Women and MLM: The Real Opportunity
I was greeted this morning with yet another click bait article demonizing Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) and overstating the horrors for women and literally “everyone they know.” I finally felt fired up enough to share some thoughts that have long been on my mind.
Full disclosure, I am an MLM fan. I never thought I would be initially when I landed my first job in network marketing but for almost 10 years I’ve been on the other side of the industry — working in the corporate offices of a several direct selling companies, offering the opportunity to both women and men to become business owners for very little risk and the possibility for great rewards. What I share now is the result of my own experience and is not endorsed my any of my employers.
Let’s start by talking about pyramid schemes. I am with you 100% that any and all illegitimate business and predatory practices must be stopped. However, most people don’t even understand what a pyramid scheme is and instead erroneously label all MLMs as pyramid schemes because “people at the top make more money.” The actual definition of a pyramid scheme (one not taken from Urban Dictionary) is “a form of investment (illegal in the US and elsewhere) in which each paying participant recruits two further participants, with returns being given to early participants using money contributed by later ones.” In other words, there is no product selling involved in a pyramid scheme. When people subscribe to the idea that there is a problem with the people at the top making more money than those who work “beneath” them, I often reference a typical org chart. The CEO or President of a company typically makes more money than the Vice Presidents do. And the Directors are generally greater in number than the Vice Presidents and make a little less and so on. Does that make literally every corporation a pyramid scheme? Most would admit that is does not. However, in MLM there is generally some kind of direct benefit for recruiting top talent and for their level of performance. Still, I submit that this in not unlike what occurs in the corporate world where a head of sales has bonuses directly tied to his or her employees’ performance. The head of sales has a direct impact through mentorship on employee performance. The role of upline (the person who sponsored the individual direct seller) is similar except more difficult in my opinion. Because the sellers they sponsor don’t work directly for them, those sellers are free to make their businesses and sales how they choose, are not given quotas they must meet to keep their jobs. This is unlike what happens in the corporate world. So, any encouragement to hit sales targets or achieve goals in Direct Sales is through training and influence which can be accepted and implemented or ignored by each individual. The role of “upline” like that of any leader, is hard work and deserves to be compensated. And sadly, just like in the corporate world, there are fantastic leaders and there are also poor, unethical or unskilled sponsors that make up the ranks of those who bring others into MLM. Some will create team members who are disenchanted and have poor experiences. At the end of the day, very few MLMs are anything close to pyramid schemes and instead are much closer to a typical corporate structure.
So now let’s talk specifically about women. Are MLM companies “targeting” women? YES! And if they aren’t they should be. Women are deserving of more opportunities to be successful and live and work on our own terms — not less. We evil MLM corporate employees plotting in dark corners of Utah offices didn’t invent the term boss babe or lady boss or girl boss or any of those. Those terms have been coined and made popular by strong women (generally outside Network Marketing) in order to take ownership of terms that might once have meant we were somehow “less than” when it comes to leadership roles. Of course there are no male equivalents! Men get to refer to themselves simply as leaders, role models and entrepreneurs without needing to add qualifying terms. And one day, partially thanks to women who turned these terms around and owned the power in them, so will women. For any company not to participate in the language that celebrates this movement is a marketing and ethical miss. But when you state that the font or color palettes a brand uses are a tool to prey on poor, unsuspecting women who have no choice but to succumb to the pink insta post and join our companies, you discredit our gender as a whole. Just wow and no thank you.
Stay at home moms, specifically, are at an interesting point in history. Our mothers may have strived for the right to work and may have felt very fulfilled at finally being able to contribute financially in their familial roles. Many women today, alternatively, are looking for the ability to do something different still — the ability to be home with their children without sacrificing interaction and social lives outside the home, and while still contributing to the financial benefit of the family. Yes, I have known mothers who were school teachers and found enough success in this industry to build vacation mansions and single mothers who were able to have their children join them in travels all over the world. But I have known many, many more moms who made fantastic lifelong friends and earned enough to cover dance lessons, or sports or band camp. These women are numerous and have found a sense of pride and accomplishment through direct sales. Not all of them join to become millionaires. Some genuinely like the products and enjoy sharing them with a little fun money being a side benefit. I have seen the “sisterhood” in some of these companies. It is real and has produced relationships that as a corporate employee I have often envied. This is the direct sales I see daily and believe in.
As far as the victimization of friends and family and literally “everyone we know;” I’d far rather buy a product someone I know and love who has used and recommends it. So would most people in fact, according to a recent survey stating “US consumers are more than 5 times as likely to have made a big purchase due to a recommendation from a trusted friend or family member (65%) than as a result of seeing an online influencer own or endorse the product/service (12%).” And I think that is wonderful. Where most people end up having a problem with social sellers is the knowledge that the friend or family member gets paid some kind of commission when that sale occurs. This is something I’ve often found confusing — we think it’s perfectly fine for a social media influencer or celebrity mouth piece like the Kylie Jenners of the world to take a cut of our purchase but not our neighbor? Is this because we do not trust the people we actually know to steer us correctly but prefer to place our trust in teenage billionaires who surely better understand our needs? No. This is why social media does tend to have people making recommendations for products and services, in general, not just for products sold through direct sellers. If I need a smelly candle and my neighbor gets a cut for selling me one of similar quality and price to the one I would buy at the mall — for me, it’s a no brainer. I don’t view them as trying to pull one over on me. I’m also just as likely to see someone recommend their hair stylist, exterminator, or a product they loved that is for sale at Sephora. Sometimes it seems we just tend not to mistrust those recommendations, sadly.
Now, last but not least, the opportunity. Part of the beauty of our industry is that YOU CAN start your own business, with very little investment and therefore very little risk. Outside direct selling, most small businesses are started by white men over 50 and also tend to have a high failure rate with only around 56% making it to their fifth year. It is absolutely true that those women I mentioned who are traveling the world, have retired their husbands and are building mansions are in the minority. A fact that MANY reputable MLMs are now very up front about. But I submit that, just as with anyone starting their own business, success is possible and there is a great deal of learning that takes place by going through the process. We all hate to hear of those who had a negative experience in the industry and those stories will always exist in any and all industries, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Multi-level marketing overall presents a level of opportunity unprecedented in any other industry for women who want more flexibility for family or other pursuits outside the standard corporate track. Yes, some MLMs will want you to buy a bunch of inventory. Don’t do business with them. Period. I for one am confident that most women are capable of doing their research and carefully choosing something that makes sense for them and for their individual goals. I don’t see direct sellers as victims ripe for the picking by their devious uplines. In my line of work — I see communities who are there to support one another, lift each other up and I see the sky-high dreams that some accomplish and the small victories that many more accomplish. And rather than suggesting to an industry made up of 75% women to “grow a real career” I think we should encourage women to follow whatever path is right for them and their families and help them out along the way by trusting them enough to choose them when the need arises for a vitamin, or skin care, or lip stick. Or don’t. But don’t mock them and belittle the dreams they’re pursuing. They are, for the most part, people who want to do right by other people by sharing products they believe in while building a life for themselves and their families. Just like you.
