Top 10 lies about MLM
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Lie #1: MLM is a business offering better opportunities for making large sums of money than all other conventional business and professional models.
Truth: For almost everyone who invests MLM turns out to be a losing financial proposition. This is not an opinion, but a historical fact. Consider some notable examples from among the largest MLMs.
In the largest of all MLMs, Amway, only 1/2 of one percent of all distributors make it to the basic level of "direct" distributor, and the average income of all Amway distributors is about $40 a month. That is gross income before taxes and expenses. When costs are factored, it is obvious that nearly all suffer a loss. Making it to "direct", however, is not a ticket to profitability, but to greater losses. When the Wisconsin Attorney General filed charges against Amway, tax returns from all distributors in the state revealed an average net loss of $918 for that state's "direct" distributors.
Extraordinary sales and marketing obstacles account for much of this failure, but even if the business were more feasible, sheer mathematics would severely limit the opportunity. The MLM type of business structure can support only a small number of financial winners. If a 1,000-person downline is needed to earn a sustainable income, those 1,000 will need one million more to duplicate the success. How many people can realistically be enrolled? Much of what appears as growth is in fact only the continuous churning of new enrollees. The money for the rare winners comes from the constant enrollment of armies of losers.
The vast majority of the losers in MLM drop out within a year. In a 1999 court case brought against Melaleuca, one of the country's largest MLMs, the company claimed it has the highest "retention" rate among distributors in the entire MLM industry. Melaleuca boasted a drop-out rate is 5.5% per month. This equates to about 60% per year, if the dropouts are replaced each month.
In its annual report to the SEC, Pre-Paid Legal, another large MLM, revealed that more than 1/2 of all its customers and distributors quit each year and are replaced by another group of hopeful investors.
This pattern of 50-70% of all distributors quitting within one year holds true also for NuSkin, the industry's second largest MLM. NuSkin also exemplifies the accompanying pattern in which a tiny percent of the distributors gain the majority of all company rebates. In 1998, NuSkin paid out 2/3rds of its entire rebates to just 200 upliners out of more than 63,000 "active" distributors. The money they received came directly from the unprofitably investments of the 99.7% of the others.
In 1995, Excel Communications, another "fast growing" MLM, reported to regulators an 86% turnover rate of distributors and 48% drop-out rate among all customers.
To obscure their dismal numbers, some MLMs classify their distributors as "active" and "inactive." The Active group includes only recent participants and those still buying products or receiving rebates. Payout and retention statistics are then disclosed only on the "active" group.
If ALL distributors who participate are included the losses and the average incomes are exposed as much worse. And, if all the distributors who enroll and quit over several years are included, the odds of success for a new distributor/investor are shown to be absurdly low. Yet, these companies typically advertise their business as "an opportunity of a life time" with "unlimited potential."
Lie #2: Network marketing is the most popular and effective new way to bring products to market. Consumers like to buy products on a one-to-one basis in the MLM model.
Truth: If you strip MLM of its hallmark activity of continuously reselling distributorships and examine its foundation, the one-to-one retailing of products to customers, you encounter an unproductive and impractical system of sales upon which the entire structure is supposed to rest. Personal retailing is a thing of the past, not the wave of the future. Retailing directly to friends on a one-to-one basis requires people to drastically change their buying habits. They must restrict their choices, often pay more for goods, buy inconveniently, and awkwardly engage in business transactions with close friends and relatives. The unfeasibility of door-to-door retailing is why MLM is, in reality, a business that just keeps reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors.
Lie #3: Eventually all products will be sold by MLM, a new form of marketing. Retail stores, shopping malls, catalogues and most forms of advertising will soon be rendered obsolete by MLM.
Truth: MLM is not new. It has been around since the late 1960's. Yet, today it still represents less than one percent of US retail sales. In year 2000, total US retail sales were $3.232 trillion, according to the Dept. of Commerce. MLM's total sales are about $10 billion. That is about 1/3rd of one percent and most of this sales volume is accounted for by the purchases of hopeful new distributors who are actually paying the price of admission to a business they will soon abandon. Not only are MLM sales insignificant in the marketplace, but MLM fails as a sales model also on the other key factor  maintaining customers. Most MLM customers quit buying the goods as soon as they quit seeking the "business opportunity." There is no brand loyalty.
These basic facts show that, as a marketing model, MLM is not replacing existing forms of marketing. It does not legitimately compete with other marketing approaches at all. Rather, MLM represents a new investment scheme that uses the language of marketing and sales of products. Its real products are distributorships which are sold with misrepresentation and exaggerated promises of income. People are buying products in order to secure positions on the sales pyramid. The possibility is always held out that you may become rich if not from your own efforts then from some unknown person who might join your 'downline,' the 'big fish' as they are called.
MLM's growth is a manifestation not of its value to the economy, customers or distributors but of the recently high levels of economic fear and insecurity and rising expectations of quick and easy wealth. It is growing in the same way day trading on the stock market, legalized gambling and lotteries are.
Lie #4: MLM is a new way of life that offers happiness and fulfillment. It is a means to attain all the good things in life.
Truth: The most prominent motivating appeal of the MLM industry as shown in industry literature and presented at recruitment meetings is the crassest form of materialism. Fortune 100 companies would blush at the excess of promises of wealth and luxury put forth by MLM solicitors. These promises are presented as the ticket to personal fulfillment. MLM's overreaching appeal to wealth and luxury conflicts with most people's true desire for meaningful and fulfilling work in something in which they have special talent or interest. In short, the culture of this business side tracks many people from their personal values and desires to express their unique talents and aspirations.
Lie #5: MLM is a spiritual movement.
Truth: The use of spiritual concepts like prosperity consciousness and creative visualization to promote MLM enrollment, the use of words like 'communion' to describe a sales organization, and claims that MLM is a fulfillment of Christian principles or Scriptural prophecies are great distortions of these spiritual practices. Those who focus their hopes and dreams upon wealth as the answer to their prayers lose sight of genuine spirituality as taught by all the great religions and faiths of humankind. The misuse of these spiritual principles should be a signal that the investment opportunity is deceptive. When a product is wrapped in the flag or in religion, buyer beware! The 'community' and 'support' offered by MLM organizations to new recruits are based entirely upon their purchases. If the purchases and enrollment decline, so does the 'communion.'
Lie #6: Success in MLM is easy. Friends and relatives are the natural prospects. Those who love and support you will become your lifetime customers.
