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Chapter

14

Why Won’t They Listen to Me?

Kim Klaver

W

hen you talk to someone about your business or product, have you
ever wondered why it’s so hard to get them to listen? You use the
scripts and blurbs the company or your upline has provided—show-
ing the solid technical or scientific track records. But still, getting
someone good to listen seems to be almost impossible these days.
You may be happy to know you are not alone. In describing the death of
the once hugely successful TV ad engine (for cereals, personal care and clean-
ing products, for example), marketing guru Seth Godin writes that unlike 25
years ago, “you could never afford to introduce Cap’n Crunch today, regard-
less of who made your commercial. Kids won’t listen. Neither will adults.”
His conclusion about the challenge of marketing today: “Consumers are hard
to reach because they ignore you.”^1
Over the past few years, my students have told me the same thing.
When they start to talk about their business or the product, the other person’s
attention somehow wanders off, and they mutter, “Oh, that’s nice. Say, what’s
for lunch?” If the old TV audience isn’t listening anymore to the usual com-
mercials and the standard pitches, neither is the audience that is being pre-
sented with network marketing products and opportunities. This may be in
part because over the past decade in our industry, there have been massive
changes and often failures that have affected us all. It has become a familiar
story: promises made and not kept, hype and allure that turned out to be false
once someone got into the business.
I believe the direct sales/network marketing business model is one of
the most sophisticated business models available. We have plenty of evi-
dence that it doeswork, in spite of the many network marketing companies
that are no longer in business, and in spite of the many who have attempted
to build a successful business but were unable to make it work. I am person-

(^1) Seth Godin, Purple Cow(New York: Portfolio Books, 2003), 12, 15.