Gullible MLM junkies. SOS

[AllenCrawley]

He lost all credibility to me when he said scAmway has produced the second highest number of Multimillionaires in history- second to ONLY Microsoft, which achieved this through stocks.

Funny. I've heard this as well many times.

Interesting article:
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2013/11/mlm-mythbusting-no-mlm-did-not-create.html

 

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[GuestUser113]

This is probably what bothers me the most about MLM's. All show and no dough...the "I am better than you" attitude.

Remember that random person who messaged me on FB to sell me his Amway "opportunity"? Since he's my age, I wanted to help him out and give him detailed facts as to why his business isn't viable. He's been in Amway for many years so as expected, he had very clever rebuttals for each statement that I had. I could've responded to those rebuttals, but there really is no point in trying to convince somebody who's been in scAmway for many years. He probably wouldn't hear me out and just get offended anyway.

Then he started to position himself as though he holds such enormous value to the world. He said, "Gosh, where do you get your facts? I was actually planning to ask you if you wanted to grab some coffee, but you've lost all credibility to me. SMH"

He lost all credibility to me when he said scAmway has produced the second highest number of Multimillionaires in history- second to ONLY Microsoft, which achieved this through stocks. Ask any drone for verifiable proof of that and they won't have an answer. They just blindly accept what they're told...because obviously the guys at the top would never tell a lie.

I am very thankful that my parents taught me this; "If it is too good to be true, then it probably is."

 

[Choate]

I am a recent college graduate and am getting a number of offers from different companies and would like an outsider's perspective on the general circumstances surrounding these companies.

Generally, they describe themselves as "sales and marketing solutions" for Fortune 500 and 100 companies. The jobs entail door to door sales (the one that actually offered me a job after 2 interviews was selling Verizon Fios door to door).

The problem I have with this is I know even if I make $100 on a Verizon FiOS sale, my manager and their manager are making probably a decent chunk of that as well as all of the residual income from the sale. The job is 100% commission and you only get minimum wage ($8/hr) if you fail to make sales.

The other offer I'm getting is typically from insurance companies. I find it shady that the same type of companies are aggressively reaching out to me to set up interviews and get me working so quickly, when I've only been out of college for a week. These direct marketing and sales solution companies generally have bad employee reviews online, but since its direct, I'm not sure if its because people can't do sales or if it really is a terrible gig.

I appreciate any opinion as to whether it would be worth working for a company like this. I'm trying to gauge whether it will be worth it because I feel like I will be 1) good at sales but 2) I have a lot of student loans to pay back. This may not be for me. Thoughts?

 

[RHL]

I appreciate any opinion as to whether it would be worth working for a company like this. I'm trying to gauge whether it will be worth it because I feel like I will be 1) good at sales but 2) I have a lot of student loans to pay back. This may not be for me. Thoughts?

I would only consider a job for the purpose of "learning sales" if the company was doing direct B2B sales to the big dogs, and you'd be working in concert with vets whose skills could rub off on you. You can't learn to close deals like that as well on your own.

But door to door? Telemarketing to the public? Screw that if you're looking for education. Sell Verizon's $200/mo FIOS packages, you'll make $25 per sale commission. Get one meaty flip on a Canon Xd DSLR, top-end electric guitar, or pair of ltd edition Nikes and you'll make as much in 35 minutes as you do in 48 hours working for them, and you'll learn sales just as well.

 

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[LIkeafox]

I thought I'd share this. Last night at my job a man that could be best described as probably homeless approached me and asked if he could charge his cell phone. I was feeling generous so I said sure and went back to work. He's lingering around where I'm working and his phone is charging and I notice he has an advertisement printed on the back of the coat his wearing. I'm curious because I've never seen a homeless person working as a billboard in this fashion before. It says something like, make $300-500 a day, 18+, interview today, start tomorrow, phone number. At first I thought this was some bizarre attempt at get women to escort, but then he caught me looking and asked if I'd like to make more money than I make where I work and he could get me hooked up.

I told him no and that ended the conversation immediately. I wanted to add--seriously dude, you smell kind of like urine, you have a welfare flip phone and you think that I'm going to believe you're making a few thousand dollars a week with this amazing opportunity?

I guess it's good that he's trying to improve himself or something.

