Ask the MLM Experts: What is the key to choosing the right MLM software or party plan software?

Terrel Transtrum, Leading MLM Consultant: I asked Dan Jensen, founder of Jenkon Software and the award-winning MLM compensation plan consultant.  He said, “THE MOST important issue for a party plan company is the party order entry system.  No matter how good the rest of the system is, if the party order entry doesn’t impress the thousands of consultants using it every time they do a party, then all is lost.”

Says Dan, “don’t buy based on ‘eye candy’ – how sexy it looks.  While that’s important, it’s something that can be improved.”  But the cornerstone in choosing party plan software is how you get a party into the system.  If that is user friendly, efficient, fast, intuitive, etc., then it will likely go over well with the field.  BIG issue.”

The key to choosing party plan software is the party order entry system.

Question: Will you explain the difference between MLM and Party Plan?  I think that MLM is the same as Network Marketing, but are these different from direct selling?  And how do I know which is best for our startup?

Answer: “Direct selling” is the generally accepted term the selling system that moves products and services directly from a company to its users and consumers.  The selling is performed by the independent representatives of the company.  Worldwide, companies sell an estimated $118 billion in goods and services through this massive distribution system of person-to-person marketing and sales, with as much as $28 billion of that in the United States.  (Sources: Direct Selling Association, www.dsa.org, and the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, www.wfdsa.org)

Some MLM Consultants teach that there are three methods of person-to-person selling:

1. Direct Selling
2. Party-Plan Selling
3. MLM or Multi-level Marketing

The LaunchSmart MLM consulting team suggests a subtle distinction, which is that direct selling is the umbrella under which two methods of selling reside: MLM and Party Plan.  Direct selling is a generic reference to the movement of goods and services directly from company to consumer, where sales commissions are associated with the sales efforts of the company’s independent sales force.  Party-plan sales commissions are generated through group selling, often with retail commissions plus incentives for gathering a group together.  Party-plan compensation leverages a one-to-many sales presentation.

MLM compensation plans pay commissions for personal sales, accumulating commissions and bonuses on sales that are related through sponsoring lines.  Both MLM and Party Plan methods link individual sponsors and business builders, often paying compensation through, and/or as a result of, these connected lines.  These methods are sound and very legal since compensation is tied only to the sale of products and services, and not to the act of sponsoring someone.

Advantages that are common to MLM compensation plans and Home Party Plan compensation include the following:

• Sales representatives need not stock products other than those used for demonstration or samples
• The company ships directly to the distributor or customer who makes the purchase
• MLM presentations and Home Party Plan demonstrations are ideal for presenting products that require explanation
• MLM compensation plans, like Party Plan compensation plans, pay for sales personally produced, with commissions and overrides paid to those who train and manage individuals and groups in their sales organizations
• Distribution channels, once established, are the marketing channels through which information, goods, and services are moved
• Part-time to full-time selling, with incentives for immediate action, are characteristic of successful MLM compensation plans and Home Party Plan compensation systems

Through MLM (multi-level marketing, network marketing, viral marketing, referral marketing, etc.) the direct-selling process is duplicated by independent sales reps who sponsor and train others.  Through this basic system of selling, on which virtually all sales systems are based (from insurance to real estate, and from automobiles to men’s clothing) multiple levels of commissions are earned, paid directly from the company to the sellers, managers, and leaders.  This basic concept applies in both the MLM and Home Party Plan selling models.

For a Free MLM Consultation or Free Party Plan Consultation, contact the MLM Consultants at LaunchSmart.  We want you to succeed, since your success is our success.

Historians say that more millionaires were created during the great depression than in any other point in history.

I’m amazed by the number of entrepreneurs and dreamers who are coming forward in our down times to launch new business.  Somebody forgot to tell them that times are tough!

These are the women and men embracing the American dream.  They have the courage to dream, the discipline to think, and the backbone to act.  So far this week we have served more than ten individuals and companies who are up to their elbows in starting and running their MLM companies and Home Party Plan businesses.  Ranging from eLease who is placing the first round of test market assumptions to their idea of expansion through direct selling, to Endless Glow – a home party company providing airbrush tanning services and products by two lovely sisters who aren’t aware that there is a recession.

Somebody forgot to tell them.