I get approached by A LOT of what I call “MLMers” (that’s multi-level marketers). Probably over 100 per year. Times nearly 10 years, so that’s a lot of annoying MLMers. Although they’re very touchy about being called “MLMers.” They prefer the term “network marketers.” MLM has a bad name, but network marketing is not yet as popular of a term as MLM, but that’s what it is – MLM, rebranded. Tomato, to-mah-to.
There are a host of reasons I don’t like nutritional MLMs, and I’ll list them here, in no particular order. Except for the first one – the first one I list is the one I hate the most, so I’ll start there.
The Sneaky Approach
When an MLMer approaches you, they’re very sneaky with their language. They’ll talk about an opportunity, growth, and they’ll sound very excited. But when you question them on exactly what their opportunity is, they can’t say it in one sentence. They invite you to a group meeting (read: pep rally pitchfest. But they don’t tell you that). When you ask what the meeting is about, and why they can’t just explain it in one sentence, they say it’s because it’s so awesome that they’re at a loss for words. So someone else has to do it. Their upline (that’s the term they use for the person that recruited them).
The worst part is that most of them are trained to start with their “warm market.” That’s their friends and family. So they try that. The vast majority of their warm market isn’t interested. At that point, they no longer have very many friends remaining. Once they’ve burned through their warm market, they’re told to approach everyone they can. They’re told it’s a “numbers game.” They’ll get a lot of “no”s, before they get the yesses. So they keep plowing, in the meantime, turning a lot of people off.
I work in sales myself (I obviously run a personal training company), so I get the necessity of speaking to large numbers of people. The difference is when someone says “no”, that’s good enough for me, and I politely leave them alone. But MLMers won’t take “no” for an answer. They have a bunch of clever retorts ready to go:
- How do you know what you’re saying “no” to?
- Have you tried the products?
- You mean you don’t want passive income?
…and others.
The approach is sneaky, because they feel sleazy doing it, and for good reason. It doesn’t feel good to chase a person who is backing away. And the vast majority of people are backing away. I’ll bet that if the MLMers were to track their numbers and see how many “nos” they’ve turned to yesses with these retorts, the numbers would be dismal, and they likely lost more than they gained, because now the person who said “no” isn’t just disinterested. This person is now actively warning everyone they know about it.
The People Handing Out the Products
Another thing I don’t like about nutritional MLMs are the people handing out the products. Outside of the MLM they may be fine, upstanding people. But once they get inside that cult MLM, they change.
So what specifically don’t I like? For one, that as soon as they join, they now have the title of “nutritional consultant.” Never mind that their 9-5 job is as an accountant (for instance). This accountant is now a “nutritional consultant.” And what qualifies this person for that title? The fact that they sat through the 30-60 minute pep rally pitch fest, and forked over their money. No school, no nutrition education of any kind, no credentials, nothing.
The other issue are the claims that they are making – these are the “best” products on the market. Forgive my skepticism (or cynicism), but when someone with no background in nutrition tells me what they think is best, it’s worth about as much to me as a nutritionist talking about economics. Nothing.
Another part of what irks me with the people selling nutritional MLMs is their motivation. They make themselves sound like a saint, like they’re doing this out of the goodness of their heart. They’ll come up with nice stories, where their dream is to “help people.” I call BS on that. Their dream isn’t to help people. Their dream is to make a lot of money. Nothing wrong with that. But don’t hide your motives. My dream is also to make a lot of money, but I get there by doing something that I know – personal training. Not something I have no clue about.
If their dream is really to help people, regardless of money, why not start a non-profit? Oh yeah. Because there’s NO PROFIT (Duh!).
The Passive Income Dream
A huge selling point of the MLMs is the passive income dream. You know – “make money while you sleep.” In the MLM industry, they have inside jokes, like “paycation” – you’re getting paid while you’re on vacation. Or another one is “work hard for 10-15 years, take the next 50 off.”
If only it were that simple.
