MLM Analyst

I was looking at the (very warped) “before” and (still warped) “after” tables in my recent post about the changing MLM 500 Earners List wondering how well one could trust the self-reported income figures of most top distributors – especially those posted on a publicly open site like the MLM earners list. At first glance you might think there is a lot of benefit to be gained from reporting the highest possible numbers, regardless of their validity.

If I was a distributor anxiously recruiting people into my downline I might state the largest imagined number as frequently as possible. If there was some public list where I was able to submit whatever average monthly income number I felt like…well, you get the point.

What if you were part of some top earner’s downline? Would you be tempted to submit to some free-for-all public list the highest rumored number you’ve heard to help support your claims that you belong to the best organization in the best company? After doing so would you blog and comment all over the web to promote your organization? Haven’t we all read dozens of such posts and comments? Can you trust them?

Finally I wonder about the companies who are anxious to publish their distributor numbers online. If most normal companies, including most reputable MLM companies, wouldn’t reveal their sensitive internal numbers online which companies would be desperate enough to release such numbers?

My research on MLM company momentum seems to indicate that the companies most anxious to publish their distributor numbers (for those of you keeping score that would 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.”

Want to know which companies seem to be experiencing the greatest momentum? I’m still crunching some numbers but it’ll be out soon.

BTW, 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? Here’s my analysis on that topic, appropriately titled Which MLM Comp Plans Screw the Typical Distributor?.

In my last post, Why I’m Blogging About Network Marketing, I mentioned hearing about the MLM 500 Top Earners list from a soccer teammate. He was excited because it seemed to be evidence that the MLM company he’s associated with was one that produced an inordinate number of top earners. It made me suspicious. So I decided to look into it.

Here’s some of what I’ve found so far. The people producing the list are certainly not doing so for altruistic reasons. You can see from their site that accessing it now requires a subscription. That’s fine. Capitalism is a good thing. But did they purposely disseminate inaccurate information in order to create an uproar and then profit from it? Don’t know. More on that later.

I found the list posted elsewhere. Right at first glance you can see some issues. Of the top 20, 9 are from MonaVie and 6 are from Amway.Those 2 companies have produced 15 of the top 20 earners? Really? Want to guess how many of the top 65 are from MonaVie? Why, 46 of course.

Is it at all disconcerting that from number 29 through 65, every earner is from MonaVie? Umm, yes. Consider the block of Amway distributors that monopolize all but 3 of the 60 positions from #77 to #137. Statistically speaking, how does that happen?

Is there any possible way that this data could be legit? I’m pretty sure there’s not – partly because while I was viewing the list my college statistics professor came back from the grave and began screaming at me to close my web browser before he died a second death.

Even without a ghostly visit, or a college degree, or a 7th grade math class for that matter, any rational person would toss the list out as meaningless.

Still, I couldn’t help but notice a few more oddities:

• Usana shows up only 4 times in the top 150?
• There’s only 1 Herbalife distributor in the top 100?
• There are only 2 Xango distributors in the top 100?
• Nu Skin only shows up 6 times out of 500 and not until #158.
• There is only 1 Melaleuca distributor in the entire top 500?

Ok. So the list is clearly bogus. The people putting it together either didn’t even try or perhaps had ulterior motives. I think that deserves some analysis.

Uh oh, I think I just felt my ethics professor roll over in his grave. Gotta run. I’ll be back with more later.

My analysis of the top MLM earners list continues in this post about motivations behind such a list.

If you wonder, like I do, why an MLM company would publish their top earners’ numbers, and why a typical distributor would publicize that, you might find this article interesting: Which MLM Comp Plans Screw the Typical Distributor?.