Is Direct Selling Wrecking Our Friendships?
January 9, 2008 | By Monika Mundell | 1 Comment »
Direct selling is a proven business model that is being used by millions of people worldwide. It is available both for men and women but it isn’t news that mostly women are starting a direct selling business.
The fact that we hold home parties however might well wreck our friendships since many people are very cautious about direct selling or MLM.
I know from my own experience that many women are very hostile when approached whether they want to attend a direct sale party. I can truly tell from experience and I didn’t hold just one party either. People in Australoia are generally very negative towards MLM target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://gobala.linktrackr.com/attractionmarketing-mlmrkeywords">MLM and direct sales. They fear to get sucked into something evil and run a mile when approached.
This fact alone makes direct selling a hard business model to embrace. This fear might very well stem from Amway’s, early push to sales methods which they engaged in in the early 1980s and 1990s. The tale of being sucked into evil marketing having to push products onto others and hound your friends and family is still being told these days.
Never did I hear this more often then while prospecting over the phone or holding home parties. It is therefore no wonder that many direct sales consultants give up eventually. They simply burn out due to the stresses of swimming against the tide and give up.
I did.
Did it wreck my friendships? In a way it certainly affected them negatively as I felt certain friends pulled back from me whilst engaging in direct selling. The biggest impact was seen on family members as they were all (with no exception) very negative about my time in direct sales.
Why – because they were afraid! Afraid for me to salvage my lost soul (in their eyes at least) and afraid of themselves being sold to.
Did my friends tell me to my face that what I was doing wasn’t approved by them? No, they didn’t, but they simply pulled back and acted a little more cold whenever I was talking enthusiastically about my business.
Some would say – to hell with friends like these!
I say, I understand and respect their decision and opinion.
Being in direct sales didn’t wreck my friendship, but it certainly influenced the way certain friends were dealing with me while I was active in the business.
Monika
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