Truth: The commercialization of family and friendship relations or the use of 'warm leads' which is required in the MLM marketing program is a destructive element in the community and very unhealthy for individuals involved. Capitalizing upon family ties and loyalties of friendships in order to build a business can destroy ones social foundation. It places stress on relationships that may never return to their original bases of love, loyalty and support. Beyond its destructive social aspects, experience shows that few people enjoy or appreciate being solicited by friends and relatives to buy products.
Lie #7: You can do MLM in your spare time. As a business, it offers the greatest flexibility and personal freedom of time. A few hours a week can earn a significant supplemental income and may grow to a very large income making other work unnecessary
Truth: decades of experience involving millions of people have proven that making money in MLM requires extraordinary time commitment as well as considerable personal wiliness, persistence and deception. Beyond the sheer hard work and special aptitude required, the business model inherently consumes more areas of ones life and greater segments of time. In MLM, everyone is a prospect. Every waking moment is a potential time for marketing. There are no off-limit places, people or times for selling. Consequently, there is no free space or free time once a person enrolls in MLM system.
Under the guise of creating money independently and in your free time, the system gains control and dominance over people's entire lives and requires rigid conformity to the program. This accounts for why so many people who become deeply involved end up needing and relying upon MLM desperately. They alienate or abandon other sustaining relationships.
Lie #8. MLM is a positive, supportive new business that affirms the human spirit and personal freedom.
Truth: MLM marketing materials reveal that much of the message is fear-driven and based upon deception about income potential. Solicitations frequently include dire predictions about the impending collapse of other forms of distribution, the disintegration or insensitivity of corporate America, and the lack of opportunity in other professions or services. Conventional professions, trades and business are routinely demeaned and ridiculed for not offering 'unlimited income.' Employment is cast as wage enslavement for 'losers.' MLM is presented as the last best hope for many people. This approach, in addition to being deceptive, frequently has a discouraging effect on people who otherwise would pursue their own unique visions of success and happiness. A sound business opportunity does not have to base its worth on negative predictions and warnings.
Lie #9. MLM is the best option for owning your own business and attaining real economic independence.
Truth: MLM is not true self-employment. 'Owning' an MLM distributorship is an illusion. Some MLM companies forbid distributors from carrying additional lines. Most MLM contracts make termination of the distributorship easy and immediate for the company. Short of termination, downlines can be taken away with a variety of means. Participation requires rigid adherence to the 'duplication' model, not independence and individuality. MLM distributors are not entrepreneurs but joiners in a complex hierarchical system over which they have little control.
Lie #10: MLM is not a pyramid scheme because products are sold.
Truth: The sale of products is in no way a protection from anti-pyramid scheme statutes or unfair trade practices set forth in federal and state law. MLMs that sell useful, quality products have been successfully prosecuted under anti-pyramid scheme laws by state and federal officials. MLM is a legal form of business only under certain rigid conditions set forth by the FTC and state Attorneys General. Many MLMs are currently in gross violation of these guidelines and operate only because they have not been prosecuted. Recent court rulings are using a 70% rule to determine an MLM's legality. At least 70% of all goods sold by the MLM company must be purchased by non-distributors. This standard would place most MLM companies outside the law. The largest of all MLMs acknowledges that only 18% of its sales are made to non-distributors. -
True but.. whats your point. Lies? Wake up pls. What was your experience and at what level? Whats your whole objective?
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I empathise with how you feel about MLM. Either you had a bad experience yourself or met people who had bad experience.
Big picture first:
1) If you are a non-believer in MLM or cant see yourself SUSTAIN the big income in MLM then drop the idea; move on in life and make your job, business the best it can be and be happy - we have one life so do the best in whatever vehicle you choose
2) Fact is NOT ALL MLM companies are the same viz-a-viz the Uniqueness of product, existing market size and future growth ability to expand inSingapore and beyond Singapore to bigger but ready consumer markets (that are MLM-ready- especially USA & Canada) ie, no time for testing or theory here but proven to immediately find ready markets expand.
3) Fact is there are people who continued consuming as users and there are those who stopped consuming and there are those who want to make a career but failed and gave up. There are also those who succeeded and sustained growing income not from just one country but multiple country markets.
So if you you believe MLM doesnt work, you are right, there are legal suits, people who went broke, etc. You can speak to those who failed to verify that it doesnt work and you are correct.
And if you believe MLM can work depending on the right markets, then you are also correct, then speak to those who made it work and sustain growth
Either way, you are right.
There is no right or wrong. Just have to be very selective on which MLM you join, who you join under and what is your expectations relative to your effort and time.
I agree with you on several points which some presentations are not correct:
1) They claim MLM will one day replace retail channels.
Fact is Some consumer products will still continue to be distributed via traditional retail channels. MLM will not replace retail channel except for certain nature of products which requires certain technical skills
2) I dont agree that all MLM business willl see eponential growth. Fact is certain MLM products with direct comparable alternatives will find sustaining the business a nightmare.
2) I do not agree that anyone can do MLM.
Fact is not everyone will succeed.
It takes certain leadership qualities, communication/people skills and business
So if you are a non-believer in MLM, then find a career or business that suits your strengths best and you will succeed very well.
But if you believe there are very successful network professionals in US, Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Asia and soon China, then find out what made them successful.
(how do I know? Because I have done my due diligence by interviewing the very sucessful veterans in these countries)
Do talk to those with at least 3 to 10years and still sustaining growth. Singapore is still at a very infant stage of this industry and even in those countries mentioned, not all MLM are the same and there are black-sheeps in this industry that spoils the name.
Bottomline is: Opportunities appear to everyone. Some will make it work, some fail miserably. And I refer to only those opportunities that are legal. So let the entrepreneurs do their due diligence and judge for themselves if this business is suitable for them
Cheers brother -
Lie #10: MLM is not a pyramid scheme because products are sold.
I'll try to reply one by one, dont like super long topic that has to be put into [Post is too long. Click here to view this post.] thingie.
Truth: The sale of products is in no way a protection from anti-pyramid scheme statutes or unfair trade practices set forth in federal and state law. MLMs that sell useful, quality products have been successfully prosecuted under anti-pyramid scheme laws by state and federal officials. MLM is a legal form of business only under certain rigid conditions set forth by the FTC and state Attorneys General. Many MLMs are currently in gross violation of these guidelines and operate only because they have not been prosecuted. Recent court rulings are using a 70% rule to determine an MLM's legality. At least 70% of all goods sold by the MLM company must be purchased by non-distributors. This standard would place most MLM companies outside the law. The largest of all MLMs acknowledges that only 18% of its sales are made to non-distributors
Correction, an MLM scheme is a pyramid scheme if the products are used as cover up for a scheme focused only on recruiting and earning fast cash. Substandard products is one of the telling characteristics.
