Today's blog post is about the separation of emotions from business. Too often, people utilize emotions to make important decisions, and business is one of the worst areas in which this occurs. Business should involve a calm and collected mind, but MLM is different as they tend to focus on the high-energy and fast-paced illogical hard-sell. MLMs specifically focus on the emotions and irrational side of the brain, because the numbers are particularly horrific. In a cursory Google search, one can find income disclosure sheets for a number of MLMs, and they show MLMs have extremely high failure rates and below minimum wage earnings across the vast majority of their population. Therefore, it is important for MLMs to go out of their way to distract from, or ignore these numbers, if they intend to continue to grow.
Emotions can be synonymous with temperature, hence the term emotional thermometer. It is important to regularly check our emotions, and analyze why certain situations evoke a larger or more intense emotional response than others. For example, if there is a particular situation in which I get angry, then I often reflect on that experience and try to understand why I got so "hot headed". This is important because the higher the emotional level, the less likely rational thought will be implemented. It is important to have emotions but they must be balanced. Any emotional extreme can lead to poor decision making, and ultimately can cause a lot of harm.
MLMs utilize psychological techniques to make people as emotional and non-rational as possible. They hold seminars, sometimes as long as an entire weekend, designed to eliminate critical thought by means of high-intensity content. Instead of pitching the "opportunity" as accurately as possible, they utilize "love-bombing", music, lights, anecdotal commentary, and dreams. These mechanisms are designed to obfuscate reality and invert the damning statistics. They do nothing to prepare a potential prospect with training, and they do not reveal the costs of the "business" until a person has been primed by hours of meaningless content. Their ultimate goal is to get a person as "pumped" as possible, because the higher the "pump" the less likely people are to question the motives and information.
Again, if MLMs were as accurate and direct as possible then they would fail, which is why they spend tons of money holding "seminars", "meetings", "trainings", and other unnecessary "functions" to subvert a person's critical faculties. They want someone's emotional thermometer to be as high as possible, because that will lead to a person's inability to dissociate fantasy from reality. Salespersons often focus on building relationships over the quality or content of their goods and services, because that can be more effective when closing the sale. It is important to remember this, because the "opportunity" is actually a big hard-sell to get a prospect to spend their hard earned dollars (or other currency) on the MLM.
One of my favorite expressions is: "If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you." (Paul Newman) The same can be said for MLM. If you can't tell why the MLMers care about you so much, especially compared to the way an average person treats you, then you are the perfect sucker they target.
Emotions can be synonymous with temperature, hence the term emotional thermometer. It is important to regularly check our emotions, and analyze why certain situations evoke a larger or more intense emotional response than others. For example, if there is a particular situation in which I get angry, then I often reflect on that experience and try to understand why I got so "hot headed". This is important because the higher the emotional level, the less likely rational thought will be implemented. It is important to have emotions but they must be balanced. Any emotional extreme can lead to poor decision making, and ultimately can cause a lot of harm.
MLMs utilize psychological techniques to make people as emotional and non-rational as possible. They hold seminars, sometimes as long as an entire weekend, designed to eliminate critical thought by means of high-intensity content. Instead of pitching the "opportunity" as accurately as possible, they utilize "love-bombing", music, lights, anecdotal commentary, and dreams. These mechanisms are designed to obfuscate reality and invert the damning statistics. They do nothing to prepare a potential prospect with training, and they do not reveal the costs of the "business" until a person has been primed by hours of meaningless content. Their ultimate goal is to get a person as "pumped" as possible, because the higher the "pump" the less likely people are to question the motives and information.
Again, if MLMs were as accurate and direct as possible then they would fail, which is why they spend tons of money holding "seminars", "meetings", "trainings", and other unnecessary "functions" to subvert a person's critical faculties. They want someone's emotional thermometer to be as high as possible, because that will lead to a person's inability to dissociate fantasy from reality. Salespersons often focus on building relationships over the quality or content of their goods and services, because that can be more effective when closing the sale. It is important to remember this, because the "opportunity" is actually a big hard-sell to get a prospect to spend their hard earned dollars (or other currency) on the MLM.
One of my favorite expressions is: "If you're playing a poker game and you look around the table and and can't tell who the sucker is, it's you." (Paul Newman) The same can be said for MLM. If you can't tell why the MLMers care about you so much, especially compared to the way an average person treats you, then you are the perfect sucker they target.
" If you can't tell why the MLMers care about you so much, especially compared to the way an average person treats you, then you are the perfect sucker they target."
ReplyDeleteLove bombing.
pinkvictim --
DeleteThe concept of love bombing is one of the most insidious tactics utilized by conpersons. The direct attack on a person's low self-esteem by means of falsely inflating it for self-gain is incredibly effective, but is also incredibly vile. These people demonstrate an outrageous level of sociopathy and narcissism.
The MLMers need to recruit on a wave of emotion. That's why they focus on dreams and possibilities rather than hard facts and what is likely.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is by design because most people who rationally analyze MLM will realize it's a lose money proposition and most would be better off simply buying a lottery ticket. At least a lottery ticket requires no work on your part other than purchasing the tickets and checking to see if you won.
Joe --
DeleteCould you imagine going to a job interview at a concert hall with loud music and strobe lights? Could you imagine if your future boss started to talk to you about their dreams while showing off how awesome their lives are?
