My issue with many network marketers

The assurance of effortless opulence. A compensation arrangement that few can discern. The covert nature of concealing essential facts. These are just several things that irk me about most network marketing and multilevel marketing (MLM) practices. Being in sales, I’m constantly contemplating on ideas to revamp my persuasion proficiency. I have a few recommendations that can enhance the quality of these interactions so that the sleaziness is totally eliminated.

I’ll begin with my first recommendation, being candid with prospects. It’s irritating to ask questions and have them not acknowledged. These could be straightforward as “how many people are successful in your company” “What are your most lucrative products” or even, and this is crazy, “what’s the name of your company”. Most of these pitches start with “are you open to making extra money on the side part time?” The first problem is the word “time”. An issue because this is time reallocated from my family, work, or friends. The other glaring omission is what they even do. If you ask, prepare for a struggle. But why? Wouldn’t it be better for your prospect to make a knowledgeable judgement? Opening with money is fruitless if there’s no specified number. It’s predominantly glittering generalities.

Suppose you engage this person reaching out to notify you about this magnificent opportunity. They just sent you a message online and you respond. The next question may be “are you ready to make more money?” Why yes I am, how much more? “Depends on how hard you work.” Work at doing what? “Selling our products.” Which is? “Let’s meet up to discuss more about this!” Woah! I find this very dishonest and devious. Glazing over an uncomplicated question like that shows they don’t care to answer it. But why? The only way I can think of is to using sunk-cost fallacy, in respects of time, against you (I’m already this far, let’s keep going anyways). You’ve also said ‘yes’ a few times as well, which heightens you inclination to say yes to more of their agenda. Used together, this can thread you into several challenging pitfalls. For argument sake, let’s say you push for answers. What you’ll get is haphazard half-truths. For example, what’s the name of your company? “xyz worldwide.” I check the website and it’s a WordPress template, and not even a nice one. Cause too much of a hassle and you risk being excommunicated. Again, why is an informed person not worthwhile?

So what’s the better angle? I would start with the company and product then move into finding commonalities. Questions should arise naturally, and I would resolve them as best I can. For those I can’t answer, I can take down their email and promise to get back to them with the answer they want. The effort is in keeping that promise, because breaking it is effortless and costly to your relationship with them. The last thing I would talk about is money. Why? Because once the money stops flowing the money motivated are motivated to leave. Why would you want someone who’s gone once things get hard and money dries up? Wouldn’t you want someone to stick around because they believe in the company and the product? I can tell you that the latter is the informed prospect. Why? How can you get passionate about something you know nothing about? You can be eager to learn, that’s different, but ignorance breeds ignorance. Look at social media if you’re skeptical.

All together my pitch would look something like this. “[you], this is [me] with [fitness mlm]. I see that you’re interested in fitness and I would like to discuss how what we do has changed the lives of many people like yourself. Before we go further I wanted to ask, have you always been into fitness? What type of supplements help you with your performance? Would you like to be part of changing people’s lives with fitness, meeting amazing people, and learning valuable life lessons?” It’s far from impeccable, but it’s better suited than the conventional angle. Not once have I specified money because it isn’t paramount to the grander vision. Money is used as a device to accomplish significant ambitions. In this example, aggregating wealth is insignificant to showing others a healthier life style and providing them with a community of support and using the products to accomplish their objectives.

I’ve seen many atrocious pitches and rarely see any outstanding ones. I write this article because of an awful one I’ve seen recently. A man walks into my place of work. We have a good conversation and we exchanged numbers. At the time I asked what he did. He evaded the topic. I asked if it was MLM, he dodged that topic too. We part ways and an hour later I take off work. I get home and prepare dinner and my phone buzzes, it’s him. He predominantly recaps our earlier conversation. I ask a few more times what he does, and to no surprise the topic is sidestepped. I get put on the line with another gentleman, who I can only assume is the closer, and we talk. He wants to meet at his office in an hour. Keep in mind, I haven’t eaten yet and am hungry. I’m also exhausted from laboring all day so naturally I decline. He kept pushing for it and finally I say okay. I had no intention of showing up, and since he won’t answer my questions, I wanted for him to provide me their address so I can look up everything. He sends me an address and ran a full internet search. My initial hunch of their disingenuousness was confirmed. The address belonged to a reality group in a small town. The first issue was that they have already closed a few hours ago. Glancing at the ‘about us’ page, I noticed that none of the people I’ve talked to have their names there. I call back to ask what their tittles were at the company and pushed for answers on what exactly they wanted from me. The man on the other line, sounding frustrated, said I was not a good fit and we ended the call.

It’s sad that many MLM’s I’ve experienced operate like this. There’s so much good that can happen if the right techniques are used. MLM and network marketing are some of the most cost efficient methods of marketing. Word of mouth is powerful enough to grow or destroy a company. The past example may have been a scam, but there’s many established MLM companies that do great things. My final piece of wisdom is to always ask questions. The less than legitimate operations want fools and rubes to take advantage of. The authentic firms want to educate and empower you. Always be open to new possibilities, but be skeptical of charlatans.

If you liked this, please give it an upvote. If you follow me, I’ll follow you back and I’ll keep the content flowing. Resteem to share this advice to others and encourage them to vet new opportunities thoroughly before investing time and money. Thank you for reading.