Deadly MLM Policies and Procedures (Part IV) – Making You Responsible!

What’s your responsiblity as a network marketer? Our goal, long term residual income, is our reward for helping other people become financially independent. It’s the result of us developing leaders in our downline organisations who in turn, foster leaders in their own downline organisations.

Network marketing is a leadership driven business. As such, you can only succeed when you lead by example. You cannot make your downline members do anything, as they are not your employees – they are independent entrepreneurs of their own accord. You cannot motivate anybody. That has to come from within others themselves. But you can lead people by teaching other people how to play the game.

Your responsibility is to develop yourself into a leader and lead. Period. However, some MLM companies want you to be the babysitter. They don’t want to take on any responsibility in training their distributors or be accountable for their distributors’ actions so they put all of that responsibility on you. And if you don’t fully engage in your role as a babysitter, they can terminate you or steal your bonus check.

Again, the proof is in the policies and procedures. Many companies have the following clauses in their policies and procedures word verbatim. You’d think they all hired exactly the same lawyers to write their contracts. In fact, they do…

Any Distributor who enrolls another Distributor into [Company] must perform a bona fide assistance and training function to ensure that his or her downline is properly operating. Distributors must have ongoing contact and communication with the Distributors in their Downline Organizations. Examples of such contact and communication may include, but are not limited to: newsletters, written correspondence, personal meetings, telephone contact, voice mail, electronic mail, and the accompaniment of downline Distributors to [Company] meetings, training sessions, and other functions. Upline Distributors are also responsible to motivate and train new Distributors in [Company] product knowledge, effective sales techniques, the [Company] Compensation Plan, and compliance with Company Policies and Procedures.

While the above clause does not sound too sinister when you first read it, it really is quite a serious statement. It’s your job, not the company’s, to make sure that new distributors get the low-down on its products, comp plan, and rules on an ongoing basis. If you don’t do that, they can take away your distributorship and believe me, this has a happened.

On Bob and Anna Bassett’s coaching call on policies and procedures, you’ll hear a story of how a husband and wife team took some time out because the wife had fallen ill to cancer. She subsequently passed away. Three months after she passed on, the husband came back to continue building the business, only to find it had vanished because he didn’t maintain ongoing contact with his team.

Distributors must monitor the Distributors in their Downline Organizations to ensure that downline Distributors do not make improper product or business claims, or engage in any illegal or inappropriate conduct. Upon request, every Distributor should be able to provide documented evidence to [Company] of his or her ongoing fulfillment of the responsibilities of Distributor.

This clause means your responsibilities go way beyond being a leader. You are in fact now a compliance officer for your company and you’re responsible for the actions of your entire downline, no matter how large it is.

What this means is if one of your downline members sponsors a drug addict who then goes and robs a service station, you’re at fault because you didn’t ensure that your rogue downline distributor did not engage in illegal conduct.

Oh, and they can make you prove that you are in regular communication and are enforcing the policies.

As Distributors progress through the various levels of leadership, they will become more experienced in sales techniques, product knowledge, and understanding of the [Company] program. They will be called upon to share this knowledge with lesser experienced Distributors within their organization.

As you become more experienced in network marketing, you should pass down your skills to less experienced distributors. If you don’t, your downline won’t grow and your income won’t grow. But this should be your decision and done at your liberty.

The fact that this above clause says “They will be called upon…” means the company can call you up, at the most inconvenient time, to train your organisation. If you refuse, you can terminate you!

While you may be thinking that I’m showing these clauses from a very cynical viewpoint, the sad reality is you have to look at them in a cynical way, because all of these clauses can be used against you if a company decides to enforce them.

Companies don’t want to hurt their distributors, but they will if they have to. The companies who do not understand what MLM is about and just how important their distributors are, will always enforce their policies in their own best interest.

Thanks to MLM mentors, Bob and Anna Bassett for their work in uncovering MLM policies and procedures and inspiring this post.

To your MLM success,

Wayne Wu
Founder, The Profitable Networker

P.S. I would love your input! If you have an opinion that would contribute to this discussion, please leave me a comment below.

P.P.S. Share the love. If you enjoyed reading this article and think others will get value from it, please share it on Twitter or Facebook by clicking on the "Tweet" or "Share" buttons at the top of this post. Thank you.

Related posts:

1. Deadly MLM Policies and Procedures (Part I)
2. Deadly MLM Policies and Procedures (Part VI) – Can You Fight Back?
3. Deadly MLM Policies and Procedures (Part III) – Termination and Renewal
4. Deadly MLM Policies and Procedures (Part V) – Are You Being Blackmailed?
5. Will Your Network Marketing Company Allow You to Retire?
6. Deadly MLM Policies and Procedures (Part II) – How Long Is Yours?
7. Why You Should Run From MLM Companies with High Overhead

Tagged as: Developing Leaders, Long Term Residual Income, Mlm Companies, Ongoing Responsibilities, Policies And Procedures