 

[vinisterz]

the problem with MLM is that family members and friends are the first ones they target with the "make a list of people you know" in this mlm programs.

my mother got lured into amway.
my sister got into nuskin.
my brother in law got into acn and tried hard to lure me and other brother in law in but I know better not to get involved.
my neighbor is in WFG financial / insurance MLM, he's been asking as well though from the start I told thanks but no thanks.
my friend was lured into nuskin by a member of her church and apparently a lot of the church goers got in as well.

 

[MyronGainz]

Met the owner of a successful MLM recently. this guy came in a black Rolls Royce Phantom with a license plate that said "Easymoni" (which made no sense to me until I found out he's in the MLM game...marketing expense never looked so luxurious )

The second I heard that, I said to him "You know what...your the man. Why? Because you didn't take part it in one.. your started your own. Whole nother game your in."

Guy looks at me for a second, clear that he'd never heard anyone actually say that to him, leans in, smiles and quietly says "....I want to sit on the throne, not help other guys lift it"

On that note...
I feel I have to commend @MJ DeMarco for putting critical knowledge in so many peoples lives, don't know how long it would've taken me to figure it all out if you didn't lay out the fastlane path. Sincere Thanks, if there is anything..I mean anything.. just a message away

P.s. Jealous that this guy got to write off his Rolls as a marketing expense...gotta start doing my research lol

CRA will come after him for that. Guaranteed (ex-auditor here)

 

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[SarahSH]

Funny. I've heard this as well many times.

Interesting article:
http://amlmskeptic.blogspot.com/2013/11/mlm-mythbusting-no-mlm-did-not-create.html

Thanks for the article link. It always seems so hard to find good critical thinking types of articles about anything MLM or the products they push. In my experience, stay at home moms and church goers seem to be victims of these types of scams. Recently I was contacted via Facebook by someone from my old church where I used to live. She knew I had just had a baby and is now pushing some sort of stomach wrapping product for weight loss??? Not sure how that would actually work since it doesn't affect the amount of calories one consumes.

Anyway, The pitch after asking about my baby was: I am looking to help people with their health goals...you are on my list today. What are some of your goals?

I knew from other posts she had made about the MLM wrap thing so I said I was working on getting more sleep

And she came back with some other product recommendation that she heard "works great for improving sleep quality and memory"

Ugh! It kind of makes you feel...oh, I don't know....used.... When someone you thought you were friends with contacts you just to pitch a product. It has happened twice with two different people. It also makes me wonder who is a real friend and who just views me as a business opportunity. Hmmm .

Since I have moved to a new area, I am thinking of posing the disclaimer of no MLM participation right up front just so people know where I stand and if they want to be friends sans MLM, then cool....if not, that is fine too.

I have participated in 2 MLMs. The first one, I didn't know any better, the second one, I actually liked the products and did it for the "discount" until I had all the products I wanted. Alas, never again will I join one, especially after reading MJs book....what a breath of fresh air!

I didn't know what to say back to her in response to her pitch....don't want to be a jerk but am thinking of telling her about the book

 

[jon.a]

Thanks for the article link. It always seems so hard to find good critical thinking types of articles about anything MLM or the products they push. In my experience, stay at home moms and church goers seem to be victims of these types of scams. Recently I was contacted via Facebook by someone from my old church where I used to live. She knew I had just had a baby and is now pushing some sort of stomach wrapping product for weight loss??? Not sure how that would actually work since it doesn't affect the amount of calories one consumes.

Anyway, The pitch after asking about my baby was: I am looking to help people with their health goals...you are on my list today. What are some of your goals?

I knew from other posts she had made about the MLM wrap thing so I said I was working on getting more sleep

And she came back with some other product recommendation that she heard "works great for improving sleep quality and memory"

Ugh! It kind of makes you feel...oh, I don't know....used.... When someone you thought you were friends with contacts you just to pitch a product. It has happened twice with two different people. It also makes me wonder who is a real friend and who just views me as a business opportunity. Hmmm .

Since I have moved to a new area, I am thinking of posing the disclaimer of no MLM participation right up front just so people know where I stand and if they want to be friends sans MLM, then cool....if not, that is fine too.

