Reader Glenn Jaffas writes in today that he’s lost most of his group because of the “lies, hype and unprofessionalism” of the crossline meetings they all attended.
“I put together a team of 43 associates and sold 180 memberships thruout the team, and then stagnated…I stepped back from things to think this thru because the local crossline does business exactly how you say not to.
Every time we attended a crossline meeting it was lies, hype and unprofessionalism to boot. ‘My’ team has since pretty much died, there are two or three of us left out of 43…ouch. I got feedback from people like this: ‘After attending a meeting, I simply cannot be associated with this group of people‘, and I can’t argue that because I agree!”
Glenn’s is not the only company with an unprofessional aura – it is an industry-wide challenge.
What are your suggestions for Glenn?
For Glenn:
I started in MLM 7 years ago (in and out) and considering what I’ve experienced, SHOULD be a statistic! However, I knew I loved this business; I just disagreed with the way the upline did the business … hype … hype … ‘promises … problems’!
Two years ago I began with a new company. I loved the products and decided to ‘try’ the business AGAIN. My upline sponsor hosted all the meetings and like your group of 43 people … almost everyone I ‘signed up’ ‘dropped out.’
Like most others, I had the preconceived notion that he ‘knew’ more than me … and that the secret to success was ‘duplication.’ I have one more handicap … I am an American who lives in Greece and, although I speak the language, I am (was) very insecure with my ‘professional’ speaking skills. (Think the phone weighs a ton when you get to speak in English … try picking it up when you have to talk in another language!)
Well … after my sponsor totally humiliated two of my new recruits one evening … I fired him! I came home that night, searched the net, found hundreds of sites, and settled on Kim’s New School of Network Marketing. I have overwhelmed myself with information and am just beginning to get things in perspective; but, you know what, I am now “building my own heap” by myself! Like you, out of my 40+ recruits there are about five of us left. And you know what … we are ‘of like mind’ … and you know what else … I may not know as much as my upline … but I know more than the new recruit sitting across the table. I love my products and truly believe that my products can ‘help’ people and I truly believe that this business is the only business on the planet where an ‘ordinary’ person can accomplish ‘extraordinary’ things! And, that ‘little light shines through’!
The five of us have now become ten and the ten will soon become twenty and so forth an so own. We have started over, are learning together and are building “the New School of Network Marketing”!
Bottom line … the philosophy of MLM is … Build your own business … be your own boss … so why do we consider our upline our ‘boss’?
Starting today … build your own heap! Start with your three or four people … have brainstorming sessions … ‘share’ the learning and build your own business the way you see fit!
Venetta
Unfortunately, I left the company I was associated with for the past year for the same exactly reason. After each meeting I had bad taste in my mouth.
What made me sick completely (after which I wrote the cancellation notice to the company). There was the Annual Meeting planning In Las Vegas. And the Guest Speaker, the “World Renown Hypnotizer” announced on the conference call: “After an hour that all of you spend with me, you will be able to sign anyone and make him think it was his idea!”
Isn’t that grandiose?!
And we here are trying to figure out how to lead with the relationship…
Change companies. There are companies that attract professionals because they operate as professionals.
Ouch. That hurts all of us.
I am just realizing my upline is there to help me not rule over me. I have to take his advice for what it is advice.
It would be a big step to hold your own meetings but if you and your now small but commited group hold true to honesty what can you lose?
Nancy Carlson
http://www.perfectmombusiness.com
Glenn,
Now YOU are on the right track with Kim’s excellent model of professionalism. Now, you can set the standard of professional behavior for your own heap. You can model the behavior that good people will want to duplicate. You can decide also if the company and its products deserve your professional affiliation.
Even from the best apple trees, there can be a few “bad apples,” so these unethical crosslines need not necessarily send you to a new company. A few years ago in my company, some folks in my town got in with a “get rich quick” attitude, and they were creating havoc with front-end loading all over town. They did not last long…
Good folks are again in the forefront in my town, and the true professionals are still here and thriving. Changing companies may or man not be part of your answer; you have already done the most important thing: changing your own mind.
Ruth Kneile
Another example of why our industry has such a poor image.
Luckily there are people like Glenn and the people involved in Network Marketing Central who are helping change that image one person at a time.
We want to be honest with people, no hype, no lies, no unprofessionalism.
To thine own self be true Glenn. First make sure your company doesn’t condone this type of behavior or “look the other way” because your crossline is bringing in the bucks. If they approve of his sleazy tactics I would seriously start looking at other options.
As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and if the tree is rotten, you don’t want to build anywhere near it. When it falls you’ll get crushed too!
If everything looks good there, then it appears as though you’re on your own, don’t count on that crossline to help.
