'm curious. How do you see the MLM market now in Australia?

ANSWER:

I see MLM in Australia as pretty much the same as in the USA...

1. People are wary. They're tired of being burned.

2. It's getting harder to sponsor. Heck, it's harder just to get them to listen!

3. There's a shakeout getting under way. Older, more consolidated companies should survive, but only with some fast footwork to match the threat.

4. We'll see a new breed of company begin to slowly make in-roads into the traditional market base of the older companies.

These new companies will come from a very clearly articulated — and IMPLEMENTED — position of ethics and integrity, with a genuine understanding of the dynamics of network marketing — that is, that it is, and always will be, a set of strategic alliances in which the distributor is the true customer.

5. The water will be muddied by opportunists who jump on board, as always, "talking the talk" but unable and unwilling to "walk the talk".

They'll eventually sink, as the new breed issues very simple, effective ways for people to test the reality of any company's ethics and integrity BEFORE they join.

6. The new breed will put people before profits. They will understand the need for profits, but not at the expense of their people. It will be a true profit-sharing partnership — genuine win-win.

7. A few will fold as the company owners and newly-appointed management people (to manage the growth, but without the background of this new culture) lose the plot with their burgeoning success, and start making stupid mistakes in judgement that will backfire badly. The market will be much less forgiving of these mistakes than previously.

8. There will be few true giants among the new breed. Growth will be slow initially, then sweep upwards exponentially as reality becomes clear to the market place. But suspicion and bad past experience with other companies will hamper growth until that reality becomes crystal clear.

9. A common feature of the new breed will be women in management. They'll act as the "corporate conscience" and steer them through the dangerous stretches.

10. [A US-owned network marketing company] is a forerunner, but it's not actually one of the new breed. It's a transitional hybrid, if you like. Very necessary and important in paving the way. It will survive and prosper, but not without changes in attitude and practices at senior management level.

11. There are NO companies which are the new breed amongst the present crop. It will be at least another year or two before we see their emergence, I suspect.

How's that for a blue sky forecast? :)

Bear in mind that the article you read was written about three months ago. The fact is, I have no involvement with any network marketing company for the foreseeable future, other than in a professional consulting or training role... I want a complete break.

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25 May 2001

QUESTION:

What do you envisage the new breed of MLM's will really be like?

ANSWER:

I believe that they'll zero in on the trends that have been shaping MLM in a vague kind of way since the 1990s, but which haven't yet distilled into a cogent, articulate corporate philosophy and marketing position.

The major trend will be toward more personal focus. It will target the Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers in much more substantive and less trendy, opportunistic ways.

Product ranges will become increasingly holistic in their selection and design, and will integrate personal needs around the whole person, but in a very targeted way.

They'll be driven by core principles which will be inviolate. Not just fashionable hyperbolae, either. They will mean it and they won't compromise. Motives, attitudes and behaviour will be clearly defined by incisive mission and vision statements, values and standards that are sharply delineated and defined, and not diffused and dissipated by the typical "warm fuzzies" that nullify most current attempts to pursue such an approach.

In a nutshell, they'll set new benchmarks in motives, attitudes and behaviour for themselves and their affiliates, thus providing the right kind of inspired — and inspiring — leadership and direction. There will be internal strength and resolve that will attract 'birds of a feather.'

This is one reason why their growth will be slower than otherwise might be expected. People simply won't comprehend the essential differences between them and their predecessors immediately... they'll only become understood with time.

They'll also integrate training and incentives with the reward system in genuinely innovative ways. If you decide to pro-actively build a business, you'll enjoy personal mentoring, direction, monthly targets, weekly activities (directed!) and weekly reporting, in both directions. The company will provide full-time, trained staff to work with business builders prepared to commit to a program and not leave them to try to work with remote, uninterested or incompetent upline people. This will be the only role for these professional mentors.

They'll have the kind of activity and retention rates that most MLM companies can only dream about, because they know what's needed — and why — to achieve them.

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29 May 2001

QUESTION:

Do you think an Aussie MLM co. with a compressed unilevel plan, but with Aussie $'s, would do better here?

ANSWER:

No question about it. Even exporting products, etc to the USA and elsewhere would do better because of the lower cost of involvement due to the exchange rate, even though the rewards would be correspondingly lower. It's about balance and finding critical mass points to leverage your activities for optimum results. And that's the key: optimum rather than the usual maximum expectation. It's more likely to actually happen with this more balanced approach.

Balance is what it's all about.

I believe we'll see something emerge in the next couple of years. How successful the early versions will be is hard to tell. In a sense, __________ is probably a very early version. It lacks the philosophical base and the management will to make it work at present, however. Commercial interests still override commitment to the company's claimed values.

Interestingly, I've received several approaches since last week's announcement (that I was no longer actively involved with any MLM company) to head up new companies in Australia. I've declined them all. None has the right mindset. In any event, they're premature. But I've signed a couple of new training agreements with new companies — or, more accurately, major distributor networks with these companies — which will hopefully see some of these cultural changes emerging from the inside out... the best way to effect behavioural and cultural change. It can't be imposed from the outside in.

