Who's heard of Primerica?

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eLiTeGoodGuy

Golden Member
Jun 6, 2001
1,175
0
86
oops he left this up for me to see ( the fiance) from personal experience, run fast, you become a "partner" of the company for a $200 fee, then you pay for your licenses. In the time I was a "partener" I saw very little of anything. Theree are a few who make a killing off their loved ones, I am not one of them. No insurance or benifits are included in the job, you are self employed. Big promises, I quit a paying job, with benifts for this great opportunity, and ended up in a world of hurt, run
 

PushHands

Senior member
May 22, 2002
990
0
0
LOL... this reminds me of the news story I heard some time ago. If I recall correctly, the CEO was being questioned :)

Either way, stay away from MLM, period. Better off just to work at Micky D's :D
 

LeeTJ

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,899
0
0
Originally posted by: freesia39
hmm i was considering bailing on this interview before.. now it just keeps getting reinforced.

i just HATE selling things.

It IS SALES, if you hate sales, stay away.

HOWEVER, contrary to the opinion of these morons, IT IS NOT A PYRAMID scheme. it is a form of marketing called MLM. Pyramid Schemes are ILLEGAL, Primerica is LEGAL, hence it is NOT a pyramid scheme.

god i hate morons that exaggerate stuff.

 

FinalLastt

Member
Feb 26, 2002
80
0
0
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Originally posted by: freesia39
hmm i was considering bailing on this interview before.. now it just keeps getting reinforced.

i just HATE selling things.

It IS SALES, if you hate sales, stay away.

HOWEVER, contrary to the opinion of these morons, IT IS NOT A PYRAMID scheme. it is a form of marketing called MLM. Pyramid Schemes are ILLEGAL, Primerica is LEGAL, hence it is NOT a pyramid scheme.

god i hate morons that exaggerate stuff.

 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,967
19
81
Hmmm last I checked MLM was the new way to describe the PYRAMID scheme legally. It's really the same thing once you tear the two apart.

I think in a pyramid you can't make anything without a downline, but in MLM you can make 'something' without a downline, however the company can charge fees to make that something back.
 

LeeTJ

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,899
0
0
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Hmmm last I checked MLM was the new way to describe the PYRAMID scheme legally. It's really the same thing once you tear the two apart.

I think in a pyramid you can't make anything without a downline, but in MLM you can make 'something' without a downline, however the company can charge fees to make that something back.

In a pyramid scheme THERE IS NO PRODUCT. IF THERE IS A LEGITIMATE PRODUCT IT IS NOT A SCHEME.

Primerica and Amway ARE NOT SCHEMES. Pyramid Schemes DO exist and calling legitimate businesses Pyramid schemes only confuses the issue.

it's a MARKETING strategy, instead of the company paying out a %age of their gross revenue for TV/Radio/Newspaper/Direct Mail/Sales organization they pay it out to their downline. The BASIS of the income is the PRODUCT sold.

IT'S NOT the same thing.
rolleye.gif



you can take ANY legitimate marketing strategy and turn it into a scheme or scam if you leave out the product.
rolleye.gif
. that's what SCAMS DO. THAT is the precise definition of a scam, take a legitimate marketing strategy and find a way to sell the product WITHOUT delivering the product, does that AUTOMATICALLY condemn ALL marketing strategies?? ONLY a fool or a moron would believe that and yet thats EXACTLY what you just said, "when you break it down they are basically the same" NO, they are NOT the same, they use the SAME STRATEGY but the legitimate one SELLS A PRODUCT the Illegal one DOES NOT.

 

Pepsi90919

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,162
1
81
um, well a family friend of ours was a rep for primerica and we invested about $2000 through him in june of 2001.

in july of 2001 he committed suicide.
in september of 2001 we lost a lot of money.

so um, yeah. don't invest your money. :confused:
 

LeeTJ

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,899
0
0
Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
um, well a family friend of ours was a rep for primerica and we invested about $2000 through him in june of 2001.

in july of 2001 he committed suicide.
in september of 2001 we lost a lot of money.

so um, yeah. don't invest your money. :confused:

i feel bad for you. losing money sucks.

i will still defend the position tho that primerica is not a pyramid scheme. it's a legitimate marketing strategy.

i do feel for you tho.
 

