Copyright 2006 Dave Sherwin

Switching from one Network Marketing company to another really can be like changing religions. There is a lot of emotion, loyalty, and friendships to consider. So the decision has to be made carefully.

But if you are sure you want to leave, and you are convinced that success isn't going to happen for you in your current company, here are some tips that will help you choose wisely.

First, make a list of all the things you don't like about your current company, whether it's the compensation plan, the marketing system, the product, etc. For example, I was in a great company, but they had some problems that really drove me nuts. Here is my list of what I didn't like:

1. They refused to embrace the internet, and continued teaching 30 year old techniques.

2. The company preached a "Weekly Meeting" culture, but the meetings were attended by a bunch of Professional meeting attenders, and very few guests. In other words, the meeting was time away from my family with little or no return. See complaint one.

3. The churn rate among associates and customers was unusually high.

4. The compensation plan was really an "every person for themselves" plan. It wasn't a duplication model, and didn't involve teamwork. No online placing was allowed.

5. The compensation plan boasted "residual income", but after almost four years of marketing the company was receiving about $35,000 a month from mine and my teams efforts, but my residual was only about $150 a month.

Second, I took the problem, and turned it into a positive, stating what I wanted:

1. I want to work with a digital age company that has modern prospecting and recruiting techniques, and compelling web-sites with low or no sign up fee, so recruiting will be as simple as possible.

2. I want a company that does training and prospecting meetings online as much as possible, and doesn't require a weekly hotel meeting.

3. I want to market products that are affordable, and that people see the value of for the long term.

4. I want a compensation plan that is either Binary or Matrix, so that new people have others placed under them, to give them incentive and "fear of loss" to build during the tough early phases.

5. I want a plan that pays on volume, so the more my team consumes and sells, the more I make.

Once I had my list I started shopping. And I have to tell you, it was fun! Having the experience I had (I had built a team of 450 people in my previous company) I knew the drill, and I knew what I was looking for and not looking for. I didn't tell my team I was shopping, of course, I didn't want to distract them or discourage them in their businesses, so I did my research quietly.

For a period of four months I not only shopped a lot of companies, I actually slapped down my credit card and joined a few companies, and tried their products. Once I found a company I really liked, I met with the highest up person I could find (luckily for me, I was actually able to meet with the co-founder) and took him to lunch. I went down the list of things I was looking for and interviewed him on each one. I liked his answers, and I got excited about his company, so I went to work.

I bet if you look at all of the top dogs in your current company, you can find very few that didn't "cut their teeth" somewhere else! They tell you to all be loyal, while never denying that they were in other companies before! It seems to be part of this industry that most get their start somewhere, but finish strong somewhere else.

And one last tip: don't go through your list of friends in your last company and recruit from that company! That's just low class. I did go to my personally sponsored distributors and told them I found a new company, and some came with me and some didn't. My company didn't recruit them, I did. But people cross line from me I considered off limits. In this day and age, with a billion people online, and most of them looking for financial opportunity, you don't need to scrounge from your old company for prospects. Once you find the right combination for you, you will recruit and grow your new organization so fast and have so much fun with it you won't have to worry about prospects, they'll be coming to you!