Thursday, May 22, 2014

Amway And The "CORE" System?

Here is a breakdodown of CORE and why it doesn’t work. Here are the CORE steps. Some groups may have variations of CORE, but this is generally what many groups use. CORE is allegedly the proven system of success. Apologists claims that people who are CORE for at least six months straight will succeed. I doubt it. There are many examples, including my former sponsor who can suggest it doesn't work.

1 - Show the Plan (10-15 per month)
2 - Retail the Products (10 customers @10 PV each)
3 – Tapes/cds
4 - Books
5- Functions (attend all)
6 - Accountability
7 - Counsel with Upline (Be teachable!)
8 - Buy 100% of your own products
9 – Communikate

Many upline will tell you that your success is nearly 100% guaranteed if you follow these steps for 2-5 years. Some Amway enthusiasts will tell you that 6 months of this activity will nearly assure you of a platinum level business. Certain steps are within the IBO’s control, such as reading every day and listening to cds, and attending functions. It is also easy enough to be accountable, counsel with upline, buy your own products, and use KATE (voicemail).

Here’s where an IBO’s efforts will break down. Showing the plan and retailing products. And remember, if you cannot do these steps then you are not considered “CORE” and your upline will likely tell you that it is your own fault and that you simply haven’t been CORE, therefore you did not achieve success. There is some truth in this but let me expose the system in a different angle.

Amway has a spotty reputation in the US. I don’t think anyone can dispute this fact. Therefore, for the vast majority of people, being able to show the plan 10-15 times per month is a nearly impossible task. If you are able to do this, you are a really good salesman or a good liar. In this scenario, the IBO is already successful, but not because of CORE, but simply because the IBO has the gift of being able to convince people into seeing the plan. But for many IBOs, they may contact hundreds of people and not be able to get anyone to see the plan. Even IBOs who follow upline advice on how to contact will probably not be able to show 10-15 plans per month. Thus this IBO, who is doing the work, will not be able to succeed. The system will blame the IBO, but the reality is that the IBO has too big of a disadvantage to overcome.

Secondly, with high prices (on average) and with a spotty reputation, most IBOs are unable to retail products. Amway itself has admitted that less than 4% of Amway products are sold to customers (non IBOs). Thus most IBOs are unable to sell products, therefore they are not CORE, therefore upline will blame the IBO for failure..

What if an IBO contacts 1000 people and cannot get 10 people to see the plan? Upline will claim that IBO is not CORE and therefore it is personal failure of the IBO. IMO, the only reason why upline can claim that CORE works is because in order to do the CORE steps consistently, you have to already be at a certain level of success. The vast majority of IBOs cannot and will never be able to reach that level.

That is the myth and the deception that many uplines will use to attract recruits. That each IBO can do the CORE steps. When only a fraction of 1% ever reach the level of platinum or higher, the numbers strongly support what is written here. Apologists are welcome to try and prove me wrong, but they can't.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've covered this awhile back in another blog, but it's worth repeating. The only goal in core that matters is recruiting. But to see what it takes to succeed, start with the end game and work backwards. I'll throw in some numbers that are guesses as examples. If Amway did this breakdown in their recruiting, so people knew what they were getting into, nobody would sign up.

1- How many people do you have to recruit to hit Platinum? (in other words, break-even in the business). Let's say 200 conservatively (100 will quit or be inactive, so you'll have about 100 IBOs with some level of activity).

2- How many people do you have to show the plan to to sign up 200 IBO's. Let's say 600 (you sign up 1 in 3).

3- How many people do you have to approach to show 600 people? Let's say 1200 (half are no-shows)

4- Now, do you know 1200 people you can approach? Probably not. The vast majority of your recruits will be strangers. Do you have a plan to meet these strangers? You need one. Are you going to troll at the mall? At the supermarket? Crashing wedding receptions? Or do you think that friending strangers on Facebook will work? How much time will it take to find and pitch 1200 people? Let's say 900 hours (15 minutes to find them, 20 minutes to pretend you are trying to be their friend, and 10 minutes for the pitch).

So let's add up your time:
Trolling: 900 hours
Showing the plan: 1200 hours (assuming an average of one recruit showing up per meeting X two hours)
Total: 2100 hours

If you spend 10 hours per week at this, which they say can make you rich, that's 210 weeks, or 4 years.
And frankly, if it takes you 4 years to hit Platinum, you will never hit it. You will never recruit new people fast enough to replace the ones quitting and enough extra to grow the business.

Remember, this is just recruiting time. You still have to spend time with the tools, going to extra meetings, going to rallies, listen to pointless voicemails, and support your current downline. Don't forget you still need time to have a life outside of Amway. Want to see your kids or spouse/SO? You'll need to schedule that in.

And remember, this just gets you to break-even, and you're still thousands in debt reaching that point.

-- AnonTB

Joecool said...

Anon TB, great comments. I'd even say your numbers are "optimistic". In reality, after years of researching Amway and personal experience, if you can't go platinum in less than 18 months or so, it's not going to happen, Attrition will eat your group away. My former sponsor went platinum in a year and then he sponsored me. In my time, he teeter tottered in and out of platinum.

He's been in the business more than 20 years. Last I heard he's at 1500 PV or so but sadlt still clinging to the dream of going diamond and he won't quit. He's a physician living in a beat up rented house (upline advice) when he could have purchased a nice home. But he refuses because he insists he must buy a home in cash.

It's a waste of life.