One Hundred Dollars a Month

Rodan and Fields. Jamberry. Lipsense. Lularoe. Pampered Chef. Younique. DoTerra. The list goes on and on. If you have any social media account of any kind, I’m sure you’ve been hit with a wave of multi-level marketing advertising by at least one of your friends {or many, many friends}. You’ve probably been private messaged, invited to countless in-home or online parties, or just seen the endless posts while scrolling through your feed.

Multi-level or network marketing has taken over social media, and unless you are living under a rock, you’ve seen it. I applaud so many of these entrepreneurs for working so hard to build their businesses, but what do you say when you have no desire to join them and they won’t stop asking? How do you politely tell them that you aren’t interested without offending them all while letting them know you really don’t want to be contacted again in the future? I’ve been contacted many times by friends and family with business propositions, and I have no issue with that at all. Clearly they would want to reach out to me because we’re close. And in those cases, I simply say I’m not interested but I’m proud of them for going all in! And they understand and we leave it at that and go on our merry way with our relationship.

But how do you handle the friend you went to 2nd grade with and haven’t seen since who Facebook stalks you and repeatedly tries to pitch to you. You don’t really know them from Adam, and you know the only reason they are reaching out is to get you to sign up under them. How do you properly handle that? Is there a way to be tactful, yet firm? I think so. Here’s how I handle it.

If I am messaged about joining a MLM company {which is normally always how I’m approached. No one ever calls me}, and I don’t know the person at all, I ignore the request. Plain and simple. If we are Facebook friends and I’ve met you, I’ll begin by asking how you’ve been or making polite conversation about how we are connected {kids, school, work, etc.}. I’ll acknowledge the request and then give my reasons why I’m not interested. They vary depending on the company, but if it’s not a product I’ll use or care about, I’ll say that; if it’s too time consuming, I’ll let them know that; if I already use the product and buy from someone else, I’ll say that. Then I’ll reiterate that I am not interested, ask them to take me off any email or distribution list if they’ve placed me on one, and then wish them luck.

And normally that works. Except when it doesn’t. And they continue to contact me. And then things get tricky. They become what I like to call MLM bullies. And then I throw politeness out the window, because in my experience, that’s the only thing that works.

How do you handle situations like that? Have you been on the receiving end of a MLM bully? Are you a network marketer? What is your take on all of this? How to you approach your marketing? How would you prefer people respond to you when you reach out to them? I’d love to hear your take!

~Mavis