The more I think about all this, the more I suspect that it could be Australian companies which initiate this new breed, for these reasons:

2. I don't believe that the US culture will allow this trend to develop within the USA. What I often refer to as the "institutionalised insincerity" endemic to US culture usually results in "warm fuzzy" counterfeits being embraced, rather than the genuine article. It's a symptom of the emotional dependence of most folks in the USA. Despite the non- conformist, "kiss-my-butt" image portrayed in movies, television, etc, it's still one of the most conformist societies on earth in reality. Peer pressure is an almost irresistible force there. Emotional dependence is rife — so, naturally, emotional blackmail is everywhere.

3. Australian society is, without question, the most emotionally independent culture of all. It started with our convict roots, especially the Irish contingent, and it continues today. It's no coincidence that many of the most radical developments in unionism, politics and innovation occurred here over the short two centuries of our existence as a country.

This difference between Australians and Americans is often misunderstood by the Americans. Their cultural conditioning leads them to make assumptions about Australians that are just not accurate. In my own experience, over 50 years of regular mixing with Americans, I've learned that it can take a couple of years for US citizens who relocate to Australia to really see beyond their initial assumptions and really get to grips with Australian culture.

4. Despite our fierce independence, Australians are arguably the most co-operative society on earth as well. This is very much a result of the necessity to work together and share the load in order to merely survive in such a hostile environment. So values like mateship, fairness, keeping reasonable distance, reluctance to judge, acceptance of others and their differences, and suspicion of anyone we suspect of wanting to organise and control us through conformity or emotional blackmail (eg: political correctness), from politicians to organised religion, have very deep and ingrained roots within our culture. We don't just talk about freedom. We assume it, and deeply resent (and resist) any attempt to curtail or impinge on it.

These qualities make the Australian culture a natural incubator for this new breed of company. Learn more here...

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30 May 2001

QUESTION:

How will we recognise them when they finally arrive on the scene? And how do you know so much about what they'll be like? You're very specific in your forecasts. How can you be so certain?

ANSWER:

You'll recognise them by knowing what to expect, in advance.

As an Apple Mac aficionado, you'll recall the talk in the late 1980s and early 1990s about Apple developing a RISC chip for a new generation of computers, which turned out to be the PowerPC series. You knew all about them long before they actually appeared on the scene. You didn't need to be told that the PowerPC was it... you knew what to expect.

Apple — and other technology companies — don't predict the future with a crystal ball. They INVENT the future, the same as the fashion industry, automotive industry, etc. A personal friend, the head designer for Ford in Australia, just returned to Detroit on a promotion. While he was here, he created a new Falcon. We won't see it for TWO YEARS. It's what he was sent to Melbourne to do, because the current models are doing so poorly in the market place.

Footnote: My friend's new model won multiple awards, including several Car of the Year titles, and became the #1-selling mid-sized vehicle in Australia. He recently (2006) returned to Australia on a top-secret assignment. Hmmm...

You've known me for several years now. You know that I'm seen as being around 5 to 10 years ahead of the marketplace in all the areas I'm interested in. This was always a problem for me until I realised how true it was. So many times I created new products or models that failed because they were so far ahead of their time and market acceptance. The mind sets necessary for their acceptance just weren't there at the time. Then, a few years down the track, all of the things I'd originally laid out conceptually would begin to emerge in the marketplace.

Frustrating!

It's the same with the Internet... you remember my original comments to you back in 1996 about my assessment of the web and e-mail, and where I saw it all heading — and how everything I forecast then has actually happened, although much slower than I predicted, which is surprising, given the speed of change on-line. But I was correct. Truth is, I assumed at the time that much of what I was forecasting was actually happening. I was wrong. But I'd only been on-line a few days, so I was premature in my conclusions.

It's the same with network marketing. I look at the trends of the past decade, and the market's changing perceptions and attitudes, and it's not difficult to forecast where it needs to go. And where it NEEDS to go is where it will eventually go.

All the things I've forecast above are conclusions based on this analysis and evaluation of trends.

If you go to the following password-protected URL, you'll find complete details of a hypothetical MLM company that embodies all of these changes. S_________ [a mutual friend] saw it a few days ago and sent the following comments:

Date: 28 May 2001

Subject: Turning cartwheels!

Hi John :)

Does that say it all? I am very excited about this!

The _______________ Program really is SMART and provides almost a step-by-step system with an achievable goal that can be kept in sight at all times. There is also something powerful about commiting yourself to a goal ON PAPER! Maybe it is the power of the written word.

Anyway... I am not going to say anymore, but certainly NOTHING can dampen today... not even going to work! The philosophy of the site makes my heart sing!

Fond regards

S__________

I'm using the site to develop all of these concepts to some kind of concrete form. If you like, it's an on-line laboratory for creating the ideal MLM company. I stress, though, that it has NO practical intention, at least at this point in time. But it spells out, in detail, the kind of direction that I believe the industry will be eventually forced to take unless led there in more positive ways.

[--URL and access codes deleted--]

I'm establishing a list of interested people who'd like to be kept informed of developments. It won't be generally available and it won't be used to promote any specific MLM business opportunity. It will just deal with the trends and developments taking place. Let me know if you'd like to subscribe and I'll send you the URL.

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I hope this helps to clarify some of the issues I've written about in recent months. For the next issue of "Australian Business & Money-Making Opportunities" I intend featuring my recent on-line article for HomeBizBytes in the USA entitled "The Morlocks of MLM!" — you can read it here.