MLM Analyst

Should You Trust or Care About MLM Top Earners Lists?

I’ve noticed a lot of buzz lately about lists and rankings of MLM top earners. For me it all started when a friend mentioned that the company he’s a distributor for showed up high on a certain top 500 earners list. I wondered why he would, A) trust such a thing and B) be proud of such a thing. So I’ve done a little research, all of which is detailed in various blog posts but conveniently summarized here for your educational pleasure.

Problems with the Original Top 500 Earners List

I found the original list everyone seemed to be talking about. Even at a first glance it was obviously inaccurate. Yet people were willing to quote it as though it were fact. Here are the clearly erroneous points that first caught my eye:

• Of the top 20 people listed, 9 are from MonaVie and 6 are from Amway (no way)
• Those 2 companies have produced 15 of the top 20 earners (not in a million years)
• 46 of the top 65 are from MonaVie (yeah, right)
• From numbers 29 through 65, every earner is from MonaVie (obvious lack of data)
• Amway distributors monopolize all but 3 of the 60 positions from #77 to #137 (how?)
• Usana shows up only 4 times in the top 150 (not possible)
• There’s only 1 Herbalife distributor in the top 100 (Herbalife obviously didn’t get the memo)
• There are only 2 Xango distributors in the top 100 (in what universe?)
• Nu Skin only shows up 6 times out of 500 and not until #158 (ok, I’m running out of ways to say “not possible”)
• There is only 1 Melaleuca distributor in the entire top 500 (ugg, now I just want to take a nap)

A Better Way – or – Ignore Top Earners Lists Altogether

I wonder how the list would look if some additional research had been done before it was published. I’m guessing that a number of MLM companies would have been reluctant to reveal their earnings numbers at all and others would have been tempted to disclose artificial numbers, either to build up their perceived success or to reduce the poaching of their top distributors.

• Privacy: couldn’t this concern be countered by allowing a company to disclose top earners’ payouts without actually naming the distributor, thus protecting their privacy?
• Accuracy: couldn’t this concern be handled by requiring proof of payments that would be averaged over time?

If all of that’s not possible, how about providing a confidence indicator for each line? A more useful list might show which entries were based on:

1. verified company records (including records over time)
2. unverified company reports (no records to back up the claims)
3. distributor self-reports
4. hearsay/rumors.

Or… since the network marketing industry is already drowning in false information, how about not even publishing such a list? Oh well. Coming from more traditional businesses, perhaps I expect too much. But then again if the industry wants to be taken seriously shouldn’t everybody in network marketing expect more?

Problems with Any Top Earners List

The top 500 list I first noticed has been updated somewhat but is still riddled with problems, problems that I don’t think can be fixed. It, and any such list, still relies on self reporting by either distributors or companies with a good measure of rumors thrown in.

Can you trust distributors to report accurately? And even if they were accurate, do the current entries mean anything when the majority of distributors aren’t on the list? And finally, what should you think of a company that publishes their top earner numbers?

Why Would an MLM Company Publish Their Distributor Earnings Numbers?

Most normal companies, including most reputable MLM companies, wouldn’t reveal their sensitive internal numbers online. So why would some companies choose to release such numbers? To me it looks like desperation. Here’s why…

I’ve been conducting ongoing research that measures the momentum of various MLM companies. My research seems to indicate that the companies most anxious to publish their distributor numbers (lately that seems to be MonaVie and Amway) are actually those experiencing NEGATIVE momentum & growth. Perhaps a slightly altered Shakespearean quote applies, “The company doth promote too much, methinks.”

If a company or distributor wants to ethically attract new members they should provide honest, certifiable data about their products and earning potential for all levels of participation.

By-the-way, I can see why a short-sighted distributor or company might want to publish some high earnings figures. But what is that really saying about the opportunity for all other distributors? Could it be that their compensation structure is so top-heavy that the cash is only flowing to a few elite?

If your MLM company happily publicizes some distributors with massive monthly income numbers, there’s a great chance that its compensation program is unfairly top-heavy.

Fair vs. Unfair MLM Compensation Models

What makes a top-heavy MLM comp plan imbalanced & unfair? If you aren’t one of a few dozen of those top earners you may never see a decent income no matter how hard you work at it. Wouldn’t you rather be part of an organization that gives a fair chance for everyone to prosper? Here is an oversimplification of two opposing compensation models:

Comparing MLM Compensation Models

Which one would you want to belong to; the one that lets a handful of Uber-distributors make a few extra million per year at the expense of everyone else, or the plan that spreads those millions around? Wouldn’t an ideal plan be easy on initial participants, rewarding to middle-class distributors and still very motivating to top leaders?

Look at it this way. What if you were starting an MLM company and you wanted to poach a few huge distributor organizations? I’ll bet you’d be tempted to implement a top-heavy plan that convinces some of your competitor’s top leaders to move to you. Of course the plan would need to be complex enough that the rank-and-file members wouldn’t understand that they just got jacked. Are you sure you understand your network marketing company’s compensation plan?

Should You Be Excited That Your Company Is at the Top of the List?

So, let’s go back to the topic of “top earners” and think about all of those mid-to-low-level distributors that are so excited to show off the fact that their upline leader is on top of the list. Pal (yes, I’m speaking to you, confused MonaVie guy), if you’re proud that some top earners list shows your guys at the top, go ahead and milk that warm fuzzy feeling for all it’s worth. It’s likely to be the highest compensation you ever see.

Everyone else who actually understood this argument should be asking themselves, “How do I identify the best possible network marketing company to join?” Lucky for you there are quite a few equitable MLM companies. To identify which one is right for you, you’d want to find out about their upline support, product quality, company support, compensation plan, cost, etc. And if the business opportunity was your primary concern, you’d definitely want to look at what companies are growing – and on top of that, which are experiencing momentum? Those are the ones who probably got the overall mix “right.”

A Completely Different Approach

While looking at a static list of earners might be interesting, indicators of growth should be most important to distributors wanting to determine which MLM companies offer them the greatest potential future.

A lot of companies say things like, “pre-launch” or “ground floor” or “look how much we pay our top guy.” But that doesn’t mean they are growing, let alone going viral. What if they are actually shrinking? I have some interesting ideas for estimating growth trends of network marketing companies that I’ll be fleshing out in future research.

In the mean time, thank you for visiting the site. Please feel free to share your opinions, questions or suggestions for further research by either leaving a comment or sending me a message through the Contact Page.