My colleagues from direct sales
About multi-level marketing bullshit bingo, passive income and lines
Retail chain, retail and commercial sales – that somehow seems a thing of the past. Now end consumers are opening up to the topic of direct sales and are happy to forego the numerous, otherwise common and intermediate trading levels. Get products and services directly from the company – why not? Nobody has to leave their place of work or residence to find out more, attend a presentation or get advice. In the age of digitization, direct sales has changed a lot anyway. And drives some style blossoms, which should also be illuminated in a satirical and entertaining way …
Basically, I like many products from direct sales: There are great cosmetics that are good for my skin, there are valuable food supplements that I am convinced that they strengthen my immune system (believing in them is half the battle anyway ), there are juices whose taste I just like, there is ice cream you can make yourself, that is a nice summer pastime and even the lavender scent that lulls the bathroom after I have activated my seven chakras with it, gives the city apartment something olfactory near-natural.
So far so good. I am a customer – or as my colleague says, you are “still at the bottom of the line”. Of course, I don’t like “right at the bottom” and the argument is obvious that at some point my colleague will ask me that “downstairs” can only be the beginning of the way. There is “upstairs” and of course also “those-at-the-top”, these are those with fancy cars, a house in Miami and who just enjoy life. Sure, once after the opulent breakfast, check the bank account balance and then inform all lines about it, post a Facebook group – that’s the work then.
Isn’t everyone’s goal to no longer have to work for money, but only to do what you want and to let the money work for you? Do not work, but let work – a scheme from the old industrial age. Too bad that I really love my work, that I would miss it and that I actually want to deal with adversity there at times.
“We are such a great community”
But my colleague is probably miles further by then. Even if we are “old friends” talking to each other about vacation, family and / or job, I can assure you: after what feels like three minutes we are on the topic. Always. Then I only hear things like: passive income, our products are brilliant, you have to get involved, we are such a great community and and and.
I recently caught myself playing the multi-level marketing bullshit bingo. Before I call the colleague in question, I write down for myself how long “it” will be today until “she” is back on “the subject”. “Wouldn’t you like to be rich too, like this one and that one?” She then shows the pictures of “the one up there”, lolling tanned on the yacht, or comes up with sentences like “You don’t want to earn 10,000 euros a day too ? “Or” think about coming to a Porsche within a week? “
Well, I don’t like Porsche that much, I like Aston-Martin. The James Bond touch makes me a hero. And what do I want with 10,000 euros when I already earn 40,000 such a day? With answers like this, I use less of the harsh reality (to calm your mind, I have neither the 40,000 nor the Aston-Martin) than the classic conversation killer, but sometimes there is no other way. “Come on over with your wife” is another famous phrase – but I know that she doesn’t want that.
“There is a really great, friendly, cordial atmosphere at our events. Everyone is always in a good mood. ”Sure, that’s probably the case. Nonetheless, when I was a speaker at such an event recently, I did listen to the usual blasphemers outside on the parking deck. “But it also plays up something like that,” I hear there. But inside you are friends again very quickly …
Lines, Supporter und Coaching?
Some time ago, another person I knew came up with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. When I asked what he is doing professionally, he elaborated a self-confident “I am a manager, an entrepreneur in the up-and-coming healthcare industry. THE market of tomorrow. ”Ok, when I asked discreetly what exactly and where to go, he also told me the story of Lines and up and down and I should join in too. He would then be my supporter and would coach me.
At the moment, however, he would still be coached himself. From his own supporter. He calls every morning and asks what activities he has planned for today and whether he still needs material or whether he can come by or whether he should give the presentation himself or bring new visual material over again. It’s always good to watch the video of “the one at the top” over and over again, cruising through the steppes of the southern USA in a Porsche and a fine cloth.
Ok, that was my part then, telling him something about real coaching. I studied and completed the subject for three and a half years and am happy about every natural talent, but also look when people call each other coaches after two weekend events with another 500 people each. He listened to me attentively and then said that the community needed exactly such people as me, that they were all friends and that the atmosphere was always very warm and gave a tremendous amount of energy. Somehow it seemed familiar to me.
Be pretty filthy rich – in twelve months
But I felt that he was still a beginner, because after five more minutes we were actually back to our original discussion topic of our appointment, he didn’t invite me directly to an event, he didn’t give me the basic product range to try out I didn’t explain that if I got it right, I could be pretty filthy rich in twelve months. You can still talk to him about football, fast cars and politics. Maybe that’s what I hope to find likeable about him for a long time to come and I can even imagine ordering the car care product from him one day. No, not for the Aston, but with a VW Polo, high-gloss is one or the other more noticeable …
About the author
Stefan Häseli is a communication trainer, keynote speaker, moderator and author of several books. He runs a training company in Switzerland. The communications expert has been accompanying numerous companies up to the highest boards of multinational corporations for years. He lectures at universities and technical colleges in the field of communication. As an expert, he takes on radio and TV stations whenever communication is playing a decisive role somewhere in the world, such as the first few weeks of “Donald Trump” or the view of Boris Johnson’s communication behavior.
The communication in their different worlds and the details in the language fascinate him and shape his professional career. He inspires in his specialist articles and columns with a subtle sense of humor. In his lectures and seminars, he conveys knowledge in an entertaining manner and peppered with practical examples as well as amusing anecdotes – always with a loving wink. His latest book “Best Practice Leadershit – Absurd Truths From The Executive Floor” illuminates many absurdities from the executive floors in a satirical way. As a trained actor with years of stage experience, he writes entire evening programs himself. There are also engagements in cinema films, TV series, TV commercials and training films.
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