I am not an attorney. But as a student of our industry and happy player, I am intrigued by the new regs, because I agree with their intent. But it's gonna be tricky.
Under the revised Guides,
"Advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical, when that is not the case, will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.Let's try one. Here is a typical income pitch:
"Jeff, a former waiter, made $12,500 in his first month, and you can too!"
Based on the FTC language above, this statement would not be allowed to stand alone anymore. Jeff's experience has been featured, and unless his result is "typical", the promiser must now 'clearly disclose' the income results that a prospect (consumer) "can generally expect" with that opportunity. What is typical? I'd bet that typical will likely be defined by others in the same company.
That means that you'd need to know what others in John's company made in their first month. And disclose that. E.g. "37 others made $3 in their first month."The idea of this new rule is to stop the practice of making it look as if everyone is making big money, and that it's a cinch that you can too.
Because almost nobody does.
But I wonder, how much does that fact really matter?
Some people, like me, ARE drawn to the big winners. And I don't really care if or that no one else makes it. So what? What else is new?Hearing or seeing the fact that almost no one else makes it, much less makes it big, would only inspire me more. Especially if I personally liked the product and thought it would do the world good.
(Couldn't resist, sorry.) Which is why I market the ER Fat Burn program for a tiny start up and have now used the FTC regs to do it in a fun way - see here. While most everyone HAS lost weight, there are many more fun angles to market it that I like much better. Weird food that burns fat, for example.So I for one an NOT be deterred knowing almost no one else made it in anything I'm interested in. I already know the numbers. I don't care.
What about you? Would knowing that most people make NO money deflate you? Would you be disappointed that it is not easy, after all? Would you realize you cannot commit the time to make it work and then not have signed up?That is the big question. And the conflict. If you wouldn't have gotten into the business knowing how few peeps make it, the recruiters and their companies would have lost a lot of money on you. Your initial order and sign-up fee, the conventions, the upline's leads programs, training materials, etc. Because you would have declined, knowing it's not easy up front.
This is of course why recruiters and companies don't want to tell the typical results up front, especially not at the rallies and conventions. They'd lose a big chunk of their income. Because fewer folks would sign up (under delusions of easy money). But the FTC has changed this. They have to tell now, if they use big income stories at all.
On the other hand, who cares that other peeps quit? I know almost no one makes it doing anything of their own. I don't give a hoot. I wanna do it anyway and that's the story.What about you? How do you see the impact of having to tell the 'typical' income results when you tell how Jeff made $12,500 in his first month?
P.S. My recruiting stuff and customer base building stuff is all based on building without hype and promises you can't keep. It's what I did. And am doing.
P.P.S Use the discount code FTC today only, and get 25% recession discount. It's at the end of the order process.
