Who doesn’t hate this one?
“What do I say to that?” asked a frantic Lulu today. Then she whispers, “because I haven’t made anything yet.”
I quick ask Lulu if she’d made any references to big or easy income in her pitch. Well, yes. They told her to say, “My sponsor makes over $15,000/mo, and HE used to be a tuna boat fisherman! It’s easy – and you can do it part time!”
She’d also used, “Do you want to make $3,000-$6,000/mo part time?”
Unbeknownst to Lulu, talk about fast and easy money TRIGGERS the dreaded question in any other hot blooded person. E.g.
LULU
“My upline already makes $15,000/mo and he used to be a tuna boat fisherman! It’s easy. Anyone can do this! You want to make some big money with me?”JODIE
“Wow. Sounds good. How much do YOU make (already)?”
See how that works? Same if you tell others, “I help people make big income from home.” It’s natural for the other guy to go, great, how much are YOU making already?
No more trash talk of big money or financial freedom. Because:
1) Folks who attain big income or financial freedom are VERY rare, which is why the FTC regs forbid using big $ stories to sell the opportunity (unless it’s typical), and
2) No more big or easy money talk means your own words don’t trigger the “How much do you make?” question.
Capiche?
Next: How DO I sell the business then, if not with big income stories?
Even without the FTC ruling, you shouldn't be making big income claims. I always ask people how much extra THEY want to make per month and then tell them what they need to do to make THAT amount. That way there's no claim of anything.
I'm not certain that the FTC necessarily had MLM/NM in the front of their mind when they modified the rules, but the changes are going to drastically impact the MLM/NM industry – especially online.
Distributors have long been required to disclose the results the "typical" distributor achieves in the program (for at least 2 decades), but those disclosures have usually been in very small print, perhaps in light gray text (making them difficult to read, or to even FIND, for that matter).
No more! Now, if any income representations or projections are made in your "pitch," you're required to clearly and conspicuously disclose the amount the typical distributor earns in the program (i.e. the "average" do-nothing distributor whose last official act was to sign up and buy a kit).
So many people have relied on the "opportunity" portion of their NM program to recruit new distributors into their downline – often with little or no disclosure about the actual product/service involved, nor is there typically very much training on how to develop the "retail" component of their NM business (which is vital in order to make your business legal in the first place!).
While I always detest the Government intruding into the affairs of private enterprise, it's not really surprising that that the FTC chose to revise the rules the way they did. Just look at the typical MLM/NM squeeze page and/or sales page – photos of bundles of $100 bills, exotic sports cars, huge beautiful houses, attractive people walking on tropical beaches – and NO MENTION of the actual nature of the business itself (the product or service involved).
You can be certain that the smart MLM/NM parent companies are feverishly reworking their sales pages (especially the replicated sites used by their distributors) to comply with the new rules. No doubt, they're tearing their hair out because often the only real "selling point" of their program is the ability to generate a large income. The new rules will require a radical departure from the "usual" theme of most MLM/NM promotions, and many of them will have extreme difficulty making the transition.
(By the way – people using screenshots of their PayPal accounts, or copies of checks they've received, are already in violation of FTC rules (regarding "check waving").
Again, while I don't like some of the implications of the new rules, they are the rules we'll all have to live by – until they're changed again. You can be sure that the FTC will go after people with the deepest pockets first – namely the MLM/NM companies themselves – but individual distributors are also in their sights as well (especially the "heavy hitters"). With a fine of up to $11,000 per violation, the FTC could end up generating quite a lot of revenue for a government that makes a drunken sailor look like a spendthrift!
Let's be careful out there!