Pepsi90919

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
25,162
1
81
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
um, well a family friend of ours was a rep for primerica and we invested about $2000 through him in june of 2001.

in july of 2001 he committed suicide.
in september of 2001 we lost a lot of money.

so um, yeah. don't invest your money. :confused:

i feel bad for you. losing money sucks.

i will still defend the position tho that primerica is not a pyramid scheme. it's a legitimate marketing strategy.

i do feel for you tho.

it's alright. i mean yeah his death was bad, but at least we got out of primerica before we lost the whole $2000.

not that it was really their fault. you can thank osama.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,924
45
91
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
um, well a family friend of ours was a rep for primerica and we invested about $2000 through him in june of 2001.

in july of 2001 he committed suicide.
in september of 2001 we lost a lot of money.

so um, yeah. don't invest your money. :confused:

i feel bad for you. losing money sucks.

i will still defend the position tho that primerica is not a pyramid scheme. it's a legitimate marketing strategy.

i do feel for you tho.

LeeTJ is right - it's not a pyramid scheme at all. Essentially what Primerica reps do is an analysis of your finances to find ways for you to save money (by consolidating loans, etc). Then you invest that money you saved. Of course, their goal is to get you to invest your money with other Citigroup companies. The primerica rep then gets paid a small commission by the other Citigroup companies on your investment.

That said, I definitely wouldn't recommend working there, or even going to their seminar. There is no guarantee of a steady income, or even an income at all. As people have said, you do have to pay about $200 - that's to get the necessary licenses. Primerica actually fronts part of the money to get you your licenses. If you already have the required licenses, I don't think you have to pay the $200.

I went to one of their recruiting events unfortunately... they e-mailed me because of my resume on Monster.com, so I called and asked if there would be any positions available for Computer Science grads... I figured they saw the Business Information Systems track on there and thought I was a business major. They said there would be; they lied. Wasted a whole day going down to Philly. I was rather annoyed.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,085
5,618
126
Originally posted by: mugsywwiii
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
um, well a family friend of ours was a rep for primerica and we invested about $2000 through him in june of 2001.

in july of 2001 he committed suicide.
in september of 2001 we lost a lot of money.

so um, yeah. don't invest your money. :confused:

i feel bad for you. losing money sucks.

i will still defend the position tho that primerica is not a pyramid scheme. it's a legitimate marketing strategy.

i do feel for you tho.

LeeTJ is right - it's not a pyramid scheme at all. Essentially what Primerica reps do is an analysis of your finances to find ways for you to save money (by consolidating loans, etc). Then you invest that money you saved. Of course, their goal is to get you to invest your money with other Citigroup companies. The primerica rep then gets paid a small commission by the other Citigroup companies on your investment.

That said, I definitely wouldn't recommend working there, or even going to their seminar. There is no guarantee of a steady income, or even an income at all. As people have said, you do have to pay about $200 - that's to get the necessary licenses. Primerica actually fronts part of the money to get you your licenses. If you already have the required licenses, I don't think you have to pay the $200.

I went to one of their recruiting events unfortunately... they e-mailed me because of my resume on Monster.com, so I called and asked if there would be any positions available for Computer Science grads... I figured they saw the Business Information Systems track on there and thought I was a business major. They said there would be; they lied. Wasted a whole day going down to Philly. I was rather annoyed.

For the most part, I agree. Where I'd differ is, it depends on whether a person is motivated and good at sales. Such a person can do well, given they they work hard and are patient. It's not something you should quit your job for though, nor is it a job. It is a business opportunity, one that you start slowly with, say on the weekend or after work. In time the business will become large enough where you can afford to do it as your fulltime job.

There is one downside though(potentially huge). Being that it is basically Financial Services such as: Mutual Funds, other Investment funds, and Life Insurance; if the Stock Market sucks, so will this business, especially if your clients totally cash out and leave the Investment Market altogether. I don't know if the laws here are different or not, but the few Primerica dudes(?) I know offer not only Citicorp Mutual Funds and what not, but they offer Funds from numerous Banks, Finincial Investment corps, and what not. Basically, the customer/client is given a wider range of Investment Fund choices than they likely would find through a more Institutionalized Investment Corp(possibly excepting: Schwabb and other such Online/Distant investment corps).

