This is the second part and sequel to my MLM Experience. If you missed the first part, do read it first before reading this second part.
My MLM Experience (Part One)
The Training
The next few days, I went down to the 'office' daily, just to hang out with J and B and also in hopes of getting some 'training'. J ran me through the general procedure:
First, you need to get your prospect to come down. Ask him out for a drink or a meal or something! Don't give too many details, just tell him it's flexible hours, good pay. If need to (e.g. he keeps questioning), just mention that it's a jewellery firm (which is partially true).
Next, when you've got him down, before you bring him to meet 'the boss' (this person basically is whoever is making the main pitch. In my case it was B, but for some of my future cases it was J who took over.), you have to 'build up' the boss. Talk about how much the boss is earning now, how talented he is, make it seem like casual talk but you're subtly promoting the boss and elevating him to a higher status.
The pitch begins, and you should be paying attention like it matters to you too. 'The boss' will eventually reach the climax and will pull out (HAHA INNUENDO INTENTIONAL) and it's your turn to complete the pitch. Clear any doubts your friend has - most of the time it's apprehension, and share about how YOU also felt the same way and how easily you overcame it. The idea is that if your friend (you) can do it, so can you (him)!
If the prospect does not seal the deal on the day itself, you must remind him NOT to tell his friends about it - and your rationale is that 'network marketing' has a stigma and people who don't understand it will slam it. (When the obvious reason is because network marketing IS bad and any rational person will tell you not to get into it)
Learning these just took me a day, and I was encouraged to start calling up friends and asking them down. The thing I didn't like was after this, I was almost 'tossed aside' - they didn't provide me with much further guidance or interacted with me much.
I wasn't outright ignored, but I could sense the 'We've got you in, you have fulfilled your purpose' vibe. I ignored this, for now. Why do I need them when I can just 'close' my friends and get rich, right?
(close = successfully persuade them to sign up, and they pay up)
Trying my Hand Out
The first person I talked to about it was bestie of course. It wasn't even a proper 'attempt', I just had dinner with her and told her over dinner what I had got myself into, and tried to explain it to her like how B explained it to me. I could tell she wasn't very convinced by my not-too-persuasive speech but she still 'believed' my conviction because she was my bestie. (I felt really bad about this later on)
She eventually agreed to come down and listen to J (but she didn't close, both because she didn't have the money and she wasn't convinced enough to come in. GOOD FOR YOU.)
My other attempts involved pewi, (if you're wondering how come I didn't ask my gf, it was because I didn't know her yet at that time ^^ ) and 2 other friends, let's call them Z and N. (These were the only people that actually came down)
I didn't manage to close because:
Pewi - wasn't interested in network marketing. He was never a very outspoken person to begin with.
Z - parents were involved before, with bad experience. Clearly wasn't interested halfway through the presentation already.
N - partially convinced, but didn't want to commit right away, chose to go home and consult parents, friends. Obviously backed out after that.
Thus, my success rate of closing 'prospects' was 0% !!!
I think B and/or J could sense this feeling of failure in me, so they got their upline (without going into a full explanation of how network marketing worked, just take this to be their 'boss', the person that brought them in) to give me a pep talk, and he basically told me how he failed 27 times before 'closing' his first prospect, and now he was fetching 5 figures a month. (displays a dazzling diamond earring as some sort of vindication. B had one too)
I didn't like what I was becoming. I didn't have 'friends' anymore - everyone I knew became 'prospects' in my eyes. When I thought about every acquaintance and person I knew, I immediately assessed the probability of 'closing' them, and put in more 'social effort' to those who had higher probabilities. Every conversation with them was orchestrated to eventually slip into the pitch -
'Hey, so you're quite free nowadays right? My company needs some part-time help, flexible hours, interested? Can come talk to my boss if you want" (The exact pitch isn't so direct, probably more spread out and natural in a conversation)(I can still remember talking to multiple people simultaneously on MSN to try to achieve a higher efficiency rate)
My life revolved around trying to get people to come down to the office and have a chat with my upline(s). I was playing WoW at that point of time I believe, and thus I literally had no life - and didn't mind it.
How I Managed To Get Out
After a while, as you can predict, I didn't like it at all. It wasn't my cup of tea, trying to sweet talk people into parting with thousands of dollars. It seemed dishonest. Manipulative. Cunning. It went against all my personal values. The whole concept turned me off. I wanted out.
