I’m tired of the arguments going back and forth about what is the best way to build with doTERRA. Everyone thinks they know the best doTERRA placement strategies. Well, I’m an accountant by trade and I wanted to prove mathematically which is the best way to build.

I didn’t want to base it on how I felt or what others told me. I wanted to find out for myself. So I spent about 20 hours working on this spreadsheet to prove to myself and others what the best way is. For me, it’s was about finding which way I could make more money with by the time I hit Diamond.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cn8ccwDMDs0K5T_90UaF2zXEyOnwBmVDW4T9AYzCQVI/edit?usp=sharing

Assumptions

When doing something like this, you have to make assumptions. I tried to base it on about how many signups I get a month, which is about 10 good signups, give or take. I wanted to see how long it will take me to get to Diamond. I wanted to see if it’s better to build for rank or Power of 3. Here are the assumptions I made:

• Between myself and my team, we will sign up 10 new people every month. All 10 of these people will keep buying and do LRP. (Flawed? Yes, but since I made the same assumption on both scenarios, it’s not that far off. Besides, I usually get more than 10 signups a month so saying that 10 would stick is fairly accurate. Saying that they would all do LRP is not as accurate but it was so much easier to do the spreadsheet making that assumption. I do think it skewed the results and I will get to that later.)
• Every enrollment order will be 110PV (Family Physician Kit)
• All recurring orders will be 110PV
• I will actually do 4 people for Power of 3 so there is a safety net and to ensure the 600OV

Building for Rank

When you are building for rank, you should also try to get as far down at the same time.

So how does building for rank look?

• Elite – Start out by trying to be an Elite. That’s 3,000 OV. Technically, it doesn’t matter how you build – but you should always be looking at the next rank so start out by trying to have 2 good legs. Because to get to be a Premier, you only need two Executives.
• Premier – You are working to get two executives now and you need 5,000 OV. What I recommend is to start building your third leg now. Keep working with your two legs from making Elite but work on a third leg and get it up to 1,000 OV. Then you have your 5,000 Total OV.
• Silver – To get to Silver you need 3 Elites so start building evenly on all three legs that you’ve already started. So keep building until you get 3,000 OV on three legs. Only build two legs on the three legs. This will help you focus on fewer legs, give you time to find good builders and help get people farther down, where the unilevel bonuses are higher.
• Gold – You need 3 Premiers and since Premiers are 2 Executives, just keep building under your three main builders and get them from 3,000 OV to 5,000 OV on two legs and start the third leg (just like you did to get yourself to Premier).
• Platinum – This is where building for rank and Power of 3 meet. This is where a lot of people get their Power of 3 because you now need 3 Silvers, which means you build like you did to get yourself to Silver. You build evenly on your current Premier legs to get them to have 3 Elites each. And you work on getting your Power of 3 $15000 bonus at the same time. Beautiful, huh? Although, I personally think this is the hardest rank to achieve unless you have duplication going in your favor.
• Diamond – All you need to do for this rank is build one more Silver team. Do this just like you did above.

That’s it. Easy, huh?

Based on my assumptions, you will hit Silver in month 10, Gold in month 14, Platinum in month 26 and Diamond in month 34. You will have made a total of $108,403.70 over 35 months.

Building for Power of 3 Bonus

Since it’s extremely not realistic that every person you sign up will do LRP and because you should always build in a cushion, when going for Power of 3, I built 4 wide and I suggest that you do the same, except on your front line because those are your really strong builders and you shouldn’t have to worry about them doing their Power of 3 every month, especially since they will start getting their $50 monthly bonus within a few months.

• $50 and $250 Power of 3 – You get to your $250 by the third month. Build all three legs evenly because your secondary goal is to get to Silver.
• $1500 Power of 3 bonus – In my scenario you hit Power of 3 by month 7 if everyone stays enrolled in LRP, but since that’s not realistic I handicapped it and said you wouldn’t hit your $1500 month 10, which is more realistic. It will take you longer to hit Gold than with the Build by Rank scenario because you are building 3 legs instead of 2. However, you will hit Platinum at the same time. BUT you will have been getting your $1500 for a lot longer and that $1500 a month adds up really quickly.
• Gold – Since you are keeping rank in mind the whole time you are building for Power of 3, build two strong legs under each builder that you will use to go for rank and then one leg you will build under later to get to Platinum and one leg that you use as “insurance.”
• Platinum – Build under each of the third legs that you already started when going for Gold.

