Multi Level Marketing

[Handstitched]

G'Day,

The stuff you read in magazines in hospital waiting rooms*.   I already knew about these' Multi Level Marketing/ pyramid selling/ schemes/scams years ago  , but never knew too much detail, and the coercive , persuasive   and incentivised tactics used to  suck people in. 

The story in the magazine,  was about a woman that had cancer, lost her regular job, wanted to make an  small income , and generally just  wanted to buy some cosmetics to give herself a bit of a morale  'boost' after having cancer . Long story short, She went to her 'friend' for some recommendations , only to unwittingly get sucked into signing up for one of these MLM schemes to sell cosmetics .  Some friend . 

What was at first a good idea,  soon turned out to be   a nightmare. She worked her butt off to work her way up the 'ladder'' and got nowhere, losing money, not making money. It became  less and less about the products, and more about non stop chain recruitment ,  meetings, seminars  etc.  with a strong "sell sell sell" mentality . It soon started to become clear  to her  that the only people that made any money are the ones right at the very top .....  I could go on.    But needless to say she left   Even  doing that had risks.  She used a pseudonym  in the report for fear of reprisals. 

Many moons ago, in another life when I was in the fibreglass pool industry, my boss asked me if I wanted to earn a few extra bucks, ' of course',  I said, who doesn't ? so he  introduced me to a bloke at his house. A nice firm friendly  welcoming  hand shake . He  then got me to watch a vid with  people with fancy cars, mansions, fancy boats, people living the high life  etc.  Already, alarm bells started going off in my head !!!!  He tried to sign me up to  a pyramid scheme selling household cleaning & laundry  products etc. 

I'm thinking,  If this sh*t was any good,  why is he driving a crappy old  Toyota at 8.30pm at night?? 

I politely declined.  His hand shake was then  loose.......... and not so friendly.

My boss later aplogised for putting me in a awkward position, and   told me that his ' friend' worked up to 96 hrs a week !!!! and made very little money and hardly saw his family. 

 I love  my gut instincts  

HS 

* I normally only do the word puzzles or read the comics, I got one of the word puzzles finished  tho   

Edited September 15, 2022 by Handstitched

[chuck123wapati]

7 hours ago, Handstitched said:

G'Day,

The stuff you read in magazines in hospital waiting rooms*.   I already knew about these' Multi Level Marketing/ pyramid selling/ schemes/scams years ago  , but never knew too much detail, and the coercive , persuasive   and incentivised tactics used to  suck people in. 

The story in the magazine,  was about a woman that had cancer, lost her regular job, wanted to make an  small income , and generally just  wanted to buy some cosmetics to give herself a bit of a morale  'boost' after having cancer . Long story short, She went to her 'friend' for some recommendations , only to unwittingly get sucked into signing up for one of these MLM schemes to sell cosmetics .  Some friend . 

What was at first a good idea,  soon turned out to be   a nightmare. She worked her butt off to work her way up the 'ladder'' and got nowhere, losing money, not making money. It became  less and less about the products, and more about non stop chain recruitment ,  meetings, seminars  etc.  with a strong "sell sell sell" mentality . It soon started to become clear  to her  that the only people that made any money are the ones right at the very top .....  I could go on.    But needless to say she left   Even  doing that had risks.  She used a pseudonym  in the report for fear of reprisals. 

Many moons ago, in another life when I was in the fibreglass pool industry, my boss asked me if I wanted to earn a few extra bucks, ' of course',  I said, who doesn't ? so he  introduced me to a bloke at his house. A nice firm friendly  welcoming  hand shake . He  then got me to watch a vid with  people with fancy cars, mansions, fancy boats, people living the high life  etc.  Already, alarm bells started going off in my head !!!!  He tried to sign me up to  a pyramid scheme selling household cleaning & laundry  products etc. 

I'm thinking,  If this sh*t was any good,  why is he driving a crappy old  Toyota at 8.30pm at night?? 

I politely declined.  His hand shake was then  loose.......... and not so friendly.

My boss later aplogised for putting me in a awkward position, and   told me that his ' friend' worked up to 96 hrs a week !!!! and made very little money and hardly saw his family. 

 I love  my gut instincts  

HS 

* I normally only do the word puzzles or read the comics, I got one of the word puzzles finished  tho   

My mom sold Avon for years it was a good business for her, she was the only one in a little ranching community of about 500 max and no stores to speak of. she was top saleslady  in her district for several years in a row because she had a regular clientele of women that had no where to spend money lol and she made tons of money. UPS would have to bring a large truck just to deliver her stuff and i have seen her set for days unpacking and getting her cosmetics and other junk ready to deliver. I got a brand new Avon collectable beer stein every Christmas lol. She is the only person i have ever heard of making enough money doing it to pay the bills.

[Handstitched]

On 9/16/2022 at 4:10 AM, chuck123wapati said:

I got a brand new Avon collectable beer stein every Christmas lol

That reminds me of my Mum. She once worked for  a dept. chain selling household appliances, furniture etc.  in the early days.  One of the ' perks' she got was some beer steins with glass bottoms*.  They're in a cupboard....somewhere  

 

*the glass  bottoms were for conscription purposes   in the Navy or Army apparently ? . The drinker would see a coin at the bottom of the stein, sense that it was for conscription ....and avoid the drink, and avoid conscription ?? 

HS

 

[fredk]

It wasn't 'conscription' but just regular volunteer joining up. You 'took the Kings shilling'. Legend / myth is that recruiters would buy potential recruits drinks until they weren't sober then they'd drop a shilling in a drink. The recruit would drink and find the shilling, thus they'd not only 'taken the King's shilling but had 'drank to the King'. The legend / myth is that glass bottom tankards were made so that you could hold it up and look to see if there was a shilling in the bottom. It may or may not have been done as GB has always had a good volunteer rate and rarely needed either such tricks or conscription

[johnnydb]

Not everyone is good at sales. Some people are just good at manipulation but aren't very good at sales but the distinction is often obscured.  

Good salespeople put the right products and services in the right people's hands.  Just because you have a product to sell doesn't mean that everyone needs it or can use it.  

These MLM are all about recruiting people with no salesman skills to begin retail selling.   And if these people could sell they would have a nice job with an expense account and territory with the company car.  Because B2B sales is where the real money is at.  5% commission on a million dollar sale isn't chump change.  

Everything has to be sold/marketed in some fashion.  From the item in the box to the box itself to the paper that made the box to the tree that made the paper.  

Retail sales can make money just like anything else...B2B sales isn't "easy street " either as it requires a lot of work and research as well...it can get quite involved to create sales proposals and inventory management systems.   You almost become an employee of your customers while answering to your actual employer at the same time.   

Nothing is worse than trying to sell outdated or overpriced products in a retail market.