Anyone have experience with Multilevel Marketing (MLM)

[josayeee]

It's a scam within the means of the law.

[corollagtSr5]

Your basically paying them to sell out your friends and family. You pay a yearly subscription for their service/goods which you get to flip. I've been to the meetings and crap. The bread and butter is to sign more people up then to actually sell the product that their selling.

[iEatClams]

I had some semi-friends/acquantances that went into world financial group? or some other financial pyramid scheme, and yea, they turn into a totally different person and you lose them as friends.

It's tough to even tell them it's a scam but because they are balls deep into it, its like religion to them. They wont be talked out. I dont know how they did as I dont keep in touch with them anymore.

[trancehead]

ive witnessed countless acquantances and people i hung out with fall into this bullshit

at first, i tried convincing the few i knew that they were in a trap. we would get into heated debates, and eventually we would get no where other than our ties would be tarnished

so i figured, if they are not super close friends nor family, where strong bonds and connections hold: dont bother to try and convince them otherwise. Also, if it gets into your circles, stomp on this fire while it is small. call it out.

One fucker, called me 3 times on separate occassions asking me about this bullshit. I was way too nice at first. but by the third time, i told him to never bring this up again. Save your friends time and your own, tell them upfront no and no.

[Excelsis]

Depends what it is, and what company.

A lot of the time, people go into MLM thinking it's a get rich quick scheme so they then annoy all their friend and have them sign up..

It could be a good opportunity, could be not good.

But if you're going to get involved, expect that you won't get rich quick, you'll have to work it like a business (that is if what you're selling is actually a business and not a ponzi scheme), and yeah..

Spoiler!

inb4 someone makes a pyramid scheme joke with my avatar

[tiger_handheld]

I've been to two of these during my life time.

1st one when I was 18, about to finish highschool and buddy invites me to this opp. I go and I'm impressed but was hesitant to pull the trigger because I was cheap to pay the $75 membership fee to get my kit.

2nd was a year or so ago and my uncle took me to his house to meet his mentor. They did the intro's and presentation and I noticed most people they invited were in dead end jobs looking to get rich quick. During the prezzy they showed us copies of cheques for 40-50k made out to the mentors name to show that it was possible to make $$. They had a whole bunch of cheques ranging from 8k - 50k. They opened up the floor to questions and I was the only guy who asked questions - I only had two questions for the mentor:

1) What is your revenue mix? He didn't get it. So I elaborated, tell me how much of the 50k is because of the people under you and how much of it is because of product sales. We are selling products here aren't we?

2) What kind of distribution channel do you use to push your products? retail, wholesale, push to friends/family, buy on your own?

Buddy couldn't answer either of the questions.

My explanation back to him was, you are not able to tell me how much of your commission chq is due to you actually pushing product and you can't tell me how you push product. So the way you make money is by recruiting people under you (great!) but you have to show me how to sell otherwise I wont make money and I have no incentive to be your mentee and making a list of 15 names isn't going to help if I can't tell them what to do to make money ..just like you can't tell me right now.

Buddy then talked about the ability to write off gas, home office, etc, and being an accountant, I burned him on those too.


Never received a call after that.


There are some ways to make money doing this so you can show your mentees that it indeed is profitable and they can do the same as well, but it requires you to devote time and effort... something these MLM people don't seem to want to do.

[Ikkaku]

friend invited me to a christmas event for the so called company... they had a chant and they had a theme song. Definitely felt cult like when certain words prompted them to all say their tag-line.

The fact that only so many people can actually talk about their success, which are always the same people, show how prosperous these companies can be for all their 'partners'.

'We aren't trying to sell you the product... we just want to be business partners'

[Mr.HappySilp]

A friend invited me to these events lol. First they offer coffee and food which I ate happily and then we were seated and some ppl started talking about their success..... I took a nap at that time lol. When is over friend wasn't impress(I took a nap and sore pretty loudly too) so I told him the minute they started to explain how this business works I knew it was MLM and I have 0 interest in them. In fact napping is a better use of time then listening to their BS. I also warn them don't ever talk to me about these type of BS or get me to join anything otherwise I will never talk to them.

Funny thing is after 6 months into and paying the membership fees for both him and his gf he came back and said it was a waste of time and money.

[iEatClams]

^ man, this should be in the Freebies / Confessions of a frugal shopper Thread.

