Hiding the dark side isn’t good for anyone’s business, is it? People find out and they tell their friends, who tell theirs…
“Wendy’s is using a legal loophole to avoid posting the calorie content of its food on the menus in their New York stores.”
“Porsche ran a huge ad in today’s New York Times for the Cayenne. It contains every imaginable stat, including the size of the brake rotors. Oh, they left one stat out: mileage. Perhaps they’re hoping that people wealthy enough to buy a $60,000 SUV won’t notice how much gas they’re using…”
(Thanks for these, Seth)
When shall we stop hiding our little secrets from new recruits? And from our prospective customers? Dare we tell it like it is?
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Yes, of course I have something to help you: the things I did. For recruits click here. For amassing a customer base of people (who don’t whine “It’s too expensive”) click here.
I agree full disclosure of all the possible loopholes is mandatory if we are to conduct our business with integrity. However, what about all the people who lead us to believe they are potential prospects for our business, take up our time and effort resources and then flake out on us. How do we get our prospects to reveal their secrets so we know whether to start down the long and winding road with them? How can we make the “Law of Attraction” work both to the prospect’s and our advantage. Perhaps by adding a really non-techno-babble pre-qualifying question and answer session at the outset. I actually made a form up with the questions, but when I get into conversation with the prospect somehow find it difficult to ask the questions. This makes me realize asking the questions is mandatory unless I want to keep kidding myself and wasting my precious time and energy resources. Juliette Gray
Hiding things is just plain wrong. It’s immoral and unethical. It’s lying.
When people discover the hidden information, they feel lied to. When the hidden information comes up as a problem, it shows up as a magnified problem. A problem that appears to be to difficult to solve.
Our lied to and overwhelmed newbie leaves the business. He leaves with a very bitter taste in his mouth. Our relationship with him maybe severely damaged. Worst of all, his ability to get control of his life may have just vanished.
Avoiding the truth by just ‘forgetting’ to mention something is lying. Whether we are talking to customers about our product or potential associates about the business we need to be honest. Remember how hard we worked to create the relationship? Do we want to dash that all on the rocks of making a few bucks? If we are honest and they respond with “Yes, that’s for me” we have gained a friend while creating some tangible income for ourselves.
Nancy Carlson
http://www.perfectmombusiness.com
Oh boy – my “irate consumerism” is rising!
For most of my adult life I have been a consumer advocate of one sort or another…it even took me through a law degree ☺.
Sins of omission are just as bad as outright lies…and I consider small barely readable print and rapidly spoken legalese at the end of TV and radio ads to be forms of dishonesty.
My main targets are usually the giant pharmaceuticals that “legally” use the population as the tertiary subjects of their drug research. And “oops” we found that those rarely experienced contraindications? Well they kill you….
….”so sorry.”
When the lies and omissions cause death – the general public gets upset.
But what about the lies and omissions in our industry?
They can also kill – your dreams, your wallets, your energy etc.
The lying of the marketer happens for the same reasons the giant corporations lie – the almighty bottom line –
It’s become more important than real live people.
The bottom line should be honesty…not money!
Lynn Dorman, Ph.D.
grow older better
We always should show the strong and weaker points of our businesses.
It is also important not to exagerate results or use the top income earners examples like they had an easy path towards their success.
Integrity and honesty always. 🙂
Besides not avoiding the truth we also should not exagerate income or benefits claims from our business and products or services.
Sometimes I have the impression from some distributors/agents that their top income earners became successful without any effort. 🙂
OH Sure… How often do you hear the realities of this business.
Oh yes this is a great business…
You will need to be on monthly autoship so that you are qualified to receive commission. Because our pay plan pays 5% you’ll need at least twenty members or regular customers before you break even. BUT, you will also find that because most people don’t reach this profit zone, they will eventually quit.
This means you will need to work very hard.
You will probably run your credit cards up an go broke.
But this really is a great business…
Ah, ok… maybe I’ll pass.
Not only is it wrong based on moral or ethical reasons (let’s face it, that’s just not enough reason for some marketers), it’s also just plain stupid.
Seriously, who are they kidding? Particularly in our industry. Hiding the “dark side” is just one more way our industry is getting a bad rap.
Let’s look at what would happen if we, OMG, told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We might actually stop spinning our wheels in an effort to find the person that isn’t going to quit using our products or the distributor that gets discouraged when they can’t do what we told them they could in this business. We might start attracting the best customers and distributors that make our jobs so much easier and all the more enjoyable. All because we put the dirty laundry out for everyone to see and we put it right next to the fine china.
Nicole Bandes,
http://www.ilovesendoutcards.com
I have to stand firmly by my previous posts that we need to make it a little harder to get involved. It should be Just like a job where you have to go to multiple interviews, take a test and sometimes a probationary trial period. I will not sign up anyone into my company until they have come on at least 2 conference calls, looked through our dealer program and tried a product in their home for themselves. All this first, before I will sign them up. I made the mistake over the years of signing up anyone who asked, showed a little interest, only to see them either in the witness protection program, or with a box full of product they financed and can’t pay for or won’t even try. That’s how I get disclosure from my prospects. In return, I show them everything I know and make myself personally responsible for mentoring them as long as it takes. Hold holding 101 will be taught here.
