Photo Courtesy of Reddit

The memory isn’t lost on me – my mum had bought us McDonald’s, put my parents’ small tv in my brother’s room and loaded it with a VHS. She was hosting a Pampered Chef party. It was fun, cute and social for mums and wives. 

Now, the multi-level marketing companies are pervasive and intrusive. It’s hard to know when your friend who has jumped on the Arbonne bandwagon and preaches to the masses about Monat is just super thrilled about it or if they’re trying to recruit you for their cult…I mean business. 

MLM stands for multi-level marketing and is filled with robotic salespeople. They don’t have salaries, simply commision, and the higher you are within the upline (i.e. team) then the more you make. I am currently a part of a Facebook group, “Sounds Like MLM but Okay” and it’s been incredibly insightful of the communities in which MLMs thrive. Almost 50% of consultants lose money, with almost 30% not making money at all. And yet – people are still joining. 

So how do you politely respond and interact with the MLM Hun Bots? Get ready to check your DMs and answer appropriately. 

First of all – remember – you never asked to enter this sales experience. Each interaction that I’ve had has been vastly different so I’ve given a few examples of how to interact below.

Someone You Don’t Know: These people are pretty tough to reject because they don’t lose a friendship and thus are more pushy. Remember that “no” is a complete sentence. You also don’t need to apologize – you have nothing to be sorry for choosing not to participate in something. Don’t give them excuses but be firm and polite. Lastly, don’t leave it open for them to check in with you again. My preferred response it “thanks for thinking of me, but I’m not interested.”

A Friend from the Past: You are more than welcome to ignore these inquiries. You don’t need to respond but you can like the responses above. I was in a friend’s wedding and one of the bridesmaids dm’ed me about Arbonne. It was awkward and I felt like giving more of an answer, so I politely said no and then gave her my reason. If she had sent the message after the wedding, I would’ve never responded but I knew we would see each other soon. She’s thankfully not asked me again so it worked out well.

A Close Friend: This is where it gets obviously tricky. Again, “no” is a complete sentence. My advice, seeing I have close friends who sell MLMs, is to make a truthful excuse. Whether it’s budgetary, not your style or you already have products you love, make it an overarching statement where she can’t add in a “but…” selling point. 

It’s important that however you decide to respond to any hun bot, that you get the message across that it’s not them, it’s the product that they’re selling. You don’t need to lecture on how wrong MLMs are, but you can make it clear that it’s not where you’re spending your money.