How to explain
Network Marketing with
"The Strawberry Story!"

“Let’s say we want to buy strawberries from our local store. How did they get there?” And the story goes on like this . . .

First, the strawberries were picked at a farm, often in California. The growers usually sell to a local co-op. 

The co-op buys from several growers, giving them the quantity to sell to large national distributors. 

The national distributor sells the strawberries to regional brokers who, in turn, resell them at a profit to local jobbers. 

The local jobbers sell the strawberries to large warehouses for the local grocery chains. 

The grocery chains distribute them to the local grocery stores who markup the price another 30-40% for overhead such as employee salaries, rent, advertising, insurance, utilities, inventory shrinkage (spoilage), etc.

Each business in this supply chain covers their overhead and adds their profit. 

So while a pint strawberries may have cost only 50 cents in the field, the final price at the store is $2.25. 

That is the most common for of retail distribution. It works but has several drawbacks.

However, there’s an alternative known as direct sales, of which one form is network marketing. 

In this model, farmers sell the strawberries directly to the direct selling or network marketing company. 

The network marketing company sells the strawberries directly to their affiliates or independent representatives at wholesale. 

The affiliates benefit by being able to purchase strawberries for their personal use at wholesale and can also make extra money by strawberries to local customers at retail. 

This is a more direct form of distributing products where by the profits normally earned by middlemen is eliminated or cut out of the distribution model. The company passes these savings on as additional profits that their distributors or affiliates can earn as bonuses.

Now, if you bought strawberries at your local grocery store and liked them so much that you told your neighbor, your local store would receive additional sales because of your word-of-mouth advertising. 

Does that store pay you the profits they would normally spend on advertising to get that customer — as a referral fee? No!

The store should be appreciative of your word of mouth advertising and mail you a referral fee but they don’t, do they?

Network marketing it different. 

If you liked the strawberries you purchased at wholesale from your network marketing company, you can tell your neighbor about them. Your neighbor can became a customer or, like you, become a distributor.

If they buy strawberries, you earn a commission – basically a referral fee. But, if they refer customers too, they earn a commission and you receive that bonus I mentioned before for their sales.

The network marketing company is paying you a bonus for your effort that resulted in your neighbor getting sales because it was your effort or word of mouth advertising that increased the company’s sales.

That is why everyone gets excited about network marketing. For doing what comes naturally (sharing a good idea), we get paid bonuses. 

Retail stores just can’t compete when people find out about the tremendous advantages of network marketing. 

After all, if you liked the strawberries and told your neighbor, which would you choose? 

Getting paid for it by a network marketing company or not getting paid by your local store?

The choice is clear: Network marketing or direct marketing is a better deal for us. [/box]

This story legitimizes network marketing making the prospects feel comfortable with this alternative way of getting products and services to the public.