I have participated in 2 MLMs. The first one, I didn't know any better, the second one, I actually liked the products and did it for the "discount" until I had all the products I wanted. Alas, never again will I join one, especially after reading MJs book....what a breath of fresh air!

I didn't know what to say back to her in response to her pitch....don't want to be a jerk but am thinking of telling her about the book

1. Consider yourself lucky, with your experience you saw the pitch coming and could choose not to swing at it.
2. She has a need. She's looking and trying (she doesn't know much better yet). Not telling her about the book might make you more of a jerk.

 

[DaRK9]

Thanks for the article link. It always seems so hard to find good critical thinking types of articles about anything MLM or the products they push. In my experience, stay at home moms and church goers seem to be victims of these types of scams. Recently I was contacted via Facebook by someone from my old church where I used to live. She knew I had just had a baby and is now pushing some sort of stomach wrapping product for weight loss??? Not sure how that would actually work since it doesn't affect the amount of calories one consumes.

Anyway, The pitch after asking about my baby was: I am looking to help people with their health goals...you are on my list today. What are some of your goals?

I knew from other posts she had made about the MLM wrap thing so I said I was working on getting more sleep

And she came back with some other product recommendation that she heard "works great for improving sleep quality and memory"

Ugh! It kind of makes you feel...oh, I don't know....used.... When someone you thought you were friends with contacts you just to pitch a product. It has happened twice with two different people. It also makes me wonder who is a real friend and who just views me as a business opportunity. Hmmm .

Since I have moved to a new area, I am thinking of posing the disclaimer of no MLM participation right up front just so people know where I stand and if they want to be friends sans MLM, then cool....if not, that is fine too.

I have participated in 2 MLMs. The first one, I didn't know any better, the second one, I actually liked the products and did it for the "discount" until I had all the products I wanted. Alas, never again will I join one, especially after reading MJs book....what a breath of fresh air!

I didn't know what to say back to her in response to her pitch....don't want to be a jerk but am thinking of telling her about the book

My cousin just got into the stupid MLM wrap thing. Had to unfollow her on FB, the ads were cluttering everything up.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

The thing is ...

MLM clouds the PUSH/PULL relationship...

Is you friend really telling you about this great product from the depths of his heart? Or because he's getting paid for it? And wants to get rich off your efforts? Bottomline, MLM crap is a PUSH and those involved try to conceal the PUSH and make it appear it's really a PULL. This is why you never hear about a product until later. This is why you never hear about it from someone NOT involved.

Many MLMs actually do offer great products, they're just overpriced. And then of course, many MLMs offer shitty products which is massaged away by the prospects of getting rich. Ultimately, the MLM becomes a PUSH for PUSH. And that's why so many people hate it. And why so many friendships have been destroyed.

 

[jazb]

When are trying to sell, you convey a logical and an emotional case. to sell/persuade at the highest level, you must be able to pull off both; a logical AND an emotional reason for the client to buy. its how the boiler rooms did it.

Business is all logic, but sadly, you cannot sell on logic alone. its basically leaves your client saying ''let me think about it''.

when someone is only selling you on emotion, chances are its a scam....because there is no logic behind it !!!
if they talk about the dream constantly....just turn your brain off and wait for the logical reason as to why you should buy. they won't give any.

 

[Silverhawk851]

CRA will come after him for that. Guaranteed (ex-auditor here)

I think they might already have... Lol

 

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[Rawr]

Walking over to my neighbor housewife with a smile on my face to "practice my Cutco knives sales pitch." I am 19 and my parents are dumb and don't know anything.

I arrive freshly dressed and showered and show the nice lady how quality the knives are. She is impressed.

I ask her if she wants to buy the $595 set.

For some unbeknownst reason she declines this opportunity. Apparently she doesn't get the value.

After a lot of effort, I manage to cut a penny with a pair of Cutco scissors. It takes me a lot of work and I have to position myself carefully in her kitchen as to not to maim her or myself in the process.

Even with the vanquished copper pieces in front of her, the housewife insists she doesn't want to spring for the better value $395 package.

Confused, I ask her if she wanted any knives at all. She points out that maybe one, until I point out the price in the handy sales brochure.

She tells me my "practice pitch" went well. As I walk out the door, I wonder if she didn't realize she was supposed to be helping build my funnel.

