10 Lies of MLM Marketing - Proxy for Pyramid
and Ponzi Schemes
Here are the 10 BIGGEST lies of MLM Marketing
LIE #1. Better business opportunities
than all other conventional business and professional models
Truth: According to well proven facts
and the underlying mathematics, less than 1% of the people make sustainable
income from the MLM
business. For everyone else, this is a loss making opportunity.
Lie #2: Network marketing is the most popular and
effective new way to bring products. Consumers like to buy products on a
one-to-one basis in the MLM
model.
Truth: Personal
retailing -- including nearly all forms of door-to-door selling -- is a thing
of the past, not the wave of the future. Retailing directly to friends on a
one-to-one basis requires people to drastically change their buying habits.
They must restrict their choices, often pay more for goods, buy inconveniently,
and engage in potentially awkward business relationships with close friends and
relatives. In reality, MLM depends on
reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors.
Lie #3: Eventually all products will be sold by MLM.
Retail stores, shopping malls,
catalogs and most forms of advertising will soon be rendered obsolete by MLM.
catalogs and most forms of advertising will soon be rendered obsolete by MLM.
Its real products are distributorships that are sold through misrepresentation and exaggerated promises of income. People are buying products in order to secure positions on the sales pyramid. The possibility is always held out that you may become rich if not from your own efforts then from some unknown person ("the big fish") who might join your "downline."
The market dynamics are similar to those of legalized gambling, but the percentage of winners is much smaller.
Lie #4: MLM is a new way of life that offers happiness and fulfillment.
It provides a way to attain all the good things in life.
Truth: The most prominent motivational themes of the MLM industry, as shown in industry literature and presented at recruitment meetings, constitute the crassest form of materialism. Fortune 100 companies would blush at the excess of promises of wealth, luxury, and personal fulfillment put forth by MLM solicitors. Pictures of their team leaders next to BMW’s and Mercedes don’t mean they actually own them. You can also get a beautiful picture of yours next to Ferrari when you visit car parking of Star hotel in your town.
Lie #4: MLM is your way to freedom
Truth: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul isn’t way to freedom, but maybe a way to a prison. When the scheme goes bust eventually, you lose money, you lose friends and most importantly you lose confidence.
Lie #6: Success in MLM is easy. Friends and relatives are the natural prospects.
Those who love and support you will become your life-time customers.
Truth: The
commercialization of family and friendship and the use of "warm
leads" advocated in MLM marketing
programs are a destructive element in the community and very unhealthy for
individuals involved. People do not appreciate being pressured by friends and
relatives to buy products. Trying to capitalizing upon personal relationships
to build a business can destroy one's social foundation.
Lie #7: You can do MLM
in your spare time. As a business, it offers the greatest flexibility
and personal freedom of time. A few hours a week can earn a significant supplemental income
and may grow to a very large income, making other work unnecessary.
and personal freedom of time. A few hours a week can earn a significant supplemental income
and may grow to a very large income, making other work unnecessary.
Truth: Making money in
MLM requires extraordinary time commitment
as well as considerable personal skill and persistence. Beyond the sheer hard
work and talent required, the business model inherently consumes more areas of
one's life and greater segments of time than most occupations. In MLM,
everyone is a prospect. Every waking moment is a potential time for marketing.
There are no off-limit places, people, or times for selling. Consequently,
there is no free space or free time once a person enrolls in MLM
system. While claiming to offer independence, the system comes to dominate
people's entire life and requires rigid conformity to the program. This is why
so many people who become deeply involved end up needing and relying upon MLM
desperately. They alienate or abandon other sustaining relationships.
Lie #8. MLM is a positive, supportive new business that
affirms the human spirit and personal freedom.
affirms the human spirit and personal freedom.
Truth: MLM
is largely fear-driven. Many occupations are routinely demeaned for not
offering "unlimited income" Working for others is cast as enslavement
for "losers." MLM is presented as
the last best hope for many people. This approach, in addition to being
deceptive, frequently discourages people who otherwise would pursue their own
unique visions of success and happiness. A sound business opportunity does not
have to base its worth on negative predictions and warnings.
Lie #9. MLM
is the best option for owning your own business and attaining real economic
independence.
Truth: MLM
is not true self-employment. "Owning" an MLM
distributorship is an illusion. Most MLM
contracts make termination of the distributorship easy and immediate for the
company. Short of termination, downlines can be taken away arbitrarily.
Participation requires rigid adherence to a "duplication" model, not
independence and individuality. MLM
distributors are not entrepreneurs but joiners in a complex hierarchical system
over which they have little control.
Lie #10: MLM is not a pyramid scheme because products are sold.
Truth: Though sale of
products is legal under Money Circulation Scheme, buying products whose value
has been inflated makes it barely legal. The schemes are pseudo pyramid schemes
and