From: bglazier@buffalo.asd.sgi.com (Bill Glazier)
Newsgroups: alt.business.multi-level
Subject: MLM Fairness Disclosure (was Nuskin)
Date: 29 Sep 92 21:08:32 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.


|> And, on a slightly different tack -- what's WRONG with dreaming, Bill?
|> Dreams are what help people rise above the muck of their everyday existence.
|> SOME people work with those dreams and make them reality.  Some don't.

Nothing is wrong with dreaming.  You and I both have our own dreams.  But, most
MLM owners/managers target the most economically vulnerable segment of society,
and in their marketing pitch casually drop how many gazillionaires MLM (or
their company in particular) have created.  The clear objective is to get
the potential enrollee to think he is just a few quick, easy steps away from
being independently wealthy.  I would like the MLM industry to impose
upon itself a simple fairness diclosure rule.  Every presentation to prospective
new members should include the following:

	- the % of people still in the program 1 year after joining
	- the average income of the average participant
	- the salary of the 10 most senior members of the company, including
	  benefits and stock rights
	- the distribution of total sales commissions among the total
	  organizational hierarchy for the past 12 months

If this were done, the 'dream' as sold by most MLM owners/managers would be
much more sobering, the real prospect of the likelihood of success would
be clear, and an honest and fair choice could be made.  Instead of hard data, 
what new prospects get is the psychobabble, a few selected incidents where
someone made a lot of $$, and a hard sell.  


|> 
|> Let's take an example that's a little closer to home.  What would Bill Gates
|> do if you called Microsoft a "ripoff/scam...etc"?  But would you deny
|> he got richer, quicker, than ANY MLM founder in history?  Would you deny
|> that lots of people joined his company with dreams of growing with and
|> growing rich with the company, but couldn't cut the mustard?  Would you
|> deny that lots of them "dropped out" because of this?

Microsoft delivered a series of quality products that have
received tremendous acceptance in the industry.  They have been recognized
as outstanding by nearly every consumer journal in the PC business.  (BTW, I've
yet to see an MLM product receive a consumer award of any national
signifigance).  Lots of personal testimonials, but never a Consumer
Reports award.  Seems world class products aren't that important to these
kinds of companies.   

While I am sure some people left Microsoft, as it is somewhat of a high pressure
place (and some can't stand the rain), it was nowhere near 90+%.  If it
were, I guarantee you Bill Gates wouldn't even have a company today.  

Microsoft and its employees deliver value to customers.  They don't
need to hard sell their salespeople to get them to join.    

 
|> Somebody drawing a weekly salary for "showing up" at work is hardly comparable
|> to someone trying to build an organization in MLM.  The people going into it
|> know damn well they don't have a guaranteed paycheck, unless they EARN it.
|> And some decide it's not for them.  I see no sin in that.

It's simple.  When you consider the reward for 'showing up' at work - the 
salary - and the likelihood of success - keeping your job - and compare it
against the admitted infinitesimal chance of success in MLM, the logical
solution is clear.  If you start your own business, you begin with
100% of the equity.  In MLM, you begin on Day 1 with a whole upline of
people who have a legal claim to a large chunk of your business value, even
if they do NOTHING other than sign you up.  

|> 
|> Compare MLM "entrepreneurs" (and please let's not get into a semantic battle
|> over that) to someone starting his own "traditional" business, and you'll
|> find the dropout rate is pretty comparable.  Both have to build their income
|> from scratch.  The biggest difference is, the people who start traditional 
|> businesses tend to lose a HELL of a lot more money when they "drop out".

You can call MLM'ers anything you want.  Like I said, I'm not criticizing
those that try.  I'm after those that mislead....

 
Newsgroups: alt.business.multi-level