MLM Training - How To Debunk the Pyramid Myth

You’re pitching your business to an interested prospect and everything is going great until they ask the dreaded question, “Is this a pyramid scheme?” You may get confused and not know how to handle this question. Doing a simple comparison of what MLM REALLY is as compared to a pyramid allows a clear-cut picture of what the MLM industry is all about. Study this article and keep it handy as reference material to help you in debunking the pyramid myth.

You’re not in the MLM industry very long before you hear the phrase, “That’s one of those pyramids!” or the question, “Is this one of those pyramids?”

The “pyramid” objection comes up because people have no knowledge, incomplete knowledge or wrong knowledge about MLM and pyramids. Please notice that I wrote “pyramid” there. In other words, a person could think MLM is a pyramid because they DON’T KNOW WHAT A PYRAMID IS.

When my son was young I would point out a car and say the word, “car.” He soon picked it up and would point to a car and say, “car.” Then, he pointed to a bus and said, “Car.” I said “No, bus.” He didn’t believe me. Why? Because he had already determined that anything that moved on four wheels was a car! Have you had prospects who have already determined that MLM is a pyramid?

To solve this, I found a bus and a car that were parked side by side and pointed out those features that make them different from each other and those features that make them alike. Only then could my son determine if what he was looking at was a car or a bus.

Similarly, YOU must be knowledgeable about what a pyramid is, so you can point out the differences between a pyramid and MLM (network marketing) for your prospect.

Pyramid

The word pyramid has simply come to mean a business that seems like a scam.

Scam

A fraudulent business scheme. Fraudulent comes from the Latin word fraud, which means deceit. Deceiving someone means to trick them.

FACT: There is no activity (stock trading, charities, law firms, medical doctors, religion, MLM, government, etc.) that does not have a history of fraudulent activities.

In looking at scams, it is important to locate the actual source that is creating the scam; there is ALWAYS at least ONE person.

Source

One that causes, creates, or initiates; a maker.

If a person kills someone with a rock - don’t blame the rock! The rock isn’t the source and didn’t kill the person. A person with bad intentions is the source and USED a rock to do damage.

If a scammer uses telemarketing to seduce its victims into a scam - don’t blame the telephone. The scammer [a person] is the source and USED a telephone to deploy his scam.

If a scammer [a person] uses MLM to deploy his scam - don’t blame MLM.

An industry can’t be a scam as it’s not capable of tricking people.

People are the only ones capable of tricking someone.

MLM is not the culprit in pyramids; the culprit is the unethical activities of a person or group.

The reason scams sometimes use MLM is because it’s a powerful way to distribute anything.

Illegal Pyramid Scheme

An illegal business that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, usually without any product or service being delivered.

Sometimes there may appear to be a product. but it’s only there to “look” like a real business. Few people outside of the pyramid desire the product, or they can get the same product elsewhere at a less expensive price.

If you enrolled me into your business and I paid $300 to join BUT THERE WAS NO VALUABLE PRODUCT THAT WAS EXCHANGED, that could be an illegal pyramid.

This does not mean that MLM is an illegal pyramid because people enroll others into a business. The fine line between legal MLM and illegal pyramid scheme (according to the Federal Trade Commission -FTC) is the exchange of a real product.

Yet, if you enrolled me and I bought $300 worth of products to see if I want to do the business, then that is NOT an illegal pyramid as long as the product is a “real” product and not some gimmicky product. Most legitimate MLM companies give a thirty-day 100% refund on products if you don’t like them. And if you buy inventory to sell and then change your mind about the business, most legitimate MLM companies will give you back 90% of the purchased price.

So the primary difference between an illegal pyramid and a legitimate MLM company is that a pyramid does not have a “real” product. A legitimate MLM company has a real product that people outside of the business desire. Another difference that the Federal Trade Commission(FTC) looks for in determining if a company is a pyramid, is how the business is conducted. If there is a lot of hype (saying someone can make a lot of money with little or no work) or the emphasis is entirely on getting new recruits instead of a balance between getting customers and getting new recruits, then it could be a pyramid.

Putting pyramids into perspective

Sometimes I like to point out that there is a lot of negative emphasis put on illegal pyramids, but if you put it into perspective with other industries, it allows the prospect (or distributors) to also see the undue emphasis. How I put pyramids into perspective is by pointing out the losses caused by pyramids, versus losses caused by other activities. Take a look at the following statistics that show where people lost money in the year 2000:

Pyramids: $54,000,000 Lottery: $42,090,312,000 Gambling: $1,100,000,000,000 Stocks: $9,300,000,000,000

As you can tell, compared to other activities, pyramids do not cause a lot of financial loss. Don’t misunderstand my comment on pyramids, I dislike them a lot; I want them eliminated. But there’s undue emphasis put on them compared to where people lose the most money.

