Beginning entrepreneurs who do not have years of experience to draw from, are very open and susceptible the opinions of other people they perceive as leaders.
By nature, they are also "opportunistic", and their decisions are always based on emotion, and then justified by logic.
You cannot fight this, and it's not economically justifiable to spend hours of your time trying to give your reps a mature outlook on business ownership and development. You can tell them, but it will be up to them to listen and learn which you have no control over.
So given this information, a downline built on recruiting business builders, who recruit business builders, will never be stable.
Product customers are where stability and longevity is found.
With this in mind, the most successful downlines have been built though systems that distributors used to acquire new customers.
Think New Vision's "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" campaign, Herbalife's "Lose Weight Now" campaign, and the Sea Silver radio campaign.
They are three of the most successful systems in history, and every one of them sold the company's product.
Because product sales were so easy, the system attracted new business builders who wanted to use it, perpetuating the customer acquisition process exponentially.
So again, you want to find a system that effectively sells a product, and then sell that customer acquisition system to potential business builders.
The business builders will eventually flake and move onto something bigger and better, but they will leave a long-lasting customer base in their place.
Thinking Bigger...
With that said, it's still thinking small because every marketing campaign will eventually run it's course. Of the 3 successful one's I mentioned above, none are around today.
So what do you do now? Start over again with a new company and marketing tool every 5 to 7 years?
Yuck.
No, there is a better way.
A REAL, life-long business that is completely immune to attrition and market trends can be built, but it can't be centered around an opportunity or a product.
It must be built around you, your name, and your relationships.
That's your true asset because it cannot be taken away.
Networking is a people business driven by marketing.
People are the commodity being traded, and you must position yourself in a manner that allows you to capitalize on that process through many different channels.
Instead of simply building a downline which can disappear at any moment, why don't you build an empire that reaches out and touches many people as possible throughout the entire industry, including your "competition"?
The biggest epiphany I ever had was that simply wanting to just "build a downline" was really dumb idea from a business stand point.
I know hundreds of full-time networkers making multiple six-figure incomes who constantly pulling their hair out trying to keep status-quo - filling gaps in the comp plan to keep their check, buying extra volume to qualify for the monthly bonus, etc... They are always a few distributors away from losing half their income.
You have two choices... You can put both your hands into one company basket and just build a "downline", or...
You can realize that "people" are your business and put your hand in as many baskets as you want - ensuring you and your "real business" are safe and profitable no matter what happens.
