# Network selling, anyone use it?



## Dori (Mar 26, 2008)

Like an Amway style selling setup, does anyone do it?

For example I have John selling for me. He sells to his friends and family. For each tee he sell I give him $10. 

John has a friend, Dave, who would also like to sell tee's to his friends and family. Dave will also receive $10 from us for each tee he sells. Every time Dave sells a tee, John will also get $2.

This way they are keen to sell lots of tee's, and John is keen to find more Daves to sell our stuff. 

If I had 4 Johns, and each of them had 2 Daves, and they all sold a tee a week each, then we'd sell 12 tee's a week. The Johns would earn $12, and the Daves $10. These guys can sell at fairs, to schools, to clubs etc...



Has anyone tried/seen this done with tshirts? Its just a thought...  

Cheers!
Adam


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## pshawny (Feb 27, 2008)

That's a pretty good idea. I sell stock transfers & I've thought about having people do home parties. Every person that sells for you can have a set of catalogs, set their own parties up, & take orders for you.


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## mpstrategies (Mar 28, 2008)

its actually quite a good item, but it will only work for products


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## deniseg (Jul 23, 2007)

as far as i know we r not allowed to to that in UK its called pyramid selling and over here against the law not sure why


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

Yeah, that could work well...however if your Johns started making decent money they would probably cut you out of the middle so you will have to pick your Johns well.
Also if you have a certain concept then you need to make sure that your Johns represent your brand well and don't have some unreputable person promise to deliver goods and then pocket the money.

Excellent idea, just work out the kinks.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

With your description it seems like you'd be losing money. It would be better for your bottom line if it were cents per sale versus dollars.


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

I think it would depend on how much they were selling the shirts for.
I mean 30 dollar shirt -10 for paying them or 12 equals 18 - say high end 8 for production still = 10 to 12 dollar profit.
Depends on what you are selling, but 10 a shirt does sound pretty high.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

The way it sounds is that if a John or a Dave 4 lines down sells a shirt, they get 12 and the other 3 get 10 and that would mean $42 just on commissions. If a guy 8 lines down sells a shirt do they pay out $82?


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

Ha! I didnt even see it that way!

I think they are saying that John gets 10 for selling one shirt....if dave sells a shirt then john gets 2 and dave gets 12.
I dont think if dave gets bill to sell one that john, and dave both get $2 then bill gets 10 for the sale....
I think it would be 12 dollars no matter what total.

That sounds like one of those IQ or SAT questions lol


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

Whatever it is, it needs to be less than 10 or 12 per person per shirt. Like the guy downline that sells it should get maybe $2 per shirt, then everyone else gets a dime. Why should they get more? They didn't do anything. Do you think that amway gives away money like that?


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## Dori (Mar 26, 2008)

Im not sure what amway does, its just a method I come up with, wondering if anyone else had looked into it, or is using it.

Like a mate of mine said today, I cant guarantee an excellent service with this system, and to have a good brand I need to have a good service


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

True, I am just trying to rationalize this whole thing.

I don't do this, cause I like my shirts to be exclusive....so that not everyone in the world is selling them.
If I wanted to do this I would try some other service provider then myself.


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## tim3560 (Jan 7, 2007)

You'll have enough to worry about with your biz itself. You're looking at a world of headaches with the paperwork it would take to keep track of everything you'd have to pay out. Why not just have a regular affiliate program? That way you just pay one person per sale and not a whole group. College kids would be great for this if they liked your line. 2-4 bucks for a sale that they really didn't do anything for other than talk to a friend in their dorm about their t-shirt, is a great deal.


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

If you want to do it yourself....then have a set up where you pretty much wholesale to everyone at a decent profit and have it be like girl scout sales....they take preorders for all kinds of stuff out of a magazine...aka a shirt mag...then fill the orders and let you know...then you print and ship them to the addresses.

Give them samples shirts so they can show them to would be buyers and then viola....done...prob keep you very busy...you could even offer downloadable magazines for new buyers and if you get really successful with it then make them pay a fee for downloading it in a one time or monthly time. I think this could work....you just have to be ready to do a whole lot of work...lots of organization...don't burn anyone or word will get backaround.


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## Titchimp (Nov 30, 2006)

Isn't it only pyramid selling if the people have to pay to be part of the scheme? In these situations no products are ever sold and the only people who make money are the people who are at the top.