My lifeline came, ironically, from their greed. (Ironic because it was their greed that led them to pull me in - and it was the very same thing that was my ticket out)
A quick explanation of MLM - Every 'member' of this MLM network has 3 downlines (basically a chain of people under you). Their aim is to build their downlines as much as possible, and this contributes to a recurring income. (You can talk to me personally if you want to know more, quite interesting really. You get fancy titles like 'Regional Manager' and 'Regional Director' upon hitting certain targets)
So I actually entered as J's downline I think, but from what I understood, B and J wanted to maximize their profits better, so they wanted to reallocate me to another person's downline. This meant that I had to submit an application for a refund of my $2000, and then re-enter under that other person. (Apparently you can refund within 2 weeks of joining or something like that)
YES. MY TICKET OUT.
It wasn't an instant refund - I was told it was quite a long administrative process.
My Counter-Manipulation
Now, the thing is, I had two worries at this point of time:
Firstly, the refund was said to take weeks - I didn't know how long I could hide this from my mom. And the feeling of the $2000 hole in my pocket just SUCKS. I was dying a little every day. Second, I wasn't entirely sure if the refund would actually reach me - I was worried that my 'bosses' would basically be informed when the 'refund' was ready, and they could just make the switch to the other person's downline, and I would be entirely detached from the process.
I needed a Plan B, and hence I hatched a devious plan which basically required outright lying to my friend J. I felt, and still feel kinda bad for doing it, but... I could say they drove me to it. And my justification for it was that HE manipulated me first, and I was just counter-manipulating him. Plus, if this MLM thing was as lucrative as he promised when I entered, he would earn it back real quickly anyway. If it wasn't... He lied to me to get me in, I don't feel bad doing this at all then.
I developed a story of how furious my mother would be if she found out about this (she DID find out later on, and was understandably upset, but she's not the kind to be SUPER furious and want to disown me kind), and rushed J for the refund. I can't remember to what extent I exaggerated the story, but I know it got his attention. I then asked him if I could borrow money to put into my bank account - I mean, it's better to have $1000 missing than $2000. I actually aimed to borrow $2k, but that wasn't feasible.
My plan was simple - I would borrow this money, deposit it, and IF the refund came, I would return J his money, and refuse to put the $2k back into the new downline, but if the refund DIDN'T come, I would ask him to take his money from the company. (damn asshole right me!! I think it's quite an asshole move, but BO BIAN. I'm still ashamed of this today, but yea whatever.)
This actually worked - J lent me about $900 I believe.. I recall holding the $900 in cash (the most cash I've ever held), the thick wad of notes in my pocket, and quickly getting to a bank to deposit it. I thought to myself 'Oh well, at least I only lost $1.1k'. Better than nothing.
After almost a month I think, my refund DID come. I gladly transferred J's money back to him, and of course kept my $2k without putting it back in the company. They can go F themselves.
Final Evaluation
I was liberated - free - lesson learnt - whew.
But, there was one tense moment though - after I got my refund, I told them that my mom found out and she was pissed and she locked my bank account, thus I couldn't put it back in yet. I didn't explicitly tell them that I wanted to quit (which I think was because I didn't want to make my counter-manipulation obvious.)
And lo and behold, one fine day (it was night time actually) when I was going home, J was texting me asking to meet up (wants the $$ obviously), and I made the excuse that I was busy, and was heading home.
Then upon arrival at my block... I actually saw J and B waiting at my house's carpark for me!! WTF!!
Yea my blood froze when I saw them from a distance, and I realized there was no avoiding them - their position had full view of the lift/stairs and there was no way I could get home without them seeing me. So I pretended not to see them and pressed the lift, and they saw me and quickly strode over and called me to chat for a bit.
(They probably got my address from the company records)
Basically they painted some sob story about how entire up/downline was having their pay suspended/delayed because my $$ wasn't back in yet. In my mind the whole time I was thinking 'SERVES YOU RIGHT. NO CHANCE IN HELL I'M COMING BACK IN'
Instead I just told them that my mom had my ATM card, it was futile, I couldn't get the money out, I'm so sorry (not), blabla. They even asked me to go up and ask her now, but I said she was sleeping already.
I was sooo worried that they would want to come up and try to persuade my mom -_- That would be the worst. But in the end, seeing how I was not going to budge about it, I took my leave and left them to settle whatever problem they had. Good riddance!
Through this experience, I've learnt to be less gullible, less trusting of even my closest friends, and of course never ever to dabble with MLM / network marketing ever again. I was one of the lucky ones to get out with my money - I knew of at least 2 other friends who were in MLM but eventually quit as they were clearly not succeeding, but never got their money back.
Never again.