 

[Mattie]

It's interesting back in February someone came to me for advice about this topic. I told him basically it was the wrong avenue. Received a bad customer rating for it, because he went to another life coach, and they told him do it. lol

I just let it go, because I figured it was his lesson to learn. People don't want to hear the truth. I've seen to many people get hooked in it, and they end up just dropping out and wasted there time and money. Stuck with seminar junk, product, and didn't really do much other than get frustrated.

 

[sambreaker20]

Honestly I am eternally grateful to have been apart of Amway and they actually had excellent products and awesome people. Only problem was everyone else also had heard of Amway lol no matter how good the company was once they google search Amway scam they were gone. Obviously made no money and got out. I know a guy that was at the "platinum" level that got out and at that level you were suppose to be making 3-4k/month. His reason was, not making any money. Now he took the skills he learned from Amway applied it to insurance and supposedly making 10-20k/month now


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[SarahSH]

Here is a pretty good article I just read about why the MLM structure is doomed to fail. This guy goes into detail on the economics behind why MLM is not a viable business model. It might be a good resource to point your MLM inclined friends toward if they are seeking advice from you on their business opportunity. There are a whole bunch of other anti-MLM resources listed at the bottom of the article as well...enough to keep someone busy for awhile. h

 

[RHL]

Bumping because a very distant acquaintance that I just saw at a wedding for the first time in 6 years just Facebook DM'ed me a small novel about how ACN would be "a great opportunity for me since I'm now between jobs"

MFW:

 

[Feek]

Bumping because a very distant acquaintance that I just saw at a wedding for the first time in 6 years just Facebook DM'ed me a small novel about how ACN would be "a great opportunity for me since I'm now between jobs"

Talk about a flashback, I did ACN a few years ago and found it didn't have much to offer. About the only thing I got was laid by my upstream agent.

ACN is a company that has little ethics and no understanding of social norms. It's either that or they just don't care. I was in my mid-30s at the time, and I was told multiple times to look up former high school classmates on Facebook to pitch to them. When I told them that I neither kept in touch with my classmates nor liked them very much when I actually was in high school, I got a guilt trip and then a hard sell to just go ahead and do it.

ACN doesn't sell a product, only an MLM. What I mean by that is that they don't care how much product you move, as long as you get people to sign up underneath you. In fact, the commissions on the product didn't even hold a candle to the returns of signing people below you. Of course, you needed many multiples of thousands of downstream people to be making even a modest income, so imagine the return on the product!

Bottom line - ACN sucks, MLMs suck. At least you get to meet a lot of high energy people.

 

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[GrensonMan]

I have a hilarious story about ACN.

2 years ago a buddy and I were at work and he showed me the facebook of a really pretty Asian girl he knew randomly (ACN seems to prey on asians). I was feeling ballsy so I messaged her and was like "Oh hey so and so! I'm so sorry I forgot to get your number last night at the club but it was amazing meeting you. We should go grab that coffee you mentioned last night." Haha well she ended up responding and I "apologized" for messaging the wrong person. We ended up going to get coffee and had a good time. I fessed up about my facebook message and how I only did it to meet her and she was pretty cool about it. Two days later she invited me to be her guest at her work Christmas party and I was stoked. Last minutes, she calls me and asks if I can meet her there instead of her picking me up per the original plan. I agree and get all dressed up. Meet at the hotel lobby and BOOM I quickly realized I walked into an ACN convention. I stuck around for the laughs and it was worth it. Some a**hole stood up there for 45minutes talking about how he was broke all the time making $65,000/yr and how ACN allowed him to buy his parents a home. They had placed randoms throughout the crowd to shout and agree. It was all pretty sad seeing people in there 30's and 40's clinging to this 23 yr old dudes promises of wealth.

The lesson here is don't message random facebook girls! It only leads to trouble.

 

[parkerscott]

You think thats pathetic? I was at mcdonalds eating lunch, and I had my name badge on from work still. A guy comes up to me, and asks me if its my schools nametag, and we made some small talk about school etc, after about 20 seconds I had a gut feeling he was going to pitch me on an mlm. I stuck around talking because i didnt want to be rude, but sure enough before he comes to a close he asks if i knew anything about amway. 5 minutes of my break gone. Knew it was going to end up turning into a pitch.