In short:

1) Need a job? Look elsewhere
2) Want a Home based business you can possibly build into a "career"? Check Primerica out, decide if you can do the type of work that is required, do it or don't.
3) Primerica is not a scam, however, being that the successful are Sales types, expect the Hard sell! :D
 

LeeTJ

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,899
0
0
FOR the record.

I am NOT a proponent of Primerica. i had a primerica guy bug me for about 2 years before he finally accepted my NO as a NO. so there is no love that i have for this company. HOWEVER.

IT is NOT a SCAM.

it bugs me everytime a MLM business is mentioned here and all the antiprofit morons jump on board and start yelling SCAM SCAM SCAM.

How is it a scam when there are Legitimate products being bought and sold AND the profit margin is basically the same as any other type of business??

the overall markup you see with Primerica or Amway is ON EVEN keel with their normal Brick and Mortar establishments. Do you honestly believe that Merril Lynch brokers or stores that sell cosemetics DON'T make a profit on you??

bottom line there are a lot of anti profit people here on AT and they really really annoy me.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,085
5,618
126
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
FOR the record.

I am NOT a proponent of Primerica. i had a primerica guy bug me for about 2 years before he finally accepted my NO as a NO. so there is no love that i have for this company. HOWEVER.

IT is NOT a SCAM.

it bugs me everytime a MLM business is mentioned here and all the antiprofit morons jump on board and start yelling SCAM SCAM SCAM.

How is it a scam when there are Legitimate products being bought and sold AND the profit margin is basically the same as any other type of business??

the overall markup you see with Primerica or Amway is ON EVEN keel with their normal Brick and Mortar establishments. Do you honestly believe that Merril Lynch brokers or stores that sell cosemetics DON'T make a profit on you??

bottom line there are a lot of anti profit people here on AT and they really really annoy me.

;)

I'm not sure if it's the "anti-profit" or "get rich quick" crowd who oppose MLM, possibly it's both. :)
 

LeeTJ

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,899
0
0
Originally posted by: sandorski
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
FOR the record.

I am NOT a proponent of Primerica. i had a primerica guy bug me for about 2 years before he finally accepted my NO as a NO. so there is no love that i have for this company. HOWEVER.

IT is NOT a SCAM.

it bugs me everytime a MLM business is mentioned here and all the antiprofit morons jump on board and start yelling SCAM SCAM SCAM.

How is it a scam when there are Legitimate products being bought and sold AND the profit margin is basically the same as any other type of business??

the overall markup you see with Primerica or Amway is ON EVEN keel with their normal Brick and Mortar establishments. Do you honestly believe that Merril Lynch brokers or stores that sell cosemetics DON'T make a profit on you??

bottom line there are a lot of anti profit people here on AT and they really really annoy me.

;)

I'm not sure if it's the "anti-profit" or "get rich quick" crowd who oppose MLM, possibly it's both. :)

either way, it's an overreaction without any real thought or knowledge.
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
81
Have ANY of you EVER actually been involved with Primerica Financial Services?

I cannot believe some of the STUPID comments like this:

pimpimg friends for something they don't need makes you looks really bad in there eyes...

Who said they sell anything you don't need?

I was involved with PFS (actually... way back when it was A.L. Williams) and stayed for several years. I wasn't interested in going way high and building a team, what I needed at the time was a second income. It did cost me about $200 to get my initial licences, BUT IT WAS FOR BOOKS AND STATE TESTING! The company took not even one penny of my money.

PFS is a member of the Travelers, which is one of the largest financial companies in the world! As a member of PFS, you can market many of the product that high end brokers deal with, but you can do it in your spare time and earn extra income. But there are a couple of side benefits too... you get a PRIME financial education that will change the way you think about and handle your own money... and, you get to help people. You would not believe how many of the people I saw were getting RAPED by companies like The Prudential, All State, MetLife.... and I mean RAPED!

If you do a good job, you can often leave the customer's house and have them in a much better financial situation than when you came without costing them any more than they are currently paying. In some cases, they actually are in a better situation and are spending LESS. And, also on occasions, they really need to rework their budget and put more money in different places, but they don't have anyone willing to do the work for them... until you show up.