Although, SG law is super slack and has lots of gray areas when it comes to defining pyramid or disguised pyramid schemes, you used an American article. We have no clear idea about what FTC regulations are and are incapable of analysing whether they are done with response to what happened in the American side or are they done out of whim. You need to understand the American politics and culture too. You must know, in certain states its even illegal to use the word 'hello'. Heaven O is encouraged instead.
So, then the question will be whether the regulations these companies ran afoul of are rational and flexible.
In fact, the article named one example in which they are quite irrational. The 70% rule is hogwash. The question should be whether the majority of the customers and distributors are convinced by the effectiveness of the products, not whether there is a huge customer-only base.
Customers, assuming they have been won over by the products, are entitled to introduce the products to others. Then for them, not for the authorities, the next issue is whether they will then make money out of the marketing plan. If they cant, its still allright to remain a customer.
Even if there is huge customer-only base, does it mean the company is legal and ethical? How abt selling people substandard products for sky high prices? Same goes for the opposite. Are the distributors relying too much on frontloading and on downlines-distributors to spend to help them reach the desired quota?
Regulations are stupid anyway. Its either too rigid or its too slack. They cant help much to sift out the scams. -
Lie #9. MLM is the best option for owning your own business and attaining real economic independence.
You can see very clearly in this para the article writer has no clue what he is writing. The word 'service' in the prostitution industry has a totally different meaning from the word 'service' in religious movement.
Truth: MLM is not true self-employment. 'Owning' an MLM distributorship is an illusion. Some MLM companies forbid distributors from carrying additional lines. Most MLM contracts make termination of the distributorship easy and immediate for the company. Short of termination, downlines can be taken away with a variety of means. Participation requires rigid adherence to the 'duplication' model, not independence and individuality. MLM distributors are not entrepreneurs but joiners in a complex hierarchical system over which they have little control.
You do not own a distributorship in MLM the way you described. Its more like franchising. Like in Macdonald, you own part of the Macdonald business by gaining the right to sell Macdonald burgers and chips, leveraging on Big M brand name, established cooking techniques and servicing regulations etc etc. Once you understand this term, then its easy to talk what MLM is all about.
Better yet, the article writer named 'forbidden additional lines', 'easy termination' and 'downlines easily taken away' as reasons supporting his misused term.
There are no research or stats to support this, and neither did he name any specific examples enough to allow readers or himself to place a value judgement on those actions. For examples, we need to know under what conditions are downlines take away. What are those variety of means? Disciplinary regulations to ensure ethical selling behaviour in the company?
Another clue to writer's lack of understanding of MLM is the duplication part. MLM is abt duplication of successful methods. Once a product or a method is proven to be useful and effective, it will be adopted and then duplicated by others. If it fail, its basically a badly formed strategy by the (mis)management. And i mean the product or method, not the duplication part.
I got bones to pick with the last sentence. Want to jump on the latest trend espoused by hogwashy management gurus or self cultivation writers like Anthony Robbins and his 'empower yourself'? Or all those management theories which only harp on giving employees freedom to do what they want, being initiative, spontaneous?
They work, and they are good, but they dont work in every frigging company. Look at the industry you are talking about. Unlike the usual company with mabbe 10 20 salesmen in which they have a great degree of control over how the salemen sell, you are talking about an MLM or franchising company with possible few hundred or few thousand distributors to unleash upon the market. Its even more relevant you make sure they dont do the things they want to or according to their whims.
Already we have big major issue in MLM. Distributors who are unethical or doing hard selling. A significant, if not all, of them are not doing stuff according to their company's values system. Imagine these guys misrepresenting their company's products or the marketing plans. No way should distributors be given the degree of control the writer described. It will be one big mess.
On the other news, watch out for good companies that have strict regulations and system in place, possibly a disciplinary committee watching the behaviour its distributors, and companies engaging top, therefore, experienced, distributors in its decision making process.
Having a hierarchial bureaucratic system sumtimes can be good. In Macs, it may be too rigid and too costly to throw away french fries after 20 minutes under the heater, but it prevent giving the staff, any chance if there is, of serving rotten food to customers and them having to end up in hospital the next day. -
Lie #8. MLM is a positive, supportive new business that affirms the human spirit and personal freedom.
Yes. This is damn right. I am pissed off whenever other things are demeaned or put down in order to promote the scheme.
Truth: MLM marketing materials reveal that much of the message is fear-driven and based upon deception about income potential. Solicitations frequently include dire predictions about the impending collapse of other forms of distribution, the disintegration or insensitivity of corporate America, and the lack of opportunity in other professions or services. Conventional professions, trades and business are routinely demeaned and ridiculed for not offering 'unlimited income.' Employment is cast as wage enslavement for 'losers.' MLM is presented as the last best hope for many people. This approach, in addition to being deceptive, frequently has a discouraging effect on people who otherwise would pursue their own unique visions of success and happiness. A sound business opportunity does not have to base its worth on negative predictions and warnings.
MLM can be an opportunity, but its not the only opportunity. Whoever said otherwise, have not woke up to the reality of the world. Its not realistic to offer everything we have in this world in a network like structure.
Anyway, for me personally, the behaviour of the older, more experienced, had-a-career-before MLMers recognise this fact. But not the younger, less experienced ones who are now dabbling in MLM and have not experience the world out there yet. -
Lie #7: You can do MLM in your spare time. As a business, it offers the greatest flexibility and personal freedom of time. A few hours a week can earn a significant supplemental income and may grow to a very large income making other work unnecessary
And these statements are based on? Cant help but to notice most writers are lousy nowadays. They neither prove nor argue. Its basically making statements as if they are facts.
Truth: decades of experience involving millions of people have proven that making money in MLM requires extraordinary time commitment as well as considerable personal wiliness, persistence and deception. Beyond the sheer hard work and special aptitude required, the business model inherently consumes more areas of ones life and greater segments of time. In MLM, everyone is a prospect. Every waking moment is a potential time for marketing. There are no off-limit places, people or times for selling. Consequently, there is no free space or free time once a person enrolls in MLM system.
