Multi Level Marketing

[MiniDave]

I don't want to slaughter anyone's sacred cow, but has anyone here or anyone you know EVER been successful with a multi level marketing scheme?

Reason I ask is my niece, a very sweet but slightly gullible college student has signed up for ITWorks, I wished her well but I don't know of anyone but the top level people who have ever made any real money in MLM.

What's your experience?

[Willie_B]

The surest way to see if you will ever make any money is what are you really pushing? A true product or recruiting more people. If a true product is hard to see then no money to be made. I have never met anyone that made any real money at it.

[BruceK]

I was going to post a smart ass reply that Bernie Madoff made some money that way -- for a while. 

But to answer your question seriously, I think by their nature a MLM scheme temporarily benefits a few in the chain toward the top, but it is ultimately not sustainable and those at the top seem to depend on the get-rich-quick hopes of those at the bottom.  And they need a constant stream of new hopeful, wide-eyed fools at the bottom just to keep the things afloat at the top.  I don't know anything about ITWorks and I'm gonna keep it that way.  But when I was just out of college and earnestly looking for a real job, I went to a job interview that, once I got pretty far into it, turned out to be nothing but a sales pitch to join a MLM.  To say I extremely pissed that my time was wasted would be an understatement. 

So, IMO, whether it's AmWay, Avon, or the Church of Scientology, they all seem to have a definite air of 'cult' stink around them.  But it can be difficult to warn those falling under the spell.  Your niece may have to learn that on her own as they will likely tempt her with lots of well-honed tricks and enticements.

[MiniDave]

We used to get vanloads of people right after an Amway meeting that would show up on Sunday afternoons at the Lexus store....they were told to come in and goal set/dream set of what they would buy with their fabulous earnings from Amway....the story was always the same, they had just started a new job and would be back in 6 months and pay cash for the highest end car we sold and could we go for a test drive in a $100K Lexus? Uhm....no.

We had a salesperson who was an Amway dealer, he said send all those people over to his desk and he would recruit them to his downline....his philosophy on selling the products was a little different, he said you don't have to sell the stuff to all your family and friends, just do as much buying as you can for your own stuff out of the catalog.....he wasn't driving a new Lexus either tho......

I'm concerned that they're going to rope her into buying a lot of demo products and inventory....she's a poor college student who's car has a flat tire cause she can't afford to get it fixed, yet she's still making payments on it.

[gr8kornholio]

The Young Living essential oils we use are structured the same way.  You don't have to sell it to use them but you "can" earn money by signing people up.  It really just comes down to being a salesman.  Krystle was never into the selling bit so it never panned out (she did save one friend from $1200 a month in pills) and made a good bit of income off her but once her body stabilized she didn't need the oils that much and it dried up.  Her immediate up line and her mom are WAY into it and could sell a ketchup Popsicle to a woman in a white dress.  If you love your product and you know it and can talk talk talk it you will be good at it, but that is any sales structure.  My stepdad was the same way.  Made a great living selling Schwans food, then stepped up to IRA investments.  Aren't all sales a structured scheme of some kind?  Definitely be wary of the buy lots of product up front though.   

[MiniDave]

Here's what she posted on her FB page, if this isn't a canned statement from the company I don't know what is.....


Started New Job at ItWorks
Yesterday — Distributor

Hey y'all! I am so excited to announce that I have just started my own business where I get to work from home on my own time to supplement my income with ItWorks! I get to use all-natural botanically-based products to become healthy AND I get paid for it! What an awesome opportunity that showed up in my life at the perfect time! With college expenses piling up and car payments to pay off, I could use all the extra income I can get. You are going to see me not only earning an incredible paycheck from home, but enacting a change in my own life, & so many others around me.
Here's to a new chapter, & a whole new WORLD of possibilities, with such an amazing company & such a supportive, passionate, helpful, and motivating team!
Message me if this is something you'd be interested in! I'm always looking for more people to join my amazing team.

[gr8kornholio]

Wow, canned with personal touches that they most likely got from her. 

[BruceK]

She's really jumping in with both feet.  I wish her the best and hope she comes out of it okay. 

[jeff10049]

I had a friend drag me into a sales pitch for ACN video phones its a MLM company. They wanted like $450.00 to get started or something.
I said I didn't see it taking off with things like facetime about to launch and video calling just a year or two away from most cell phones that and computers with video calling but he got sold and all that ever happened was he lost $450.00.

I'm sure some people have and do make money with ACN bur, first of all, you have to be a salesperson and not care about screwing people or if you actually believe in the product you're selling that's different but you still have to sell the shit out of it.

I'm not much of a salesman and I didn't really think the product was good.
However, I can be a pretty good salesman if I believe in the product but just wanting you to go get as many $450.00 signups as you can sound's like BS to me.

I have yet to meet anyone that really made money at MLM I have come across people who say they did but they are usually trying to get you in so not sure if I can trust them.

Another friend got sold on these oxygen-rich water drops you put a few on your tongue each day or in your eyes, ears, up your nose, on cuts, burns whatever is wrong it'll fix it. Whats interesting is he really did believe in it and got a bunch of people selling, some people just signed up to get the deal on the product others went on to sell and sign up more people he did make a couple 100 a month for about a year and it just sort of went away as people realized it didn't do anything was just saline.