By Terrel Transtrum, Co-founder, LaunchSmart™

Recruiting customers and new sales people in network marketing companies is essential to grow the sales of the business. As groups of customers and distributors expand, it is not unusual for a genealogy to consist of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands extending many “levels” deep. Along the way, some of the most complex business processes integrate ordering, fulfillment, commissions, returns, sponsoring, promotions, ranks, inventory, sales tax, and web services.

This article will give you a checklist of the basic features that you should expect of your MLM software, whether you create your own or whether you lease or purchase a system. Whether your plan requires network marketing software, party plan software or MLM software, the considerations are vitally important.

Network Marketing Software Checklist & Key Considerations

• Enrollment Processing
• Order Processing
• Payment Processing
• Returns, Exchanges & Credits
• Commission Processing
• Customer Service Administration
• Lead Management
• Web Services
• Communications
• Fulfillment & Inventory
• Genealogy
• Reporting

Software Scorecard and Selection

As a result of 20 years in and around network marketing software, we remain convinced that there is no “perfect” software solution. We keep a report card of many of the party plan software and MLM software providers, and we have our favorites; we also keep our eye on the real dogs. Since we receive no commissions or fees for referring software, we aggressively support you in determining the right fit for your company.

Terrel Transtrum is the founder of ServiceQuest® and co-founder of LaunchSmart™. As a network marketing consultant he also specializes in startup consulting for party plan companies, multilevel marketing, MLM and network marketing. He is an experienced advisor in MLM software, network marketing legal, party plan business, distributor recruiting and retention, operations and fulfillment and MLM legal.

(The content of this article is extracted from ServiceQuest® RetentionSmarts™ Modules. For more information on RetentionSmarts™ training and mentoring systems, contact a member of the LaunchSmart Team.)