The truth is that MLM is really sales on commission. That’s the blunt way of putting it. You sell, you get paid, you don’t sell, you don’t get paid. And you have to keep on selling. Once someone joins the MLM, now you have to sell them on not leaving, because over 90% of people who join an MLM don’t even stick to it for 3 months. So you have to support the people who just joined, and a minute later want to quit.
Can you make money with MLM? Sure. But the ones making enough to actually make a living with only MLM and nothing else is close to zilch. Maybe less than 2%. But who do they showcase in their pep rally pitches? The very few people who hit it big. The ones in MLM who hit it really big are maaaayyybbbeee 1 in 1000. That’s why when someone tells me that they’re in an MLM, the question I always ask is “what else do you do?” Because I can almost guarantee that they’re not making a living from their MLM.
The Products
“We have the best products” claims every single MLMer who has no background in nutrition. “I really believe in the products”, they say, as if it’s a belief in religion. Belief in nutrition should be based on evidence. Not the propaganda that the company spews.
Truthfully, the products are OK. Not the worst thing I’ve ever seen, not the best thing I’ve ever seen. Middle of the line quality.
There are 3 criteria that I use to determine supplement quality, which I’ve written about in my article: Nutritional Supplements: How Do You Determine Quality? Most MLM supplements don’t measure up very well to those criteria. Again, not the worst, not the best.
In some cases, I outright question the formulation. For instance, one company (which shall remain nameless) asked me what I thought of their post-workout recovery supplement. It had some B vitamins, some herbs, and some antioxidants. I responded that the dose of the B vitamins was too low to do anything, and the antioxidants actually negate the effects of a workout. They don’t enhance it.
The person who told me about this supplement was confused. After all, this company had the “finest” scientists working on their formulation. She told me she’d go back to her company, discuss it with them, and get back to me as to the explanation why antioxidants were included. Did she get back to me? Nope. Crickets.
I have yet to see an MLM supplement that makes me say “yep. This is far and above anything else that’s out there on the market.” And believe me, I actually look.
The Scientific Advisory Board
Every MLM boasts “we have the finest scientists who formulate our products. Here are their credentials.”
On that topic, I have a couple of comments to make:
- It’s not hard to find a scientist who’ll put his/her name behind questionable products. This scientist may really, truly believe in the products. But none of their scientific colleagues do. Or heck, the scientist may not believe in the products, but is getting a good paycheque.
- A lot of scientists toil in obscurity for the majority of their career, in a laboratory, and get very little recognition for their work outside of academia. So when an MLM approaches them after a few decades of hard work and very little recognition, and offers the opportunity to make them a celebrity to the members of this company, they jump at the chance.
The Athletes Using It
A lot of MLMers showcase the athletes using their products to showcase how clean and effective they are.
So much wrong with that. To showcase effectiveness, athletes are a really bad bunch of people to use. Why? Because they are genetic freaks to begin with, so often they can do a lot of wrong things in their training and nutrition, and still be elite. Case in point, weightlifting phenom, Dmitry Klokov. He was the world champ at one point, and consistently top 3. His diet was made largely of pasta and pop. Not exactly the diet of an elite athlete, but hey, he was a freak. Roy Jones Jr., considered the best boxer of the 90s would play a game of pickup basketball just hours before a major pay per view fight (when most boxers avoid other sports completely for months before a fight). And win. And stories like that abound.
Second of all, just because an athlete says they use a certain supplement doesn’t mean they actually do. A lot of athletes are paid by the company to say that they use a certain product, but do they really? Nope. So unless a person physically eats 3 meals a day with the athlete they claim uses that product, I’m skeptical.
Furthermore, even if the athlete uses that supplement now (of which I’m doubtful to begin with), they likely got to where they are before they started using it. It’s like vegans claiming that Mike Tyson was vegan. It’s not completely a lie. They just don’t tell you when he was vegan – after he retired, and only for a short period of time. He ain’t vegan no more.
