How Can High-Quality MLM Software Distinguish Itself From Other Options?
Multi-Level Marketing is an alternative to conventional marketing and it helps companies to sell their products without marketing investments. Having said that It has its advantages and disadvantages.
In the MLM structure, people act as participants and sell goods and services on behalf of the company. In addition, People recruit others into the system intending to sell more products and share commissions. It acts as a pyramid model and the influx of participants can run very quickly into many hundreds or even thousands.
Features That Set A Good MLM Software Stands Out From The Rest
The disadvantage of MLM marketing is the anonymity of their products which poses a problem to compete with established products. Hence, it requires much more campaign on the part of participants to be able to sell them.
Moreover, MLM marketing can prove complicated and to successfully manage it requires competent software. We will discuss more aspects of it in the upcoming sections.
What Is Multi-Level Marketing?
As mentioned earlier, MLM’s mode of working is different from that of regular companies. In this model, the sales are taken directly to the customers using a commission-driven and unsalaried class of participants. This helps the direct sales companies in cost-cutting and sharing the commission with all of their participants.
The MLM companies urge their existing participants to hire new ones into the chain and help the sales. MLM is a system that heavily relies on the profit that is generated out of sales.
To elaborate more on this, let us take a most common example.
A person joins the MLM structure as a participant. He then invites his friends and relatives to join the system, increasing the size of the unpaid workforce. The person sells the MLM company’s product and receives a commission, subsequently one of his recruits also does the same and gets a commission. A percentage of the recruit’s commission is then paid to the person who originally recruited that person. This goes ahead as a cycle with fresh recruits added more often to the system and more of the products getting sold.
Many fraudulent schemes mimic the working of the MLM structure and the pyramid scheme is one among them. In this system, no products are being sold anywhere and it completely relies on recruiting people alone.
The pyramid scheme attracts participants by giving them false promises about returns and forcing them to invest in the scheme. This is contrary to the MLM structure where no investments are being made and the revenue is generated solely on actual sales.
The pyramid scheme is illegal in many countries and would attract penalties and jail terms for those who are involved in it.
How Does MLM Software Help?
MLM software is specifically designed to meet the requirements of MLM companies in tracking sales and managing the participants. It incorporates new technologies of digitization that make it easier for direct sales companies to function.
The MLM structure depends largely on lead generation, customer management, inventory, and many other factors. The software can help companies address these issues and many others. MLM software makes it possible for participants to communicate with each other and track all of them in real-time in one place.
Other than this, MLM software also automates many mundane functions and provides tools for the efficient management of the system.
The List Of Essential Criteria
The seamless functioning of any MLM company requires an efficient marketing strategy and the MLM software helps to render it. There are certain criteria that the MLM software should fall to be qualified as a dependable tool for process management.
We will have a look into it in this section.
- Functionality – This feature is mandatory for any MLM software to function optimally. It simply helps direct sales companies to use the software in the best possible way they wish with high accuracy.
- Scalability – Scalability is extremely important for MLM software as it helps the users to address their requirements in a much more sustainable and efficient way in a fast manner.
- Maintainability – Maintainability is a much sought-after feature for any software. It helps the direct sales company to apply constant modifications to the system for better performance and ensure results without a glitch.
- Reliability – The software should work per the promised levels and should be fail-safe and retrievable. It can go a long way in enabling direct sales companies to confirm the smooth running of their businesses.
MLM Software – Essential Features
An MLM software should be well balanced with basic and advanced features that would make it a favorable choice for MLM clients.
The software must have the required tools that enable the clients to visually analyze the market trends and allow them to conceptualize ideas. The software must support business plans that are data-driven and success oriented.
Let us look at each of these elements in more detail.
- Payment Processing Automation – Payment processing is an essential part of any MLM software that aims to support any direct sales company. All transactions should be well-secured using the most up-to-date and reliable digital technology. MLM companies are expected to have a High-yield investment program (HYIP) for better assimilation of their business process online with the help of MLM software.
- Commission Calculator – This feature is one of the most sought-after in any MLM-oriented software. It helps direct sales companies manage their finances better with facts and figures presented more accurately of the commissions issued.
- Compensation Management – This tool can greatly ease the complexities involved in deciding the compensation packages. It should also support the customization of the compensation plans to add more flexibility to the business processes.
- Forecasting Analytics – This feature helps MLM-structured companies to accurately understand their current position and predicts the results if pursued with the current trend. It helps modifications by providing actionable insights wherever necessary.
- E-commerce Integration – The process of introducing products and services online is meant by the term E-commerce. This benefits the clients and customers immensely as it would help them to make decisions on purchases in a fast-paced manner. The fundamental feature of any MLM software these days is the ability to support the E-commerce platform in all ways possible.
- Security and Compliance – Online transactions are currently subject to various forms of security threats like hacking and phishing. So any direct sales companies aspiring to stand out from the rest would have to fully secure their digital platform from cyber threats. A model MLM software should strive hard to have the most sophisticated digital security measures applied periodically that leave no scope for any form of cyber attack.
- Distributor Tools – Distributor tools help to run any business processes reliably by overseeing projects and rendering timely action. It also helps the person in charge to perform daily activities like compiling and sorting out reports, generating tickets, and other functions with much more ease.
- Genealogy Tree – This feature enables MLM companies to have an aerial perspective of their hierarchy and organizational structure. It also gives them full details about all the financial transactions and manpower at their disposal.
- Administrative Back Office – The back office function in any MLM software helps top-level executives to supervise and manage the whole online business process in one place. It helps them to add or remove information from their digital platform and provides access to oversee the company’s financial transactions.
Conclusion
In this article, we had the opportunity to go through the major aspects of MLM software. In the beginning, we had an overview of the multi-level marketing structure and went on to have a closer look at its functioning.
We then discussed the requirement of having software to conveniently manage the workforce and overlook the finances. In addition, we covered some of the essential criteria that MLM software should have and also shed light on the key features it should possess.
In this setting, we have had both a basic and an explicit understanding of the multi-level marketing structure. On this basis, we can safely say as much that aspiring MLM software should continue evolving to the needs of the business and marketing industry on par with changing times to stand out from the rest.