Salt Lake Tribune:
Emphasizing that Usana Health Sciences is not afraid to answer questions about what distinguishes its multilevel marketing approach from a Ponzi scheme, the company brought in master questioner Larry King to probe the issue.
King’s appearance was a surprise for the 8,000 Usana sales associates who filled most of EnergySolutions Arena’s lower bowl for the final day of the nutritional supplement company’s annual international convention. He walked on stage to rousing applause, as the morning session emcees put on a skit in which one pretended to be the CNN talk show host.
After cracking a joke about his Utah connections — “I married a Mormon girl and have paid for it ever since” — King did what he does best: Asks questions.
His answer man was no pushover, especially with this crowd. Tim Sales, whose “Brilliant Compensation” video has informed more than 1 million people about network marketing, received an ovation even louder than King’s.
Before their on-stage connection, King and Sales had met with members of the news media to talk about Usana’s objectives in creating the interview scenario, an idea that arose after the two men talked a few months back and King said he became fascinated with the difference between legitimate multilevel marketing and Ponzi schemes.
It was a subject he knew all too well, having been a victim of convicted scam artist Bernard Madoff. “That was the Ponzi scheme of all Ponzi schemes,” King said.
When the time to ask that initial question, King went basic: “Multilevel marketing is what?”
The banter went back and forth a couple of times before Sales made the first big hit with the crowd, responding to a King probe with, “And there’s a question in there?”
With a comic’s timing, King paused briefly, then countered “You’ll never be back.”
This repartee exemplified how King set out to combine his professional skill as an interviewer (upwards of 40,000 people now) and his penchant for humor to ensure the audience was “informed, entertained and knows more at the end than at the beginning.
To Usana founder Myron Wentz, having King play such a featured role at the convention illustrates that the West Valley City-based company is proud of its marketing approach, which he said has extended healthy benefits to customers around the globe.
Photo by cliff1066