MLM in your face?

[nate124]

I tried ACN in the past.... didn't work. Too expensive for reps to sign up ($499) and with phone rates so cheap, and getting cheaper, there's just no business there.

I do drink juice from Mona Vie now. A friend is involved with that company, and the juice is actually good stuff...

I have no interest in constantly recruiting for the rest of my life though. Recruiting in any business sucks.... but sucks more in MLM.

 

[benhhill]

Your video made my day.

mmike160,

Man, that's cold. I hope you kept his address.

Send them this: "my first MLMgoldmine video (worst ever)." You can find it at URL: YouTube - my first MLMgoldmine video (worst ever)

This is touted as the worse MLM presentation ever.

 

[on1sony]

Misrepresentations

The naked truth

A great “income opportunity,” with huge incomes reported for many.
Nearly all new recruits lose money. A few at the top of a pyramid of participants are enriched at the expense of the many downline participants, at least 99% of whom lose money.
Everyone can do this and earn a good income.Holding up top earners as examples of what others can do is deceptive. It is unfair to sell tickets when—for nearly everyone—the ship has left the port."Average earnings" statements on official reports may make MLM's appear highly profitable.Such reports are full of deceptions.Products can purchased wholesale and be resold at retail prices for a handsome profit.The actual retail market is likely to be small. Products are high-priced and sold primarily to recruits rather than to consumers who are outside of the distributor network. This is a legitimate business—not a pyramid schemeProduct-based schemes are the most extreme type of pyramid scheme, with the highest loss rates approximately 99.9%— far worse than most games of chance in casinos.Work for only an hour or two a day, and build up a "residual income" that will allow you the "time freedom" to quit your job and spend more time with your family or do whatever you want.Recruiting MLMs are multi-level marketing programs that reward aggressive recruitment far more than direct sales of products to legitimate customers. To profit in a recruiting MLM, one must work long hours and be willing to continue to recruit to replace dropouts. One must also be willing to deceive large numbers of recruits into believing it is a legitimate income opportunity. Recruits primarily fatten upline commissions.The job market is not secure. The stock market is even shakier. MLM offers a much more secure and permanent (residual) income.Quite the contrary. MLM is far more risky than either the stock market or the job market. It even makes gambling look like a safe investment by comparison. Very few recruits will sell enough to generate residual income. Standard jobs are not rewarded fairly. In MLM, you can set your own standard for earnings.Fair? Most MLM compensation plans are weighted heavily towards those who got in early or who frantically scrambled to the top of a pyramid of participants.If not legal, the program would have been shut down long ago. MLM's have survived legal challenges. The fact that they are still around tells you they are legitimate.Consumer protection officials are reactive, not proactive. Since victims rarely file complaints, law enforcement seldom acts against even the worst schemes. Victims don't complain because they blame themselves, and they fear self-incrimination or consequences from or to their upline or downline.If you fail at this program, it is because you failed to properly "work the system."The system itself is inherently flawed, requiring an endless chain recruitment of participants as primary customers. The vast majority will always lose money.In any business, one must invest time and money to be successful. Committed MLM participants may continue investing thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars, over many years before running out of money or giving up. The more invested, the greater the loss, unless you are willing to deceive enough people to rise to the top of a pyramid of victims. In legitimate companies, salespeople are not expected to stock up on inventory or subscribe to monthly purchases. But in recruiting MLM's, incentivized purchases (required to participate in commissions and/or advancement) usually turn out to be disguised or laundered investments in a pyramid scheme.MLM is the wave of the future. In fact, ours is experiencing phenomenal world-wide growth. So get in on the ground floor of this great opportunity.MLM'rs have been saying this for twenty years, but MLM still accounts for less than 1/2 of 1% of consumer purchases—even though MLM companies have numbered in the thousands. MLM's come and go, as do new recruits, 99.9% of whom drop out. Long-term MLM growth is a myth.Saturation never happens. Turnover, as in any business, is a reality that assures an ample supply of available prospects.With few real customers, MLM products are sold by recruiting a revolving door of new “distributors” who buy products to “do the business.” And since people perceive the opportunity as dwindling with each new “distributor,” market saturation requires promoters to recruit elsewhere. So MLM’s quickly evolve into Ponzi schemes that require new markets and/or new product divisions to repay earlier investors. It’s not turnover, but continuous churning of new recruits to replace dropoutsThe demand for these MLM products is growing at a rapid rate. They literally sell themselves.
