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http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reason-pyramid-schemes-are-even-worse-than-you-thought/
Interesting read.
Interesting read.
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Article on MLM
- Thread starter caledonia1972
- Start date
Good article, can't say I disagree with any of it...I've heard that statistic before, the one about you stand a better chance of earning money by buying lottery tickets than by working for an mlm. I've worked for 3 in my time. Better ware for a summer in my teens - earned me enough money to go away with my friends on a holiday I wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise. Avon for 3 years as a sales leader (self employed sales manager). Paid a pittance but looks good on my CV that I managed a team of up to 55 sales representatives. And Stella and Dot as a stylist for a year, which introduced me to the world of party plan selling, which turned out to be not my kind of thing at all, but on the other hand got me interested in the fashion jewellery industry and led to me launching my own fashion jewellery business. So good things did come out of all my experiencesof signing up with mlm companies.
martay
New Member
just a 2c for perspective...
Most people would not call a sales man working for a car showroom a scammer.
Most people would not call a salesman going door to door selling double glazing illegal (annoying yes,)
The thing is, in both those industries (and all sales) there is often a high turnover of people doing the job, because not many people are good at it.
The problem with MLM, is it tries to make regular people sales people, without telling them they are selling, and without really training them to be sales people. Instead they just dump them with products and brochures and say "go make yourself rich"
I personally think that Sales is the best way to wealth, and sales where you can earn an override from a successful team, well, in fact that is common practise in a lot of areas of business.
The implementations, dodgy promotions, lack of support and training, yes they are all issues within mlm, but that is not everything. Not all people are the same, and not all MLM companies are out to rinse the distributors.
I'm not disputing a lot of the bad points made and generally the industry does deserve such stick, all I'm saying is this,
Step outside for a minute, ignore all the shit that surrounds MLM, in fact dont even call it MLM;
Take this company, it has a good range of products, at reasonable prices (not cheapest but not the most either), and will offer you a commission on selling those products.
thats it.
Forget everything else, does that sound like a scam? Or like a normal thing that lots of people do?
Then there is a finite amount of money left from the sale of goods, to pay a finite amount of levels to "team leaders", who get there money because they have helped organise and sort out the distributors making sales.
Thats how most car showrooms work. Most window companies, conservatory companies, in fact most product based companies that operate on a national level operate like that, they have "small local teams" with manager making override, then an "Area" or "City" based manager making overrides, etc. Yes I know the MLM thing is there are no areas etc but ignore that, lets just say that they are doing it sensibly, like a car show room or branch of safestyle UK (yes I worked for them
)
Would that be dodgy or a scam?
Ok, most MLMS are not as tidy as the above example, but in principle that is how they *should* be, and based on that thinking is how I intend to build my own MLM business.
ready for criticisms
Most people would not call a sales man working for a car showroom a scammer.
Most people would not call a salesman going door to door selling double glazing illegal (annoying yes,)
The thing is, in both those industries (and all sales) there is often a high turnover of people doing the job, because not many people are good at it.
The problem with MLM, is it tries to make regular people sales people, without telling them they are selling, and without really training them to be sales people. Instead they just dump them with products and brochures and say "go make yourself rich"
I personally think that Sales is the best way to wealth, and sales where you can earn an override from a successful team, well, in fact that is common practise in a lot of areas of business.
The implementations, dodgy promotions, lack of support and training, yes they are all issues within mlm, but that is not everything. Not all people are the same, and not all MLM companies are out to rinse the distributors.
I'm not disputing a lot of the bad points made and generally the industry does deserve such stick, all I'm saying is this,
Step outside for a minute, ignore all the shit that surrounds MLM, in fact dont even call it MLM;
Take this company, it has a good range of products, at reasonable prices (not cheapest but not the most either), and will offer you a commission on selling those products.
thats it.
Forget everything else, does that sound like a scam? Or like a normal thing that lots of people do?
Then there is a finite amount of money left from the sale of goods, to pay a finite amount of levels to "team leaders", who get there money because they have helped organise and sort out the distributors making sales.
Thats how most car showrooms work. Most window companies, conservatory companies, in fact most product based companies that operate on a national level operate like that, they have "small local teams" with manager making override, then an "Area" or "City" based manager making overrides, etc. Yes I know the MLM thing is there are no areas etc but ignore that, lets just say that they are doing it sensibly, like a car show room or branch of safestyle UK (yes I worked for them
)Would that be dodgy or a scam?
Ok, most MLMS are not as tidy as the above example, but in principle that is how they *should* be, and based on that thinking is how I intend to build my own MLM business.
ready for criticisms
martay
New Member
Jon@TheMoneyShed said:
True.
Neither would I.
This is my point, not everyone is the same, and a lot of training is bad.
Some people buy stuff.
Some people are interested in earning a second income.
I am not going to presume they are one and the same
(also, a really good car salesman, who wanted to make a lot of money, would not try and make you a carsalesman too directly, but he certainly would tell you if you bought some friends to buy a car then you would get a discount on your car
)
martay
New Member
PS - I also disagree with the fee. It was a major bone of contention for me (I mentioned in another thread).
Not all companies are the same though.
Using the car sales man example, lets say you DO want to sell cars, but you dont want to build a business of car sales. you can sell cars with no cost to you. Some MLMs are like this (and most affiliate programs)
Lets say you DO want to build a car sales business (with branches and reps under you etc). Of course, you would have to pay some money to do that. Same principle with MLM.
Hey, there is a LOT about MLM I dont like and disagree with, but for me, the basic priniciple that goods get sold, and overrides get paid, that is sound to me.