You will hit your $250 bonus in month 3 and $1500 bonus in month 10, Silver in month 10, Gold in month 16, Platinum in month 27 and Diamond in month 35. You will have made a total of $108,579.80 over those 35 months.

My Preliminary Conclusions

As you can see by the below chart, with Power of 3 you start making higher amounts of money a lot sooner. With Rank Building you hit Gold at month 14 and Power of 3 hits Gold at month 16.

Since with my way of doing Power of 3, you are doing the minimum to get your Power of 3 and building for rank secondary, it only takes two months longer to get to Gold than Building for Rank and during those two months you’re making your $1500 monthly bonus.

This adds up quickly. However, when building for rank you are trying to go down as much as possible so in the later months, you actually make a little more money per month than the Power of 3 way.

So, my conclusion is to build for Power of 3 but to keep Rank in mind as a close second if you are lucky enough to have people who keep doing their LRP consistently, especially on your front lines. Build 3 legs evenly until they get 3,00OV each and each leg has their $250 monthly bonus.

In month 10 you will hit Silver and get your $1500 bonus if you have a high retention rate and get most of your people to do LRP. Since this isn’t totally realistic, what I see more is hitting Silver at month 10 but not actually getting your $1500 bonus until later.

Once you hit Silver, start building 6 legs of 2500OV under 3 people, so each of your 3 builders will have two strong legs under them that you use to rank on and 1 leg you will build under later and one leg as “insurance.”

Once you hit Gold, start going for Platinum. This is where the two ways of building merge. With either scenario, you build 9 legs of 3000OV evenly. So if you haven’t hit your Power of 3 bonus by Platinum (which is actually fairly realistic) then when you start building for Platinum it will happen naturally since with either scenario you are building 3 legs under 3 people.

You may as well go one step further and have those 9 people all have 3 people directly under them doing 100PV LRP because it will help you both Rank and get your Power of 3. By the way, that’s 39 people with 100PV LRP. This is no small feat.

The point I am trying to make is that the $1500 Power of 3 bonus is much more than the bonus you get for ranking so you should be trying to get that first UNLESS you have over-riding factors that are kind of playing your hand and making it clear to build for rank, such as you:

• want to rank for a non-monetarily reason, such as to qualify for Leadership Retreat
• just want to be able to say you are a certain rank
• have people in key positions for Power of 3 who built for a while but who are no longer doing the business consistently but don’t want to give up their spot
• have a surprise builder who is totally not in the right place in your business for Power of 3 and you want to support that person instead

In the long run, you are going to hit Platinum/Diamond right about the same time with either way of building – but the sooner you can get your $1500, the sooner you will be making a lot more money.

The difference is most apparent on month 10 when Building by Rank you have a $130 Silver Bonus (it was actually $520 on month 9 because of extra shares for having new Elites under you) if you build for rank and a $1500 Bonus if you build for Power of 3.

Which bonus would you rather have? From what I’ve gathered from other people, the Gold bonus is about $650, Platinum $1300 and Diamond $4,000. These are definitely approximate and a change in either of these numbers could easily skew my results either way.

My Final Conclusion

There isn’t a perfect way to build and in an ideal world, you will build both ways at the same time. Either way is good, especially if you follow my tips above. Up until Silver it really doesn’t matter which way you build and from Platinum to Diamond it doesn’t matter since you’re building a completely new leg.

But from Silver to Platinum it gets really hard to know which way to build. You have lots of people you have to keep happy and just because you are TRYING to get to Power of 3, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to get there easily.

From the talking I’ve done with other people, the $1500 bonus can be very elusive since it only takes one of 39 people to stop doing their LRP and you’re out of luck. So build for it but don’t put too much effort in to and don’t count your eggs before they hatch because people have a mind of their own and will often do the exact opposite of what they tell you they will do.

So many people have told me they want to build and never did anything and then other people told me they had no intention of signing anyone up, but they end up signing up 10 people because they just can’t help sharing about doTERRA. Just one of the things that make doTERRA placement strategies challenging. . .

Just remember that as long as you are building, either by signing up people yourself or by supporting those you’ve already signed up and doing your best, eventually the bonuses and ranks will come.