Is ACN A Legitimate Company?
ACN has been around for about 15+ years and the company is based out of Concord, NC. Originally in 1993 they started as a competitor to Excel, selling long distance. Today ACN operates in 20 countries with a several products including natural gas & energy, cell phone service, home security, satellite TV, internet and of course long distance. Sounds impressive but let’s continue and determine if ACN INC. is really a legitimate network marketing business or is this just an ACN scam.
ACN Products
The ACN products are considered a competitive marketplace. Therefore, it’s virtually impossible for a company to mark up their products beyond the true market value and if they did no one would buy. Since ACN is selling products at a realistic value dictated by the market they have at least passed the most important legality test.
Let’s take a closer look at the specific products/services that ACN offers…
Digital phone services – The company is aiming to be the innovator in digital phone services with their VoIP products which include a video phone. The competition is definitely tight in this arena where competitors like Vonage spends mass amounts on advertising.
Traditional Long distance – Long distance is where ACN started over 15 years ago when the telecom industry was slowing dying. There simply is not much mark up in the telecom industry and ACN continues to offer this service since the industry has not completely died.
High speed internet – ACN is able to offer DSL services through the Verizon, Qwest and Covad networks. Like all DSL providers, this means that service is not available in all areas so this is more of bonus for distributors who happen to fall in the right locations.
Cell phone services – ACN is a reseller of cellular service from all the major carriers is the US. Not that appealing since you can find resellers on almost every corner of any major city.
Satellite TV – Once again ACN is simply a reseller, in this case working with both major satellite companies, Dish Network and Direct TV.
Home Security – And…again, ACN is a reseller, in this case for ADT, which is typically the leading company in home security.
Some background on ACN Inc.
ACN started in 1992 by twin brothers, Greg Provenzano and Tony and Mike Cupisz. The company was reported in INC. Magazine in 1998 as the 22nd fastest growing company. The company is based out of Farmington Hills, is a member of the DSA (http://www.dsa.org/forms/CompanyFormPublicMembers/view?id=7F3000009FD). ACN has also been featured in several publications including Success from Home and USA Today.
Great for publicity, ACN has an endorsement deal with Donald Trump, who is prominently featured and referenced in their marketing tool. This certainly shines a positive light on ACN and the reps to have this type of credibility and recognition to pull from.
Like most companies, ACN has not grown without a few hiccups along the way.
Canada’s Competition Bureau in 2002, (which has never been friendly to MLM) charged them with violations of deceptive marketing and operating as an illegal pyramid, but the charges never made it past the preliminary hearing.
In 2005, Australia’s Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) brought charges also to the company. They also ruled that ACN INC. was operating as an illegal pyramid, but the ruling was quickly overturned 5 months later and the high court of Australia refused to hear the ACCC’s appeal. So in both Canada and Australia ACN has had to deal with some serious obstacles but came out winning without having their reputation tainted.
ACN Compensation Plan:
Since there is not much markup in ACN’s product line a distributor is going to require more volume to build a significant residual income. To profit nicely from one customer is the reason why ACN has a variety of products. There is a big difference between 1000 customers using one product versus 1000 customers using 3 products, and because ACN’s products are essentially commodities that everyone uses they stand to do well by offering complimentary communications products.
As far as the details of the ACN compensation plan goes it is a fairly simple. Distributors must qualify by maintaining a certain number of customers per their pay rank and in doing so can qualify to earn residuals on consumer usage through their organization as well as customer acquisition bonuses on the growth of their team. I’m not here to say that ACN as a good or bad comp plan, this could be debated by anyone but so far their plan has held up in court on multiple occasions.
Industry & Competition
The ACN products are not really considered to be luxuries or “extras”, most people are going to pay some type of internet, phone and TV bill every month for the rest of their life so the “stick-ability” or residual nature of an established ACN business should be very good compared to nutritional products that are often seen as non-essentials when times get tough.
There is some MLM competition for ACN with 5linx (http://www.5linx.com) and Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (http://www.fhtm.ne) being the main competitors. Although the MLM industry is quite large and there is plenty of room for competition, just look at the amount of companies in the health and wellness sector.
So, Why Do Distributors Fail With ACN
I wouldn’t say it’s because it’s a scam which is what many failing distributors would like to be quick to say. In fact there are several reasons why reps fail. One being mind-set. Simply put many join to get rich quick and do not take the time to treat their ACN business as a REAL business. In order to succeed as an entrepreneur you must take your business seriously. Owning your own business comes with responsibility, hard work and dedication.
Another reason why many ACN reps fail is because they don’t have the proper marketing training. Many ACN reps have been led to market their business online but the company is not teaching proper skills in their training to teach distributors how to effectively generate quality leads online for their ACN business. Simply put, top producers in ACN that are using the internet have learned the art of leveraging a system to put their business on automation.
So, how can you do the same? It’s quite simple find yourself an online marketing system that you can leverage. Find one that will brand you as a leader, give you the tools necessary to generate quality leads online, sponsor new reps, make money from people who don’t even join your ACN business. This is exactly how the top producers online are doing it. They are defining the pain of other marketers online and offering them a solution. Realize once you can accomplish this you too can create a long term residual income. So, what is the best system on the internet that will give you all these tools?
Click HERE to get access to the presentation on this exact system that has allowed ACN reps to generate over 19 checks per month, earn 519.17 per day, and personally sponsor 107 reps in their ACN business all in 60 days or less using one simple system.