With admiration, Tim Sales

Tim Sales helps network marketers gain the confidence and skills to be an MLM success. Learn how to become a true network marketing professional and sign up for his free MLM training newsletter and listen to free training at www.brilliantexchange.com

Why The 7 Great Lies Of Network Marketing Are Killing Your MLM Business!

In network marketing, duplicating one's upline has long been touted as the key to building a strong and successful MLM business.

When Ann Sieg's hard hitting report The 7 Great Lies Of Network Marketing made it's way into the hands of thousands of network marketers midway through 2007, the fall out was expected to be enormous.

For too long, struggling MLMers have been told to

- duplicate their upline
- everyone within arms length of you is a prospect
- anyone can do this and it's not sales but product sharing
- just join and you'll have your business built for you and

probably the most irritating statement of all.."Your belief levels aren't strong enough!"

Hit And Miss Prospecting

Network marketing's huge attrition rate not only emphasized these statements as misleading but the excessive fall out rate also tainted the image of the industry as well.

The main problem distributors have is creating a steady flow of prospects. Without constant leads in your business it doesn't matter how much belief you have in yourself and the system, your business will simply stagnate and wither away.

Hit and miss prospecting is approaching friends, relatives and total strangers. It's non-businesslike and will more often than not get you labeled as a serial pest. Worse still, it only takes very few rejections for a network marketer to throw up their hands and declare it's all too hard and stressful. Hence the huge attrition rate in the industry.

Attraction Marketing

The internet has far reaching power. As a vehicle for attracting targeted prospects into your network marketing business, it's unrivalled. But the problem is, most network marketers don't know how to promote and market online.

One of the 7 great lies of network marketing revolves around the fact that anyone can do this business. That's true offline but online, it's a whole different ball game.

The internet allows you to target the people you want to do business with. Attraction marketing is about pre-selling these prospects well before they listen to your primary business offer.

The irony seems to be that renegade network marketers are now disproving this theory. Using attraction marketing techniques online to draw targeted prospects into your funnel has never been easier.

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Grab your free copy of The 7 Great Lies Of Network Marketing today! Dramatically increase your sponsoring rate. Put your Network Marketing lead generation on steroids and your MLM business into profit!

Attraction Marketing - Why You Should Focus On Just One MLM Business At A Time

Submitted by 60capp11
It is interesting watching some of the mistakes that network marketers not only those who frustrate them, but also those who act as their mentors.

Even supposedly successful MLMers some bad mistakes. One is the burning of their business if their income level has reached a certain peak and they seem to be stagnating between a healthy income and a mind-blowing. Their thoughts immediately turn to look at other companies and seeing what they have to offer.

But why would you want to do if your downline is active and large. Why go through the inconvenience and the enormous risks as there are clear alternatives than tell your business to a walk.

Another error
network marketers make repeated attempts to maximize their efforts to produce income. By this we mean to try more than one company. Regardless of how good you are as a network marketer, trying to work two or more network marketing companies is almost impossible.

To begin with, when you introduced in your funnel, which company are you direct them to? What happens if they join one of your options and discover you're involved in several other? And more importantly, what about your reputation after teaching your potential customers a road and a company benefits but you're there to promote other companies. Do not.

And worse still, what about your attention? It is difficult enough trying to build a network marketing company let alone two, three or even more at the same time.

How to live in your MLM Business

The answer is not to look for another company. Here are possibilities for a bigger fire under your network marketing company:

1. Look at your recruiting methods. Are you still concentrating on old outdated methods MLM offline?

2. If what does not work for you is not going to work for the adoption of your line.

3. Look at moving your recruiting efforts online. If you're not signed to do so then you're missing a huge opportunity to attract new, targeted prospects in your company.

4. Identify the members of your downline who put in a concentrated work on building their business and together with them online.

5. Making online real estate in the form of websites, blogs and Web 2.0 collateral must be your highest priority.

6. Above all, make good relationships with those in your downline willing to come out of their comfort zones with you and in combination with the attraction marketing power of the Internet, be sure magic happen and new life breathed into your fixed line.

Do you know what works in building a network marketing company? Grab this free report and found in the first place if not in the 7 Great Lies of Network Marketing, then put your MLM lead generation to steroids by becoming the most important book ever written in MLM The Renegade network marketer