ACN, Inc, is a network marketing company that claims to be one of the largest sellers of communication products . In 1993 Greg Provenzno, Robert Stevanovski, Mike and Tony Cupisz founded ACN to provide Superior long distance and local phone service, with unsurpassed customer service. Today ACN not only offers their flagship long distance and local service, but has expanded to offer, wireless, Digital Video Phones, Internet and Satellite TV at competitive prices. Weather you have become a ACN rep or are just considering it, the question is will ACN be a viable income opportunity for the average ACN rep, or is it another in the list of network marketing scams.
The litmus test for network marketing companies is longevity, will they be around in 5, 10 or 15 years (the problem with longevity is it takes years to find out if the company will pass this litmus). ACN certainly passes with flying colors being as they have been around for 15+ years. But, even though they have been around for quite a while, is ACN a good opportunity for the independent rep to earn a substantial income. Let’s see where ACN ranks in the 3 criteria for successful distributors in network marketing.
1. The product or service is something the distributor can be passionate about, for ACN that would be any of their communications products (only you the distributor can answer that)
2. The marketing strategies are sound and offer the most income opportunity to the distributor not just the company (this is where most network marketing businesses don’t make the grade and that includes ACN).
3. The company is solid and the products deliver a real benefit to the consumers (as of this writing, ACN claims to do 500 Million in revenue each year, Sounds pretty solid). They even managed to have Donald Trump to Publicly endorse them as a good business opportunity. Not too shabby!
Ok, so the products and service seem to be decent and the company is pretty stable, but is the warm market approach to making it to the top of the ACN compensation plan (RVP or SVP are ACN’s top positions) a viable path to success. Since the inception of network marketing, the primary marketing strategy of these opportunities has been to target your warm market (friends and family). This marketing concept worked well for many years , but business and society evolved, unfortunately network marketing companies did not and continue to use the same outdated marketing principals and ACN is no exception.
While there are many issues surrounding the friends and family marketing strategy, we’ll focus on one of the staples of marketing (positioning) and why the warm market approach doesn’t make the grade. It’s a pretty simple concept and it will become abundantly clear why marketing to your friends and family won’t work for most of you.
Positioning: The word alone leaves you to believe that you would want to be at the top or in the top position. For marketing ACN or any networking company you need to position yourself as a leader, an expert in your product or service. ACN reps only need to find a few people that use a telecom service (everybody has a telephone, right?) get them to switch to a ACN service due to the quality of product and the lucrative income potential.
Here’s where the warm market problem lies, your friends and family all know you, they know what you do, who you are and where you come from. Up until the point of becoming an ACN rep, most of you were not an expert or leader in the field of telecom or a successful entrepreneur. Every successful entrepreneur had to start somewhere, but starting with a clean slate is key to your success. How do you intend on showing someone what a lucrative opportunity ACN can be if you are still driving the same old car and wearing the same old clothes, you have lost your credibility. Position yourself as a leader in your market with those that don’t know you and your business will begin to grow.
Pretty clear how powerful positioning can be? This is just one of the many reason to stay away from your warm market.
ACN has a what looks to be a good product and growing a business. There are quite a few telecom companies out there with good products and all of them have distributors out there that haven’t made a dime. The difference between those who will make it to the top and those that won’t, is finding and using effective marketing strategies, strategies that put the odds of success in favor of the distributor.
ACN could prove to be a very lucrative business for the distributor who is determined to find and build the skills necessary to bring targeted prospects to them and are ready to leave their warm market alone. If you are waiting for the big pay day to just come to you using the same marketing methods that are not working for you today, I would suggest that you just use ACN’s telecom services for the quality of the product, in the end your friends and family will thank you for it.
To learn more on how to grow your ACN busieness, go here to get your ACN Business Growth Guide
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