Careers To Go

Soft Sell - Network Marketing
By Amanda Carter

Selling goods from the comfort of your own sitting room, or a friend's is a popular and very portable career. Amanda Carter finds out about network marketing and some of its relations.

Suppose a friend tells you about a new restaurant she tried at the weekend, or a reliable baby sitter, what do you do? It's very likely that you'll ask for the telephone number of the baby sitter, and maybe try out the new restaurant. Your friend's word of mouth recommendation is useful and valuable and if your evening goes well, the chances are you'll tell another friend.

This chaining process is called networking and women are very good at it. We network all the time in daily life - in the playground; at the supermarket; in the office; over the phone and via email.

Women who live abroad usually develop enhanced networking skills due to the pressures that relocation brings. Making friends and finding out where to shop is done effectively and rapidly, with women pooling their resources in a joint effort to make the new life work, both for themselves and their new network of friends.

Expatriate women are also resourceful when products and services are not available. They work hard to find alternatives and are prepared to go to considerable lengths to provide for their family. In expatriate communities, there is often great pride in being able to offer friends something everyone had told you was unavailable.

These excellent networking skills and resourcefulness combine to make women abroad perfect candidates for successful careers in direct selling or network marketing.

Direct selling companies market their products via independent salespeople, who deliver catalogues, host parties or hold one to one demonstrations in the home of the customer. They do not directly advertise the products nor sell them in the shops. Though salespeople often have the opportunity to grow their own sales team, some prefer to work alone, and still manage to achieve financial success.

Lateral thinking builds business
Florence Card sold Tupperware via party-plan in South East Asia for several years. Her Tupperware demonstrations were hugely popular. Being Chinese, and having lived most of her life in Asia, Florence is a wonderful cook and turned her demonstrations into cookery mornings or afternoons, and her clients eagerly looked forward to her recipes and the tastings that followed. Large orders of the Tupperware she used in her demonstrations followed. But it was not simply Florence's enthusiasm and gift for selling that achieved this success. Tupperware is vital in hot and damp climates. Biscuits and cereals quickly go soggy in humid atmospheres, and weevils eat everything from rice to spices. No item of food can be left uncovered in the kitchen without attracting the attention of an army of ants.

Florence is now living in the UK and still supplies Tupperware, but she has other business interests now too.

'If you want to go into marketing, it is vital to consider if your product will sell in your geographic location and to your potential customer network,' she advises.

MLM explained
A relatively new development, network marketing or multi-level marketing (MLM) allows an enthusiastic sales person to build and manage her own business. Having introduced someone to a product that they like, a salesperson asks if they would like to join her team. She helps train and co-ordinate efforts, and when that new team member begins to make sales, she receives a percentage of those sales. As the network grows, so does the financial reward, assuming, of course that sales are being achieved.

If your product is one that people want, your friends will look forward to your demonstrations, parties or catalogues, and your network will grow. Developing countries may offer some excellent opportunities, since many products are unavailable, and your expatriate friends will be delighted that you are filling this gap in the market and may also be interested in joining your team.

Network marketing may also benefit the long-term expatriate salesperson, since when you move on, your current business will continue to thrive and generate income. Your new destination will offer you the opportunity to build another business. In this way a minority of salespeople can build large international businesses and in some cases, benefit from vast annual incomes. This is also a career which you can bring home with you if you are repatriated.

When things go wrong
Sometimes, even with an excellent product and sales team, things can go wrong. John Perl has been involved in network marketing for 18 years, and joined Dorling Kindersley, major publishers of quality pictorial books, as an advisor in their Family Learning Division in 1992. Over the next eight years, he built up a hugely successful team of 6,500 salespeople and enjoyed excellent remuneration. But then, following a take over, the decision was made to stop direct selling.

'Dorling Kindersley was in its 25th year of trading, and this was a very disappointing decision,' remembers John.

'When choosing a product to market, one always looks at the pedigree of the company, but the fact that this happened at Dorling Kindersley shows that even household names are not immune to difficulties.'

Despite this blow, John remains positive and enthusiastic about multi-level marketing and is currently building a new business with SkyBiz.

'There are tremendous opportunities for people with the right product. Multi-level marketing is about harnessing word of mouth energies and expatriates network so well.'

John sees MLM as a source of a form of royalty income.

'You do the work in establishing a team, and then later in come the royalties, which reflect your efforts.'

Not pyramid selling
The World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) was founded in 1978, to foster the highest standards of direct selling practices amongst its members. Worldwide business is worth US$81 billion in 120 countries and this figure is achieved by 34 million independent salespeople. This is a vast and rapidly growing business, boosted by the changing trends of shopping and working, with more and more people favouring home shopping and home business.

In the sixties and seventies, network marketing had a less reputable name than it does today. This was the result of pyramid selling, which cost numerous individuals their savings and in some cases, their homes. People were invited to attend seminars where empty promises of future fortunes were made. Anxious to be part of this success, they quickly parted with large sums of money, sometimes remortgaging their homes in order to invest in future potential sales of a product, which they often knew little about. The end result was a garage full of a product they couldn't sell and financial ruin. There was no buy-back guarantee, which is always an indication of a disreputable business.

Pyramid selling damaged the concept of network marketing, but the good reputations of many companies has restored much confidence. An endorsement from the UK Prime Minister The RT Hon Tony Blair MP in 1999 enhanced the reputation of direct selling as a career even further when he offered his support to the DSA in the UK.

'There are tremendous opportunities for women who want to combine family responsibilities and work,' he said.

Before you start
When choosing a business, look at the products. Visit the WFDSA website to see a full list of their members. Consider non-DSA member companies too; many of these are also highly reputable. Talk to people already engaged in business and find out if there are opportunities in your location. Companies are becoming more global all the time. Find out exactly what is required for your nationality to get started in your location, which will vary. You may need a VAT number, and in some countries, particularly Europe, officials are extremely helpful and may advise you. In other countries, you may need to be sponsored by a local even though the business is your own. Make sure you are obeying all local regulations and refer back to the company for advice. In some countries, it will not be possible for expatriates to run a business at all.

However, direct selling businesses do exist everywhere, and many women are prepared to risk the consequences and protect themselves by limiting their business dealings to their own network of friends.

Ask yourself if your chosen product range will appeal to your potential network. Beware of exaggerated earnings claims, and be wary if start-up costs are anything higher than modest. Study your contract.

Finally, get networking!

Websites:

John Perl's website

WFDSA website

Books about Network Marketing

The Big Picture, by Edward Ludbrook published by Legacy Communications ISBN 1-899941-08-8

Direct Selling, by Richard Berry, available from DSA in the UK.