Income Opportunity for the Professional

Nature’s Pearl is a supplement company based right outside of Winston-Salem, NC and is owned by LeBleu water. They produce a health food product based solely on the Muscadine Grape seed. This particular grape is known for its ability to thrive in the hot, humid and disease-prone climate of the Southeastern United States. These growing conditions make Muscadine grapes very different from common grapes grown for wine production, which are commonly grown in cooler, milder and less stressful climates. Because the grapes have developed defenses in this harsh environment, many believe that the Muscadine grape produces more disease-fighting phenolic compounds (ANTIOXIDANTS), therefore making it a good health food supplement.
The company first marketed the Nature’s Pearl supplement in retail outlets. Although this distribution method was reasonably successful, they eventually pulled the product out of retail establishments and switched to Multi-Level Marketing. The executives at Nature’s and LeBleu water consulted with several network marketing experts before settling on a compensation plan and distributor structure they felt would best promote the business. This new structure seems to keep product costs reasonable with modest distributor pay-outs. The compensation plan stops paying after 8 levels deep and does seem to prevent unproductive distributors from profiting from the system, regardless of positioning.
The product, compensation plan and structure all seem to be relatively well planned. One area of interest is the marketing training provided by the company to its distributors. Nature’s Pearl is relatively new in the world of network marketing and has therefore focused all of its attention on educating the distributor about the product features and benefits. Although these things are important, distributors also need to be educated on how to produce a continuous income with the business. The majority of marketing training that has been provided is based on off-line strategies such as prospecting friends and family, buying leads, cold calling etc.
A recent move by Nature’s Pearl to improve its profitability has been the introduction of a company owned by Phil Romano, known for his incredible success in the restaurant industry. This new company has somehow been allowed to move to the top spot above the entire NP down-line. Mr. Romano, has wisely recruited the MLM Mastermind Robert Blackman to oversee his new business venture.
All of this seems like a great move by the executives at Nature’s Pearl, but how does it affect the average distributor? Well, initially it appeared that the strong financial backing of Phil Romano and expertise of Robert Blackman was going to be the extra push and motivation they needed. Typically money and experience will drive success in any environment, but how will it effect the average distributor in this case? I would say “results may vary”.
With the overwhelming success of the internet, common MLM techniques tend to be incomplete without heavily leveraging cutting-edge on-line strategies. It seems that rather than training the down-line in modern network marketing methods, the new leadership has elected to offer the distributors the opportunity to purchase leads and perpetuate a strategy that involves cold calling prospects. They will of course offer a replicated web site with this new monthly membership, but with the new Google crack-downs, will those sites really be of any benefit to anyone? This new system will of course be optional with an additional fee on top of the current auto-ship requirements. I understand why they are charging for the leads, but it would benefit the distributors more to include the new replicated web site feature with the fee that many distributors already pay Nature’s Pearl for a web site.
To sum this up, I still feel that money can be made in Nature’s Pearl by those who do not depend solely on the company to educate them in marketing. Robert Blackman is probably one of the best when it comes to off-line marketing, but is that enough? That will be for you to decide.
As for me, I found that off-line marketing was exhausting and unrewarding. I have discovered that I really enjoy networking through the internet and the flexibility it gives me. I suggest that if you find yourself struggling with this or any MLM, that you check out the benefits of internet marketing before you throw in the towel. Maybe you just need a little help.
Thanks,
Ron Knighton
For More Info on Nature’s Pearl, visit http://np.exposethemlmtruth.com