Too many times, we are taught to recruit and let them sort it out on their own. Here’s the schedules of calls, go to this training, good luck. I won’t do it anymore. I am using Kim’s training to get everyone started and then we’ll start having regular meetings where there haven’t been any, just to keep everyone fully informed, trained and fully engaged in helping each other. This business is supposed to be about relationships: it’s about time we started being serious about those relationships.
“..witness protection program”? Cindi you’re hilarious!
When I first started NM last year, I also followed the route of “it’s easy, the products sell themselves, anyone can do it, etc” & got 2 distributors right after I signed on. Then I found myself holding their hands, doing the work for them & literally wasting months trying to “maintain” them.
Being upfront about the fact that not all products &/or business is for everyone has helped me filter potential prospects. Recently, I turned away a prospect who came to company meeting & was persuaded by the speaker’s “make lots of money with minimal effort speech”. But I followed Kim’s advice & said “no first”. Now, she’s a happy customer who’s been referring new customers. It’s so much nicer than having a resentful ex-distributor who feels they were scammed into signing up.
One of the many Klaver scripts that stood out for me was learning if someone asks “will the product work for me?”, tell them what they don’t expect to hear= “I don’t know if it’ll work for you, like it did for me…etc”. It feels good to have honest answers & especially answers that don’t sound like canned company responses.
Being from a tv techie background, I’ve found Kim’s concepts has really helped build my credibility & reputation as an honest seller/advisor.
Elaine (Francine’s Momma)
Vancouver, Canada
Protect Our Babies
“A lie has speed, but truth has endurance” –Edgar J. Mohn
If business builders are allowed to grow organically so to speak from happy customers, the whole
dilemma goes away, doesn’t it?
As Kim says, no promises, no problems.
I am totally for open cards. Being honest and upfront has always worked for me. I don’t like people who hide the truth from me or exagerate incomes so why would I do the same thing to someone else.
Also, what good would it do me to hide the truth from someone just to get him or her into my business and have them quit a month or two later. It’s a lot of work getting someone started properly. So why would I want to waste my time knowing that they only joined because of what I said…or didn’t say. No, no, that doesn’t make sense.
Every company has their flaws. I haven’t found one yet that is totally perfect. But knowing upfront what you’re getting into will definately help a new recruit face the obstacles head on. They also will appreciate your honesty.
Openess and honesty and integrity always work best!
Have a great week!
Ilka ;o)
I think it is a shame that there are so many unscrupulous individuals out there that are giving MLM such a bad name. My upline, the famous Mr. John Fogg, explains what we do so sincerely. Relationshipping is not about deception. It is about becoming true comrads. Every call we have with him is so enlightening. He is a true master of this. All we have to do is tell the truth. Isn’t that what we want. I know I was deceived by my upline and I never hear from them anymore. They could care less about my success. All they wanted me to do was buy more and more product so they could make commissions. It really hurt me bad. I know now that this is not the way it is suppose to be. I could not live with myself if I did that to people. Sure, we don’t come out directly and say who our company is and that is because people are scared of the past. It is going to take some time and real honesty to change the face of MLM. I had a prospect tell me that only the ones at the top make the money. I was not going to attempt to change her mind because she had it all figured out. I was not going to convince her. But, she did buy the product. I felt that was a step in the right direction. Just be real and listen to what they are saying to you.
There are advantages and disadvantages to everything. If there is something that might be viewed as an issue for my prospect or customer, I tell them that right away.
I also encourage them to ask questions. The last thing I want is for them to feel that I have not been open and honest with them. My future business depends on my reputation.
I expect honesty when I am the customer and I make sure I consciously provide honesty to others.
Brenda Bunney
405-612-0473
networkmarketingsuccessbunney.blogspot.com
http://BrendaBunneyMLM.com
brendabunney@yahoo.com
It’s not fair! Nobody’s standing up for the liars and cheats, hiders of truth and generally unscrupulous bastards out there. They’re people too, you know. 😉
Daniel@NMC
Ethos Environmental
“Fuel savings & cleaner exhaust, as on TV”
“Meus vox est meus veneratio; meus veneratio est meus vita.”
“My word is my honor; my honor is my life.”
This comes directly from the email signature of one of the people on my team. He absolutely lives it. I’m very excited and proud I’m able to attract people like him into my team and my life. What’s even more important, of all my reps, he has been the most successful.
Now if I could only convince this stubborn Bostonian to properly spell “honour”… 🙂
-Alex the Network Marketing Comrade
The truth up front has always worked best for me.
Tell it like it is up front.
They should know it is sales. Not sharing, not education, but sales. Yes we do share, educate, etc. but it is always a sad site when a new recruit shows up and gets this strange look on his face when he realizes he has to sell something.
They should know it is work. One of the reasons that selling in general and network marketing in particular can be so rewarding is because…well…its *hard*. If any old joe could do it there would no longer be an opportunity.
They should know the downside of your product, company, and compensation plan, and every company has them. No reason to be neurotic about it but strength in selling and recruiting comes from knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your offering and being upfront about it.
They should know this isn’t for everybody and maybe (probably most likely) it is not for them. That is not a bad thing. Sometimes I think we misread the turnover numbers. If people wash out because they bought a bunch of hype that wasn’t true, that is one thing. But many people leave because selling of any sort is just not for them. Yet they take away many lessons from our business that helps them in their future careers.
One of the advantages of doing the business the new school way is that many more folks leave with a positive attitude about what we do even though it is not for them. Such attitudes are NOT reflected in the turnover numbers.