There are basically two methods of distributing physical consumer products.  When the buyers go to the shop to make a purchase, this is Retailing. However, when the products are presented to the customer without the customers going to the shop, this is Direct Sales Marketing.

Direct sales distribution to the customer is differentiated by how the customer is being acquired. When a person acquires the customer, this is known as Direct Selling. Direct Marketing is when the customer is acquired through a media such as TV, Internet or mail order. A customer acquired by Direct Selling may then be sold to directly from the main company where the customer purchases online or through telephone ordering.

Direct Selling is divided into two sections; Single Level Marketing [SLM] and Multi-Level Marketing [MLM]. In both forms of marketing, the customer is ‘sold to’ by a person who is a ‘direct sellers’. Depending on the company rules and regulations, these direct sellers will sometimes be known with terms such as consultant, representative, associate, executive, partner, agent. A general term in MLM is Retailer – the person will basically employ the skill of retailing to sell to the customers where the income opportunity shall be purely based on commission earned through customer sales.

The difference between the two methods is based on how the sales force or prospect is recruited, trained and supported. In MLM, it is often referred to the ‘Leadership Programme’. This programme determines the growth of an organisation.

SLM is the traditional form of Direct Sales where the Leadership Programme is managed and controlled by the Direct Sales company. The direct sellers are known as “Directors” or “Managers” who are given some form of basic salary and are tasked to manage or handle certain regions, areas or sections.

In MLM, the responsibility to promote the products or expanding the sales development of the sales network is being offered to Network Marketers in the form of a Business Opportunity. The Network Marketer promoting the products earn a commission on the purchases made by other Networkers “hired” by them and everyone under the organization. The fact that the expansion opportunity is larger, Network Marketers are able to significantly earn larger incomes than in SLM. This is the reason as to why MLM is now the dominant form of Direct Sales in the world.

As such, a Network Marketing company generally offers two opportunities to a would-be business owner or the direct seller; a Retail income opportunity [Retailer] and a Network business opportunity [Networker].

Nowadays, you heard of many other marketing terms use such as referral marketing, group marketing, etc. These terms are used to the fact that the company actually want to distance themselves from the bad publicity of Network Marketing. However, whatever terms they used, if a company uses a commission based programme to earn from multiple levels of business owners, then the programme is still a Network Marketing business.

As far as many network marketing leaders are concerned, Network Marketing is the best term.

Talk soon,

Jailani

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