Does A Network Marketer Do Honest Networking?

I must confess, most of my entrepreneurial traits were either taught to me or enhanced by the network marketing companies I was involved in. Almost everyone in any of the network marketing company start off with NM companies for one main reason; Money. I had the opportunity to be a part of the right team and group of true leaders.

Having been involved with 2+ NM companies and having learnt the values that are needed to drive a business, I was able to start off my own business and run it successfully. But even till today, there are a few things that force me to question the values and learning imparted to us by the leaders.

One of them is “Does A Network Marketer Do Honest Networking?”. In usual terms, we do networking to meet like minded people; get more ideas; discover arenas that we would otherwise never think of. Every other network marketer goes out to “build” or “grow” his contact list. The so called leaders have scripts, opening lines, ice breakers in order to close the talk by asking for the contact number of the prospect.

The usual ice breakers are “Whats the time”, “I’ve seen you somewhere”, “Where did you buy this shirt” etc etc. And then the other person thinks this guy is genuinely interested in him, and he shares his story; and although this Network Marketer seems interested in his story; he definitely is not. He just needs to get his number. And then he says “Wow, I have my bro who is interested in this stuff, can I get your number?”. Exactly 3 days later, the guy gets a call and he is invited to a seminar/talk/meeting where the pitch is made. When the guy doesn’t turn up, he is waited upon till the next week, until after 3 tries after which he is removed from the contact list never to be messaged or called.

My question is; when you expect him/her to be interested in what you have to offer, how come you are not even remotely interested in his story? Plus, how good are your chances of converting him, if you have not even befriended him/her properly before getting them to a seminar?

I am definitely guilty of doing this; but I have been on both the ends of the conversation. I’m an easy pray in mall, bank premises, railway coaches to network marketers. In the very first 10 seconds of conversation I make out if its a genuine conversation or a cover-up for a pitch. Most of the times, I myself reveal that I’m a part of NM company which I’m not following religiously and as you must be guessing, the conversation dies off quite soon.

I can understand how difficult it is to teach entrepreneurship to everyone that hops on board; but it shouldn’t be difficult for the leaders to differentiate between whats right and whats wrong.

What would you do if you were in my shoes; and someone comes up to you and tells you your watch is nice, asks you what you do and you are caught up in the mental rumble whether this guy is trying to sell you something or if he is actually being nice? Not a nice conversation to have isn’t it?

But one thing must I say; the contacts that I’ve made with the conversations without any pitch and motive are the ones that have had the highest conversion in giving me friends of value.