Under the guise of creating money independently and in your free time, the system gains control and dominance over people's entire lives and requires rigid conformity to the program. This accounts for why so many people who become deeply involved end up needing and relying upon MLM desperately. They alienate or abandon other sustaining relationships.
What I can say is this para is half right half wrong. Theoretically its right because most companies push their distributors to make use of their time to do sales.
But based on my observation, its still possible to do part time. It solely depend on what kind of company you join and what control you have..over yourself. Know of some housewives who do some form of direct selling, not for survival, but just enough to pay off bills and earn a bit more cash to supplement their present household income.
Also, the reason why i harp on companies rather than the whole industry is this: You are damn foolish if sumone offers u a really good biz opportunity and the first you do is to hand in your resignation letter to your boss.
A really good distributor would have told you to build your income, part time, over a period of time before your residual income is comfortable enough for you to fry your boss some squids. And these depend on the company system and marketing plan and so on. Its foolish for the writer to make assumptions that MLM is an all consuming matter.
Last sentence, its irksome. Who told him that? Taxi drivers or psychologists? Actually, if you read my arguments b4, posted sum time ago in the past, i did noted two things.
If you have joined a really a ok coy and your relationships with others sour, its because of lack of understanding and maturity on both parties to amend and resolve outstanding issue in their relationships. The distributor is incompetent in relaying his intention and the other party lacks listening ear or understanding to know him better.
On the other hand, relationship do sour because the other guy know this distributor has joined a scam, and has enuff facts on hand to show it. Greed, lack of maturity obscure this guy's visions and logic.
You know, if you guys want to know how to sustain relationship ,sgforums got Aunt Agony forum, or shrinks. Its always the person, not the subject-matter that is the problem. -
I agree wat numby say . all r the lie in MLMOriginally posted by numby:Lie #1: MLM is a business offering better opportunities for making large sums of money than all other conventional business and professional models.
Truth: For almost everyone who invests MLM turns out to be a losing financial proposition. This is not an opinion, but a historical fact. Consider some notable examples from among the largest MLMs.
In the largest of all MLMs, Amway, only 1/2 of one percent of all distributors make it to the basic level of "direct" distributor, and the average income of all Amway distributors is about $40 a month. That is gross income before taxes and expenses. When costs are factored, it is obvious that nearly all suffer a loss. Making it to "direct", however, is not a ticket to profitability, but to greater losses. When the Wisconsin Attorney General filed charges against Amway, tax returns from all distributors in the state revealed an average net loss of $918 for that state's "direct" distributors.
Extraordinary sales and marketing obstacles account for much of this failure, but even if the business were more feasible, sheer mathematics would severely limit the opportunity. The MLM type of business structure can support only a small number of financial winners. If a 1,000-person downline is needed to earn a sustainable income, those 1,000 will need one million more to duplicate the success. How many people can realistically be enrolled? Much of what appears as growth is in fact only the continuous churning of new enrollees. The money for the rare winners comes from the constant enrollment of armies of losers.
The vast majority of the losers in MLM drop out within a year. In a 1999 court case brought against Melaleuca, one of the country's largest MLMs, the company claimed it has the highest "retention" rate among distributors in the entire MLM industry. Melaleuca boasted a drop-out rate is 5.5% per month. This equates to about 60% per year, if the dropouts are replaced each month.
In its annual report to the SEC, Pre-Paid Legal, another large MLM, revealed that more than 1/2 of all its customers and distributors quit each year and are replaced by another group of hopeful investors.
This pattern of 50-70% of all distributors quitting within one year holds true also for NuSkin, the industry's second largest MLM. NuSkin also exemplifies the accompanying pattern in which a tiny percent of the distributors gain the majority of all company rebates. In 1998, NuSkin paid out 2/3rds of its entire rebates to just 200 upliners out of more than 63,000 "active" distributors. The money they received came directly from the unprofitably investments of the 99.7% of the others.
In 1995, Excel Communications, another "fast growing" MLM, reported to regulators an 86% turnover rate of distributors and 48% drop-out rate among all customers.
To obscure their dismal numbers, some MLMs classify their distributors as "active" and "inactive." The Active group includes only recent participants and those still buying products or receiving rebates. Payout and retention statistics are then disclosed only on the "active" group.
If ALL distributors who participate are included the losses and the average incomes are exposed as much worse. And, if all the distributors who enroll and quit over several years are included, the odds of success for a new distributor/investor are shown to be absurdly low. Yet, these companies typically advertise their business as "an opportunity of a life time" with "unlimited potential."
Lie #2: Network marketing is the most popular and effective new way to bring products to market. Consumers like to buy products on a one-to-one basis in the MLM model.
Truth: If you strip MLM of its hallmark activity of continuously reselling distributorships and examine its foundation, the one-to-one retailing of products to customers, you encounter an unproductive and impractical system of sales upon which the entire structure is supposed to rest. Personal retailing is a thing of the past, not the wave of the future. Retailing directly to friends on a one-to-one basis requires people to drastically change their buying habits. They must restrict their choices, often pay more for goods, buy inconveniently, and awkwardly engage in business transactions with close friends and relatives. The unfeasibility of door-to-door retailing is why MLM is, in reality, a business that just keeps reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors.
Lie #3: Eventually all products will be sold by MLM, a new form of marketing. Retail stores, shopping malls, catalogues and most forms of advertising will soon be rendered obsolete by MLM.
Truth: MLM is not new. It has been around since the late 1960's. Yet, today it still represents less than one percent of US retail sales. In year 2000, total US retail sales were $3.232 trillion, according to the Dept. of Commerce. MLM's total sales are about $10 billion. That is about 1/3rd of one percent and most of this sales volume is accounted for by the purchases of hopeful new distributors who are actually paying the price of admission to a business they will soon abandon. Not only are MLM sales insignificant in the marketplace, but MLM fails as a sales model also on the other key factor  maintaining customers. Most MLM customers quit buying the goods as soon as they quit seeking the "business opportunity." There is no brand loyalty.
These basic facts show that, as a marketing model, MLM is not replacing existing forms of marketing. It does not legitimately compete with other marketing approaches at all. Rather, MLM represents a new investment scheme that uses the language of marketing and sales of products. Its real products are distributorships which are sold with misrepresentation and exaggerated promises of income. People are buying products in order to secure positions on the sales pyramid. The possibility is always held out that you may become rich if not from your own efforts then from some unknown person who might join your 'downline,' the 'big fish' as they are called.
