The Mind of Vatke
Thoughts, Musings and Advice by Andre Vatke

I’ve seen a lot of ads lately that claim 97% of those involved in network marketing are failing.

Now, I know this statement to be true but do the people who are making this claim?

Here are the facts…

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Network marketing has a lot so called facts and figures thrown about. People pick up one thing here and another there. Then repeat it as if they came up with it. I think it’s OK to ask, “Where did that come from?” or, “How do you know that’s true?”

A little over a year ago Ann Sieg asked me where exactly that “97% failure rate” statistic came from. It’s one Leaders Club had first published in 1996. Some of the established companies even gave us a fair amount of flak for publishing this.

Having been involved in the industry since the late 80’s I had witnessed the failure rate first hand. It was very obvious that even while there were some really awesome success stories, most people did not succeed. But I also didn’t have any hard numbers. It wasn’t until late 1995 that we started to see the exact picture.

For months my staff and I poured over thousands of survey responses, analyzed dozens of organizations, read through the annual reports of public network marketing companies and even combed the records of court cases against several prominent companies. The results were unmistakable even if they were grim.

97% of the 11 million people involved in network marketing at the time were not profitable. That’s over 10 million people buying product, maybe spending money on marketing and doing it all out of their own pocket. (Today it’s actually over 17 million.)

Since 1996 we have run several dozen comprehensive surveys, looked at hundreds of organizations and had the input of a number of company heads and the results have been about the same.

I don’t mind that people use this statistic. However I do find it ironic that they are unaware of what it really means or where it came from!

And yes I think it is sad that only 3% find success in network marketing.

That’s why our mission has always been to do something about it. So have we made an impact?

You bet!

The profitability rate for Leaders Club subscribers is about 1000% higher than the industry average at about 1 out 3. That’s thanks to our innovative and unbiased training program.

At Leaders Club our members learn techniques that 1) are proven to work, 2) are ethical and honest, 3) are duplicatable by the majority, AND 4) will work within your budget.

That’s it. No egos and no gimmicks to get in the way.

And who in network marketing wouldn’t be on board with improving the success rate for everybody – not just the select few at the top? The message is spreading. Leaders from John Fogg to Glenn Burks to Joe Schroeder have been waiving the same banner: it’s better to have 1000 people earning $1,000 than 1 person earning $1,000,000. It’s a message that’s very much needed.

On the road to success what would you rather have: gimmicks or real, measurable results?