Yeah, a friend at work said he listened to a sales pitch once, but when he heard that you have to start by bothering your friends and family, he knew right then it was dumb.
Not too bright I guess. After I sat through and intro to what they could do for me without costing me anything, the FIRST thing I asked the guy was if they ever hired people part time. It doesn't take rocket science to understand that if you can get something of the same quality to someone for less money than they currently spend for it, you will sell it most of the time. Just take a look at our HotDeals forum!

And if your own family was getting raked over the coals by some unscrupulous financial firm, wouldn't you want to tell them? You're acting like telling someone how to do better for themselves is a BAD thing!

As far as MLM, that's partly true and partly not. If you work for an insurance broker and he makes you a junior partnet and you have agents under you... and if they agents you manage do well and you get a % as their manager, is that multilevel marketing? If so, most big real estate agencies, insurance brokers and stock brokers are MLM too. The true part is that there is always a push to recruit.

I didn't recruit much and never really built a team... I was just looking for a second income because my wife and I had just had twins and she was out of work. I didn't build a team, but there were months that I brought home close to $3000. There were other months I barely brought home $300... it all depended on how much I wanted to work.

I would say that at a minimum you should spend the money for your licencing and go on three training sales. I don't know for sure if it is still setup that way, but that's the way it was when I started in the late 80's. You pay $200, but after the three sales they give you back $225. You've spent some time and gotten an education you won't get elsewhere and made $25 to boot. If you don't like it at that point... walk away with new found knowledge. If you do like it, approach it only as an extra-time sort of thing at first... if you find that you're good at helping people, go part-time if you like. If you do tremendously, you could be full-time in the future, though most don't make it that far. Anyone else paying you $25 to get educated?

Joe
 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,967
19
81
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Hmmm last I checked MLM was the new way to describe the PYRAMID scheme legally. It's really the same thing once you tear the two apart.

I think in a pyramid you can't make anything without a downline, but in MLM you can make 'something' without a downline, however the company can charge fees to make that something back.

In a pyramid scheme THERE IS NO PRODUCT. IF THERE IS A LEGITIMATE PRODUCT IT IS NOT A SCHEME.

Primerica and Amway ARE NOT SCHEMES. Pyramid Schemes DO exist and calling legitimate businesses Pyramid schemes only confuses the issue.

it's a MARKETING strategy, instead of the company paying out a %age of their gross revenue for TV/Radio/Newspaper/Direct Mail/Sales organization they pay it out to their downline. The BASIS of the income is the PRODUCT sold.

IT'S NOT the same thing.
rolleye.gif


you can take ANY legitimate marketing strategy and turn it into a scheme or scam if you leave out the product.
rolleye.gif
. that's what SCAMS DO. THAT is the precise definition of a scam, take a legitimate marketing strategy and find a way to sell the product WITHOUT delivering the product, does that AUTOMATICALLY condemn ALL marketing strategies?? ONLY a fool or a moron would believe that and yet thats EXACTLY what you just said, "when you break it down they are basically the same" NO, they are NOT the same, they use the SAME STRATEGY but the legitimate one SELLS A PRODUCT the Illegal one DOES NOT.


hmmm
rolleye.gif
rolleye.gif
rolleye.gif
, stare stare stare.

I can design several things that are totally pyramid schemes, then simply add a product and have no change in my profits or exploitation of those below me. Sure some may make some money...perhaps some a little more than me even...but in the end I will do absolutely nothing while the rest of my downline kills themselves quite literally (as evidenced in this thread, although he may have had other reasons).

I take it you are not a biased sources? hehe
 

LeeTJ

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,899
0
0
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Hmmm last I checked MLM was the new way to describe the PYRAMID scheme legally. It's really the same thing once you tear the two apart.

I think in a pyramid you can't make anything without a downline, but in MLM you can make 'something' without a downline, however the company can charge fees to make that something back.

In a pyramid scheme THERE IS NO PRODUCT. IF THERE IS A LEGITIMATE PRODUCT IT IS NOT A SCHEME.