MLM's growth is a manifestation not of its value to the economy, customers or distributors but of the recently high levels of economic fear and insecurity and rising expectations of quick and easy wealth. It is growing in the same way day trading on the stock market, legalized gambling and lotteries are.
Lie #4: MLM is a new way of life that offers happiness and fulfillment. It is a means to attain all the good things in life.
Truth: The most prominent motivating appeal of the MLM industry as shown in industry literature and presented at recruitment meetings is the crassest form of materialism. Fortune 100 companies would blush at the excess of promises of wealth and luxury put forth by MLM solicitors. These promises are presented as the ticket to personal fulfillment. MLM's overreaching appeal to wealth and luxury conflicts with most people's true desire for meaningful and fulfilling work in something in which they have special talent or interest. In short, the culture of this business side tracks many people from their personal values and desires to express their unique talents and aspirations.
Lie #5: MLM is a spiritual movement.
Truth: The use of spiritual concepts like prosperity consciousness and creative visualization to promote MLM enrollment, the use of words like 'communion' to describe a sales organization, and claims that MLM is a fulfillment of Christian principles or Scriptural prophecies are great distortions of these spiritual practices. Those who focus their hopes and dreams upon wealth as the answer to their prayers lose sight of genuine spirituality as taught by all the great religions and faiths of humankind. The misuse of these spiritual principles should be a signal that the investment opportunity is deceptive. When a product is wrapped in the flag or in religion, buyer beware! The 'community' and 'support' offered by MLM organizations to new recruits are based entirely upon their purchases. If the purchases and enrollment decline, so does the 'communion.'
Lie #6: Success in MLM is easy. Friends and relatives are the natural prospects. Those who love and support you will become your lifetime customers.
Truth: The commercialization of family and friendship relations or the use of 'warm leads' which is required in the MLM marketing program is a destructive element in the community and very unhealthy for individuals involved. Capitalizing upon family ties and loyalties of friendships in order to build a business can destroy ones social foundation. It places stress on relationships that may never return to their original bases of love, loyalty and support. Beyond its destructive social aspects, experience shows that few people enjoy or appreciate being solicited by friends and relatives to buy products.
Lie #7: You can do MLM in your spare time. As a business, it offers the greatest flexibility and personal freedom of time. A few hours a week can earn a significant supplemental income and may grow to a very large income making other work unnecessary
Truth: decades of experience involving millions of people have proven that making money in MLM requires extraordinary time commitment as well as considerable personal wiliness, persistence and deception. Beyond the sheer hard work and special aptitude required, the business model inherently consumes more areas of ones life and greater segments of time. In MLM, everyone is a prospect. Every waking moment is a potential time for marketing. There are no off-limit places, people or times for selling. Consequently, there is no free space or free time once a person enrolls in MLM system.
Under the guise of creating money independently and in your free time, the system gains control and dominance over people's entire lives and requires rigid conformity to the program. This accounts for why so many people who become deeply involved end up needing and relying upon MLM desperately. They alienate or abandon other sustaining relationships.
Lie #8. MLM is a positive, supportive new business that affirms the human spirit and personal freedom.
Truth: MLM marketing materials reveal that much of the message is fear-driven and based upon deception about income potential. Solicitations frequently include dire predictions about the impending collapse of other forms of distribution, the disintegration or insensitivity of corporate America, and the lack of opportunity in other professions or services. Conventional professions, trades and business are routinely demeaned and ridiculed for not offering 'unlimited income.' Employment is cast as wage enslavement for 'losers.' MLM is presented as the last best hope for many people. This approach, in addition to being deceptive, frequently has a discouraging effect on people who otherwise would pursue their own unique visions of success and happiness. A sound business opportunity does not have to base its worth on negative predictions and warnings.
Lie #9. MLM is the best option for owning your own business and attaining real economic independence.
Truth: MLM is not true self-employment. 'Owning' an MLM distributorship is an illusion. Some MLM companies forbid distributors from carrying additional lines. Most MLM contracts make termination of the distributorship easy and immediate for the company. Short of termination, downlines can be taken away with a variety of means. Participation requires rigid adherence to the 'duplication' model, not independence and individuality. MLM distributors are not entrepreneurs but joiners in a complex hierarchical system over which they have little control.
Lie #10: MLM is not a pyramid scheme because products are sold.
Truth: The sale of products is in no way a protection from anti-pyramid scheme statutes or unfair trade practices set forth in federal and state law. MLMs that sell useful, quality products have been successfully prosecuted under anti-pyramid scheme laws by state and federal officials. MLM is a legal form of business only under certain rigid conditions set forth by the FTC and state Attorneys General. Many MLMs are currently in gross violation of these guidelines and operate only because they have not been prosecuted. Recent court rulings are using a 70% rule to determine an MLM's legality. At least 70% of all goods sold by the MLM company must be purchased by non-distributors. This standard would place most MLM companies outside the law. The largest of all MLMs acknowledges that only 18% of its sales are made to non-distributors. -
Not realli, some are, some not...Originally posted by amsuck:I agree wat numby say . all r the lie in MLM
Too bad i only made rebuttals against four or five points
Will do in length for the rest when i got much time... -
Lie #6: Success in MLM is easy. Friends and relatives are the natural prospects. Those who love and support you will become your lifetime customers.
Truth: The commercialization of family and friendship relations or the use of 'warm leads' which is required in the MLM marketing program is a destructive element in the community and very unhealthy for individuals involved. Capitalizing upon family ties and loyalties of friendships in order to build a business can destroy ones social foundation. It places stress on relationships that may never return to their original bases of love, loyalty and support. Beyond its destructive social aspects, experience shows that few people enjoy or appreciate being solicited by friends and relatives to buy products.
Again i ask, is this guy a shrink or a taxi driver?
Two points you might note.
The writer is simply making statements as if they are facts. Never mind if he doesnt have even stats to back him up, but which reowned psychologists or sociologists actually even back this up?
Even if he doesnt have figures at hand, at the very least sumone who is from a sociology or psychology background could have give expert opinions to say this could be one of the very possible endings for those who do MLM. But no, nothing of this sort happened.
Second point, on whose values did he used to judge MLMers? Pope Benedict? Dalai Lama? George Bush? Any common people out there would have told you ethics is one of the subjects that is very subjective.
The whole point of this network or multi level marketing or direct selling is to leverage upon your known network to introduce products or services to people, directly. No ad, no retail, no mass marketing, just directly to the consumers.
