The lure wasn’t the promise of quick and easy wealth, for there was actually little mention of high incomes. Nor was it the miraculous benefits of their amazing product line. Instead, they were trading recruiting figures. Massive recruiting figures.

One had recruited eleven people his first day in the business. Another claimed she built a downline of over 3,500 by her second month. Yet another claimed the company as a whole had gained over 180,000 distributors since January. And yes, one even claimed he had “personally recruited 100 people in a single day!”

This would all be very impressive — if I could pay my rent with distributor applications.

It’s fascinating how the marketing trends in this industry evolve from year to year. In 1991 and ’92 everyone bragged about how much their top earners were making. In 1993 and ’94 everyone was hyping their company’s total monthly sales or sales growth. And around the middle of this time span I remember there was a short lived phase where the age of a company seemed most important. Today, everyone’s talking about how many distributors their company has. It seems we’ve now entered a phase in the cycle where what is actually the least important factor is now considered the most important!

To create a marketing advantage, the “in” thing now seems to be how to redefine “distributor” so as to claim the highest possible number of them. For example, the above MLM program, along with several others now entering make-believe momentum, all have a free sign up system via an 800-number (In fact, in some of these programs you can even sign up distributors without them knowing you did it.) So, retail customers now routinely sign up as “distributors” to get the product at wholesale.

Several companies now allow their distributors to sign up their spouse, or any family members, and some even allow you to sign yourself up as many times as you wish! While others, like the above mentioned company, technically forbid such practice, their distributors are doing it anyway and without consequence. So while they may only gain 200 actual distributors next month, they may be able to claim an increase of over 1,000 distributorships.

The technique used above is to simply give out sequential ID numbers to anyone who orders even a single product, one time, and to all the positions occupied by each distributor. Then, call each ID number a “distributor.”

Another way to make sure that this number always increases is to never purge your inactive distributors. Technically, a company can’t terminate a person for not ordering product (while MLM companies, like any direct sales company, can require a sales quota to earn commissions, they can’t require a product purchase just to maintain distributor status). Instead, most will place non-ordering distributors in an “inactive” file and simply remove them from the distributor hierarchy. Some, however, will continue to count these people in their total distributor figure since they are, technically, still distributors.

Most MLM companies have some sort of annual renewal process where a small administration fee is charged, or at the very least a reapplication process. This is to weed out the dead wood. Of course, if you omit this process, as some are, and inactive distributors are still technically considered in the program, then essentially they are “distributors” for life! No matter how many quit, the “total distributor” figure will always be climbing. What’s more, the company can now claim a “zero percent attrition rate!”

And it would be true — technically.

MLM programs that employ a binary compensation plan have a unique advantage in this area that’s exclusively their own. In a binary, one person can potentially occupy numerous “income centers.” I know of at least two such companies they are currently claiming a “total distributor” figure based on the total number of income centers. Fortunately, most of the binary plan contingent have not followed suit.

So here’s the formula to build a “one-million distributor company” within five years:

1. Allow anyone to sign up for free, over the phone.

2. Count product customers as distributors, even if they only order once and you never hear from them again.

3. Allow them to sign up as many times as they wish, or at least disallow it and look the other way.

4. Allow them to sign up any and all family members.

5. Never purge your company database of inactive distributors.

(Or, you can just not reveal your total distributor figure and just let your distributors “estimate.” That should at least double the actual amount.)

Just imagine if Amway would adopt the previous criteria when defining “distributor.” They could easily claim to have 100-million of them by now! In fact, I recently saw an ad for a popular MLM program with the headline “Over 250,000 people have joined (blank) International!” Of course, the ad doesn’t mention that well over half of them are no longer distributors.