Go to said event,
eat said free food
leave. . . .

[blee123]

Isn't NuSkin really popular in terms of MLM these days? I see some people post business trip pics etc on their facebook......

anyone know of friends who are in it?

[Bahhbeehhaaaa]

OP Please read

I've joined one in the past and this will help you figure out if MLM fits your style of earning money.

MLM = Multi Level Marketing / pyramid scheme. NOT a get rich quick scheme.

Please keep in mind while you read through it. ( Do you have the quality to be up there?)

Pros:
-you can sit back and relax, watch money flush into your pockets. (When you get up there)
-you will develop a strong interpersonal/communicating skills.
-your persuasion skills will move up. (very important skill IMO)
-develop great leadership skills
-residual income

Cons
-you may lose friends.
-a ton of negativity (your family will tell you to find a proper job)
-pay a monthly fee consuming their products. (Ex- I was in a financial service company and had to buy Life Insurance) which i find normal because this it how the organization runs.
-low level staff earnings is very very low, You MUST build your team to go big.

some skills you should have already to become successful.
-strong networking with a ton of friends.
-a decent level of communication skills.

MLM is actually not bad if you do succeed. Most people joined and received a negative return thus trash talking MLMs.

Since you created this thread, your are interested in knowing more about it.
My advise to you is.. join it and work part time and keep your Monday to Friday work. If it doesn't work out? and

Cheers!

[bing]

Personally I hate how they sell you on the idea that your suddenly an entrepreneur after joining when you have no control over things like suppliers, distribution, brand, etc. I like to think of these people more as sales representatives. I know 2 girls in USANA right now and all they do is blast social media with inspirational quotes and do shameless plug advertising for the company's products.

[Verdasco]

its crazy to see how people change after joining these things..... it feels like they are in a different universe and all their personality has warped. They turn super super nice at every moment even when they are not talking about their MLM stuff!


I have a guy who is contacting me every 4 months or something to sign up for telus and other companies. I have been to one of those seminars (ACN?) the one donald trump holds. Dude is a legend in the MLM world. They paid 3 speakers say the most wonked up bogus story I have heard in my life! Waste of my 1 hour watching these idiots learn about this stupid scam. They even show the numbers on how much people make as well and it was peanuts

[wstce92]

a fool and their money part easy

[SkinnyPupp]

Originally Posted by Bahhbeehhaaaa

-you can sit back and relax, watch money flush into your pockets.

Is that what you're doing right now? You literally don't work anymore?

[J____]

mlm sales main product is the system itself. Your main focus would be to get more people under you so you do jack shit and get rich off them. The product can be horse shit as far as they're concerned, it's all about how many people you recruit, therefor the products are crap. you just buy shit to make the people above you rich, then you hire people below you to buy shit to make you rich. Such a scam in a sense that the product is actually useless and crap, hyped up by monkeys lying to themselves and others. Amway for example, is one of these BS schemes. If you can live with yourself that you are lying threw your teeth scamming people, sure you can get rich, but you can do that being a used car salesman if you wanted to, and probably be respected more...

[underscore]

Originally Posted by tiger_handheld

Buddy then talked about the ability to write off gas, home office, etc, and being an accountant, I burned him on those too.

As soon as they find out you know anything about accounting, they drop you like a hot coal. We humoured a friend of ours and went to one of these meetings and the second the guy found out my gf was an accountant the pitch instantly switched from trying to pull us in to asking us if we knew anyone that might be interested.

Originally Posted by Bahhbeehhaaaa

Do you have the quality to be up there?

Did you get that right from the brochure?

[SpartanAir]

Same here. Guy I barely know from Alberta calls me and wants me in on his business thing. He's in Alberta so he gets me to meet with his shady friend, who hands me a DVD that "explains it all" and tells me to call him "as soon as I'm done watching it".

It's the same old "get your friends on board and be your own boss" bullshit. What bothers me about these things is they get you to contact people you haven't talked to in long time because you've exhausted your immediate contacts, and of course those people don't want anything to do with you because you're clearly calling them just to get something from them.

If you put the same amount of effort into a legit business, I'm sure you could make more.

Edit: Yeah, it was ACN I think, the Donald Trump one. They never actually say how you make money, they just tell you what you can do with it once you get it. Such bullshit.