The issue here isnt about whether the products are good or the company is a scam, and if the writer do mean this, he is making a bad job of writing that up.
Assuming the products and services are of excellent standards, what the frigging problem with selling it to family and frens?
Readers should ask why is it unethical, not just blatantly accepting that it is unethical. -
Lie #5: MLM is a spiritual movement.
This is very true
Truth: The use of spiritual concepts like prosperity consciousness and creative visualization to promote MLM enrollment, the use of words like 'communion' to describe a sales organization, and claims that MLM is a fulfillment of Christian principles or Scriptural prophecies are great distortions of these spiritual practices. Those who focus their hopes and dreams upon wealth as the answer to their prayers lose sight of genuine spirituality as taught by all the great religions and faiths of humankind. The misuse of these spiritual principles should be a signal that the investment opportunity is deceptive. When a product is wrapped in the flag or in religion, buyer beware! The 'community' and 'support' offered by MLM organizations to new recruits are based entirely upon their purchases. If the purchases and enrollment decline, so does the 'communion.'
MLM afterall is a business strategy, a distrbution system, but its never a spiritual movement. Pardon me, but i am old school, i dont believe spirituality and profits go together.
On the negative side, spirituality is often abused to delude prospects and downlines from seeing the big picture. This is especially for scams. If you cant win them over thru fundamentals, ie thru logic and reasons, most likely their emotions need to be tapped to continue providing the coy with moolahs.
But again, spirituality should exists in some form, thru some sort of value system. Simply means, ethical selling is one of the big issue in MLM now. Companies shoulld adopt a value system to make sure distributors dont resort to unethical practices. -
Lie #4: MLM is a new way of life that offers happiness and fulfillment. It is a means to attain all the good things in life.
And may i ask, why not?
Truth: The most prominent motivating appeal of the MLM industry as shown in industry literature and presented at recruitment meetings is the crassest form of materialism. Fortune 100 companies would blush at the excess of promises of wealth and luxury put forth by MLM solicitors. These promises are presented as the ticket to personal fulfillment. MLM's overreaching appeal to wealth and luxury conflicts with most people's true desire for meaningful and fulfilling work in something in which they have special talent or interest. In short, the culture of this business side tracks many people from their personal values and desires to express their unique talents and aspirations.
This para got three parts that can be separated and very inconsistent with one another.
First is the sentences on MLM presenting an opportunity of wealth and luxury. Again, nuthing the writer has written to give us enuff info to make value judgements on why couldnt MLM present opportunity of wealth and luxury
Second, will luxury and wealth actually impede people desire for true and meaningful work? I liken this statement to the 'money is the root of all evil', when its actually 'for the love of money that is the root of all evil'
Pray, do tell, is there anything to prove that wealth and meaningful are mutually exclusive? How about a philanthropist distributing his wealth to the charity? Sheesh, also, another statement, is people's true desire about meaningful and fulfilling work? What is people true desire? Some people think making money is meaningful and fulfilling you know.
Besides, the writer didnt even add the word 'should' to encourage people to lead a meaningful life or work. He is just assuming he know everyone's true desire, and people do have different perspective of what is meaningful and fulfilling.
Lastly, what is the aspects of MLM cultuire that 'sidetracks' people from their true desire, whatever their true desires may be. And look at the bombastic and the waxing of lyricals abt achieving unique talents and aspirations. The writer has the flair of a scam master, many who sway the hearts of the victims by yakking nonsense such as true inspirations and desires. -
omg laurence.. pro pro.. im stilll trying to understand what mlm is about.. still reading stuff
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Those who succeed, are those who stay long enough
If you dont succeed, then dont blame it on their way of operations
kind of... not fair to them.
Or rather blame it on those MLM-ers who are bad, not the Business -
All this lie , i heard when i was at enyouth coffeeOriginally posted by laurence82:Not realli, some are, some not...
Too bad i only made rebuttals against four or five points
Will do in length for the rest when i got much time... -
Tiam Tiam Lah...Originally posted by laurence82:And may i ask, why not?
This para got three parts that can be separated and very inconsistent with one another.
First is the sentences on MLM presenting an opportunity of wealth and luxury. Again, nuthing the writer has written to give us enuff info to make value judgements on why couldnt MLM present opportunity of wealth and luxury
Second, will luxury and wealth actually impede people desire for true and meaningful work? I liken this statement to the 'money is the root of all evil', when its actually 'for the love of money that is the root of all evil'
Pray, do tell, is there anything to prove that wealth and meaningful are mutually exclusive? How about a philanthropist distributing his wealth to the charity? Sheesh, also, another statement, is people's true desire about meaningful and fulfilling work? What is people true desire? Some people think making money is meaningful and fulfilling you know.
Besides, the writer didnt even add the word 'should' to encourage people to lead a meaningful life or work. He is just assuming he know everyone's true desire, and people do have different perspective of what is meaningful and fulfilling.
Lastly, what is the aspects of MLM cultuire that 'sidetracks' people from their true desire, whatever their true desires may be. And look at the bombastic and the waxing of lyricals abt achieving unique talents and aspirations. The writer has the flair of a scam master, many who sway the hearts of the victims by yakking nonsense such as true inspirations and desires.
Na Bei Chee Bye!!!
Gan Nue A Lao Bu A Chee Bye!!! -
enyouth coffee shop... so anyone been tricked to go enyouth coffee shop by ur friend who has the initials L.T? anyone?
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Hey Laurence, i've read your opinions and stand. I totally agree with your stand. In line with what you had written, these are some of my opinions.
There are some misconception about MLM, i'm sure. But we must be aware of who are writing these articles. Are they by a begrudged individual? If so, then the articles written would be prejudiced wouldn't it? But of course, i stand by the fact that no profession or business are without its disadvantages or undesirable aspects. In every venture, the beginning is always the toughest.
You may be a top notch attorney but you have to put in long hours at work when you first started out as a junior before you made senior partner. Michael Dell is sitting on his billions now but wasn't he scratching his head in his dormitory room in Austin Uni when he first started out PC Limited(now known as Dell corporation)? Everyone CAN be a success story and i stand by that fact. It is our personal traits that determines how far we can go that makes us successful. If i do go into the MLM industry, i should forage into it with full knowledge of what i'm up against. And should i fail, i should be asking myself why and not to point my fingers in accusation. Is it because i haven't understood enough? Is it because i didn't do enough? Or was i given an empty promise?