The sale of products is distributor-driven, not market driven. Most products are sold to new participants to get in on this “ground floor opportunity.”
It takes time to build any business. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme, but a "get-rich-slow" program. Don’t expect instant success.
Promoters tell recruits that their programs as a business, but defend it to authorities as a direct selling opportunity. However, in legitimate direct sales programs, salespeople earn commissions right away and don’t have to wait months or years for them to exceed expenses.
Take advantage of momentum and windows of opportunity. This kind of appeal has been used for twenty years. In any endless chain scheme, the momentum cannot continue indefinitely, leaving those who come in later in a loss position.
In this new (MLM) program, you can be the master of your destiny. You will be a slave to the phone, to meeting the qualifications for commissions and bonuses, and to continual pressure to recruit new participants to replace dropouts. You will also be caught in a money trap of hyper-consumption.
Unlike franchises, business startups, or sales of existing businesses, you can start an MLM business with very little capital.
MLM’s typically urge new recruits to buy products on a subscription basis, invest in sales materials, and pay for ongoing training until they run out of money or give up.
The fear of losing potential income by not recruiting aggressively is a great motivator.If participants understood what was happening to them, they would fear accumulating further losses by continuing to invest in the MLM.
You will belong to a great support team. In MLM, you have a whole network of people willing to help you succeed and be your friends.Some MLMs operate like a cult with an us vs. them mentality. Watch how quickly the team ostracizes you if you quit or discover contrary information about the legitimacy of the program.
You will be offering people you care about the very best products available for promoting their health and well being.
No matter how high the quality of the products, investment in products for which you do not have orders in hand is the hallmark of a product-based pyramid scheme.
Our products are unique and consumable—perfect for repeat business.
MLM products are typically potions and lotions. Their purported uniqueness is an attempt to conceal the fact that they are priced too high to compete in standard markets.
Products are less expensive through MLM because you cut out the middleman.
MLM creates thousands of middlemen, with few real customers outside a bloated network of distributors, agents, consultants, and demonstrators, The products are typically expensive and not priced competitively.
Build your business by duplication. Buy five of these business in a box packages now, sell them to five people, and ask each to do the same, etc. Be a product of the products by signing up for monthly shipment of these items. Soon you will be reaping huge commission checks.
This is how recruiting MLMs earn fortunes for their top recruiters. Commissions from initial and ongoing purchases by new distributors (in hopes of profiting) is the life blood of their business. The promised rewards never come, except to those who recruit their way to the top of a pyramid of participants. Take away inducements for participant purchases and these companies would collapse like a house of cards.
Our tools for success are unbeatable. Sign up for our seminars and conferences, and buy our books and tapes to assure your success in this business.
In at least one major MLM, the tools business is a pyramid within a pyramid. Hardly anyone makes money selling products, so a lucrative source of income for those at the top is the sale of success tools to supposedly assure the success of their downline – who are in fact only further victimized when they buy these motivational items.
MLM is like insurance, investing, inventing, acting, and writing in that hard work at the outset yields residual income for the rest of your life. This is done be leveraging the efforts of your downline. So you can retire early, travel, etc.
MLM is more like gambling than legitimate residual income. It appeals to the something for nothing mentality. MLM addiction has been observed in some true believers. The large residual incomes reported are more the result of time of entry and willingness to deceive prospective recruits than of payoff for hard work. To succeed in MLM, one must leverage one’s deceptive recruiting through others who can be persuaded to do the same..
Some very reputable people are involved in MLM.This credibility argument is used with many scams. Notables can be bought.Some MLM companies invest in very worthy (and visible) causes. The mafia supported local charities. If a bank robber donates some of his take to charity, does that excuse the robbery?
You will be helping your friends and family by recruiting them into your downline.
For potential personal gain, you would be exploiting those you care about the most. In other words you would be squandering your social capital.

