Latest Lists

Friend annoys me with her MLM. How do I tell her to back off?

I have a friend that I have known for a little over a year. I'll call her Marie. We have a great relationship however, a few months ago Marie got heavily involved with a company called NSA which sells a product called Juice Plus...Its pretty much an MLM (Multilevel Marketing).So in essence she is pushing 2 products 1.) juice plus pills and 2.) the juice plus business.Marie has been asking me if i want to join JP and each time i evaded (saying no without really saying no). Then she found out my mom was a nurse and she's been trying to pitch JP to my mother . A few nights ago, Marie called my mother trying to her to look at becoming a distributor for JP. My mom nicely told her she wasnt interested.She actually had to tell her a few times b/c even when mom said no Marie was still trying to sell to her. (My mother was also a bit shocked b/c when Marie called her, she called my mother by her first name, which she wasnt invited to do..i have no idea why she thought that was okay in any capacity). Anyway, recently I had a birthday party at my home and I invited Marie and a few of my very close friends. As soon as she got the chance she started trying to sell JP to my friends AT MY PARTY! (I was not around at the time she did it. I was busy with some of the last min. prep for the party.) I heard about it when she called me the next day, asking me for my friend's (I'll call her Jean), email address. Marie said she must have written Jean's email address down wrong or something..but i think Jean might have given her the wrong email address on purpose. So i stalled and said I dont recall Jean's email address from the top of my head... The next day, I see Marie friended Jean on facebook. and then Marie texted me this evening asking again for Jean's email address and said that she called my friend on the phone leaving a message. I called Jean and she told me that she was not interested in JP at all...which is exactly what i suspected. This whole thing is getting out of control. She is making my family and friends uncomfortable. Heck she makes me uncomfortable!!! When we go out to eat in resturaunts Marie tries to pitch JP to our waiter (she's done this 3 times) ! its annoying and embarrassing and now since she is annoying my friends and family its even more of an issue. How can I tell her to back off w/o hurting her feelings?

Public Comments

1. This is a challenge because no matter how obviously ineffective and unprofessional her approach is even if you can through verifiable facts and reasoning explain this to her you run the very real possibility that she will not take your advice seriously (unless you are a successful multilevel marketer). To her it may look like you're giving advice on a subject you don't know about. So here's what I suggest. Don't give her advice. Instead ask her some questions that will motivate her to think this approach out rationally. Approach your friend and say: I've noticed that you have somewhat of a shotgun approach to prospecting people. In that you don't really target people but rather you target everyone in a seemingly blind way. You dont seem to show any discretion for who you target or why you target them or even when or where you choose to prospect them. Can I ask you, why do you employ this approach in building your business? You may need to reword things so that's its clear that you're sincere and not being offensive, judgemental or sarcastic. We're trying to get her to honestly explain why she's taking this approach. She may say that this successful person told her all she had to do was talk to every single person she came in contact with and this would make her successful or she may give another response. Ask her So what does it take to be successful with NSA? Then explain to her how uncomfortable you and your friends feel when she employs this approach. Hopefully that will help. ----------------------------- If needed you might even want to take it a step further. You might want to direct her to the advice of a very successful and respected NSA distributor turned author. This is someone who has achieved the success your friend is attempting to achieve. Does she agree with the approach your friend is taking? Her name is Kim Klaver. Her bio here discusses her success with NSA: http://bananamarketing.com/bio.html This article discusses five mistakes that new networkers make: http://bananamarketing.com/5things.html The key point here is people often target everyone and anyone because they believe that anyone can do this business. That is simply not true. Its not easy and its not for everyone. Instead here's what Kim advices networkers to do: http://bananamarketing.com/doctor.html Her advice here is to: Take an interest in a prospect. Afterall how can you help someone achieve their goal if you don't know what their goal is? And if you don't want to help people then whats in it for them? Why would they join you? This is the opposite of the shotgun approach. Hope this helps.