I am in no way perfect. I probably will never be. But i'm learning. I believe MLM can work for any individual, provided he has the tools and enough knowledge about the industry before he convinces himself to start. And only HE should convince himself, not being coerced by ruthless network marketeers.
PS: Laurence, we're waiting with bated breath for your "truth" buster on the next myth. -
i forgot i havent post in this topic for one month...Originally posted by norman78:Hey Laurence, i've read your opinions and stand. I totally agree with your stand. In line with what you had written, these are some of my opinions.
There are some misconception about MLM, i'm sure. But we must be aware of who are writing these articles. Are they by a begrudged individual? If so, then the articles written would be prejudiced wouldn't it? But of course, i stand by the fact that no profession or business are without its disadvantages or undesirable aspects. In every venture, the beginning is always the toughest.
You may be a top notch attorney but you have to put in long hours at work when you first started out as a junior before you made senior partner. Michael Dell is sitting on his billions now but wasn't he scratching his head in his dormitory room in Austin Uni when he first started out PC Limited(now known as Dell corporation)? Everyone CAN be a success story and i stand by that fact. It is our personal traits that determines how far we can go that makes us successful. If i do go into the MLM industry, i should forage into it with full knowledge of what i'm up against. And should i fail, i should be asking myself why and not to point my fingers in accusation. Is it because i haven't understood enough? Is it because i didn't do enough? Or was i given an empty promise?
I am in no way perfect. I probably will never be. But i'm learning. I believe MLM can work for any individual, provided he has the tools and enough knowledge about the industry before he convinces himself to start. And only HE should convince himself, not being coerced by ruthless network marketeers.
PS: Laurence, we're waiting with bated breath for your "truth" buster on the next myth.
'we're waiting'? how many of u are there? -
Lie #3: Eventually all products will be sold by MLM, a new form of marketing. Retail stores, shopping malls, catalogues and most forms of advertising will soon be rendered obsolete by MLM.
Actually, i am confused by who this myth number three trying to discourage. The MLM business owner or the distributors as a whole?
Truth: MLM is not new. It has been around since the late 1960's. Yet, today it still represents less than one percent of US retail sales. In year 2000, total US retail sales were $3.232 trillion, according to the Dept. of Commerce. MLM's total sales are about $10 billion. That is about 1/3rd of one percent and most of this sales volume is accounted for by the purchases of hopeful new distributors who are actually paying the price of admission to a business they will soon abandon. Not only are MLM sales insignificant in the marketplace, but MLM fails as a sales model also on the other key factor  maintaining customers. Most MLM customers quit buying the goods as soon as they quit seeking the "business opportunity."; There is no brand loyalty.
These basic facts show that, as a marketing model, MLM is not replacing existing forms of marketing. It does not legitimately compete with other marketing approaches at all. Rather, MLM represents a new investment scheme that uses the language of marketing and sales of products. Its real products are distributorships which are sold with misrepresentation and exaggerated promises of income. People are buying products in order to secure positions on the sales pyramid. The possibility is always held out that you may become rich if not from your own efforts then from some unknown person who might join your 'downline,' the 'big fish' as they are called.
MLM's growth is a manifestation not of its value to the economy, customers or distributors but of the recently high levels of economic fear and insecurity and rising expectations of quick and easy wealth. It is growing in the same way day trading on the stock market, legalized gambling and lotteries are.
Whoever wrote this article is a very conservative tradtional business person, if not a businessman. Even for the academia, which is slower to realise what is going on in the business world, the idea of achieving large sales revenue or large market share is long abandoned. I put up a rebuttal to an exact same point few months ago, You guys can check out a topic posted by Python.
To summarise that rebuttal, MLM never aim to be like Wal Mart, ie, mass sales of wide range of products, mostly for daily use. They focus specialised products like Microsoft with software, or GNC with healthcare and nutritional supplements. And, businessess nowadays dont look at sales revenue or mkt share only. What happen to better measures like profitability, quality, brand loyalty and so on?
And this first para, the writer shouldnt write it. He is stabbing himself in the foot.
He already wrote that 1/3 of the sales are made by hopefuls who hope to gain quick access to hard cash. Whose fault? The company, the marketing mode or the distributors? I think the answers are pretty obvious.
Let say, assuming for nows its due to mismanagement that mislead agents to think they can earn quick money. Do all these points ever lead us conclusively to the point there is sumthing wrong with the marketing model? Either the writer is misleading the crowd by presenting human erroneous actions as a flawed marketing model, or he is fudging around with his cluelessness.
And yes, reading up the part on the brand loyalty, i agree with norman that the writer is a begrudged individual. He forgot one basic thing, that humans do hook on to stuff that can bring them benefits. I observed that there are MLM coys which do sell quality products. Why is his observation so different?
If he is insinuating that the products in MLM arent good because they come from MLM coys, its like saying a homosexual is a bad person..because he is a homosexual, which is a pretty stupid argument.
As soon as i read the first two sentences of his second para, i almost fall of my chair. MLM has never aim to replace the whole lot of other sales models. Tell me, which one sales model has ever replaces all other models? Smart businessman apply the right model for his type of business. Talking abt legitimacy, the writer got to be kidding. MLM already has gained legitimacy in the eyes of the law, especially in US, where i assume he is an American. If he means in terms of selling power, $10 billion must be pretty insignificant huh? This link back to my previous para on the smaller markets and products range MLM has, where it isnt just abt selling the most or having the most customers.
The rest of that para,i got nuthing else to say but that he is bascially describing mismanaged coys or scams. He beautifully ignored legal and ethical companies. -
Lie #2: Network marketing is the most popular and effective new way to bring products to market. Consumers like to buy products on a one-to-one basis in the MLM model.
True, its not the most popular nor is it the most effective way. But again, as i stressed, it all depends on what business you are looking at. You arent going to open numerous retail shops just to sell industrial strength petrochemical stuff, neither are you going to make direct sales out of heavy machineries.
Truth: If you strip MLM of its hallmark activity of continuously reselling distributorships and examine its foundation, the one-to-one retailing of products to customers, you encounter an unproductive and impractical system of sales upon which the entire structure is supposed to rest. Personal retailing is a thing of the past, not the wave of the future. Retailing directly to friends on a one-to-one basis requires people to drastically change their buying habits. They must restrict their choices, often pay more for goods, buy inconveniently, and awkwardly engage in business transactions with close friends and relatives. The unfeasibility of door-to-door retailing is why MLM is, in reality, a business that just keeps reselling the opportunity to sign up more distributors.
