One of my most endearing coaches and mentors, a man named Jim Dulock, happened to be the first person I ever met who earned more than $400,000 in one month from his network marketing organization. Jim was a bonafide "hoot!" Full of folksy wisdom and truly one of the most likable and wise individuals I've ever met.

He once told me that the true secret to residual income was NOT how much product you could "sell"...but how many would continue to buy after their initial purchase. That, it would do you little good to have a hundred people sign up and become distributors if they were "going out the "back door" as fast as they were coming in the front!

Fortunately, high-quality, effective products are a trademark of most MLM companies. To this day, I reorder and use products, simply because they are the best I've ever found, and even without a financial incentive, I continue to order them every month.

In my opinion, there has been too much emphasis placed, in the past, on distributor recruiting over customer acquisition.

I am happy to report, however, that I have seen an enormous shift in both in-network direct sales and social media marketing that now rewards and encourages CUSTOMER sales "first." Do you want to know why I believe this has happened? If you promote a great product, that delivers value and expected results, it is the CUSTOMER'S idea and choice to reorder it....this is the definition of retention. What makes this work, however, is YOUR excitement and belief in certain products that you love and being an example and demonstration of that.

Concerning leader or distributor retention, I often emphasize how important it is to have a plan in place so that you are clear about what someone is doing and why! Too many times people come in ...all fired up and full of expectations that are not grounded OR measurable. The net result is they work hard and flop around doing what they THINK they need to be doing, it doesn't work and they blame themselves, or worse, the business model, itself.

Our job is to ask and find out. what people expect as a result...given a reasonable period of time for its achievement and then co-create a strategy or project to achieve it together... Remember: The formula for a breakdown is an expectation NOT being met. If you have an objective/goal, you are clear about what it provides that you're committed to, and a time frame, the only thing missing is ACTION.

No one leaves when they are in action and the goal is in sight. .....retention.