Tweet

Business Ethics: How Some Businesses Use Networking Events and Violate Business Ethics and Values

Written by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: Business ethics is around everyone 24/7. Since most small business owners are ethical, this behavior can place them in uncomfortable situations. Read about one such situation from an experienced networker and how to avoid future situations.

Business Ethics: How Some Businesses Use Networking Events and Violate Business Ethics and Values

Once again, I experienced why ethics is so critical for today’s small business owners and why many small business owners just don't get it.

The other day I was invited to a networking event from someone whom I had just met at another networking event. He said that there would be some time to get to know each other better, some information presented about his company and an opportunity to meet some potential prospects. I asked two very direct questions that I advise all my entrepreneurial and small business clients to ask:

Would those in attendance be in my target market of small business owners of $1 million to $10 million in sales?

Is this a multi-level marketing event?

I was told emphatically Yes and No. So I agreed to come because I believe in power networking: attending as many networking events that are in or potentially in your target market.

After registering for the event at the front door, I then was given a tour of the facility with the emphasis on the people within each office and their accomplishments. My ethics' detector antennae (EAD) began to tingle. Then I was introduced to a variety of associates who began asking me personal questions. Now my EAD is in full vibration. From a sales process, these individuals hadn't established any relationship, but presumed that my relationship with the person who invited me immediately extended to them. There really wasn't any opportunity to meet any potential ideal prospects because each guest was being held in conversation by anywhere from one to three associates nor was there any time to meet with the individual who invited me because he was circling the room meeting all the other guests. Now the words, multi-level marketing and cult began circling in my head.

Given that my time is quite valuable, I asked one of the associates as tactfully as possible if this was informational or a recruitment meeting. Again, I was told it was informational, absolutely not a recruitment meeting and to please keep an open mind because everything would be shortly explained.

Guests were then directed to a small room with stacking chairs (minimum padding) and spent the next almost 2 hours listening to their successful marketing director all the reasons to buy into this multi-level marketing business. Since I was in the back of the room and was not raised to be a rude individual, I stayed. However, I was not a happy camper because I was definitely lied to by the person who invited me because 2 of the 3 points on the last Power Point slide involved recruitment.

What really bothered me was that the majority of people (mostly young people under the age of 30) in the room were actively listening to this sales pitch which was identified numerous times by the marketing director as not a sales pitch. After all, if you joined them part time you could make over $20,000 annually by just working with 4 families in a month. Of course, the marketing director did not say that you need 4 new families each month to sustain that income. As the old adage goes "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

So what does this have to do with ethical values in business – absolutely everything. Ethics first and foremost is about being honest. When I asked the associates what they did, the only response was "We help people." Any further questions were slickly evaded by having a new associate enter the conversation.

Second ethics is a referral mechanism or criteria. Since I network a lot, I also believe in referrals. Ethics is about knowing individuals and what type of values that guide them. As I was intentionally mislead, I can no longer refer him or his organization and when asked will honestly share my perception that this is not a reputable firm no matter what some nationally known business guru said.

In this case, I mislead not only by by the individual who issued the invitation, but the associates I met at the firm as well as the marketing director. Isn’t it funny that a firm can’t even be honest and call their marketing director a sales director? I guess by calling them a sales director would be too honest or ethical and might scare people. NOTE: Upon returning home, I did a Google search of this organization and discovered yes they were a multi-level marketing firm. Yes, I should have done this before accepting the invitation, but I believed that the person was forthcoming in directly answering my 2 questions.

How can you as a small business person who may actually have such a firm in your formal networking group avoid my unethical networking experience? You can follow these 2 simple rules. I used to have only one rule, but now required, due to unethical behavior, to add a second one.

1. Directly ask: "Will my potential client market will be there?"
2. Do a Google, Yahoo, etc. search on the Internet regardless of the response to question #1.

You will learn two things. The first is the ethics of the person involved and the ethics of the organization. Possibly the individual has been conditioned hence why the word cult is used as a descriptor not to think of the organization as MLM.

Small business owners have limited time and need to leverage every moment to build their business. Networking is one such activity. Yet, when other small business owners take advantage of their colleagues through the demonstration of unethical business core values, then everyone loses.

I am sure that this national firm will continue to grow because many individuals want that magic pill for success. However, I believe that by being a lot more ethical, this firm and some of the other similar firms could grow with greater speed and not earn the negative unethical reputation as a cult based multi-level marketing firm.

Related Articles
  Business Ethics Lesson From An Unlikely Individual
  How Social Media Challenges Your Business Ethics and Values
  Have You Defined Integrity within Your Business Values or Business Ethics Statement?
  Are You an Ethical Salesperson?
  How Referral Marketing Appears to Be Quid Pro Quo

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: Biz Plan Competition - i just wanted to say that posting Small Business Events on CanadaOne is a great resource. Thanks Julie!
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - GT - thanks for the FYI - I'm not sure if we'll put a link back. Something to consider though! Trent - the new category is "Social Network and Media" which was put in to compliment the Online Businesses category that currently exists. Overall the new categories are: - Looking For, Networking and Events - Review My... - Social Network and Media - Brags and Rants These came as a result of Ringo doing research on other forums and thinking about what could be improved on ours to give a better experience for everyone. I hope you enjoy them! David, I'm looking forward to reading your Brag / Rant!
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The new marketing question. Will they follow?

Life is a Balancing Act!

Track Your Time for Increased Productivity

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.