Semantics plays a very important role in the MLM industry today. By changing the standard definition of various aspects, companies today can create the illusion that they are in what ever stage of growth they desire. Want to sound like a “ground floor opportunity?” Just say you’re in “pre-launch” — even if you’re in your second year of business. Want to sound like a mature, stable company? Count all the years you thought about starting an MLM operation and then claim “ten years in development” — even if you launched yesterday. Want to sound like you’re entering a massive momentum stage? Count every single person who contacts your company, for any reason, as a distributor — then heavily promote how many distributors are joining each month.

Several years ago, this same logic was used by the second baseman on my Little League team. After losing the final game of the season by a goodly margin, and all but three of the previous seventeen games, this curly-haired little seven year old attempted to comfort me by exclaiming, “Ya’ know, coach, not counting the games we lost, we were UNDEFEATED!”

This also reminds me of the debate regarding whether the legalization of drugs would effect the crime rate. Advocates of this idea claim it would drop it dramatically. Of course it would! If you make fewer things illegal, they’ll be fewer laws broken. Hey, why don’t we just declare everything legal? Then we would have virtuallyno crime!

So, let’s get to the big question: How can you, personally, recruit 1,000 distributors a week, every single week? Simple. Get your company to employ the following recruiting system: You walk up to someone on the street, tap them on the shoulder twice with the index finger of your right hand, and say “I dub thee a distributor.” That’s it!

Think about the possibilities. You could literally recruit a thousand new distributors each day if you found a busy intersection in a major city. And if you trained just a handful of people in your downline to do the same, you could build an organization over 100,000 within days! And, of course, your company could easily claim to have over one-million distributors within just a few short weeks.

There is one small catch however. No one will make even one dime in commissions.

Okay, so now your upset with me. You read this article expecting to actually discover how to recruit 1,000 people a week. Well, I delivered. I explained exactly how to do that. Hopefully, I also explained the difference between “people” and “serious, active distributor.”

By Len Clements © 1999

In practically every competitive endeavor, whether it be sports, business, law, politics, or even, one could argue, life, there are two forces that we summon to defeat our opponent. We offer up an offense – and a defense. In most types of sports the delineation between, and the need for each, is obvious. Take away the defensive players from any football team and you will lose every contest, no matter how many touchdowns you score. Baseball, hockey, basketball, and many other sports all involve points for and against. In some sports defense is the key element. Eliminate defense from professional boxing and you’d have, well, very short boxing matches and very few professional boxers. At least, ones that can still feed themselves. In business, advertisers don’t always tell us just why we should buy their brand, they often include reasons we should not buy a competitors brand. In law, defense is paramount since the burden of proof is on the prosecution (the offense) and all the defense has to do is create a slight doubt in the minds of the jury. In politics I consider offense to be the presentation of all the reasons why a candidate should be elected. Political defense would be, as it is in sports, the attempt to impede the progress of an opponent. Not only is this a key element of any election process, some candidates seem to base their entire campaign on why you shouldn’t vote for the other candidate, rather than why you should vote for themselves.

And, yes, one could make a case that there is an offensive and defensive aspect to practically every decision we make in our daily lives. Every decision, no matter how small, is designed to either avoid pain and/or gain pleasure. We naturally tend to move towards what we desire and away from what we detest. The proverbial “Carrot and the stick.” In this case both the offense and the defense is within us. You offer them both (a la the devil and angel sitting on each shoulder) and base your decision on who wins the debate.

Let’s try an experiment, right now. I’m going to describe the occupation of an individual and I want you to visualize that person in an action pose. Don’t think about it, just take note of the first image that pops in your mind. Ready?

Football player. Basketball player. Boxer. Soldier in combat. You, looking at a big slice of your favorite flavor of cake.

Now, think back. Were the images offensive or defensive? Did you picture a quarterback ready to throw a pass, or a fullback running with the ball? The vast majority do (I’ve performed this test many times before). Was the basketball player taking a shot (almost always), or blocking the shot (almost never)? Was the boxer throwing a punch? I’ve never, ever, had someone tell me they visualized a guy cowering in the corner with his gloves covering his face. Was the soldier in attack mode, or was he crouched in a fox hole? Did you see yourself looking at the cake wide eyed and drooling, or head turned away with arms outstretched, shunning the temptation? Come on, be honest.