 

[bobson]

Yadda, yadda, yadda

What did you say?

 

[on1sony]

hehehe :P

 

[TimLett]

I am going to respond to your post, but needed to eliminate some of it and separate it into two replies so that I can come in under the 10k character rule.

First of all: Dude, who abused and hurt you as a child? There are two things really wrong here. First, that you spent all of this time writing this mess. Second, that I felt the need to waste all of this time responding to it. But, somebody's got to pull you down from the bridge before you jump.

Nearly all new recruits lose money. A few at the top of a pyramid of participants are enriched at the expense of the many downline participants, at least 99% of whom lose money.

Sounds like the 99% of the insurance agents who drop out in the 1st 6 months. You have described every business in the nation. If you have a problem with capitalism, I suggest you consider another country of residence.

Holding up top earners as examples of what others can do is deceptive.

Doesn't every sales company do this? Come on.

It is unfair to sell tickets when—for nearly everyone—the ship has left the port.

You must be assuming that the human race is not replenishing itself and that the cycle of life is not turning.

Work for only an hour or two a day, and build up a "residual income" that will allow you the "time freedom" to quit your job and spend more time with your family or do whatever you want.

Anybody that sells a 1-hr or 2-hr work day is a crook. Anybody that buys it is an ***.

To profit in a recruiting MLM, one must work long hours and be willing to continue to recruit to replace dropouts.

Not true. If one recruits only those who "need" to be there, one will minimize dropouts. Just like insurance, if you sell the right product to the right people and do it right the first time, you will minimize chargebacks and churns. Obviously, you don't know business.

One must also be willing to deceive large numbers of recruits into believing it is a legitimate income opportunity.

Sounds like you have a guilty conscience from past deception and have turned into a zealot.

Recruits primarily fatten upline commissions.

Ummmm. Just like customers (recruits) fatten WalMart's bottom line profits. Dude, you seem to have a problem with capitalism, as a whole.

The job market is not secure.

Have you looked around lately. You can't call customer service without talking to Poonjab.

The stock market is even shakier.

Ok, if its not so shaky, how much of your assets do you have in the market???

MLM offers a much more secure and permanent (residual) income. Quite the contrary. MLM is far more risky than either the stock market or the job market. It even makes gambling look like a safe investment by comparison.

And you are going into insurance? Uh-huh. You are are criticizing that which you deem shaky and going into an industry where over 90% fail....and quickly. MLM is only risky if you put all of your eggs in one basket and get into it for the wrong reason, which would be GRQ (get rich quick).

Very few recruits will sell enough to generate residual income.

Some recruits get in for personal use with a huge discount. When my wife sold Mary Kay, she had dozens of recruits who were exclusively "personal use" consultants. No pressure to sell. That is why its called "networking". Networking is not a 4-letter dirty word. How do you think you sell insurance? You network.

In MLM, you can set your own standard for earnings.

In any non-salaried job, you can do this. So what!!!

Most MLM compensation plans are weighted heavily towards those who got in early or who frantically scrambled to the top of a pyramid of participants.

Just like any other business. The one who came up with it is going to make the most money. Early bird gets the worm. Again, your problem is with capitalism.

If you fail at this program, it is because you failed to properly "work the system."

And that is exactly why most insurance sales reps fail. As humans, we tend to want to re-invent the wheel...putting our own design on something that is not really our own. A true recipe for failure. The worst I have ever done in insurance is when I tried to replace a good success formula with my own flawed plan.

The system itself is inherently flawed, requiring an endless chain recruitment of participants as primary customers.

So, I guess WalMart is flawed. It requires an endless chain of recruiting customers because old customers eventually die. You have done nothing more than describe the business-client life cycle. Buddy, the survey is in and its true...one-in-one will die and will need to be replaced.

The vast majority will always lose money. In any business, one must invest time and money to be successful.

Well, duh....Sherlock. Master of the Obvious, here. Yes, one must invest time and money. We all do it every day. And those who lose money probably did not do it right. Either that, or they tried to fit themselves into a place that was not right for them.

Committed MLM participants may continue investing thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars, over many years before running out of money or giving up.

At $10's of thousands...you better get out. You are in the wrong deal. See the above comment.

The more invested, the greater the loss, unless you are willing to deceive enough people to rise to the top of a pyramid of victims.

Wrong. The greater the risk, the greater the reward. Who says you have to deceive to be successful. Again, sounds like you have either a guilty conscience or have been screwed by someone close to you.

 

[TimLett]

MLM is the wave of the future. MLM'rs have been saying this for twenty years, but MLM still accounts for less than 1/2 of 1% of consumer purchases — even though MLM companies have numbered in the thousands. MLM's come and go, as do new recruits, 99.9% of whom drop out.

Yes, MLM's come and go. The same is true in other businesses. I remember when Lay's Department Store was huge. I remember when KMart was the behemoth and nobody saw WalMart coming. So, what's your point??? Bottom line, you just have an ax to grind...and it's a weak ax, no matter how you "chop" it.

Long-term MLM growth is a myth. Saturation never happens. Turnover, as in any business, is a reality that assures an ample supply of available prospects.

MLM growth is not a myth. Even though it is hated in much of the world, I know of Amway groups that are more active than ever before. And you are right, even though you intended it as sarcasm. Saturation never happens because we keep on reproducing. I remember my first sales job at a piano/music company. Every time we had a huge sales thrust and sold dozens of pianos, we said to each other, "Dang...we must have sold everybody in Birmingham a piano...I bet we'll be dead as a hammer for the next three months." Guess what. We sold pianos the very next day. Why? Because the cycle of life keeps on reproducing itself and people move into new seasons in their lives to where they are ready for certain things. Not only do you not know business, you don't know life. Sad.

