Is It Ever Good to Lie to a MLM Prospect?

A recent meeting with a prospect had me thinking how easy it would be to mislead and outright lie to someone in order to make yourself look like a better network marketer.

I met with a fellow in a coffee shop and had a very good meeting with him. He was intrigued with the MLM opportunity, but like many others had certain questions. One question he posed to me, which surprisingly is not one asked by many people, led me to write this article.

He asked me how may people I had on my downline. I can certainly understand why he asked that question. He wanted to know how successful I was. I would tend to think that the more people on my team, the more successful I would be in his eyes. If my downline consisted of only a few people, then to him, the MLM opportunity would become less appealing. He could not be further from reality in thinking like this, but he does not know the network marketing business and his thoughts would be the same as the majority of the population.

During all my MLM training, this topic never came up. I recall my immediate upline discussing it casually with me and giving me some pointers, but it was not a major area of concern. I think this topic is extremely important and should be discussed with every member of your team. The main reason for this is because their credibility will be tested and you want your team member to say the right thing.

Personally, I never want any member of my team to lie to a prospect nor would I want them to mislead them. However, there are certain things that you can say to a prospect without being specific and it is by no means misleading them.

Let's face it, when someone is new to the network marketing industry, obviously they will not have a huge downline. Sometimes people get off to a very slow start and it could be months before they have several people on their team. Your prospect will only hear the total number of people and will not be interested in the explanation. So how do you avoid stating a specific fact without sounding like you are hiding something.

The way I do it is this. I never tell anyone how many people I have on my team. I also never tell anyone how much money I make. People's reaction to the figures you tell them will be subjective. You may think that the number of team members is high, but they may not. The same holds true for your income. A prospect may expect you to be making thousands of dollars right away so no matter what you tell them, it may not be good enough.

Another reason I do not tell them anything is because if they do not duplicate what I did then they may feel that they have failed. Even if their results are good, it may not be good enough in their eyes because they fell short of my results.

I explain to my prospects that I never divulge my income, the size of my team or how many people I have personally sponsored for the reasons I explained above. I further explain that results are based on the amount of work that a person is willing to put into the system. I add that anyone can become very successful in network marketing industry, but stress that results are never guaranteed. I do not want to mislead anyone to believe that certain income or results will be automatic.

I do tell them the level that I have attained with the company and have placed myself in a position to earn "x" amount of income. The figure you insert depends on your company's compensation plan. I tell them that I have built a team of quality people and I am now helping them to build their own teams. I tell them that I have started building my residual income which will allow me to reach my goals in the next "x" amount of time.

There are certainly different ways you can re word what I said, but I think you get the point. These comments are by no means misleading because you are simply stating what the opportunity has done and will do for you. If a person persists and still wants to know specific numbers, then I would forget about that person because they do not understand the opportunity or the MLM industry.

I hope this information will help when you encounter someone wanting to know what you earn or hoe many people you have on your team.