Avoid Money Scams

My particular gripe against multi-level marketing is not so much that it is a scam, but that most MLM’s or network marketing groups don’t do what makes sense in a consumer culture.

If you own a company that makes a legitimately beneficial product, such as vitamins, soap, etc. then why not use some tried and true methods of marketing and selling that product rather than attempting to turn inexperienced, untrained individuals into a sales force.

I’ve had some experience in sales, yep the door to door kind, and truthfully I didn’t enjoy it all that much.  Now I had a product I believed in, and I did pretty good at it.  But if you are in the business of selling a product you don’t believe in, then it becomes very difficult to market.  Most people get involved with MLM’s because they want to make money.  They aren’t particularly attached to the makeup or kitchenware that they are selling.  Yes they do like the product.  Yes they do become infatuated with it for a time, but after a while the scrap booking supplies just don’t hold the same appeal and they’ve run out of friends to sell to.

If the same company were to simply buy some radio or television advertising time, I suspect they would do much better.  Rather than inflating the prices of their products to compensate for the low distribution rates to end consumers (not the associates or business owners), they could market their product at a fair price.

What happens in many cases is that the new business owner purchases some inventory and then finds themselves incapable of distributing it because they have not received the training and do not have the time to get the skills to learn to sell the product and develop the business.  Then the new business owner ends up consuming his or her inventory over the next several months and eventually leaves the business altogether.

The same company could simply have made a life-time customer of the same business owner, selling at a better price but for a longer time and made a more sustainable business model for themselves.  Really that is my gripe.  MLM’s for the most part are simply not sustainable as profitable econimic entities.  This draws resources from the economy as a whole and  the economy (global or local) does not need these kinds of drains.

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