In spite of the fact that defense is such a vital part of practically every aspect of our lives, we are certainly an offensive focused society. We want to score points, not prevent them. And we want to score a lot of them.

So, what is MLM defense? Unfortunately, it is, at least currently, a lot like it is in politics. As more and more candidates devote more and more time to mud slinging and self-serving hype, so are network marketers. And, as more and more disillusioned Americans vote “none of the above” at the polls, our MLM prospects are reacting in much the same way.

What MLM defense should be, and what it hardly ever is, or is ever taught to be, is a dignified, professional, factual presentation of the benefits that your MLM program has over a specific competitor, and the debunking of alleged benefits posed by your competition when those benefits are, in fact, exaggerated or illusionary.

Hype is a primary tool in the recruiting process of many, and arguably most, network marketers today. Almost every prospect you contact will be evaluating other opportunities as well as yours. Therefore, you have an opponent in this process – and they may not play fair. They may relate bogus, or even slanderous information to your prospect about your opportunity (more on that later), or positive information about their own program that may involve some degree of hype. If you can defend against this, and at the same time offer a powerful offense (what’s good about your opportunity), then you have twice as powerful a presentation. While you’re scoring points, you’re preventing your opponent from scoring. It’s like a scale. Doesn’t it make sense that you’d have a far better chance of tipping the scale in your favor if you not only added weight to your side, but legitimately removed weight from the other?

When an opponent is hyping your prospect, you have three options. One; ignore them and continue to present a hype-free, realistic depiction of the benefits of your MLM program – and take the risk of losing the prospect to the hype, or two; have a hype contest to see who can out-hype who – and even if you win your prospect will discover the truth eventually and end up just as much not in your downline as if they hadn’t enrolled in the first place (only now they walk away feeling scammed), or three; stick to your honest, realistic presentation about your company and defend yourself against the hype.

I realize there’s sometimes a fine line between what’s honorable MLM defense and what’s gratuitous competition bashing. The best way to audit yourself is to ask yourself this simple question: Can I prove my statement? In other words, are you saying something you can be accountable for? Can you back it up? For example, if a competitor claims their plan “pays infinitely deep,” you should be able to prove both mathematically and logically that this claim is completely false. Don’t go so far as to suggest infinity bonuses are wrong or bad, because they are not. Just explain why they aren’t as good as your competition is claiming. Or, what if your prospect is impressed by huge income claims made by a competing distributor? (There’ll be a whole section in my book on the specifics of how to defend against this, but for now just know that you can and must defend against it). Don’t allow your prospect to be swayed by meaningless information. Force your competition to stick to the genuine merits of their opportunity.

You can also use this same “proof” question as a defensive weapon. For example, if someone tells your prospect that they shouldn’t join your company because “they’re going down,” or “nobody’s making any money,” or “they’re being investigated,” ask your prospect to ask your competitor this question: “Would you please put that in writing and sign your name to it?” Then watch them back peddle! When they refuse (which they always will), ask your prospect why they wouldn’t do this if they were certain of their claim? Demand that they be accountable for their derogatory remarks. Demand that they reveal how they know what they are saying it true. Of course, they rarely can, which greatly diminishes not only the impact of their mud slinging, but can dramatically reduce the credibility of everything else they say.

I could try to give you more examples of statements you could defend against, but I won’t for no other reason than lack of space. Besides, my book is chocked full of them (as is my newsletter). Secondly, I can pretty much summarized practically every MLM pitch ever given: “We have the best products… the best support system… the most lucrative compensation plan… and the company is debt free and about to go into momentum” That’s it. Now, when your competitor says this to your prospect, ask your prospect to ask your competitor, “How do you know all these things are true?” That’s MLM defense.

If you’re going to back up your claims about your company, then you have every right to demand the same from your competition.