International Law

Are You a Con Criminal?

Over at Pink Truth, there is a provocative piece, What are the Mary Kay Little White Lies?

"One of the reasons you are kicking yourself for joining Mary Kay is, you knew it was suspect from the beginning. You felt it in your gut but you swept that idea aside because you fell for the charisma and sincerity of your “presenter.” One of reasons you successfully got guests to attend, is because you did not tell them the total truth, because if you did they would resist your invitation. You know this. You cheerfully called guest events by any other name besides recruiting meeting. Your first was innocent, being naïve and all, but eventually you figured it out... and bait and switch no longer bothered you. As mentioned in the Dreams Drive and Deception article , the small seemingly insignificant “little white lies” do a slow indoctrinational assault on your integritythat one hardly notices. We here at Pink Truth are chastised for “not taking responsibility” for our “lack of integrity” and I have to say we do own 50% of that issue. "

One of my observations is the people often detect a fraud, but somehow let their mind talk them out of what they know to be instinctively true: run away.

Tracy identifies a number of techniques which allows the MK recruit to skirt the truth, and here they are:

"It still begs the question though, how even from the beginning we understood that full disclosure – “honest communication” would not create the “success” we were looking for. Some examples:

Don’t say “dollars"... just say the number “just 104”

Say “practice face” instead of sales appointment, she might not book, otherwise.

Say, “you plus two”, that seems small and you can add more when pre-profiling.

Call everyone in the fishbowl and tell them they won the free facial.

Say, “I was challenged by my Director” even though technically you weren’t, it makes people want to help you.

Use “yes answer” questions, they make the prospect agree with you, instead of finding out what they really think.

Use a choice between two things instead of asking a yes or no, like, would you want to take home the Miracle Set or the Ultimate Miracle set? Asking a direct question will many times get you a “no.”

You’re not “recruiting”, you are building a “team”... business associate is so much better! "

A number of these sales techniques are what we would come to expect from any legitimate sales or distribution company.

Well, except for the fake prize trick.

How do you know when you have crossed the line with your sales technique, from smooth compliance operator into con criminal fraudster?

Any suggestions?

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).