Primerica and Amway ARE NOT SCHEMES. Pyramid Schemes DO exist and calling legitimate businesses Pyramid schemes only confuses the issue.

it's a MARKETING strategy, instead of the company paying out a %age of their gross revenue for TV/Radio/Newspaper/Direct Mail/Sales organization they pay it out to their downline. The BASIS of the income is the PRODUCT sold.

IT'S NOT the same thing.
rolleye.gif


you can take ANY legitimate marketing strategy and turn it into a scheme or scam if you leave out the product.
rolleye.gif
. that's what SCAMS DO. THAT is the precise definition of a scam, take a legitimate marketing strategy and find a way to sell the product WITHOUT delivering the product, does that AUTOMATICALLY condemn ALL marketing strategies?? ONLY a fool or a moron would believe that and yet thats EXACTLY what you just said, "when you break it down they are basically the same" NO, they are NOT the same, they use the SAME STRATEGY but the legitimate one SELLS A PRODUCT the Illegal one DOES NOT.


hmmm
rolleye.gif
rolleye.gif
rolleye.gif
, stare stare stare.

I can design several things that are totally pyramid schemes, then simply add a product and have no change in my profits or exploitation of those below me. Sure some may make some money...perhaps some a little more than me even...but in the end I will do absolutely nothing while the rest of my downline kills themselves quite literally (as evidenced in this thread, although he may have had other reasons).

I take it you are not a biased sources? hehe

just because you can ABUSE a system of marketing DOES not mean EVERYONE that uses that form of marketing is ABUSING it.

what is it about that simple statement that won't get thru your thick skull??

Primerica and Amway have been deemed legal by all the proper authorities. What more do you need?

does the fact that people make a profit off products that you buy hurt you?? do you think that this is true ONLY for MLM?

does the fact that people higher up the ladder make more money than people lower on the ladder hurt you?? how is that different from any other product??

do you honestly believe that bill gates makes less money than the guy that started amway?? (i can't remember the name of the family but i know they own the Orlando Magic).

all you do is imply that MLM are SCHEMES and yet you have never even come close to demonstrating WHY they are.

you re just a hater.
 

boggsie

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2000
2,326
1
81
Originally posted by: Rob9874
It's a pyramid scam. Stay away!

Absolutely true - they just want to sign you up, get you to sell to all of your family to 'get in' and then, once all of your sales contacts are exhausted, you quit, because you aren't making squat.
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,085
5,618
126
Originally posted by: boggsie
Originally posted by: Rob9874
It's a pyramid scam. Stay away!

Absolutely true - they just want to sign you up, get you to sell to all of your family to 'get in' and then, once all of your sales contacts are exhausted, you quit, because you aren't making squat.

rolleye.gif
 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,967
19
81
Originally posted by: LeeTJ

just because you can ABUSE a system of marketing DOES not mean EVERYONE that uses that form of marketing is ABUSING it.

what is it about that simple statement that won't get thru your thick skull??

Primerica and Amway have been deemed legal by all the proper authorities. What more do you need?

does the fact that people make a profit off products that you buy hurt you?? do you think that this is true ONLY for MLM?

does the fact that people higher up the ladder make more money than people lower on the ladder hurt you?? how is that different from any other product??

do you honestly believe that bill gates makes less money than the guy that started amway?? (i can't remember the name of the family but i know they own the Orlando Magic).

all you do is imply that MLM are SCHEMES and yet you have never even come close to demonstrating WHY they are.

you re just a hater.

Here's the deal, I have been involved in a few MLM schemes and they don't work for most people...mostly the reason they are legal is the lobby the companies do. I was required to sign a petition once when I 'joined' one of these companies. You get enough people saying they are fine with something it becomes legal....it still doesn't make it right.

Now the one person I knew was a very high level Amway distributor...they would try to recruit every family member and customer they could. They made their money just off the laundry soap and products they'd buy (they operated a large commerical laundry). Now not everyone has that buying power.

The problem with MLM is there are profits built into them to support more than one middle man. Perhaps the final product is at the same price break as the normal retail one is, but now that profit has to get placed into more hands....the little guy gets almost nothing. The tops of the MLM companies are very very wealthy...not Bill Gates wealthy though...not by a mile.

