If your product is applied to the outside of the skin or taken internally, you should consider packaging your product in sample sizes, so that prospective customers and representatives can experience your product without having to purchase a full-size container of it. Why Offer Samples? The purpose of offering a sample is to increase…
Compensation Plans: Focus On Customers
This is the second in a new series of compensation plan articles, each of which will focus on one important element to be considered in the design or improvement of each and every multilevel compensation plan. If you missed the first article or if you’d like to read it again, click Compensation Plans: Focus On Compression….
Compensation Plans: Focus On Compression
This is the first in a new series of compensation plan articles, each of which will focus on one important element to be considered in the design or improvement of each and every multilevel compensation plan. The topic of this compensation plan article is compression. Compression is a term used to describe the action of…
Are Simple Compensation Plans Safer?
At our Direct Selling Edge Conference this month, I was asked if simple compensation plans were safer. Before giving my answer, I took a big breath and then gave myself a few moments for an additional pause. This was an important question with an even more important two-part answer. A Legal Perspective Given the regulatory action…
3 Ways To Set Your Bonus Volumes
As a multilevel compensation plan designer, I work closely with our clients to help them to make many good decisions. One of these decisions is how to determine the bonus volumes for each of their products or services. Bonus volume is the basis upon which multilevel compensation is paid. Another term for bonus volume is…
Direct Selling: How To Sell Less Profitable Products
As compensation plan experts, we always ask our clients about the costs of their products and services relative to retail or wholesale prices. We’ve written extensively about the importance of the multiplier, the ratio of retail price divided by landed cost. The multiplier and the targeted pre-tax profit for the company determine the funds available…
Compensation Plan Changes: Winners and Losers
If you are thinking about changing your direct selling company’s compensation plan you need to know about the inevitability of winners and losers. Winners are the people who are going to earn more as a result of your changes. Losers are those who will earn less. Why Have Losers? Whenever a compensation plan is changed,…
Compensation Plans: Why Structure Matters
In compensation plans, there are positions of achievement we call titles or ranks. To qualify for them, independent representatives meet volume and structure requirements. Both are measurements of organizational performance. Volume Requirements A volume requirement is a measurement of volume from (a) an individual independent representative, (b) a group of independent representatives within one’s downline,…
Compensation Plan Conference
How Do You Know If Your Compensation Plan Is In Trouble? The more you know about compensation plans, the better decisions you will make regarding yours. While consulting with and improving hundreds of direct selling companies since 1986, we have seen how compensation plans can motivate and reward the wrong behaviors. One Information-Packed Day At…
Danger Ahead: Enrolling Customers As Representatives
In 2014, I wrote a prophetic post about the need for network marketing companies to have retail customers. Retail customers are people who buy and are not distributors or consultants of a direct selling company. I called this post The Elephant In The Room. If you can, read it first because, in 2016, the elephant is…
Are You Thinking About Making Changes To Your Compensation Plan?
Whenever a direct selling company is considering changing its compensation plan, there are reasons that this is happening. Either there are problems that need to be fixed, goals that need to be met, or both. What are these problems? As compensation plan consultants, we can learn about a direct selling company’s problems with their compensation…
Compensation Plan Reviews
At no cost to you, find out if your compensation plan is in good shape, or if it needs to be improved. Ask the experts at Sylvina Consulting. The best time for a Compensation Plan Review is before you obtain MLM software, but even if you already have software, you need to know if your…