Poaching:
- to encroach upon especially for the purpose of taking something
- to take by illegal methods
- to appropriate (something) as one’s own
- to entice someone (such as an employee or customer) away from a competitor using deceptive tactics
Biblically speaking? “Thou shalt not steal.”
Most everyone is turned off by the obnoxious “Hey girl” approach in network marketing. I mean, it’s just gross. This type of poaching feels like spam, which is easy to detect and delete without any emotional pull.
But the more nuanced poacher is like the vacuum cleaner salesman who “innocently” throws dirt on your carpet, and then offers to vacuum it up for you. I mean, who knew you had so much dirt on your carpet?
I keep hearing poachers in network marketing use responses like, “I didn’t ask them to join me, they just came to me.” Yes, after you subtly enticed them on social media (or in private message, email, or conversation) with deceptive language. It’s like they’re all using the same guide book:
How to Subtly Poach Your Neighbor’s Downline:
Disparage your previous company
- Talk about how depressed/stressed out you were because of previous company.
- Imply “really, really bad things” happened there
- Publicly question quality or purity (even though you 100% know better)
- Talk a lot about the “toxic culture” you left
- Creatively contrast all the bad (past company) with all the good (new company)
- Link arms with others who left, and comment on or “like” their posts that disparage previous company
Deceptive Poaching Tips
- Be sure to post on the same social media platform that your previous company helped you to grow, so that you are better able to influence the active downlines of all your old friends.
- Communicate your “love” for your new product to people your upline placed in your organization (I know your upline placed them with you because they wanted to see you succeed, and they trusted you, but hey, that’s not your problem).
- Yes, your social media “audience” may heavily contain the downline members of your own former organization (people who trusted you to help them grow their business, not steal from it) but that’s not your problem either..
- After you leave your former company, be sure to post a dramatic exit/goodbye on social media, and send an email and/or voice recording to previous downline or crossline. And be sure to mention crying a lot, make a plug for your new product, and tell them how they can reach you).
- If you think they may see through what you’re doing, just say, “I don’t want you to think I’m trying to poach you.” That makes you completely “innocent” of poaching… while you’re poaching.
- Make sure to play the victim. Distract people from all the things you did wrong, and spin the consequences you are experiencing by turning it around on your previous company. Make it sound like you’re being bullied. Again, always play the victim.
- Talk a lot about being “shunned” or mistreated by previous friends that you’ve attacked or harmed. If necessary, use the word “cult.”
- Time your best attacks during sales or other high pressure, opportune seasons.
If you do it right, you can convince even yourself that you’re a victim. This will help you to be believable…for a while. But be careful; it’s only a matter of time before people start to see through your tactics, and they either walk away or seek to hold you accountable. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
