Why are people in MLM so emotionally attached to the industry?
I assess businesses for a living and look mostly at real estate. When I have been presented a deal and determined it was a poor investment, people generally do not get emotional or upset calling me names and telling me I am negative. This is the same in most business ventures.
But in MLM, you can express your opinion of it being a poor business choice and you get MLMers jumping all over you as though you insulted their family?
Is this because people get in to MLM emotionally instead of intellectually (on the hype as oppose to assessing it as a business), or is it because MLM is more cult like that they would like to admit?
plr2win, you have expressed exactly my point. The issue (well one of them) is that you need to depend on your downline for income, and thus at any given time, there are always more people producing less than is needed to provide themselves an income than there are actually earning an income.
You see, in real world business, whether it be sales, admin, management, whatever, the person working that position is always providing enough value to justify their pay. In MLM, the majority is always earning less than would justify incomes because instead of focusing on personal sales first, they focus on recruiting and thus need others in order to make money.
Show me a model where everyone is first made to do enough personal volume to make a good living then allowed to recruit and I will show you a decent MLM…but none like that exist.
plr2win – to further clarify, its not that I am suggesting the model is some unethical system, I am suggesting the presentation of MLM as a means a getting wealthy is a sham. Explain how an exponential matrix can keep supplying revenue streams for someone on your 20th level. You can’t because at that point you would need millions and million of people in your organization. This simply yet another reason that MLM is flawed as a “business opportunity.”
MLM like a McDonald’s franchise…thats Ripe! It would be the same if everyone in your neighborhood set up competing McDonald’s on every corner with no concern for how that competition affect each franchise, and also if the fry guys and cashiers only got paid when they brought their friends and family in to get jobs as well. Gimme a break. MLMers are kidding themselves with these false comparisons.
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Comments
I think of MLM as more of a club than a legitimate business, people join because their friends and family recruit them and they make bad business decisions they might not otherwise make if friends and family weren’t involved. I also think that their ENTIRE business model relies on them being able to sell you on the idea too. That is why they will go to great lengths to persuade you to join up, because they are financially inclined to do so, to the point of free informational sessions, trips, etc. Most of these legalized pyramid/ponzi schemes also have several classes that teach people to be relentless in their recruiting tactics, which would elicit the behavior you observed. I stay WELL away from anyone pushing this horrible business model…
I wouldn’t say that they are emotionally attached to their industry, I would say it’s more of a question of considering a source.
Let’s say I owned an MLM business, why would I ask, let’s say a real estate investor or a slumlord to assess my business? Chances are he wouldn’t have enough information to assess my business because he is in a different line of work.
People would ordinarily get upset if you were to insult them rather than assess them.
If you picked a career, and offered people unwanted feedback in the form of an assessment, no matter which field they work in, they are going to get their back up.
I don’t know of anyone who is in business based on emotions. That just wouldn’t pay the bills now would it?
I think your question could use a little more forethought. I think it’s a little ridiculous to label any industry as a cult.
Only because as usual, your premise is an attack on the business model and not any particular business, and that’s flawed.
I’m involved in MLM and have been for many years. I would be the first to admit that too many companies use the model in a self-serving way that ends up giving us all a bad name, but that doesn’t mean all MLM companies are the same.
Tell me that if a real company used the MLM model as a way to distribute a quality product at the exact same price it gets sold in other distribution models and pays the exact same markup to a team of distributors instead of a jobber, there is anything wrong with that.
The model is fine if it is applied correctly and fairly. That’s not emotion talking, it’s just common sense. My family or even my downline have nothing to do with my opinion. Well, other than the fact that they are where my income comes from.
the problem is MLM gives everyone to be own boss. now understand, everybody is not business minded. people came in to this industry and many of them, including me, are employee minded. so when we have to change our mind we get problems, very few MLMers actually pursue the business like a real business, i mean customer, contact, prospect, and retailing. people just want to sponsor their friends and family members so thay can manage rejaction. however MLM is a serious business, just like owining a McDonald Franchise, MLMer should treat the business just like a real business, otherwise ther are only one thing possible that is Fail…Thanks