Again, the prejudice turn up again. Real MLM coys dont continuously resell distributorships. Again, he is mixing up pyramid scams as MLM models and misleading the readers.
Require people to drastically change their buying habits? If the products are good, why not? Restrict their choices? With consumers getting more picky and demanding nowadays, and if presented with products that they like, i think they will gladly restrict their own choices without help from MLMers.
Pay more? Depends. If the quality is right, why not? Buy inconveniently? How? I know for many MLMers who sell small stuff, like healthcare products, they do deliver it directly to their customers and even explain how to use it. If he think this is inconvenient, then i got nuthing to say.
From the past few posts, i gather that the writer tries to impose his own values, ethics and morals onto diverse groups of people, or generalise too much abt what people feel and think. enough to put it as facts. That is pretty crappy. If ethics, morals, values and thinking are that simple and straightforward, we wouldnt even have wars. -
wah u very enthu... about this.... explain each lie hheee
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nah, actualy i am not rebutting for rebutting sakeOriginally posted by leddy:wah u very enthu... about this.... explain each lie hheee
i am asking whether the writer's views are objective and representative of all the possible information of the industry and views of all people, including non mlmers
the tone is that he tries to present his views as facts, without much backup
thats pretty annoying... -
Lie #1: MLM is a business offering better opportunities for making large sums of money than all other conventional business and professional models.
For those data above, can anyone from those companies confirm it? Or he is liable to be sued?
Truth: For almost everyone who invests MLM turns out to be a losing financial proposition. This is not an opinion, but a historical fact. Consider some notable examples from among the largest MLMs.
In the largest of all MLMs, Amway, only 1/2 of one percent of all distributors make it to the basic level of "direct" distributor, and the average income of all Amway distributors is about $40 a month. That is gross income before taxes and expenses. When costs are factored, it is obvious that nearly all suffer a loss. Making it to "direct", however, is not a ticket to profitability, but to greater losses. When the Wisconsin Attorney General filed charges against Amway, tax returns from all distributors in the state revealed an average net loss of $918 for that state's "direct" distributors.
Extraordinary sales and marketing obstacles account for much of this failure, but even if the business were more feasible, sheer mathematics would severely limit the opportunity. The MLM type of business structure can support only a small number of financial winners. If a 1,000-person downline is needed to earn a sustainable income, those 1,000 will need one million more to duplicate the success. How many people can realistically be enrolled? Much of what appears as growth is in fact only the continuous churning of new enrollees. The money for the rare winners comes from the constant enrollment of armies of losers.
The vast majority of the losers in MLM drop out within a year. In a 1999 court case brought against Melaleuca, one of the country's largest MLMs, the company claimed it has the highest "retention" rate among distributors in the entire MLM industry. Melaleuca boasted a drop-out rate is 5.5% per month. This equates to about 60% per year, if the dropouts are replaced each month.
In its annual report to the SEC, Pre-Paid Legal, another large MLM, revealed that more than 1/2 of all its customers and distributors quit each year and are replaced by another group of hopeful investors.
This pattern of 50-70% of all distributors quitting within one year holds true also for NuSkin, the industry's second largest MLM. NuSkin also exemplifies the accompanying pattern in which a tiny percent of the distributors gain the majority of all company rebates. In 1998, NuSkin paid out 2/3rds of its entire rebates to just 200 upliners out of more than 63,000 "active" distributors. The money they received came directly from the unprofitably investments of the 99.7% of the others.
In 1995, Excel Communications, another "fast growing" MLM, reported to regulators an 86% turnover rate of distributors and 48% drop-out rate among all customers.
To obscure their dismal numbers, some MLMs classify their distributors as "active" and "inactive." The Active group includes only recent participants and those still buying products or receiving rebates. Payout and retention statistics are then disclosed only on the "active" group.
If ALL distributors who participate are included the losses and the average incomes are exposed as much worse. And, if all the distributors who enroll and quit over several years are included, the odds of success for a new distributor/investor are shown to be absurdly low. Yet, these companies typically advertise their business as "an opportunity of a life time" with "unlimited potential."
Pardon me for being harsh, while people are looking at each characteristic of an industry or a company that will make it work, or not, he is looking at it as he trying to win a lottery or 4D? Sheesh.
Is odds of success measured by retention rate or success rate? That is pretty shallow. I would have thought the writer would write about the exact causes that give rise to many people leaving the industry.
Even then, how do we measure this?
Imagine, a networker that refuses to acknowledge that he is incompetent, and chooses to lay the blame on the companies?
On the other hand, how about a scam or a badly managed company that cleverly deny its unethical activities?
Lastly, one point that stands out on the active and inactive group. Assuming that the company's active group is smaller, why would they still disclose the payout for the smaller group, assuming that its not going to make much money already? -
To add on to Myth number 3. By the way, i'm more comfortable with the term "Myth". Lie sounds too insinuating. No matter how much you dislike an industry or anyone, you need hard facts to prove someone is lying.
Anyway, let's move on. Some products in MLM are actually good. I wouldn't name the MLM company i'm making reference to. I know of friends who are consumers of their products. When i asked them if they are distributors, they replied a firm no. They said they want in no way, participate in the MLM business. But they like the products this particular company produces. I guess this is the best testimonial i can get from any consumer, regardless of any industry. It's like saying, "Hey, i hate the Adidas brand, but i think their shoes are good. I'm going to get me a pair." You get my drift?
If i didn't get my facts wrong, Network Marketing is a US$93 billion industry globally. It may not be a huge figure but it goes to show, it is gaining acceptance because of the gain in figures from previous years.
Business is all about solutions. You have a good solution to an existing problem, you got yourself a business. You can use whatever business models at your disposal. What matters is profits. If people see the MLM system as a viable option to their business, why not?
Besides, the writer focused on the fact that people are joining in not because the like the product, but they are out to make a business for themselves. I believe Laurence has already addressed that issue. The view point the writer took was too narrow. It refuses to acknowledge the fact that MLM was introduced as an ALTERNATIVE to conventional retail. Just as e-shopping was introduced as another alternative. Whoever said MLM was to replace conventional retail? If that is the case, property market will hit a slump! Because there simply are no shops to browse from. The term shopping as we know of now will cease to exist. I for one will be amongst the first to protest. I love window-shopping!