Now for the retarded or those dropped on thier heads repeatedly as a child, the reason they are schemes is:

1) I can run a business where I provide a product....now a middleman buys my warez and he can resell them if he buys in enough quantity to offset the cost of those buying direct or I can set my company up to only sell B2B and not to end users.

2) I make my money for the direct sales, he makes his money for his. I don't get another cut of his sales on top of the profit I already made selling to him. This is 'double dipping'...now MLM companies do this about 3+ levels deep. As MLM owner I sell my item to A, B, and C....for their initial purchases. A 'owns' B who 'owns' C. Now I make my money off all of them...in the future B can buy from A and C from B, sometimes both B and C have to go to A for purchases...now I am still making a nice profit from A, and he is making very little from B and C.

3) Now I impose penalties. You make nothing unless you sell a very high amount....while the normal business owner would still show a profit, no matter how little he sold, in MLM you don't.

4) MLM by definition is Multi-Level Marketing...the idea is to build up a downline in order to sell volume to other distributors. In retail, the idea is to sell to 1 level of people whether they are other businesses or end-users.
 

SethK28

Golden Member
Feb 19, 2003
1,569
0
0
Primerica does have salaried jobs but I believe they are only at the home office in Duluth, GA. My father works there and is salaried as is my roomate. Primerica was owned by A.L. Williams but was sold to Citigroup awhile back. Crazy thing is my roomate is good friends with Williams' son. Talk about friggin loaded, they just bought a Cessna Citation Jet.
 

LeeTJ

Diamond Member
Jan 21, 2003
4,899
0
0
Originally posted by: alkemyst
Originally posted by: LeeTJ

just because you can ABUSE a system of marketing DOES not mean EVERYONE that uses that form of marketing is ABUSING it.

what is it about that simple statement that won't get thru your thick skull??

Primerica and Amway have been deemed legal by all the proper authorities. What more do you need?

does the fact that people make a profit off products that you buy hurt you?? do you think that this is true ONLY for MLM?

does the fact that people higher up the ladder make more money than people lower on the ladder hurt you?? how is that different from any other product??

do you honestly believe that bill gates makes less money than the guy that started amway?? (i can't remember the name of the family but i know they own the Orlando Magic).

all you do is imply that MLM are SCHEMES and yet you have never even come close to demonstrating WHY they are.

you re just a hater.

Here's the deal, I have been involved in a few MLM schemes and they don't work for most people...mostly the reason they are legal is the lobby the companies do. I was required to sign a petition once when I 'joined' one of these companies. You get enough people saying they are fine with something it becomes legal....it still doesn't make it right.

Now the one person I knew was a very high level Amway distributor...they would try to recruit every family member and customer they could. They made their money just off the laundry soap and products they'd buy (they operated a large commerical laundry). Now not everyone has that buying power.

The problem with MLM is there are profits built into them to support more than one middle man. Perhaps the final product is at the same price break as the normal retail one is, but now that profit has to get placed into more hands....the little guy gets almost nothing. The tops of the MLM companies are very very wealthy...not Bill Gates wealthy though...not by a mile.

Now for the retarded or those dropped on thier heads repeatedly as a child, the reason they are schemes is:

1) I can run a business where I provide a product....now a middleman buys my warez and he can resell them if he buys in enough quantity to offset the cost of those buying direct or I can set my company up to only sell B2B and not to end users.

2) I make my money for the direct sales, he makes his money for his. I don't get another cut of his sales on top of the profit I already made selling to him. This is 'double dipping'...now MLM companies do this about 3+ levels deep. As MLM owner I sell my item to A, B, and C....for their initial purchases. A 'owns' B who 'owns' C. Now I make my money off all of them...in the future B can buy from A and C from B, sometimes both B and C have to go to A for purchases...now I am still making a nice profit from A, and he is making very little from B and C.

3) Now I impose penalties. You make nothing unless you sell a very high amount....while the normal business owner would still show a profit, no matter how little he sold, in MLM you don't.

