Though United First Financial's 20,000 plus independent sales representatives do their best to spread the word about saving on your mortgage through a creative technique I like to call equity cycling, for some, it's all about the money. Up until the recent United First Financial Conference in June, 2008, Money Merge Account representatives were not required to use the $3500 program themselves. At least one customer of Let Your Mortgage Make You Rich! is both a sales rep for UFirst and a renter - no mortgage. Prospective salespeople could pay the fee, most recently $150, and begin selling the program.

When you consider the usual commission for a sale is about $1000, that's a pretty good return on their investment of $150 to be a representative. Who would refuse a 650% return on investment?

Have you heard the one about the starving shoe polish salesman? Really down on his luck, as the tale goes. He just couldn't get people interested in purchasing the shine-in-a-bottle from him. His manager came to town and said, "I can tell you right now what your problem is. I don't even have to go out into the field with you! Your problem is you're wearing suede shoes!"

Would you have allowed thousands of people onto your sales force who didn't believe in your product enough to buy it for themselves? Who wanted to try it out on other people before spending their own hard-earned $3500? Perhaps a few were trying to earn the $3500, but the company was eager enough to finance it. Maybe some had bad credit. Who better to urge another family to go into debt to get out of debt than a person not managing well his or her own debt? "Please, you owe this to your family (and to me the $1000 I'm going to make.)"

Here's the lead line in an email urging sales reps to get busy:

Now, do you want to INSTANTLY IMPROVE YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE?

No, the author wasn't talking about the rep getting out of debt. The author was talking about the rep building a six-figure income by adding another layer of complexity to the already daunting task of paying off your home. The prospect base - potential customers - has now expanded:

You now have access to everyone who has ANY debt in ANY form as a potential client!! That's right–you can sell to anyone who has debt, regardless of whether they have a mortgage, and even if they cannot get a line of credit!

Who is the target customer? That's right: anyone with debt.

Why? Money, money and more money.

I don't personally recommend putting your home at risk to pay off consumer debt. Yes, it's more fiscally prudent if all you're counting is the numbers, but I also have to count human nature. How did you get into all that debt? Paying off a major medical bill is one thing. Going nuts with the credit cards is something else entirely! In other words, if you don't already have financial discipline, neither the MMA nor Let Your Mortgage Make You Rich! is going to give it to you. Both will give you some ideas, if you're paying attention. One of them costs $1795-$3500. The other costs $97. You might even say one is going to make your sales rep rich and one is going to make you rich…what do you think?

Please add your comments below. More from the convention and about the new version of the MMA software coming soon.