 

[Yussef]

I posted this in 2012...right around the time Zeek Rewards was one of the new kids on the block. I was approached by an older gentleman during some general conversation about this "opportunity." I didn't have the heart to tell him how absurd it sounded based on what I understood about how real business processes worked. Needless to say he sunk over 12k into a scam that wound up beating people out of hundreds of millions of dollars. As many times as this has been done one would think it would become the poster child for "the oldest trick in the book" and no longer work. But I guess not.

 

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[Swoop]

I get an icky feeling just thinking about this MLM stuff.

I have probably a dozen different women "friends" on facebook that are part of Herbalife, Mary Kay, some makeup crap, some home decoration crap, and even a sex toy MLM, haha.

The idea that these people have the nerve to guilt family and friends into pitty buying this junk from them is ridiculous to me. These people spam their family and friends all day long on social media and then throw these "parties" where there aunts and neighbors feel obligated to come and buy something. So trashy.

I know a girl who's mom has done the Mary Kay stuff for years...she even drives the pink Mary Kay Cadillac. The daughter went to some worthless college and now she has nothing better to do that getting sucked in to Mary Kay and started going to all of these seminars with mom. Pathetic.

I realize some people dont know any better, and these companies target dumb people who will never have a good job anyway, but these people HAVE to know that it is rude and tacky to constantly try to make money off of your family and friends. I really resent these people for that.

I have wanted to make a post on FB calling out all of these people on being rude dumbasses, but unfortunately I have a close cousin that is part of Herbalife so I cant be too mean.

-Swoop

 

[The Duc]

There's a coffee shop I work at fairly regularly and there is always someone there having a "meeting" trying to get someone to join their mlm. I feel so sorry for these people as I can see them getting genuinely excited during the sales pitch.

I'm seriously thinking about getting business cards made up that just say:

www.thefastlaneforum.com
You're Welcome!

and handing them to the mark when the con-man heads to the bathroom

 

[Timbonitus]

Ugh, thankfully I never got involved with these schemes, never was my style, I always was more interested in creating a system in stead of joining one, even before reading MJs book. But my parents are a huge sucker for these kind of "opportunities". They were promoting a new one, forgot the name, and trying to make me sign-up, and sign my friends up, and I was just like, nah.

Guess how much money they earned? They signed up their friends and whoever they can came across, spamming people on Facebook, etc.... Because they were promised a dollar for each person they sign-up and each person that person signs up FOUR GENERATIONS DEEP OMG TOTALLY LEGIT...

So how much did they make? Shouldn't they have been billionaires by now?

They earned a grand total of..............................................absolutely nothing. They weren't paid at all.

But my mom still works for the company and my dad does some other similar things, I should buy a paperback copy of the millionaire fastlane and leave it somewhere next to them, force them to read it...

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

They earned a grand total of..............................................absolutely nothing. They weren't paid at all.

And then they claim that a real job is pyramid scam because it's in a large corporation with a CEO making millions. At least with a job, you get paid.

 

[Tommy92l]

Met a guy the other night who actually had a really good pitch. But then I heard the "Yeah man, even a few doctors are in it!"... and then I realized....

 

[eekern]

I love this bit of marketing, Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and several others all said the same EXACT things...crazy, right?

Ok ok, I'm done...

Not really, remember all the top earners was once at the bottom. Btw I don`t promote MLM in any way, I know that all the top earners could easily have their own succesfull business with their hustle - BUT, it could be a good vehicle for those who ONLY thinks about money, not how they help others.

 

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[DrkSide]

Bumping this back to the top again.

My wife's best friend called her out of the blue on Friday. She was excited to see her calling as they now live across the country from us and they don't get to talk that much. That excitement went away quickly as my wife found out the only reason that she was calling was that she wanted my wife on "her team" for this "new and exciting" venture that she was doing. She had been to one of the seminars and was excited and confident after being brainwashed so she decided to call all of her friends to ask them to join. Of course this is preying on the people that can't say no to their friends and feel obligated to join.

Want to know how to piss off your friends and alienate yourself? Join an MLM and then try to sell them at any opportunity you get.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

She was excited to see her calling as they now live across the country from us and they don't get to talk that much.

That excitement went away quickly

Nothing like telegraphing to an old friend, "you're only worth my call when I can potentially make money off you!"

Thanks MLM!