If we take a step back and measure our emotional thermometer, then we can probably realize this is the most heinous way to start a potential business venture. In the movies, it was always gangsters and criminals that did business in these informal, and often highly electric atmospheres. You wouldn't see someone interviewing to become a bank manager at a concert, yet your potential future business partners are attempting to do this. It reminds me of the Sopranos holding an important business meeting at a strip club or bar. It's simply ridiculous.
The problem is that we now inhabit a world where emotional response has gone berserk. The vast majority of the population is governed by visceral reactions and feelings. Rational persons are the exception, and are in fact frequently dismissed by many people as cranks, misfits, and weirdos. How many times are rational persons berated for "not following their true feelings," or "failing to pursue their dreams," or "being too cold and unresponsive"?
ReplyDeleteMLMs can only thrive in such an atmosphere.
Anonymous --
DeleteGreat point! We have somehow become intellectually stymied by these "progressives" and their rules. It is too hard to be rational because everything is so emotional and irrational. It is truly frustrating, and to sit down and have a dialogue with someone that doesn't share your same views is nearly impossible.
I personally have gotten sick of shows, such as "Tucker Carlson Tonight", because they are too focused on "winning", and often he is sent out to verbally destroy his opponents because he is good at it. Nothing ever feels like it is actually being accomplished, and you get the feeling that two people just went to war rather than fostering communication.
Of course CNN, NYT, MSNBC (MSDNC), CNBC, ABC, and whatever other "media" outlet is on the left is just blatantly lying constantly so there is no value in their channels either.
I have recently started watching Steven Crowder's "Louder With Crowder" on YouTube, and some of his stuff is very similar to Tucker, but sometimes he actually gets through to people and gets away from the highly volatile and sensationalized BS. He is one of the only people to display enough patience with the opposing side and have a reasonable conversation, and even if they both disagree, he isn't overly dramatic. It's refreshing, but it is only available on YouTube, and YouTube will not recommend it unless you hunt for that sort of information. Also, people from the left seem to actually like Steven, even though he is a self-proclaimed conservative.
Another important point to note is that these seminars, conferences and conventions are the way most top MLM'ers make their money. Pack 5000 starving reps into a banquet hall at $20 each several times each year and you have discovered the secret to MLM success. And it has nothing to do with selling products. Its about recruiting audience members.
ReplyDeleteTolobelt --
DeleteAbsolutely! These charlatans thrive on backward logic and focus on profiting off of, rather than enriching their potential recruits. The idea that anyone would pay for a "business opportunity" is already bizarre, but to pay for "training" before paying for a "business opportunity" that has an effectively 0% success rate, is one of the most absurd situations ever created. If anyone explained this type of situation in the language I just used, then the amount of people being duped by MLM would go down drastically.
The choice and variety of angles is good.
ReplyDeleteThe emotional selling is certainly quite effective, and even in the information age. Now this example is not MLM, but it strongly reminds me to when we were lured a few years ago (as a newly wed couple) to collect a price that we'd won. Arriving there with all the "winners" it quickly became apparent that they wanted a captive audience to market holiday points to. Timeshare at the time got a bad name in South Africa for being overpriced and restrictive. So the first thing the marketer said was that they were not timeshare. I'm not going into the details of the particular offering, save to say, it did not seem worth it. In fact holiday points, the type they marketed, was a lot worse than timeshare. But I digress..
The same signs were present as in MLM:
1. Insisting they were not timeshare (some MLM's move and redefine names to distance themselves from a bad wrap. Some even say they are not MLM).
2. being surrounded by people who all seemed to think it was an excelllent idea, and who cheered at the introductory speeches. This is putting pressure on one's sanity (I'm I the only one who thinks this is BS? Maybe I'm overly cynical and negative?)
3. Pictures of (attractive) happy people on exotic beach and ski holidays
4. Pushing for an on-the-spot decision
5. Music, lights etc
6. Had canned answers prepared for the usual objections, which upon probing turned out that the seller had no deep understanding of the content, but was regurgitating an argument.
7. marketers acting professional in overt signs (wearing suits etc) but scratching under the surface, revealed flawed individuals desperate for a sale.
8. Luring people there under false pretences. There was never any prize. There were weekend and midweek breaks that were awarded for attending (the prizes), but it required an admin fee before being told the date and place, and there were enough fineprint to keep a laywer busy for weeks.
9. Fake exclusivity and shallow compliments. The seller pretending to see something in you to select you for this great opportunity, when in fact they would market to anyone who would listen. I remember when I was being fished for MLM, it was also the compliments that made me feel uneasy.
10. The seller pretending that there is not much in it for them, whether you sign up or not. But he wanted to share this womderful thing that he has discovered.
I think children should be brought up to recognise these red flags. It can be heart breaking to make starry eyed children aware that there are wolves out there.
kwaaikat --
DeleteThe timeshare example is great for explaining the techniques and sliminess of the MLM sales pitch. In America, we still have a ton of timeshare presentations with the promise of gifts and other stuff just to attend their meetings. Even at the local fair, you will get people coming up to you after you paid an entrance fee to try and sell you a timeshare, and they will pretend you are entering a lottery to win fabulous vacations.
Thank you for pointing this out!