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## pshawny (Feb 27, 2008)

Titchimp said:


> Isn't it only pyramid selling if the people have to pay to be part of the scheme? In these situations no products are ever sold and the only people who make money are the people who are at the top.


Not necessarily. Pyramid selling is usually thought of as a scam of some sort & a lot of the time it probably is.

I think more catalog companies use pyramid selling than we would think. My sister sells kids books in a pyramid type setup for usborn books.


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

First, I would imagine that the $10 and $12 amounts are arbitrary and for simple math reasons....but that aside, let's continue using these for the purposes of working a downline:

Top Tier: ME -> I produce and provide the product to be sold
Second Tier: John -> He can either Sell product or enlist others to sell product
Third Tier: Dave -> He can either Sell or enlist
Fourth Tier: Donny - > and so it goes....

But we'll stick to three tiers here.

First the basics: My shirt costs me $8 to produce and have on hand. I want a profit of $8/shirt. My cost to Tier two is then: $16

Tier two can make as much as $8 on a sale....their reselling price is then: $24

Tier Three can make as much as $6 on a sale, while Tier Two makes $2 for every Tier Three sale: $8 total or $24 selling price to the consumer.

Basically, you build a downline of sales folks.....I would stop at Tier Four, because otherwise, who would want to make $1/sale?????

But depending on your structure, your payouts and your desires, you could make this work for as many tiers as you wanted to. The problem is trying to sell a shirt for over $20, especially a tee! It CAN work, but it's going to be harder than selling a line of knick-knacks, where your customer at the party can buy $100 worth of DIFFERENT items. You know, a candle stick here, a wall hanging there, a few naked trolls for the dining room table....whatever.

It CAN be done, but you have to really think out your structure. And if you don't require an investment in order to sell your products, then you can pretty much run it as an affiliate program. Heck, you can set your prices down to $20/shirt and offer commissions for Tiers 2, 3, and 4, rather than a set dollar amount.

So many ways to work it, yet, so few ways to insure success.


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## pshawny (Feb 27, 2008)

You could just do two levels & a percentage.

Bob ---- Gets 25% of his sales + 5% of people he directly signs up.

Now if Bob gets Fred to sign up then Bob would get 5% of Fred's sales & Fred would get 25%.

Now Fred can sign up people under himself, but Bob wouldn't get anything from those sales.

This would keep things fairly simple while giving your sales people the motivation of getting more people to sign up.


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

I pretty much said that earlier....lol...great minds think alike.

Like you said, don't reward john for daves sign up....reward dave and his sign up.
If dave sells a shirt then reward john and dave. 
Then if daves sign up signs someone else up reward them and the seller of that shirt.
Its like a tongue twister...but it would work...you just have to be very organized and equipped to handle it all.

I am actually considering this, but only with friends and family that I can have schedule dinner parties or get togethers like at holidays to place orders for me.
Then I will reward them a percentage of their total sales rather then a per shirt thing.
But I am also doing hats, belts, shirts, and working on other nick nakes.


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## Dori (Mar 26, 2008)

Thanks for all the replys, some great points! The % of sales is a great idea, and the 2 teir limit is good too.

My brother wants to sell a few for me, so ill give him a cut and see how it goes from there.

Id rather my gear sells itself that employ people to push it. If down the line i release something that really takes off, im giving them a cut, for possibly not doing too much. We have a popular web name for our market* so our web site should be where people buy our gear, not from salesmen... (is that a fair statement/logic?)

Dori is our line, its japanese for 'drift', we are targeting the fast growing drift scene here in New Zealand (and abroard with any luck eventually!)


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## jboitcet (Oct 7, 2006)

Peace2TheRest said:


> If you want to do it yourself .... I think this could work .... you just have to be ready to do a whole lot of work ... lots of organization ...


I agree with Peace2Rest. I'm currently working on a similar plan and there's a lot of organizing involved. My checklist reads like a novella. All the key points that Peace2Rest has mentioned here are all on my list (plus more). Once the bugs are worked out, it looks very promising.


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## Peace2TheRest (Feb 6, 2008)

When you get all the kinks worked out would you mind sharing so others like us can learn from you?


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## Dori (Mar 26, 2008)

yea that sounds great, im glad its not just my imagination going into a tailspin! I too will look into it closer over the next couple of months

Thanks all!!


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