Why Multi-Level Marketing Has a Bad Name
"Hey, I know your wife is out of town," A co-worker stopped by my desk. "My wife and I were thinking it would be a great idea to take you out for supper on Thursday. Are you up for it?"
I nodded my head yes. I was relatively new to the job and my wife was gone for the week. It would be nice to get to know a co-worker outside the walls of the office - or so I thought.
That Thursday night I drove to his house and he and his wife smiled and pointed to their car, and we took off for supper. What I wasn't told was that supper would be part of a multi-level sales program - and I no longer had a car with which to leave.
What I can say is the event stressed what had been a previously amiable friendship. I was pressured that night to participate in something if for no other reason than I might want to use the products. By joining I could access a discount. I didn't jump at the chance.
Maybe you've had something like this happen to you and you're not really sure how to feel about it. You may even be sold on the value of the products being pitched, but something about it smelled a bit like sun-baked tuna.
At the very best you need to understand that
multi-level marketing (MLM) is essentially a door-to-door sales job. You will be expected to sell the products to friends and neighbors as a courtesy to the individual who signed you up (they receive residual payments from everything you sell) and to access your own moneymaking potential from the products.
Imagine trying to hold a fully opened and flat parachute off the ground. You can't do it on your own so you ask a few friends to stand around the parachute circle and keep the fabric from touching the ground. At some point you get tired of holding the fabric and recruit someone else to go under the parachute and hold it up so you don't have as much work to do. Eventually everyone gets tired of the game and leave the fabric to fall to the ground - game over.
Maybe not the most original picture, but that's the cycle of
multi-level marketing programs. Those on the outside of the proverbial parachute make the most money, but they have to convince others to come alongside and hold up the parachute while they keep gaining the benefits associated with holding off a collapse. As long as they can keep new people climbing under the parachute they can continue to collect a paycheck. When the parachute finally falls (and it will) the money machine breaks.
Be aware that this type of work does not tell you it is
multi-level marketing, but pay attention and you'll see that you will need to sell something and there will be an inference that you will need to recruit others. This will be couched in concern for your welfare because they will want to ensure that you are as successful as they are, but if they can't keep it going they know they will be the ones to lose - and they may not be opposed to taking you with them when they fall.
Some practices adopted by those involved in
multi-level marketing are illegal. In fact, not just a 'slap on the wrist' illegal, but 'prison time and fines' illegal. The company itself will likely cover itself with legal maneuvers, but they will not generally come to the aid of a participant who was arrested for doing something they had no idea was illegal.
Not all
multi-level marketing opportunities are scams, but there are many scams in
multi-level marketing. Unless you are especially gifted in personal sales then you may wish to avoid MLM.
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