I took great pride in my work as a counselor and center manager for LA Weight Loss. Waking up every morning feeling empowered, knowing that “I” was going to help someone get slim and healthy each day!
Then I learned the truth about LA Weight Loss. Almost everything they taught me was bogus!
The training I received was mostly guerilla sales techniques. In training class we were taught to lie to clients! The trainer made us practice quoting bogus phrases to each other; such as:
“The LA Lites nutrition bars have secret ingredients that will firm your
skin during weight loss”
“Buy all of the supplements and you will lose one extra pound every week”
When I asked if these statements were true, the trainer said ”No, but you want to earn commissions don’t you?”
The worst thing they made us rehearse was “How to make a client cry during a sales presentation” Claiming “If they cry, they will buy!” We were forced to ask personal questions to dig and find what the potential client’s breaking point was—-what brought them there today. They knew the client was already vulnerable just for showing up, and coaxed them into releasing their private thoughts in order to use them against them in vicious sales techniques. We were taught to then loudly emphasize the phrases that the client choked out. The trainer demonstrated by loudly yelling: “YOUR HUSBAND CALLED YOU A FAT PIG?” while explaining that this will make her cry, and instantly open her wallet. Then they charted this phrase, to make her cry again months later when they wanted to sell her additional products!
Have you ever read the nutrition label on the so-called nutrition bars they sold? They are so hydrogenated that they do not need an expiration date! They could be 20 years old for all you know. But they were cheap to make, and made huge profits.
I want to apologize to everyone that was hurt financially and otherwise by LA Weight Loss. As much as I took pride in helping people, I will also take my share of the blame for being an employee there. I should have resigned as soon as I realized clients were being cheated, but I was recently divorced and raising a neurologically impaired five-year-old on my own, needing the employment.“Here’s to a Healthy & Happy 2010!”
Taralyn