The English language is the most dynamic on earth. Even changes to most other languages these days seem to involve words or expressions in English.

This is nothing new. English has been evolving for more than 1,000 years. The advent of the British Empire, on which “the sun never set”, simply sped up and extended this process. And nowhere has this evolution been more pronounced than in America. The dynamic, inventive, “can-do” (and if we can’t, let’s do it anyway!) culture of the USA has seen thousands of new words and expressions added to the language over the course of the last couple of centuries.

Just as the British common law system evolved to reflect community values over the centuries, common usage has become the accepted basis for defining the English language.

Thankfully, the printing press, radio, television, movies and the Internet have helped to ensure that the changes spread quickly around the English-speaking world (although, personally, I could do without some of the recent hip-hop, rap and gangsta [sic] mangling of the language, to be honest).

But it all means that we have to be very careful how we communicate in order not to be misunderstood. This can be especially true in network marketing, where groups often give words their own very different meanings.

Here’s a case in point, where some network marketers define a word differently to the rest of the world. I’ve listed definitions from three different dictionaries:

edify
To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement.

[Middle English edifien, from Old French edifier, from Late Latin aedifica¯re, to instruct spiritually, from Latin, to build; see edifice.]

American Heritage Dictionary

edify
Make understand; “Can you enlighten me? I don’t understand this proposal” [synonym: enlighten]

WordNet® 2.1, © 2005 Princeton University

edify¹
Definition: to build, construct; to establish
Etymology: Latin aedes ‘building’ + -ficare ‘to make’

edify²
Definition: to build up, establish, or strengthen a person, institution, etc.; to uplift
Etymology: Latin aedes ‘building’ + -ficare ‘to make’

edify³
Definition: to inform or enlighten intellectually or spiritually
Etymology: Latin aedes ‘building’ + -ficare ‘to make’

Webster’s New Millennium^(TM) Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)
Copyright © 2003-2006 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

So the common usage of the word “edify” means to enlighten, uplift or inspire the person being edified.

But somehow, over the years, some network marketing leaders have given a twist to the original meaning, so that, in their own organisations at least, the expression “edify your upline” no longer means to “enlighten, uplift and inspire your upline”. Instead, it means “glorify, build up and otherwise make your upline look good in the eyes of your prospects and new recruits.”

Umm… not quite the same meaning. Not at all.

If you look at the definition numbered 2 above you’ll notice it says “to build up”. What that actually means is to build up or fortify and strengthen someone who is in need of it. In other words, a friend who is feeling down or doubting themselves, unsure, confused about their real worth or position. Someone who needs a spiritual or emotional boost or reassurance.

It does NOT mean to flatter or boost their ego, or to make them appear to be something they’re not in order to impress a third party, like a prospect or new recruit.

Look… I have no quarrel with the English language evolving with common usage. It’s a long-established, historical precedent that keeps the language alive and dynamic. (Do you really want to speak English like Chaucer? Even Shakespeare would have had trouble understanding him — and Shakespeare’s English was a much higher form. Without the dynamic changes wrought by common usage, that progress could never have taken place.)

What I have a problem with is the hijacking of words or expressions and giving them different meanings for deceptive or manipulative purposes.

It’s like the hijacking of the precise, technical language of marketing by opportunistic sellers just to impress their prospects and hide their real motives in order to gain an advantage over them.

Even the term “network marketing” is inaccurate. It’s not marketing at all. It’s selling. But selling is a dirty word for most people.

Why?

Because of the deceptive, manipulative, sleazy practices of so many sellers in trying to gain an advantage over their prospects.

So… trying to disguise the fact that you’re actually a SELLER by calling yourself a “marketer” isn’t more of the same? You’re not simply doing exactly the same thing that you’re trying to avoid?

Any marketing involved in “network marketing” is NOT done by the networks. It’s done by the companies, long before there’s a need for a network to SELL the products and the income opportunity.

Here’s the undisguised, raw truth about network marketing: the distributor (another misleading term) network is nothing more nor less than the company’s independent, out-sourced SALES FORCE.