[toyobaru]

I hate these things. Its always the random ass friend/acquaintance from high school whom you've never talked to who suddenly "wants to catch up". If you can feel fine and sleep at night knowing the fact youre stepping on someone to get higher these jobs are fine. They all dress fancy and claim to make a lot of money but really are probably making minimum wage.

[GS8]

It's pretty fucked up how we all know that person or people who exhibit the same behaviour traits once they get sucked into that world. My ex-coworker recently added me to FB and he too has been putting nothing but motivational quotes / posters and spamming the 'company' he works for.

Side note: The product is for a Kangen water dispenser. Not only are its health benefits disputed but unit itself is a fuck ton of money. Not something you can simply sell to your blue collar buddies.

So now you have salespeople acting like medical professors (my ex co-worker included) who tell me the beneficial things about alkaline water. When he was talking, I asked questions that challenged the whole thing and he replied with cosmic bullshit using terms like 'most people don't know' or 'it's a huge secret'.

I mean I like the guy. Was great to work with and all but I think he too is showing off the 'symptoms' that some of you described with your friends / ex-friends. What is the psychology behind roping these people in? Mental weakness? Desperation? Obsession?

I was in retail for well over 10 years. The idea of forcing people to buy things did not warm me over

[multicartual]

Originally Posted by GS8

Side note: The product is for a Kangen water dispenser.

Oh man.

I allowed a friend to have a birthday party at my loft in Gastown and some of his friends showed up with a bunch of Kangen water to sell and all this other information to give out at the party. They spent the entire night trying to explain to people the benefits of the water and ended up not making a single sale. Meanwhile I made a ton of Bangbros, RK and Facefucking video sales that night while getting wasted and having fun!

I think those dudes were like 30 and living at home still.

[multicartual]

Originally Posted by GS8

What is the psychology behind roping these people in?

Some people want to belong anywhere, including feeling like they belong inside of a company. They will really convince themselves that their product helps make them a part of a unique club which is why these people get so offended if you challenge it, similar to religion, feminism, crazy diet fads, CrossFit, or when a pornstar says "I'm not a prostitute I'm an actress".


People naturally WANT to fit in somewhere, anywhere, so these sorts of organizations are born. One positive thing is you'll find that these groups are extremely diverse and everyone is pretty friendly with each other because, duh, everyone has the product and mentality in common.


Being a natural lone wolf or outcast such as myself, it was striking to me how much I didn't fit in when going to Amway and immediately when the Kangen water people start talking to me I can hear the group-speak in their voices, little alarm bells go off in my brain:


"These aren't people talking to me, this is a product or mindset speaking through these empty vessels."

[Excelsis]

Originally Posted by multicartual

Meanwhile I made a ton of Bangbros, RK and Facefucking video sales that night while getting wasted and having fun!

[nma]

I had some friends approach me with a similar strategy. It's a skin care product that is magical and heals almost everything (maybe even cancer). Despite knowing I had no interest, I went to the meeting to support my friends and I wasn't sold. No one really knew what the product was made from, even the guy who apparently has made millions from this has no idea. Their answers were mostly "I'm not a scientist, I'm a business man."

It's like going to a car dealership and asking about the vehicle.

"So, how many ponies does this one have?"

"Well sir, I sell cars, I don't make them.. Trust me, it's the best car."

Also, my biggest question was whether they were trying to sell me a product, or a business plan. They said both, however, the presentation was HEAVILY weighted towards selling me a business that would lead to me lying on the beach sippin on Corona. No one really knows what the fuck they are selling, all they know is that they want to be like the people on the poster (it's usually a group of 10-20 people who are rich).

I simply have a big problem selling a product/business that I know isn't legit to PEOPLE. GOOD LUCK trying to sell it to people, before you even get to the public you're going to have to scam all your friends and family.
You're also going to be targeting extended friends and family (your mom's friends, etc...). If shit goes wrong somewhere, and it probably will, there's a good chance you and your family will look like complete tools.
Not for me I guess...

[Bahhbeehhaaaa]

Originally Posted by SkinnyPupp

Is that what you're doing right now? You literally don't work anymore?

I was in one of of them, I wanted to understand how their system run.

Originally Posted by underscore

Did you get that right from the brochure?

No, I'm keeping an open mind to opportunities. But what if I did get it from the brochures? You too got information from your family and friends?. The most important point here is to gain experience and if things go well, stay, if not, get out!