The other day I had a nightmare.
I went to the gym and the guy on reception decided to make small talk, which sounded out of character. He constructed sentences in what sounded like a sales pitch.
It turned out he was, he mentions some amazing nutritional product called herbal life which seemed to specialise in everything from weight loss to protein powders.
As I go in the gym I start benching. As I rest between sets some jacked dude in a herbal life vest, decides to start talking to me about how it will help with my gains.
On the way to work I am tailing a Mini Cooper. As I stop behind it at the lights I see the Herbal Life logo and a number to ring for ‘nutritional advice’.
At work I am surrounded by women chugging Herbal Life meal replacements for lunch. So I go out and I get leaflet shoved into my hand full of Herbal Life products.
In the evening I go to a friends, we get onto talking about are fitness goals. Then our natural, fluid conversation dies and he starts going on about Herbal Life. He tells me what a great product it is and that I should come to the next seminar to start selling the stuff and that he would be my sponsor.
After enduring all this I do a 10k race. Herbal Life people are there giving out free samples to the runners and taking details.
By this point I feel like I am in a zombie movie where one by one people are being converted to selling nutritional products.
I wake up and realise that this not a nightmare but a continuing reality where I am having to resist the sales pitch of an expensive product.
I have tried some of there products and they are average. And there are many things about Herbal Life that make me uncomfortable.
But I don’t feel comfortable:
- with a model that seems awfully like a pyramid selling style business model.
- having nutritional products hard-sold to me when the seller is motivated more by personal greed than matching the right product with me.
- having a seller with no background in nutrition talking like they are a nutritionist.
- I don’t want a product that is the nutritional version of Avon or a Kleeneze catalogue.
Until next time, keep reading the Manifesto of Perfection – a blog that will never be corrupted by money…
I think I touched on Herbal Life quite lightly. Read these two blog articles which may influence your decision to purchase as either a customer or potential seller.
Read about Herbal Life bullshit here
Read why multi level marketing schemes are bullshit here
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