Shaklee and MLM MARKETING?

How does MLM marketing work? I was thinking about becoming a shaklee distributor, but I couldn't find a sponsor who would answer all my questions & I can't get a full grasp of how MLM marketing works. I don't want to bother my friends and family. I want to know how to market to the "cold market" = everyone else. Besides marketing on websites mlm is hard for me to understand because 1 i have no loyalty to a certain brand 2. I never bought something from a catalog and 3. i never met someone that said, hey I found this new product try it here is my business card. So how does it work besides advertising in the news paper or on bulletin boards and random strangers? The only way i can think of it working is if you can get small business owners to market the products in there store. But the products are already expensive. If i was a retailer i would not market a product with only a 15% mark down. So how does this work? Who do you market too, How long does it take to build a downline?