Top 5 Reasons Why I Don’t Approve Of Primerica, Saladmaster, Time Share or any other Multi-Level Marketing Schemes
April 3rd, 2012
Have you ever been approached by a friend or family member trying to solicit you to buy into a product or service? This a is rather long post so if you want the short version, here it is: “Nothing in life is free”. Otherwise, here is the long version:
#5 - If you can’t afford to buy into these product/services, they say it’s alright there’s another way to achieve your goals – That alternate way is to a) Exploit those you know who can afford to buy those products/services and make money off them without much hard work or b) Exploit those you know who cannot afford to buy those products/services so they can sell it to people they know who can afford it so you can reap the benefit without much hard work. I really dislike both these concepts because the only winner is the person who started this chain of events because everyone in a lower end of the pyramid must pay money to the person above them. If you honestly don’t believe this is a pyramid scheme, follow the money and prove me wrong. The more middle men, the most costly it is to the last person to buy into the product/service.
#4 - Good products sell themselves. Products sold by friend/family members are likely ones that are not good enough to be sold on their own against those in a retail market - They can’t compete with other products/services that offer the same if not similar value to customers. So to compensate, these products are marketed as exclusively offered to select individuals to create a perception of value. Like any medium, there is a certain bias to the story presented to you that this product/service is the best and the others are inferior. The onus is on you to perform the due diligence and seek out the truth. The average person doesn’t do this because it doesn’t occur to them. The average person doesn’t pick up on the social cues that the relationship they have with a friend/family salesperson is being exploited to their advantage.
#3 - Your friend/family member does not have the formal background education to support the claims they are making – Often people who have chosen to employ themselves to be part of pyramid marketing program get suckered into it with the dream of overcoming a financial barrier without doing the work like “The Other 9 to 5 Suckers”. That’s where it starts, with a promise that they can do everything if they do anything they are told by the lead marketing /sales instructors. A good part of the training is being convinced that because someone else made it that it stands to reason they will make it too. It’s no coincidence that the people sharing their alleged success stories are portrayed to be in the same demographic as their audience. In the training, you feel like you can relate to them better because of the portrayed similarities that you could also follow in their footsteps. All it takes is a couple of weekends of training with free catering that they indirectly will pay for and they’re off to infect/persuade others that they have the golden ticket that you can only buy from them.
Think about how much money you spend at the dentist a year. You pay them because they do that every day and they went to school for it. Think about how much your friend/family member wants you spend over the course of a year. It’ll likely be the same if not more than your dentist’s fees. What makes it worse is that they don’t do it every day because they do this selling thing on the side and they don’t have the years of training. Yet they are asking you for a lot of money.
What’s amazing is that even lawyers, doctors and engineers are susceptible to joining these programs. They are human and with the right sales techniques applied to them, they can be convinced that they can turn their social network into one that generates revenue.
#2 - Your friend/family member will know key information about you, that a stranger wouldn’t know, and will exploit that knowledge – When trying to sell something to you, it helps to paint a picture of how awesome the end goal will solve your problems. This deliberate oversight will make you ignore the more serious questions about how your money is at risk up front, periodically and or at the end. Instead, you are sold a dream that this is not only what you want but it is what you need therefore you should buy into it. An aggressive friend/family member salesperson will key in on your need to send your kid to college someday, pay off that mortgage or take vacations on the beach like others “who are living the dream”. Once your mind enters this illusion, you have to turn off your ability for critical thinking . Of course they mean well by telling you what you want to hear but it’s really your fault for not identifying the cues. It’s your fault for not looking at the facts in an objective light. Targeting your insecurities is an excellent sales tactic for you to buy in.
#1 - Money will change the relationship between you and the friend/family member - Whatever was the decent reason why you were friends to begin with will now be replaced with the formalities and risks of a business transaction. If they are a family member, those trivial family get-togethers can become stressful and awkward if the deal goes sour. If you really value these types of relationships, you know no amount of money can pay to fix it as fast as it falls apart unless you win the lottery. What took years to build that trust between you and the other person(s) can take only a mere few seconds to destroy when things go bad.
In conclusion, if you want the rewards without risk, don’t create high risk for yourself by limiting your options to just that trusted source who presents themselves as meaning well. Ask yourself not how much you stand to gain but rather how much do you stand to lose. The key thing about these marketing schemes is that when a friend/family member approaches you to spend money on the product/service they are offering, there is an anthropological obligation that you feel need to return the gesture. It’s like when someone gets you a gift for your birthday last year, you will likely get them a gift this year. If a family/friend member approaches you with an alleged exclusive product/service of value, you are likely to reciprocate this gesture with a corresponding object of value which is your hard earned money.
The scam here is that you are unconsciously compelled to buy in. Because if you don’t, you will lose face. Back to birthday gift example, imagine that you don’t reciprocate. You could foresee yourself as embarrassed and be portrayed as not a good friend or family member. This social obligation is what makes multi-level marketing successful at the expense of your guilt.
