WHY IS IT ONLY IN NETWORK MARKETING THAT LEADERS PREACH AGAINST PLAN C? 

There was a time in this industry, when leaders promoted their companies by talking down on other companies. As a leader, it was normal to devastate your perceived opponents by word of mouth. Your KPI (Key Performance Indices) had to be: Tear them down, pull them down, decimate them all ! And by the time you were done with your presentation, you hoped that your competitors had been pummelled beyond recognition; atleast in your imagination. Toxicity was the name of the game! But here is my point: The fact that industry leaders used such methods those days, did not make it right.

Today, the situation is better. Leaders in the network marketing industry have grown past that type of negativity. Self development, which was not quite there those days, has now taken center stage. Product presentations and seminars are now laced with decorum, and delivered with panache. As such, we see less of those ancient everyone-else-is-an-enemy method of team leadership. However, it certainly is NOT yet eldorado in the industry. I still see lots of room for improvement. Here is an example: For many of the industry leaders, FEAR for other companies has replaced what used to be HATRED for other companies. And that is not something to be proud of either. Let me explain:

A typical Nigerian who is in the poultry business has absolutely no problem with adding a fish pond to his already existing poultry business. The ailing economy calls for such creativity and diversity. The rest of us understand and respect his choice of business. We have no problem with it. 🙂 Similarly, a university lecturer in Nigeria who is presented with an opportunity to own a farm, will not only accept to own the farm, she will run a second degree or go for her masters concurrently. The rest of us see absolutely nothing wrong with her decision. In short, many will conclude that she is a genius. 🙂

So, why is it only in network marketing that we have been told that it is bad to broaden our horizon? Why is it such a taboo to have a Plan C in an industry as big and as versatile as ours? Is it possible that leaders who preach such things are actually secretly nursing the fear of losing their team members to other companies? Is it possible that such leaders worry that if their members discover the benefits of the products and compensation plans of other companies, they would decamp to such other companies?🙂

But there is something wrong with such reasoning. A leader who reasons that way, betrays a lack of confidence in her company. It shows that the leader herself scarcely believes in the efficacy of her company's products. If she truly believed in those, she won't feel threatened by the possibility of her team members getting to know about other companies. Secondly, when a leader has such intense phobia for other companies, she contradicts the very essence of self development. How? As leaders we teach others to deal with the fear of rejection. When a leader fears to be rejected by her own people, how can she possibly teach others to stand their ground in the face of rejection?

It is time we all understood that network marketing will never metamorphose into a religion. It is, and will always be a business. As such, adults who do this business are not obliged to follow any company until death do them part. Our loyalty to our companies is relative; not absolute. Conditional; not eternal. It is up to the companies to ensure that they retain our loyalty by ensuring that products are never out of stock for too long. They retain our loyalty by ensuring that the quality of their products are never compromised. We stick to companies who ensure that compensation plans and incentives are up to date and steadily competitive. Companies whose management are approachable, and easy to communicate with, are sure to have Nigerian networkers sticking with them.

When any company steadily declines in any of such genuine key performance indices as mentioned above, no networker is obliged to die with them. Even when a company meets up with ALL expectation, a networker is still free to have a Plan C, either as an escape plan or an expansion mechanism. It is high time leaders who preach against Plan C realised that our economy is not exactly the same as that of the foreign mentors who they emulate. It is also noteworthy that successful leaders (one of whom I am), became successful because we had a Plan C to fall back to, when our Plan B failed us completely.