4) MLM by definition is Multi-Level Marketing...the idea is to build up a downline in order to sell volume to other distributors. In retail, the idea is to sell to 1 level of people whether they are other businesses or end-users.

how many sales jobs have you had?? i've had at least 10 different sales jobs and guess what, they all sell the same sh!t as MLM. Car sales, auto sales, real state, encyclopedia sales, you name it they all sell you the same thing. you too can get rich, but guess what? only the top 10% make money at sales. average income for salesman is around $30k per year, the top 10% get over 6 figure income. why the disparity??

as is true for mlm sales isn't for EVERYONE. it's easy to get into, the potential is there for everyone, but only a few make it to the top. and guess what, all the work the lower level sales people do to gather leads?? they all go to higher level sales people once these guys fail.

that is NO different then MLM.

if you want to call MLM a scam call ALL sales organizations a scam, with the exception of top companies that grow their sales people BUT only higher sales people who have demonstrated success at these menial jobs.

I've been in sales MOST of my life. i'm a pretty good salesman so i've never gone hungry, but i've seen LOTS of people that have. IT'S all the same, does it make it a scam? NO, it's just the way it is, some people can succeed at sales (very few) most people can't. why are so many people drawn to sales? the perception by the average person is, anyone can do it. and on the lower level organizations, people who can't be choosy who they hire, they'll let ANYONE try a hand at sales (straight comminsion of course).

that's how it is, so tell me, how is MLM any different from that?
 

Netopia

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,793
4
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2) I make my money for the direct sales, he makes his money for his. I don't get another cut of his sales on top of the profit I already made selling to him. This is 'double dipping'...now MLM companies do this about 3+ levels deep. As MLM owner I sell my item to A, B, and C....for their initial purchases. A 'owns' B who 'owns' C. Now I make my money off all of them...in the future B can buy from A and C from B, sometimes both B and C have to go to A for purchases...now I am still making a nice profit from A, and he is making very little from B and C.

Sorry... Primerica doesn't work that way... it can't! Primerica is a Financial Company... they sell money products. If as a Primerica Rep someone sets up up with better Auto Insurance for less money, do you think that Rep bought the insurance from his boss, who bought it from his boss, who bought it from his boss.....? Nope! The Rep acts as REPRESENTITIVE for the company and the company sells the insurance to the end user. The Rep then gets a commision for the product he sold..... let's just say for the sake of argument that he gets 2% of the premiums. He might be part of a team of 50 people and the person managing them might get a commsion from the company on the production of all 50 people, but he may only get 1/4%, but it's 1/4% of a LOT more total dollars. The manager's manager might have 20 managers under him with 50 people under each of them and he might get 1/20%, but again, even though it is a small percentage it can be a bunch of money IF he has worked hard and built up a big business.... a bunch of money like hudreds of thousands to millions per year.... but most will never do that.

I'm sure the pay structure is different now (things always change) but this is how it was when I was in. Lets say I went into a family's home and found that they had rip-off cash value life insurance. Maybe they had the right amount, but were paying $3,000 per year when they could have been paying $1,000 (not a rare occurance... happens a LOT). I help them to get a policy that is for the amount their family actually needs, based on THEIR home and not some number I pull out of thin air. They now have an extra $2,000 per year to pay off credit debt or invest. I got a 70% commision on the thousand, so I just made $700 for about 5-6 hours work (a couple of evening meetings at their home... some office paperwork). My manager got a 25% commision for having hired and trained me ($250)... his manager got a 12% commision ($120) and up a couple more levels to where they were getting about 1.5%. The total in commisions was about $1,500, which is more than what they guy spent for the first year, but insurance is kept for many, many years typically, so they were just paying commisions up front instead of making people wait for a tiny amount each year.

I didn't buy insurance to sell to others... the company sold the item, I was just acting as a Representitive. Did the consumer come out ahead? If you knew anything about insurance and how he/she were being raked over the coals before I showed up you'd know how badly they were being taken advantage of. They now had an extra $2000 per year... if they threw that into an IRA, not only would they have a chance for the money to grow some but they would reduce their income tax. I made a pocket of change and my boss made a slightly smaller chunk. Who came out the loser? The rip off insurance company!

I once had someone who had a career change tell me that they used to be an insurance broker and in the industry they considered us to be the devil because we took so much business away from him. When I asked him what kind of insurance did HE own he just got sort of a sly look on his face and said something like "the kind you guys sell... the stuff we sold was crap"!

Joe