The Automatrix

by John Counsel

An Automatrix is basically a computerised sponsoring system which places people into fixed positions within a highly- structured, inflexible organisation. It is not a true Multi-Level Marketing reward plan and, in fact, it shares many of the least desirable attributes of Pyramid Selling schemes.

A typical Automatrix might be “5 x 5”. That is, the first five people to join your group would be slotted into the first level of your network of agents. From that point, new people would be sponsored into the first five positions in each of their first levels, giving you a fixed second level of 25 people. This would continue on down the matrix to a total of five levels deep, giving you an organisation that looked like this...

First level		5 people
Second level		25 people
Third level		125 people
Fourth level		625 people
Fifth level		3,125 people
Total Group		3,905 people

It doesn’t matter where those people live, or who they are, they’re simply slotted into the next vacant pigeon-hole in the Automatrix.

Notice how most of the “results” don’t occur until the fifth level has been filled. The problem is that, because the people higher up the matrix rarely know the people further down and have no way of knowing what’s happening or being able to train or help them, they lose motivation and interest and the whole thing fizzles – so that “magic” fifth level rarely becomes filled.
 
The Automatrix has been around long enough to prove itself consistently unreliable as a way to long-term success. It’s a dud. An illusion.

Why does something that seems so promising fail so miserably?

The Automatrix appears to offer a way of approaching and sponsoring people without the risk of face-to-face contact and, therefore, without the risk of rejection, or having to assume responsibility for someone else’s growth and development.
 
But the real secret of success in Multi-Level Marketing is your ability to establish and foster effective, long-term, personal relationships. Ask any truly successful MLM leader what’s the most important aspect of the business, once their income exceeds their needs, and the answer is always the same – “the money’s no longer important... it’s the relationships that matter most”. Even people who only got in to make as much money as possible, as fast as possible, say the same thing once they achieve their initial goals.
 
Your ability to inspire others to duplicate your own achievement is the indispensable key to long-term MLM success and security.

That raises an interesting question.

If the quality and durability of personal relationships is so essential to true MLM success, how can a system or method that relies on the absence of relationships offer any kind of genuine, long-term security?

The cold, hard reality is this, however unpleasant or threatening it may seem: any system that offers a quick way to get rich, without time, effort or discipline, is going to attract people of a similar kind… lazy, selfish and greedy.

Exactly the kind of people you need to help you find that elusive pot of gold at the end of the next rainbow! (Not!)

Just as every family has an embarrassing skeleton in its ancestral closet, so does the Automatrix. It’s actually a direct descendant of the infamous Chain Letter.

Chain Letters are a crude form of Automatrix that contravene the anti-Pyramid Selling provisions of most consumer protection and fair trading laws. So the real question you should ask yourself, when considering whether or not to join an Automatrix system, is this:

Would you honestly want to be tarred with the same brush as illegal Pyramid Selling and Chain Letters?

Even though an Automatrix system usually falls within the letter of the law, whether it’s always within the spirit of the law is open to debate.

Bear in mind our constant warning, too. An Automatrix may not identify itself as such. You must be ready to recognise it when it raises its seductive head.
  

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©1999 The Profit Clinic. All rights reserved. This page updated 6 June 2003