It takes time to build any business. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme, but a "get-rich-slow" program. Don’t expect instant success. Promoters tell recruits that their programs as a business, but defend it to authorities as a direct selling opportunity. However, in legitimate direct sales programs, salespeople earn commissions right away and don’t have to wait months or years for them to exceed expenses.

Again, anybody that buys into GRQ is an ***. However, that does not make all MLM's to be illegitimate. And by the way, in some MLM's, you do earn commissions right away. Quit being so bitter and open your eyes.

In any endless chain scheme, the momentum cannot continue indefinitely, leaving those who come in later in a loss position.

No. It leaves them with a greater opportunity to step up to the plate and be leaders and take the product to a new generation. That, my friend, is a winner's mentality and the attitude of a leader.

The fear of losing potential income by not recruiting aggressively is a great motivator.

Going broke is a pretty good motivator. Even though I despise NAA, I do remember this pretty good story from one of their conventions. One of the national managers was on-stage being interviewed. Albright asked him, "So, what book do you read to stay motivated?" Without hesitation he answered, "My checkbook." Good answer, I thought.

You will be offering people you care about the very best products available for promoting their health and well being.

So, if you believe it in your heart, what's the problem? The problem comes in when people don't believe in a product and do it just to GRQ.

The promised rewards never come, except to those who recruit their way to the top of a pyramid of participants.

Hmmmmm.....rewards don't come, except to those who work their way to the top. Sounds right to me.

MLM is like insurance, investing, inventing, acting, and writing in that hard work at the outset yields residual income for the rest of your life. This is done be leveraging the efforts of your downline. So you can retire early, travel, etc.

Uh huh. Again, what's your point. Listen...its called capitalism. How many times do I have to say it.

MLM is more like gambling than legitimate residual income. It appeals to the something for nothing mentality.

My goodness, insurance is like gambling. One party is betting that the insured won't die within a certain time period while the other party is betting that the insured will die within a certain time period. Furthermore, buying leads is gambling. I have bought a pack of 50 with no results.

MLM addiction has been observed in some true believers.

Again, your point is......???

The large residual incomes reported are more the result of time of entry and willingness to deceive prospective recruits than of payoff for hard work. To succeed in MLM, one must leverage one’s deceptive recruiting through others who can be persuaded to do the same..

Time of entry, yes. Deception, no. Furthermore, why shouldn't founders and early risk-takers earn more money??? You are simply jealous that you haven't fallen into that category. Sounds to me like you have desired that illusive "something for nothing". Large incomes are the result of work. You are automatically making an unqualified judgment call that all MLM success stories are acquired from deception. Its nice to know that we now have "god" on the forum.

Some very reputable people are involved in MLM. This credibility argument is used with many scams. You will be helping your friends and family by recruiting them into your downline. For potential personal gain, you would be exploiting those you care about the most. In other words you would be squandering your social capital.

Yes, some reputable folks are involved in MLM's. If you don't believe them...then stay away. If you do believe them and if you do believe in the product...then go for it. Exploit no-one. Share when you feel its appropriate. There is no need to recruit everybody and their brother. Furthermore, if you refer a friend and that friend turns on you if things go badly, they probably were not a friend to begin with.

For the record, my wife is in MonaVie. She is in it because she loves the stuff and has realized benefits from its consumption. More power to her!!! Our chiropractor attached himself to the product because of its de-tox properties and because the "active" version contains Glucosamine, which can help with bone & joint issues. Without deception, he made over $30k in 2007. I still say, "More power to him!!!"

He saw something.
Investigated it.
Believed in it.
Put it into play.
Benefited from it.

What a wonderful cycle.

Now, quit being bitter and go do something productive.

 

[Soaringagent]

It happens to me all the time. I'm happy in the insurance business and don't want to sell anything else. There are lots of insurance products to sell.

 

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

Nice touch, having a picture of mom and dad in the left corner of the shot.

 

[on1sony]

@ TIM

Monavie is the biggest scam. Do you know there is a new JUICE MLM coming out everyday? They all have patents and amazing benefits to your body just like Monavie. (but the statements are not evaluated by the fda)
I just went to costco and bought a huge bag of frozen natural blueberrys and rasberries to make my smoothies every morning for 5-7 bucks. I think that beats buying a bottle of your magic potion for 60 bucks. For the amount of time your wife is using scaming people and selling the dream, she could be doing something alot more productive. (and honest!)

just my .02

Check out univera! Univera® it has double the ORACs then monavie! Your wife better switch over now.