I once worked in the development of a small multilevel company providing vacations. The only way the business could be profitable was by engineering a way to inflate the cost of the vacation packages. We ran dozens of spread sheet projections to determine the pay outs and how to maintain a profit. The only way to pay the down lines and up lines was to create a way to collect more money than the retail price. The company officials designed a monthly membership fee. The fee was completely refundable for future vacations. It is common knowledge that such membership fees and rebates are based on the fact that only a percentage ever cash them out. For example rebates have numerous penalty or qualifying clauses such as a 30 day redeem period simply to decrease the number of successful rebates. The membership fee was used by the vacation company to provide a lucrative stream of income.

I have since evaluated numerous MLM companies and have not found one that offers a product at a comparable price to regular retail. Each MLM company uses differing strategies to inflate their price in the attempt to hide it. One of the most frequent methods is to make outrageous claims of its value. For example if it is a health product the statements will include, "We have doctors that have researched our products for years and have discovered secrets that no one else knows", "Our product is based on some unique plant, food, process or service superior to any other product", "Our product promotes cell to cell generation that is our exclusive secret formula".

I state again no MLM company can survive without inflating the cost of its product. It just is impossible to pay many more levels of distribution than that of a normal retail process and be profitable.

In the charts and projections of the travel company it became evident that the only way to be profitable in its distribution of the product resulted in humongous profits for the top. If we lowered the profit projections the risk and profitability for the business was too great to survive. When we projected the inflated retail costs needed to survive it resulted in excessive profits for those in management. It simply is impossible to make it work any other way.

You may discount the above statements and try to believe your MLM company is different but it simply cannot be so. Ask yourself, is your company really selling a product at a fair market price or is it inflating the value of its product. Then is it really marketing a product of the dream of making lots of money?

If you are adept at spread sheets take your MLM product, insert all the pay out levels and see for yourself what really occurs.

If you take the time to read my other articles on success you will know I believe success is not monetary. The world has the mistaken definition of money as the indicator of success. Money has become the modern god for many people. MLM capitalizes on this false god worship to survive. MLM never sells just a product or service, their real product is a dream for wealth. No matter how they may claim to be only interested in helping people become healthy or what ever product or service they provide it is never based on that product or service. It simply cannot and stay in business as a MLM. In order to survive a MLM business must sell greed.

Every time I am approached by a MLM rep it is always the same rhetoric over and over again about all the good things the product, service and company does for the world. Haven't you too observed the more a person tells you how good they are the more likely they are just the opposite. It is fine to present ones good attributes but when they are presented over and over again it becomes suspect. Every time someone tells me how they or their company or its leaders gave to charities and did many good deeds it is a sign of greed. Greed is never for the person on the bottom. MLM uses those on the bottom and the only way they can keep those on the bottom motivated is by hiding their true actions and capitalize on their greed.

Another common false concept is the statement, "You need wealth to serve others". This philosophy is a common thread in getting people to commit to the desire for a dream or wealth to do good. The problem is that the path laid out by the MLM concept requires one to trample on others in order to obtain the wealth. This often causes the person to loose attributes of charity and goodness in order to be successful.

One example of this contrast in saying good while doing the opposite is the oft quoted term, "We are a family oriented business, we care for families". Then work to get them so involved in the business that they neglect parenting responsibilities. The companies as well as most associates will openly repel this concept, yet I have observed it many times. The very nature of the MLM concept is to attract those who are looking for a second income to support their families and as such has to be done in the evenings and weekends. The other given factor is that in order to succeed in any MLM business one must pay the price in time and effort. The contrast occurs in trying to balance the dream for financial success and the hardship of building the business.

As outlined above the premise of any MLM can only survive by taking advantage of those on the bottom. It is simply impossible to design a MLM business plan that does not. The government has created laws that define a pyramid and every MLM company abides by those laws or risks being shut down. They then claim they are not a pyramid because the law does not define them as such. The way the laws are written do not change the fact that they are still a pyramid by its actual definition. A pyramid is simply a tapered structure that has less people at the top than the bottom. This makes every business a pyramid. This concept is used by any MLM company to claim they are no different than any other business.

MLM is based on deceiving its members to believe they are not a pyramid. They cannot survive if those on the bottom wake up to the reality they are simply pawns to those on the top. There is one exception, it is that the whole marketing process of a pyramid is to attract a new member to climb to the top. Thus they are marketing the concept that one can start at the bottom and eventually achieve the top. The problem is that the only way to the top is to trample on hundreds below them. Of course MLM never say it that way, yet if one carefully listen that is exactly what they teach.

MLM attracts those who are users. Those who want to get gain by taking advantage of others. Therefore the whole MLM concept is based on abusing others not providing a product or service. The product or service becomes a sugar coating to hide the real agenda of the whole MLM process.

One of the most irritating concepts of MLM is the repetitive steps marketers are taught by the industry. It is exemplified in teaching them to start with their soft market (friends and family). Then to build an appetite for a dream while ignoring the actual product. Things like making conference calls to others who have used the product or service and trying to build hype not reality. Seldom or never will a MLM company present their product like a retailer with a price list and product definition. The price and product identification are often obscured or hidden.

No MLM can survive in the open, they must obscure or hide the product until they have developed an appetite for wealth and the glory of their supreme product. This is simply an economic fact that no one is going to pay double for something unless they are convinced that they can get double back. They must become sold on the supreme value of the product or service or that they can achieve their dream with it.

First those who are being used and duped into simi slavery serving their up line masters. They are being fed lies and deception. Too often their motivation is either help from the product or dreams of wealth.

Second are those who have progressed up the ladder and are now using others for their own financial gain.

Third are those who have the master plan and manage the company. They know their product or service is but a by-product and that their real product is capitalizing on the monitory greed of people.

Every experienced MLM rep I have ever listened to has similar characteristics and marketing strategies as follows;

• My company is not like all the other MLM's we are different and do not do what the others do, with this quote, "I have seen many other MLM's and have discovered this great company that is not like all the others."
• Or we are not a MLM company
• Our product is superior to others and that is why it costs a little more
• I can't tell you what our product is until you fill out this form or until we get more aquatinted.
• When asked what the product is or information about it they reply, "I don't do business that way" we must first do; then they set up conference calls or similar things that are carefully designed to build hype. Only those who fall for this are rewarded with product information and then only when they demonstrate that they have fallen under their spell.
• The reps disregard all objections or comments that do not lead to their sale. They are trained to overcome objections just as any good salesperson. However they are trained to do so in a manipulating manner and are so duped they do not realize or care when their tactics are rude or offensive.
• They are taught that the product is so important and good that anyone that is not using it is being harmed.
• This results in believing it is ok to force their rude marketing on others because they are doing them good and their resistance is just because they do not recognize how bad they need the product.
• They are skillfully trained (duped) to believe they are saviors and have to save everyone else