The next thing to do would be to find a Mentor, someone that can teach you the skills, a person who has built a large organization and has integrity. Pick their brain, find out how and what they are doing.
There are lots of great leaders out there who are more than willing to help someone who is serious and has integrity.
Hope this helps
Suzanne
http://www.NetworkMarketingHotspot.com
My experience, dating back almost 10 years now, ‘duplicates’ Venetta’s with the exception of the language challenge. My first upline was a master at ‘fleecing the flock’! Being totally new to the NWM paradigm, it took me several months to realize there was something very wrong going on. When I resigned, notifying the Company with hard copy records of ‘transactions’, they took swift corrective action. My next upline? Old School! Recruiting’s a revolving door… wheel-spinning 101! Thank goodness for folks like Kim and Max Steingart!!! They truly enable us to build our OWN heap and, yes, in our lifetime!
Hypsters are in every business and maybe more so in this business because no (none that I know of)mlm or direct sales company require a background check, or open to all that sign an application.
This is a great business, and for Glenn and others that got a bad taste of it, don’t close your mind from it completely.
It took me 6 years of searching until all the pieces came together to fit “Me” and my needs.
Evaluate what YOU want in many different areas and start searching for the company and upline.
Examples of where to start is:
Ownership, for example, your either a fan of the owners displaying all their cars,toys, and mansions, or your NOT. Another thing you may be a fan of high price points to get in a business for immediate cash, you like the “Hunt”, or you look for low or no cost start up and like to build relationships, create leaders out of customers, OR you may like inbetween…
There are so many things to look at before jumping into someone else’s excitement, in the end it is your reputation.
Alot people quit, give up on their dream because of this problem because they think they have ruined their reputation and this is does not have to be the case.
Keep searching and don’t settle.
There was a reason why I attended so many opportunity meetings on my own in my last company. If I didn’t buy into the line we were being fed there how would any of my friends? Only now am I starting to believe that I can lead and that I can do it my way.
What is the worst my upline will do to me for my leading with integrity and honesty…………fire me?
Unfortunately, some people will use any excuse to quit. As distasteful as it is to watch unprofessional conduct as it relates to our businesses, the fact remains that those who are right for this industry will find a way to excel in spite of those that don’t belong and break rules.
If the company is worth it, make your stand and start over with the people that aren’t deterred by others actions. And stay away from those who drag down the oppportunity for everyone.
My suggestion would be to find some other local meeting to go to where this is not an issue. If there is none, start your own meeting and duplicate your business the correct way.
Don’t give up on the dream… just the company you’re with.
There are opportunities in this industry that don’t exist anywhere else.
Based on the results of your current business you seem to have worked hard. Any good business would love to have you on board.
Take a moment, back away, look at other opportunities. Become a customer of the ones you’re most interested in. Evaluate their entire process from sale to delivery and follow up. Test their products, evaluate their packaging, test their customer care and support systems.
A good product, presented well, supported by great customer care is generally a good indicator as to the business’s true colors.
Once you’re satisfied the systems are in place look at the “opportunity”.
Take your time, if you’re serious you’ll find something you like.
Hey Glenn,
Do your own meetings. Gather the 2 or 3 people you still have – who are obviously committed – and develop a meeting plan. Talk about what you do and do not like about the crossline’s meetings. Talk about what each of you wants to see, hear and experience in a meeting.
Hold a test meeting. Go to the people who have dropped out. Explain to them you are developing a new meeting format and you want their feedback. Tell them you know they are out and have no intention to rejoin. Make it absolutely crystal clear that you do not expect them to rejoin. What you need from them is for them to point out anything that sounds full of hype and empty promises, like the other meetings. Let them know their opinion is important to you. Bride them with free pizza if you have to.
After you’ve gather all the feedback and tweak your meeting agenda, start having meetings. Even if it’s only you and your 3. Just start. Create the intent, energy and action required to get your business growing.
I’ve been in netWORK marketing for ten years now. Part of doing the business is to “plug into” local meetings and trainings. It happened that a business builder and I scouted out several top income earners meetings. In one the top person actually bashed another MLM company..totally AGAINST our company’s ethics rules. Just because this woman is earning over $40k per month, does NOT give her rights to bash other companies..the real issue is that because SHE thinks its okay..is really what was NOT okay. My business partner and I left. I just stated that I had never been to this person’s meetings before and after attending one I knew clearly that I would NOT be back.
We decided to attend several to find leadership that was “walking the walk and talking the talk” of the ethics rules we agreed to when joining our company. We have found that leadership and those qualities are what we strive to emulate.
