Sales tactics of MLMs: Former distributors share how they were asked to sell

Clara Gatzke’s aunt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December of 2020. Seven weeks later, she passed away. Gatzke posted an homage to her loved one on the day she passed. Within an hour, she was contacted by a distributor of a popular diet and wellness multilevel marketing company, or MLM.

“She was like, ‘If she was on this diet pill, she wouldn't have died,’ and I was like, ‘She died from pancreatic cancer, not from being obese,’” Gatzke said.

A bold approach. What these distributors might not realize is the perceived disrespect and presumptuousness that accompanies such bold speech.

“That kind of just was like, ‘Oh, my God, like, they actually could cold message and do these kinds of things to people who are going through such an unimaginable, insufferable loss, and they're just like, 'Hey,’’” Gatzke expressed.

This is only a glimpse into the issues with MLM sales tactics. Rebekah Dubé, a former consultant for a home wellness company, quickly became familiar with the tactics distributors are asked to use. According to her, distributors are encouraged to lie about their products and their lives and to go against their better judgment.

As a new mother and a part-time university student, Dubé was looking for an opportunity to bring in additional income for her family. She was hired to consult for what she soon came to recognize as an MLM.

After a couple of months with the company and the arrival of some sudden, unexpected medical problems, her higher-ups didn’t hesitate to suggest she exaggerate the truth of her situation — for the good of the company.

“They said, ‘Well, you should play up your medical. You should let people know that you just came out of surgery and that you've had complications from surgery, and that you really, really need to make the sale. Mention that you're a single mom.’ ‘But I'm not a single mom, I am a very happily married mom with a very supportive husband. I am not a single mom,’” Dubé said. “They said, ‘Well, they don't need to know that. If you're a single mom, you just had medical surgery, you're struggling for income and use that you're going to university full-time; put it all together and you have a surefire way to make a sale.’”

She told them it didn’t feel right to lie, and in return they stopped assigning her leads — she was left to contact and sell entirely on her own.

Marilyn Oveson has been involved with MLMs on and off for over 25 years. She said she’s always been happy to purchase products she really believes are worth the usually-high price, but selling has never worked for her.

In the last MLM she participated in, a wellness company, she tried her best to be all-in and put in the effort of selling. Because she had just moved to Utah with her family, she paid the price of always trying to sell.

“You start thinking, ‘Well, should I tell this person about it?’” Oveson said. “You start ruining friendships, intentionally or unintentionally, and that's dangerous. You become the person that just invites people over to share your MLM. And because of (this MLM), that's what I did in Draper unintentionally, and I realize that. It took me a long time to make real friends there because I had stupidly done that.”

Renée Carver faced a similar issue when distributing for a diet MLM. Just having graduated college, she needed community more than ever, but the pressure to sell interfered with that.

“Instead of trying to connect with people, truly, I was just trying to make sales, and it makes me sick to think that,” Carver said.

Emma Fife, another former distributor for a different diet MLM, claims distributors in the company were trained to use people’s insecurities against them and to seize any opportunity to sell. She looks back and recognizes the flaws in one of the company’s target audiences — expectant or postpartum mothers. They were encouraged to target these women for a specific and deeply personal reason.

“It was expected that they were going to be so unhappy with their bodies and want to get their pre-baby body back,” Fife shared. “It makes me feel so nauseous.”

It’s easy to look at these people and assume they’re in the wrong, but the distributors are not the ones at fault; the MLMs that trained them to sell this way are.

“I think MLMs in general are gross and evil, but I don't necessarily think the people doing it are doing a bad thing,” Fife said. “Some of them are, and they are gross, and they are predatory about it, but for the most part, and I think for me at least, I was just a girl who was excited about something and who didn't know better and who had been kind of brainwashed by the people above me and by this company. … I honestly don't think it's really (the distributors’) fault most of the time.”

These women are a small few of many people who have been negatively impacted by MLMs, whether as a distributor or as a sales target. How did they end up in those situations in the first place?

“I know that they prey on young women who are obviously vulnerable and need the money,” Gatzke said. “I think that that's a pretty distressing thing … (and) I think that they need to realize how damaging it is to everyone, young females especially.”