Not all companies are the same though.
Using the car sales man example, lets say you DO want to sell cars, but you dont want to build a business of car sales. you can sell cars with no cost to you. Some MLMs are like this (and most affiliate programs)
Lets say you DO want to build a car sales business (with branches and reps under you etc). Of course, you would have to pay some money to do that. Same principle with MLM.
Hey, there is a LOT about MLM I dont like and disagree with, but for me, the basic priniciple that goods get sold, and overrides get paid, that is sound to me.
The trouble with mlm businesses is that they are businesses - the clue is in the name really - they are businesses which are set up primarily not to earn money for you as a sales rep, but for the company. They do this in lots of different ways, by charging you for start up kits, charging you for websites, charging you for brochures, charging you for marketing materials, charging you for recruitment packs, charging you for training seminars, charging you for god only knows what else, capping your commission so that they take most of the profit and only pay you a fraction of it, another thing they do is they deliberately structure their businesses so that it's not easy for you to earn commission in the first place - have you ever wondered why their commission structures are so ridiculously complicated? - that's why - another thing they do is reclaim commission back from you if your reps leave or don't pay their bills, also they are constantly selling to you - admit it, you're probably your own best customer - and in you they have a captive audience because you most likely joined the company in the first place because you like the products they sell and then once you sign up with them you are being bombarded with their marketing materials day in day out-Ever felt like most of your earnings are actually just going straight back to the company? That's why I could go on there are so many ways they have of squeezing you for cash. The odds of success are stacked against you when you start any business from scratch, but they are so much more heavily stacked against you when you start a business within an mlm business what with all this trickery going on and you always being at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to getting paid
I could go on there are so many ways they have of squeezing you for cash. The odds of success are stacked against you when you start any business from scratch, but they are so much more heavily stacked against you when you start a business within an mlm business what with all this trickery going on and you always being at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to getting paid
martay
New Member
sparkleandshine said:The trouble with mlm businesses is that they are businesses - the clue is in the name really - they are businesses which are set up primarily not to earn money for you as a sales rep, but for the company. They do this in lots of different ways, by charging you for start up kits, charging you for websites, charging you for brochures, charging you for marketing materials, charging you for recruitment packs, charging you for training seminars, charging you for god only knows what else, capping your commission so that they take most of the profit and only pay you a fraction of it, another thing they do is they deliberately structure their businesses so that it's not easy for you to earn commission in the first place - have you ever wondered why their commission structures are so ridiculously complicated? - that's why - another thing they do is reclaim commission back from you if your reps leave or don't pay their bills, also they are constantly selling to you - admit it, you're probably your own best customer - and in you they have a captive audience because you most likely joined the company in the first place because you like the products they sell and then once you sign up with them you are being bombarded with their marketing materials day in day out-Ever felt like most of your earnings are actually just going straight back to the company? That's why
A lot of what you say is generally true, of many companies.
But to assume that all companies are the same, and push the same type of hyperbole and rubbish, is unfair.
Also, to assume that everyone getting involved in such ventures, is going to be easily brainwashed and sucked in to various money extraction techniques (meaning as you mentioned, spending all money on unnecessary extras) is also unfair.
If you are interested in me going through each of your points one by one and rebutting them I would be happy to, for example being "My Own Best Customer" is not true;
I have sold a small amount of around £200 monthly, and have not ordered anything for personal consumption since my first month. I will be buying a couple of things though soon, the toothpaste is real good and unavailable in the shops. Otherwise, no, I dont spend a lot on the products for myself.
I dont want to get all defensive, and am happy to address individual points and be part of this discussion.
My point to take away, is that although *most* of what you say can be applied to *most* MLM practitioners and businesses, it is not true of everyone and every company, and there definitely are exceptions to the statements you have made.
martay
New Member
Basically any of your negative points, I generally agree with, and in my personal MLM journey I would not be encouraging that behaviour, or perpetuating those kinds of behaviours.
good luck with it martay you sound very determined to make it work for you, personally I think you would do better working directly with your own suppliers, but you say you already tried that and it didn't suit you and also its the team building aspect of mlm which appeals to you but you know, if you wanted to, you could set something like that up for yourself from scratch too, but you don't want to and you're happy working for wikaniko,, to be fair for a long time I was happy working for Avon too and if anyone had suggested I give it all up and start buying from wholesalers instead I would have thought they were mad too
you sound very determined to make it work for you, personally I think you would do better working directly with your own suppliers, but you say you already tried that and it didn't suit you and also its the team building aspect of mlm which appeals to you but you know, if you wanted to, you could set something like that up for yourself from scratch too, but you don't want to and you're happy working for wikaniko,, to be fair for a long time I was happy working for Avon too and if anyone had suggested I give it all up and start buying from wholesalers instead I would have thought they were mad too
martay
New Member
sparkleandshine said:good luck with it martay
Thanks
It's not that I have not thought about it, and it is not that I would not do that either (any of what you mentioned)Just not right now. The way I see it, is there are things I need in place either way, so right now I am putting them in place, aiming them at Wikaniko.
That is not to say though, that I am not also at the same time building things in such a way so that, if things came to it, I could go off and be independent. I am.
thanks for your input and that other thread has quiet a few points I would like to address, so I am going to take a minute to respond over there (and try not to make an epic monologue!)
Its all about doing what works for you, if you can find the right mlm company for you, that's a good fit for you product wise and working practices wise, and most importantly, that you can earn the money from it that you personally need to be earning from working with them, then there'sno reason not to work for them. I have personally met people in mlm who are earning a lot of money so iI do know it can be done