I would recommend that George either gather them all together to have them share their feelings on the subject and to let them know that as their team leader, where HE personally stands and that he and them are THE team and not to throw away their opportunity because they witnessed poor leadership skills (which can be learned BTW). After all, he did sponsor them into his company for other reasons did he not?
I would also recommend that he voice his opinion to his company especially if policies are being violated. Those types of leaders, just make the company look bad.
Glenn,
Think of your MLM co. as a supplier. As a business owner would you put all your eggs in one basket? Would you only have one supplier? Think like a business not a distributor…marketing is key, and multiple revenue streams…being professional and honest is key (as we all know) but look at multiple way’s to market you business…maybe meetings not the answer…I have lot’s of marketing info you can have either go to http://www.mywavepage.com/gb2175 (the site name will change in a day to http://www.GregEButler.com)
or contact me Gebutler@aol.com…I will send you the info…marketing and multiple streams of revenue is key to any business
Glenn what Venneta wrote mirrors my feelings. In fact I’ve read several of Venneta’s comments and feel this Networker is authentic, and leading by example. Venneta if you read this I to thank you for putting so much heart into your words. You are an inspiration. I know by the time I finish this there will be others with comments to support Glenn, for you I thank you as well.
I haven’t had any problems in this area. My upline is 2000 miles away. My company doesn’t encourage meetings like you wrote about. I do have regular contact with my up and down line but it’s as team support. Like Venneta I’m building my team one by one and doing it in a way that makes me proud of my choosen profession.
Glenn, don’t give up just change directions. Write your vision for how your business will be strong, how you will be un-stoppable. Let your vision lead you, write your vision based on your values. Read your vision daily, every day until your mind believes it to be real.
Here’s a quote from Richard Brooke that changed my life, personal and professional.
“The universe does not seem to care what you and I want. The universe does deliver, in abundance, what we expect with our minds and our hearts.”
Check out this site for information on Visions and how yours can change any area of your life.
http://www.richardbrooke.com
Stop doing the company meetings, organize your own based on your values. Start down a new path, one your team want to follow with you. Don’t associate with people who don’t make you feel good about your business.
Don’t give up, just regroup.
Best wishes
Robin
Dear Glenn,
You wrote:
I got feedback from people like this: ‘After attending a meeting, I simply cannot be associated with this group of people’, and I can’t argue that because I agree!”
Therein lies your answer. There is no need to argue, nor to be associated with that other group. They are not the company and products you represent, just a bunch of people with different comfort zones. Let them do their thing and you can do yours with your like-minded friends. Here’s my idea:
Gather your people, sit them down and tell them about Network Marketing Central. Have them email some of us, and see what happens. See if they get prospected or feel uncomfortable in any way. They will be dumbfounded! “MLMr’s who don’t jump on me about the business?! Is that a real thing?”
Yes in-deedie!
Then start your own open mlm meetings for all mlmr’s in your area that tout NMC’s approach making sure everyone understands they are not there to prospect each other. You will be a part of the solution, and people will love you for giving them their hope back, that maybe they can market that product they love after all! Now that you’ve shown them there’s a way to do it without looking unprofessional.
Best wishes for you and your team.
Tracy
Thanks to all who took the time to respond to this post. For the record, I have no plans to leave the industry or this particular company at this point in time. I made the mistake of being naive and following the local culture and I now have corrected that mistake. Fortunately the company I rep for does market services that sell on their own merits without a business opportunity attached. Working on that aspect of the business, retail sales, is what prompted my email to Kim and this subsequent conversation with all of you. Hopefully having all of your inputs posted here to learn from will prove beneficial to many, as the challenges discussed seem to be rampant within this industry. Again, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Glenn
Learning from negative examples and experiences
We are as able to learn from negative examples as we are from positive ones. So some suggestions about what we can do if this sort of thing happens.
Email or gather your downline that were at that meeting and say something like:
“Wow – I feel that was a not-so-great way to do our business. You?”
“How can we do it so that everyone leaves the meeting saying I feel good about the company and myself?” [i.e. throw open the floor and let your downline talk – about the negatives and the way to do the business so it feels good to them]
Another way to use this is if you attend the crossline meetings first and not take your downline with you. That way you’ll get a taste of what they are dong and you can talk to your group in advance of any of them going to such meetings – also using a forewarning so they are prepared for what they might hear.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Ultimately, do your own meetings – having learned what NOT to do… and from Kim – what TO DO…
Be the leader you would like to have leading you…
Lynn Dorman, Ph.D.
grow older better
I’ve been trying to post comments the past week and they don’t seem to get through, so this is a test. Thanks.
