Top 10 Lies of Network Marketing

Network marketing recruiters who say that to their potential or actual downline members either lie on purpose in order to keep them or don’t tell them the whole truth. Network marketing, just like any business in the world, requires its owner to work hard in order to get financial results. People are often attracted into network marketing by the deceptive statement as this: “Part time job, full time results.” This is nonsense! Those who work on their network marketing business part-time need to work even harder to achieve the full-time income, because they move twice as slow as those who work on it full-time. If network marketing were that easy and effortless as some network marketers present it, we all would become millionaires in one year. But it doesn’t happen, because it can’t happen.

2. You have to convince people to buy your product

The above statement comes out of the mouth of the same upline members who say that network marketing business is easy and effortless. It contradicts their own statement that I marked as #1, because convincing a person that she needs what you have takes a lot of effort and work. Besides, it takes several professional skills to do that even if a person does need what you have to offer. But think about it: what’s the point of convincing somebody to buy your product against their will? Wouldn’t it be easier to find and target those who do want or need your product? Convincing somebody against their will leaves nothing but disappointment in your prospect’s mind from dealing with you. 

3. Selling an opportunity will build your downline 

“Opportunity” is a very attractive word. But it becomes less and less attractive if you add different modifiers to it, such as “business”, “income”, “network marketing”, MLM, etc. Most people are fed up with hearing all these words that rarely have a real content behind them. It’s becoming harder and harder to build one’s downline by simply selling them the “network marketing business opportunity”. Why? Because of people’s disbelief. Network marketers are a dime a dozen, and only the laziest of them don’t try to sell their “business opportunity”. Prior to selling a high-end product, such as a network marketing opportunity, you have to build trust and rapport between you and your prospect. The better your prospect knows you, the higher are your chances to sign them up into your downline. Otherwise, prepare for rejection and prospects’ disinterestedness. 

4. You have to lie or conceal the truth in order to make a sale 

Once upon a time, my wife and I were invited by a couple for a cup of tea. We didn’t mind to have a cup of tea with them, so we went. But before we were told to take a seat at the table, we were told to sit down on a cozy sofa. There was already another couple in the room looking through some magazines. Next, the head of the household brought a large presentation pad fixed to a portable white board. I realized right away that a cup of tea will be a reward for listening to their presentation of a network marketing opportunity. 

The guy was telling us about the beauty of the compensation plan, demonstrated several products, and gave us some samples to take home. He was going on and on and on, non-stop. He made me start dreaming about my own castle with a BMW on its driveway, a huge pool in the backyard, etc.

 But he purposefully and maliciously omitted to mention that even if we learned the compensation plan numbers and percentages by heart, we would have to work hard in order to earn our first dollar. He forgot to mention that the sales business, which network marketing is, requires professional training or at least coaching. He forgot to mention that selling is not the same as sharing. He forgot to mention that not everybody was my customer. 

So, the moral of the story is that we turned their opportunity offer down. The first reason was that if the guy’s intention behind having a cup of tea with us was not really having a cup of tea, then the income opportunity might have turned out to be anything but income opportunity. Second, the guy was trying to sell me something I didn’t expect him to sell; I, in turn, didn’t expect to go to his house to buy his opportunity. 

If you conceal even a little bit of truth from your prospects and they find out about it, your reputation is ruined. If you tell them half of the truth, you’re a liar, so expect them to treat you like one. Lying in sales is the same as suicide. Don’t lie to your prospects. Don’t conceal the truth. Don’t tell them half of the truth. You won’t gain anything by lying, but you may lose everything. 

5. You will make money without losing any 

No upline member will ever attract you to be their prospect by telling you that you network marketing is a money losing business. In order to recruit you, they will give you all the testimonials they can think of as a persuasion tool that people actually make money in network marketing. Yes, we do make money in network marketing, but the majority of people lose money before they even earn a penny. And they lose a lot! 

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t consider investing money in my business as losing it. If you spend money according to your business and marketing plans, it’s not losing. But if your network marketing company makes you buy its replicated websites, charges you money for printed marketing materials and all the other B.S. you can think of, it’s wasting. 

If you have no money to invest in your network marketing business, don’t take it away from your family. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to build your network marketing business on a shoestring budget or with no money at all. You’ll be amazed how much money you will save by using simple, yet effective, free marketing methods that your company is not telling you about. If you want to start or if you already are in the network marketing business, work on it for yourself, not for your network marketing company. 

