According to a reader, Melaleuca is not an MLM because MLM’s make you do the following things (while apparently Melaleuca doesn’t). My comments are in bold.
* I have to keep products in my garage
* I have to keep inventory
Vemma, Usana, Passport, Xango, and even most of Quixtar (formerly Amway) do not have their distributors inventory products. All of these companies (and hundreds of others take orders over the phone and Internet, yet, they are all MLM….just like Melaleuca.
* I have to go to those phoney rah rah mlm meetings.
* I have to buy a tape ever week or a book of the month
Most MLM companies have left the rah rah meetings aside in favor of conference calls and Internet training. Audio training is also done via Network Marketing Podcast.
* If I get someone on my team and they do better than me, they break away. I hate breakaways.
The majority of the companies that have launched in the last 5 years are not “breakaways”. They are unilevel, binaries, and/or a combination of the two.
* I have to take orders
* I have to do billings and collections
This implies (in an FTC friendly way) that you you do not have to make sales. That is simply not true. Even if a company takes the order (and most do today), you still must make sales in Network Marketing. First to insure that you are not building a negative financial pyramid and second to stay within the law.
I understand that Melaleuca wants to distance itself from the MLM stigma. But I believe you do that by being a really good MLM, not by misinforming distributors and prospects about the truth.
Melaleuca is an MLM. Deal with it.
MLM Business Opportunities Blog | Not MLM on December 9th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
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Davud on March 16th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Melaleuca IS NOT an MLM. Tell me why most of Melaleuca customers received checks? Is that happen in MLM? NO !!! MOST PEOPLE IN MLM DON’T EVEN RECEIVED A CHECK EVEN IF THEY WORK THEIR BUSINESSES !!!
Ty on March 17th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Davud,
Most people do receive checks in MLM, albeit not very big ones.
Even if every “customer” in Melaleuca received a check, it would still be an MLM.
Melaleuca has every single attribute of an MLM, except the fact that they refuse to call themselves MLM.
Read my lips: Melaleuca is an MLM
Tracken on November 26th, 2006 at 12:15 am
Who cares if it is a MLM or CDM. If you can make it work than great! If it works it works.
Tim Welch on January 17th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I can honestly say I agree with you. Melaleuca is a great company, they have great products, but unfortunately some people in the company have been trained to tell people it’s not MLM when it clearly is.
They call it Consumer Direct Marketing, which really it is very similar in function and structure to an MLM or network marketing company.
It should be known that not all Melaleuca people are telling others that they are not MLM.
I have been in Melaleuca for 3 years and I am very honest with people when I tell them about the business side of it takes work.
I would be shooting myself in the foot I think if I told them it wasn’t MLM. The fastest way to turn someone off is to come right out and lie to them.
Some of these Melaleuca people need to be straight with thier prospects about how to make the money in Melaleuca.
It starts with a proper presentation of the products they offer and compensation plan they offer to thier business builders.
It continues with marketing and selling to the right people, not buggin’ thier friends and family.
Rachel on February 28th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
If Melaleuca was MLM, then the IRS wouldn’t recognize them as CDM (comsumer direct marketing).
John on April 10th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I had someone prospect me for Melaleuca and she said it wasn’t mlm. I had to ask her then why she was prospecting me to sign into a business that would obviously want me to do the same. Thats mlm! I don’t waste peoples time trying to obscure my business- I tell them what it is. I have yet to contact her back -its been over a year. -See ya