“Lies, hype, and unprofessionalism . . .” this is why network marketing has such a bad reputation and why so many shy away from it. Network marketing is a viable and effective method of distributing products and services. Good “products and services” which have benefits for the consumer, not a promise, not a lie, not a dream. Find a company that’s in the “business” of providing good products and services that fulfill a need, want, or desire. Then distribute the product and service in an honest, straight forward manner. Stay away from those who say you can not be successful doing business this way. Then eventually, practices from the new school of network marketing will no longer be “new” but will be just network marketing, a legitimate and the “best” method of distribution.
No matter what company you are with, who your upline is ultimately you or we are the one’s responsible for our own business. It is truly our business, how we run it how we do meetings, how we try to “grow our business” is totally up to us. Our business model has to be one which is easily duplicatable, and one of the most critical aspects of that duplicatability is the approach we use with people.
Farmers or gardeners know that there is a process to follow. First till the soil, plant the seeds, cultivate and care for what you have planted and prepare for the harvest. Unfortunately too many of us want to go from planting to harvest, leaving out the step of cultivation and care of the crop. I don’t know of many crops which will survive. Building relationships is critically important in Network Marketing. Like tending and cultivating the “crop” takes more time, but in the end the harvest will be well worth the wait.
I said that the next company I join where the upline says, “Talk to People”,I am going to run away real fast.
This is a people business like any other. I think we are suppose to be friends helping friends making some money along the way. If they are not interested, let them be. I have finally learned to handle rejection because I no longer fear failure. You have to keep searching for that special person that wants what you want. Make it a reality, not a dream. You don’t want a herd of sheep. You want the dog that herds those sheep in the direction you want them to go so they are successful and happy. Use you heart and you mind in conjunction. You can’t lose. I have been trying to succeed for over a year now. It have not been easy. It is also a slow process. I have purchase tons of information to help me learn what is the right way to do his business. I have found a great mentor and I know I will learn alot from this person. Just stick with your own values. It is not duplicatable. You have to find what works for you. Kim has given us so much information. It is a candy store. Just pick your flavor and stick with it.
Best of Luck to All.
I’ve noticed that whatever you see and hear a lot rubs off on you, so I recommend great care about attending any meetings on a regular basis – don’t even stay if the meeting looks like a bad role model for you.
That said, I thought Connely and Lynn had some real good hands-on practical advice. I’d read it again if I were looking for guidance in a right-now situation like that. I would have preferred to leave this reply till tomorrow, but if I did, I’d have to read all those posts again, because I would have forgotten whose I wanted to mention as being good hands-on advice. Now, I’ve done that. I sure hope it doesn’t disappear. LOL
bk
Hi Glenn,
I know it may not seem so at the moment but this is probably a blessing in disguise and will make you a much stronger networker in the long run.
The first thing I would do is stop attending cross-line meetings, or if you do attend them do so by yourself first to check them out before inviting anyone else to attend.
You probably need to come to grips with the idea that as far as new school networking goes you may be alone for awhile until you develop your own core group of people.
Which means you may have to conduct your own meetings, perhaps from your home initially if you can’t afford a local venue. I think “private business receptions” can be great if done right and they include food.
You might be fortunate and find an upline who is open to new school thinking or hands off enough to let you do your own thing, but if you do consider that as an added blessing and not the norm.
The second thing I would do is become a strong and active seller/retailer. I would sit down each and every week and figure out just how much personal activity I need to do in order to reach my goals. What you will find over time is that other people will begin to…ahem…duplicate what you do and your organization will grow in a good way as a result.
In my first networking company we had a saying for all the full-timers, “recruit by day and sell by night” (the commissions on our services were relatively large, so a person could go full time fairly soon with a good effort). The point being that if you didn’t do any regular building activity you would never position yourself for a big growth surge that could occur after many months of effort. On the other hand if you didn’t sell at night you would go broke during the building process.
Since we marketed a service we never had any temptations about front-loading, recruiting only, etc., i.e. all the horror stories you hear about traditional network marketing. We understood building a business takes time, and that in the meantime we had to establish a solid and growing client base if we were going to survive in the long run.
With your current company you might want to reverse that and “sell by day and recruit by night.” In other words spend your days marketing memberships and your nights sharing the opportunity. This is especially a good approach if you do business to business sales (i.e. group memberships). If you aren’t full time you will have to modify that advice somewhat should you choose to use it, but I think the essence of it works no matter your situation.
Lastly, don’t lose touch with your people who have dropped out. Find a way to keep them in the loop, perhaps a monthly newsletter or some other unobtrusive way to keep them informed. After all they got in the business because of you. If they see over time that you are leading something a little different than what they were exposed to at the meeting, some of them may come back in, or send others your way, both clients and recruits.
Hope that helps,
Michael
http://www.wlgweb.com