February 12, 2003
MLM
damon wright: TonightNetwork marketing freaks me out. It's a rare bird that can get involved with a network marketing product and not be creepy about it. Pete's one of them. The non-creepy rare bird kind, I mean. I lived with Pete while he sold Pre-Paid Legal and it was actually kind of fun hearing about it and seeing how he and his friend did their business.
I think that the people that get creeped out about MLM are the people that have had creepy experiences with it. I've had a couple. My worst was that I made these two new friends that mentioned offhand they were working for an environmental products company, and hey, want to go out for dinner? We have to stop by for a quick meet-up with some coworkers first, and they might actually be running through a product demonstration you'll find interesting.... anyway, by the end of the night I was getting the hard sell from the girl that six hours previously I thought was cute.
My other creepy experience was that I was sucked in by a product. I went from skepticism to enthusiasm to thinking about how I could bring all my friends in under my network umbrella in about three hours, and it didn't wear off for a day. And then after realizing that I wasn't actually looking out for my friend's best interests, and was instead thinking of how my friends could serve my advantage, made me ashamed... and I was of course ashamed of admitting I was ashamed, so I instead just got vehemently anti-MLM. That's easier.
As for what I still believe? Obviously, I don't believe that all MLM folks are creeps; I'm good friends with two or three folks that have MLM history. I don't believe that MLM products are necessarily suspect in quality.
But I do believe that structure of MLM businesses are socially unhealthy. It doesn't mean that everyone participating in them is unhealthy or even contributing to the unhealth - a good soul can be a positive influence on other workers. But I believe they're the exception to the rule. There are just a bunch of really creepy people in MLM. People that are okay with becoming successful by feeding off of others' lack of integrity. People that capitalize on another's weak spine, or another's susceptibility to guilt. People that use the defense, "Hey, all they have to do is say no and I'd be okay with that!" and skip past the fact that it really isn't that simple. The structure of the commission-only downline (especially the variants with an optional buy-in) has a predatory subtext that attracts a lot of people that respond to that energy.
These are all old impressions I have, that I admit, have that tight feeling inside of me that usually indicate that something is amiss inside myself. Usually meaning that it reminds me of something else that has probably hurt me in the past. I don't know what. So I can't entirely defend my points as anything extraordinarily logical... they are just more indicators of where I am in understanding it I guess. It's just that when I think of MLM, I can't help but remember that videotape, down in that carpeted basement with the low ceiling, of that fat MLM president with the wet lips, who, at the end of his on-stage speech about his company, lowered his voice, squinted his eyes (camera zooming in slowly to his spotlighted sweaty fish face), and said, "The only reason not to get involved and COMMIT to a company and opportunity like this one... is FEAR."
The problem that I have with MLM is that in essence, it's just another way to spawn consumerism. Consume, consume, consume. Get your friends to consume, Get your family to consume. Be a preacher of your product. Convince people they need it, whether they think they do or not. Let me sum this up by quoting a Chinese proverb: "The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives."
Sure, as human beings we need *some* stuff. You can't stay alive very long w/o being a consumer to some degree. I'm not against having "stuff" altogether but when I look around, see our short-term, disposable western thinking that totally disregards the fact that all this novelty "stuff" eventually ends up in landfills- and with a massive overpopulation problem, consumerism is at the least, inflaming that problem- it's a denial of our situation. Call me a tree hugger, whatever. "Stuff" doesn't replace clean water, breathable air, natural areas and quality of life. Sure, you may say that it's not that simple. But if we can't find a way to live on this planet without destroying it, using up the limited resources on it and getting ourselves extinct in the process, then it becomes VERY simple. So... streamline. "Do I really need this fourth TV? Do I really need another knick-knack to dust?
The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives. No matter how many damn bottles of vitamins, super sleek gadgets and ornaments that frog has, if he's using up his "pond" to get more, he might feel like his quality of life is better in the short-term but eventually, gadgets don't get you your home back. How does buying gadgets- as only one person- contribute to the eroding of the environment? At least 290,237,924 other people doing that exact thing.
Totally didn't intend this to get into a debate on consumerism, but since we are here, how again does a network marketing franchise encourage the urge to buy any more than, say, product placement, direct mail, 2.5 million dollar Super Bowl ads, or Christmas?
The assumption made here, as is made by many who've never done network marketing (or if they have, they've never done it well), is that the business is designed to be successful through first degree relationship selling (selling to your friends, selling to your neighbors, selling to your priest).