Yes, you may be a PART of the company’s marketing strategy (selling is one facet of marketing, after all).

Yes, you may be a PART of the company’s distribution system (distribution is also a facet of marketing). But only if you actually perform some of the distribution function — not if you simply sign someone up for autoship or online ordering.

Let me put it another way. Boiled peas may be part of a main course dish that’s part of a banquet. But to advertise or sell a spoonful of boiled peas as “a banquet” would soon see you in court charged with deception and misrepresentation. Fraud.

Are you beginning to see what I mean, ?

If we don’t want to be seen by the general public (and by government regulators) as deceptive, misleading, sleazy and manipulative — the very things we want to avoid! — then we need to STOP using language that brands us as deceptive, misleading, sleazy and manipulative!

The same applies to the practices we use, too.

The “Curiosity” Approach

When I first got involved in network marketing (you can read my personal network marketing background here: http://www.johncounsel.net/background) I was advised to use what was called the “Curiosity” approach, or the “Professional” approach, when prospecting for new recruits.

This approach, in a nutshell, meant hiding the name of the company from the prospect at all costs until they’d had a chance to see the opportunity in detail. The reasons were simple: most people had heard of the company, but they never knew enough to form a truly accurate opinion. So it was best to keep the company name out of the picture until they’d heard the sponsoring presentation.

As a professional marketer, a lecturer in marketing at Australia’s (then) largest university, an author and regular magazine columnist, this didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. From my professional viewpoint, all I could see was this obvious nonsense: the “Curiosity” (or “Professional”) approach was intended to avoid any preconceived notion by the prospect that the company was deceptive and manipulative by acting toward them in a way that was deceptive and manipulative.

Huh? Run that by me again?

A salutary lesson

Fortunately, the folly of this absurdity was clearly demonstrated a few weeks later when I was invited to see the approach in action at a meeting of about 60 or 70 people for a business presentation. After about 20 minutes of very polished presentation, during which the name of the company was never mentioned, an elderly man sitting toward the front of the room leapt to his feet, his anger immediately apparent as he addressed the person next to him — obviously his would-be sponsor.

“This is a ___________ meeting! How dare you abuse our friendship like this! You lied to me!” he shouted, then turned to the crowd in general, continuing…

“Folks, if you’re here because you think this is anything but a meeting for ________, you should do what I’m going to to right now, and LEAVE!”

With that final remark, he stormed out of the room, around one third or more of the audience following him. Only a couple of people actually signed up after the meeting.

When asked for my opinion by the person who invited me to witness this debacle, I asked him why he thought that deceiving and manipulating people like that would overcome any existing perception that the company was deceptive and manipulative. It simply made no sense to me. There had to be a better way.

The OTHER “Curiosity” approach

In the following weeks I developed my own version of the “Curiosity” approach. I simply asked a prospect, up front, what they knew about ___________. No matter what their reply might be, it told me exactly what they knew — or thought they knew — and what I needed to deal with in order to present the opportunity more appealingly, with no deceit and no manipulation. If that couldn’t be done, I knew straight away and moved on, saving us both wasted time and possible aggravation. It made a lot more sense.

I also taught it to my growing downline team. They were much more comfortable with this approach, they sponsored at a MUCH higher rate, they suffered no ethical dilemmas or pangs of conscience, they were seen as honest and trustworthy by their prospects, and those prospects felt much more comfortable and had fewer reasons to say “no” to them.

Actions reveal what words conceal

If we’re going to be successful in restoring the original vision of network marketing, we need to get rid of the deceptive, manipulative, sleazy, objectionable practices that are the inextricable packaging of the counterfeit vision of network marketing that currently prevails.

That includes misusing words and expressions in order to deceive and manipulate.

Join us in our campaign to clean up network marketing, starting from the inside out. Go to http://www.catch-the-vision.com and register today.

Author Profile  Consults to managements of direct selling companies, small business and home business owners. Writes regular columns and feature articles for various business media, online and offline. Author of several best-selling business books. Presents seminars and workshops, webinars and other training programs. Creator of Fourth Generation Thinking, Selling, Business Systems. Read more from this author

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