Absolutely Rejected

This year, interspersed with natural health, sustainable living, and personal story posts, I’d like to offer you insights into the good, the bad, and the ugly of network marketing and empower you to understand key essential truths that can help you:

1- Steer clear of the scams and hype that threaten a sustainable economy and world by wasting people’s time and money.

2- Find respectable companies that genuinely care about serving you as a customer and, through their ethical approach to network marketing, contribute to a more sustainable economy and world.

After 8 years in network marketing, I have learned a LOT about the industry and truly have a love-hate relationship with it.  I love all the good it offers and hate the hype that so often infests it.

But pause and consider…

Does the undesirable behavior of certain people in any given profession necessarily make the profession itself unethical?  While there are unethical doctors, lawyers, teachers, politicians – you name it – there are also many in those professions who are trustworthy and servant-hearted.

The same is true in network marketing.

If you’ve ever been approached by a “stereotypical” network marketer, then perhaps you can relate to one of these three experiences:

1- Feeling like you’re just a target in the marketer’s hyped up attempts to reach his sales quotas.

2- Hating the hard sell tactics and the lack of respect for your “not now” or “not ever” response.

3- Hiding from someone who was essentially taught to use peer pressure with friends and family.

Sadly, all this and more happens far too often in network marketing.  But it does not need to be the case.

For example, when I first discovered Miessence in June of 2010, I was immediately struck by the clear difference – and was thrilled to have found such a refreshing community to potentially work with as a stay at home mom.  Miessence’s Working Representatives absolutely reject the above “norms” for network marketing and instead work to create a sincere and sustainable culture of:

1- Education – empowering you with information you can use to evaluate ANY brand or company.

2- Service – genuinely consulting with you to help you find what YOU want, instead of pitching at you.

3- Zero Pressure – no one is ever pressured to become a customer or to “do the business.”

I’ll be honest.  We often feel like salmon swimming upstream against the trends in network marketing.

But if the public begins demanding this ethic from the industry at large instead of falling for the hype or accepting the peer pressure, the negatives will die away and the positives will spread.

If a friend approaches you for “x, y, z network marketing company” in all the stereotypical ways, lovingly encourage her to reject the stereotypical industry training and instead choose a more sustainable, educational, service based, zero pressure, and no hype approach from which everyone – representatives, customers, and society at large – can benefit.

As a customer or representative, what have been your best or worst experiences with network marketing?

PS – If you’re in network marketing, with any company, and struggling with the stereotypical training, click here.