That's not a correct assumption, though it's made far too often by those in and outside the business. Network marketing is designed for those who would like to take more direct control over their employment condition. That doesn't mean they want to get rich, though they might. That doesn't mean that they don't want to work, though that may be accurate too. What it means is simply, they don't want to work for someone else, and would like a crack at owning their own business, without the arduous journey of creating their own product, designing, and then manufacturing it.
Network marketers who are successful are those who understand channel marketing. They understand the product they are selling well, and they see the value in face-to-face sales as an alternative to other completely viable marketing channels like storefronts, franchises, direct mail, broadcast advertising, classified, etc, etc.
The argument here is more against "buying things" and, Chinese Wisdom aside, presents an often misunderstood bias against modern network marketing. Not to mention the irony: Nikken as a corporation stands for many of the anti-consumer arguments you've made here: don't buy for the sake of buying, that's waste; embrace that which will encourage health and well-being; buy for quality and long-term; buy pro-environmental. I'm still doing my own due dilligence here, but so far, the company seems to stand for that which I consider "good." I'll let you know when the jury's back in. :-)
Posted by: doc. at February 12, 2003 05:11 PMSpeaking for Tamara, I'm pretty sure that she very much hates product placement, direct mail, 2.5 million dollar super bowl ads, and the consumer part of Christmas just as much as she seems to hate MLM. :) You should have heard her when we walked into Safeway and saw all the Valentine's Day displays in early January. I saw a nearby bagger's ears burn. :)
Posted by: Curt at February 12, 2003 05:34 PMSee, that's the thing. You can't single out one channel as more evil than another without more evidence of damage. The piece of "Minority Report" where they're targeting sound at your head, that's evil for psychosocial reasons. Does MLM fit that?
Posted by: doc. at February 12, 2003 05:50 PMNow, regarding MLM encouraging first-degree relationship selling versus people wanting to take more ownership over their earnings - the two aren't mutually exclusive. I think a lot of MLM (maybe not Nikken, when you described it earlier you mentioned there aren't even any pyramids or downlines) companies are there very much to encourage first-degree selling. Not specifically maybe (why limit yourself to the first degree?), but come on - it's low-hanging fruit. MLM companies want to increase their downlines using the easiest path possible. If they recognize that newcomers are apt to do this and they're not discouraging it... well yeah, that is kind of encouraging it. It contributes to the culture of it. For the people that really do believe in the product and would probably be involved with the product even if it weren't MLM, they probably feel these other folks give MLM a bad name. The problem is, there's something about the structure of it that attracts a lot of these yahoos.
Who said MLM was more evil than 2.5 million dollar super bowl ads? Plus, I think that sound-targeting this is friggin cool. You know that part of the Washington Park Wildwood trail that is directly overhead the japanese gardens? Right above where people stop and stand in front of a pond? Every time I walk above that I imagine being able to take one of those weird microphones and whispering into their ears from 80 yards away. That would be fun.
Posted by: Curt at February 12, 2003 06:51 PMOK, OK, conceeded. There is a huge piece of the culture that feeds of the low-hanging fruit of your friends, family; first-degree network. Back to the business model: in my experience, the people who follow the direction of their upline to go for friends, family, other first-tier associates, are the first to peter out.
One of the first exercises they teach you in sales class, and this is particularly prevalent in traditional MLM organizations, is to get a piece of paper and write down every person you know. Then, you go back through the list and you can see all the people you need to tell about your position, product, etc. In traditional MLM, they're telling you to go tell those people about your products, and get them into a meeting/dinner/whatnot other event to sit through the pitch.
The problem is, eventually that list ends and you have really learn how to make new business happen for yourself. If you can't do that, if you can't kick up enough dirt to keep the momentum going, you're cooked in the squat.
Back to my original premise: the people who are truly successful are those who don't start with friends and family, rather they start with a business plan, sales funnel, dirt-kicking.
And, I'm the one who made the connection between the evils of traditional MLM and 2.5 million dollar superbowl ads. That's something I pulled out of the comment I was first responding to.
Philosophically, I have a real problem with Sales and Marketing. That's the irony of being a marketer. I don't like the fact that advertising and marketing creates ... nothing. No ingenuity, no magic, no brick & mortar. Yet, there has to be some mechanism to evangelize new products to people who haven't seen them before in order to grow business, grow economies, and perhaps, change someone's life a little bit. To date, I haven't met a better system that traditional marketing.
Network marketing is even better because it allows for a viral component in its very nature. Get people talking. Keep them talking.
Posted by: doc. at February 12, 2003 07:57 PM