6. All network marketers are cold-blooded predators 

You may have that impression because of the old-school marketing techniques that most network marketers continue using. However, the time is changing, so do network marketers. More and more MLMers switch to using the Internet to run their business as well as attraction marketing to build their downline. 

Those network marketers who still chase their prospects down, bug their family, friends, and present or former co-workers are becoming fewer and fewer as they realize that it doesn’t take aggressive sales techniques to build their downline. More and more people tend to arm themselves with the knowledge of how to attract prospects with little or no money. Network marketers are gradually becoming professionals of attraction vs. failures of attrition. 

7. Network marketing is a form of passive income 

I don’t believe in the theory that network marketing is a form of a passive income simply because you need to work hard and be proactive to make any money at all. It’s not like a savings account or a CD that yield interest on the money you’re lending to the bank. 

The so called passive income in network marketing requires tremendous efforts on your part before the monetization lever of your business turns on. Don’t let the lie about a quick buck deceive you. The dream of the lazy is to sit down doing nothing and make millions of dollars. That simply doesn’t happen. Lazy people never succeed. Lazy people may inherit riches or win lottery, and it makes them receivers, not achievers. There is nothing bad about being born rich or inherit riches left behind by an aunt, or even win a lottery. But network marketing doesn’t work that way. Thus, be a proactive achiever to make the passive income in network marketing your reality. 

8. Anyone can make money in network marketing 

My question to this statement is: why don’t they? If anyone can make money in network marketing, why does the reality show something different? Isn’t it because the opposite is true? 

The statistics say that 95 to 97 percent of network marketers fail in this business. To me it looks like the majority can’t figure out how to run this business, because they’re taught the above lies. Beginning network marketers believe the false promises. 

In order to move to the rest of the 3-5 percent of successful network marketers, you have to do something. You have to stand out from the crowd; you have to stop being like everybody else in terms of following someone’s advice on how to run your network marketing business. If you run your network marketing business like everybody else, sooner or later you’ll fall flat on your face – disappointed, depressed, and ripped off.

If you want success in network marketing, learn from the pros. Do what they do. Learn what they learned. Create your unique way of running business by learning and implementing what works and puts money in your pocket. 

In the next section I explain in further details how your network company pre-programs you for failure. 

9. “My company’s training is the one that will facilitate my success” 

Many network marketers wonder why they’re not succeeding in their business. The answer lies in the training that your network marketing company provides to its distributors.

Most network marketing companies continue teaching their distributors marketing and selling techniques that stopped working decades ago. If a company trains the same old principles year after year, guess what? The company’s distributors fail, because skills they learn are useless. Who cares nowadays about network marketing presentations? People tend to start puking when they hear another sales pitch. It’s sickening!

And those network marketing companies bring up armies of network marketing failures, because they teach the same old stuff to hundreds of thousands of newbies. Instead of teaching them how to attract prospects, they teach them how to distract them. Instead of teaching them how to make money while prospecting, they teach them how to spend money even before one single prospect appears on the horizon. This is ridiculous. If you mainly get training at your company, be prepared for failure. You’ll be trained best if you learn from network marketing pros. 

10. You can recruit people without talking to them

As a network marketer you can across people who sell “magic” recruiting systems that allegedly are able to build you your downline on an auto-pilot. In other words, prospects are supposed to cease your network marketing opportunity like crazy without you first talking with them.

Well, if you treat network marketing as business, you’re supposed to hire the best candidates you can find, right? How would you know if a prospect is a good match for your downline without talking to her? Remember, you don’t recruit every single prospect that comes to you. You recruit the best. So, it’s non-sense that you can recruit the best prospects into your downline without first having an interview with them. Network marketing is not a numbers game; it’s dealing with real living people whom you not only recruit into your downline. They are your students whom you have to coach and who you have to provide value for.

So, talk to your prospects. Know what they want from you, and let them know what you can give them. Guide them as you deal with them and build a long-term relationship with them. 

Summary

As a network marketer you may have noticed more myths and lies that some MLM gurus feed their downline with. The list above is by no means complete. If you would like to add the lie about network marketing you’ve faced before to this list, you’re more than welcome. The purpose of this is to let network marketing newbies know how of the existence of those lies and help them deal with them by telling them the truth about how network marketing truly works and what they can do to achieve success.