Lesson 7: Health and Wellness
One of the most popular areas of home-based opportunities is health and wellness. So I think it's critical to discuss this, as you'll no doubt be approached by one or more of these businesses.
As I said in an earlier lesson, health and wellness may be our next trillion-dollar industry. Already about $500 billion a year is spent on wellness, largely in the form of nutritional supplements. Between the growth curve and the fact that you can make a huge difference in people’s quality of life (including your own), you can see why so many people are getting involved here. BUT … what are some of the problems in this field? First of all, it’s important to know that the FDA watches wellness companies closely. They cannot — and their distributors cannot — make any claims to “diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure” any disease. With the best products available, physical health changes will be seen, and it’s a huge temptation for most people to say, “Hey, I took Product X and my cancer was cured.” And then WHAM! They can get themselves and/or the company into trouble. So when you’re looking into these companies, a major red flag is how the company handles themselves in terms of language. If they’re professionals, they’re very clear about the fact that they’re not dealing with disease, but rather are giving the body what it needs to do its own thing. If the body happens to recover from a disease or symptoms of disease, that’s up to the body. You see the difference? Make sure you don’t hear any claims being made about any diseases. (You don't want to get involved with something that collapses despite all your work.) The only exception to this: when a company provides research or clinical proof of what their product does in the body, then they can make claims only based on that proof. There are some quality products that have this kind of testing, and I think it's a powerful way to help you make a sale. So the first thing to look for is whether the company is outright careless, and some are. So you have to be careful and do your due diligence when investigating any company. Keep in mind that if you jump in and out of businesses frequently, you’ll lose your reputation with people you know; they won’t want to even hear from you on your new business if you do this. So make sure you’re on board with a winner. Next, I recommend finding products you can really have faith in. There are so many products out there, sold by both retail and networking, that you’re up against a TON of competition. So make sure you're either working with a really unique product and/or something with competitive pricing. If you really have products that can help with the world's most pressing health concerns, believe me that people will spend money on them! If you're really helping people get well and are changing their lives, they might stop taking the product because they have to pay for their house, but they won't stop taking it to buy a new stereo. In other words, health is very close to the top of the priority list, so health products are as well if it's very clear what they're doing for someone. I believe a major change is underway in the wellness industry, and it is this: future success stories will have clinical trials proving their value to consumers. So companies paying for such studies now will be ahead of that curve and will help your marketing efforts. Next, you need to consider whether you can MARKET a company and its products. Because the company might be professional, and the products might be great, but if you have no way of sharing the message, then you’re not going to make any sales. So you might as well not get involved in the first place (unless you just want the products for yourself). Does the company produce useful (professional and convincing) marketing materials? How much will these materials cost you? Will they bring in more value in customers than it costs you to buy the materials? Do they provide any unique marketing systems that might bring you more success than other companies would help you to achieve? Think about this in terms of the TEAM you join as well. Your team may have a helpful system that other teams do not. If a friend shares an opportunity with you, you may want to join under him/her because of the relationship. But if you stumble on it through a stranger, look around online and see if you can find another distributor you "vibe" with a little better, or who offers you more benefits as a mentor. Finally, there's ONE MORE WAY that I believe network marketing has to change, and will. So I believe it's important to work with companies that operate in this way as much as possible. You see, in the past, if you wanted to use a company's products, then you had to sign up and become a distributor. Well, this made sense since most products were overpriced. The only people who would WANT the products would be those who WANTED the business opportunity, since that's part of what they were paying for. So of COURSE they would have to pay a fee to become a distributor. Well as I said, network marketing products must start being a better value. They either have to be so good that nothing else competes (making them a great value), or they have to compete on price. Once they become a good VALUE, then what happens? You have people wanting to use the products WITHOUT becoming distributors. A company that can get non-distributor customers obviously has valuable products, and that's something you can be PROUD to be involved with. (No more hiding from friends and family about what you're doing with your life.) This prevents attrition (people dropping out because they're not making enough money) and greatly expands the potential market. Companies like this hopefully will make their products available to customers without requiring them to sign up as distributors. And even more, it's possible they'll sell their products in the retail marketplace. If they are willing to share the profits of such sales, then you're in a position to earn on a much vaster scale. This is something to seriously consider if you can find it. (I've seen it. I don't know of such opportunities right now.) So as a summary: 1) Make sure the company is professional and careful. They should take care about how they promote their products and not make any undue claims around issues of disease. Of course in general, this also means you should know who’s running the company and make sure they have a reputable background in business. 2) Make sure they have products you can have a STRONG faith in. Otherwise, you’ll never have the necessary passion to promote them. I think the real winners in the coming years will be those products that have true clinical testing behind them. This also brings up the point of value. You want to promote the best value out there so you’re investing your own money wisely, and recommending a wise investment for others. 3) Make sure you’ll be able to MARKET the products. Without the right kind of support from the company and your sponsor, you’ll waste money and time and end up frustrated with what you once had high hopes for. And before you know it, you’ll head back to your JOB and let go of the only real direction for residual wealth: earning from the efforts of many people. 4) Look for companies that support customers as well as distributors. Although this is probably at the bottom of my "must have" list for a network marketing company, it's still a must have for long-term success. I think it speaks volumes about the VALUE of their products if they have customers who aren't distributors. And it's best if they never charge these customers a fee to become distributors. There should be an easy way for customers to order without ever thinking of the business opportunity if that's what they prefer. |
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