I heard a great comment from a commentator on a related Amway blog. Basically, he said if IBOs were so successful, people would just naturally be attracted. And that's true! Where I live, the local electric company is an attractive place to work with a good salary and benefits package. When there's a handful of openings, you might get as many as 6,000 people applying for these positions. When the federal government hires for the post office, you get thousands of applicants for a handful of jobs as well. These types of positions indicate that they are highly sought after as indicated by the volume of applicants when an opening exists.
But IBOs have to justify their positions. The common ones are how Amway products are concentrated, or they have magical ingredients in their vitamins, thus making them superior to other similar but cheaper products. It is my position that if these products were so good and the opportunity actually produced successful IBOs, there would be no need to be deceptive about the products or the opportunity. The products could easily be marketed and sold in big box retailers. In fact, customers would be seeking IBOs to find the products and there would be lines of people waiting to see the opportunity if it actually produced what many claim. Instead. we can look at Amway.com and see that a fraction of 1% of IBOs even reach the platinum level. The vast majority of IBOs make nothing or lose money, regardless of the level of effort.
Instead, IBOs themselves are the primary consumers of Amway products. Many IBOs are deceptive when inviting people to see the Amway plan. Some prospects are outright lied to when recruited for the Amway opportunity. The curiosity approach is still used by many, because mentioning "Amway" is more likely to get you funny looks than sincere interest. If what I am writing is not true, why do IBOs need to deceive people? Why don't some IBOs open their books and display the financial success they claim to have? Why so secretive? Why aren't there hoards of new diamonds and emeralds each month? Instead, you mainly hear of the Amway growth in foreign countries. Most likely because the Amway name and reputation has not yet been soiled as it has in the US and Canada and there are many who haven't heard of Amway.
In the US, I see primarily the same old diamonds who were in control of the functions and systems from more than 12 years ago. In fact, factoring in diamonds who quit or dropped out, I believe there are fewer diamonds now than when I was an IBO. Some of these diamonds also had some apparent financial difficulties. The opportunity is far from how it's promoted. Success speaks louder than words, and where North American Amway success is concerned, the silence is deafening!
Not only does there seem to be fewer diamonds than when we where in. The rare new diamond is often borrowed by other system groups to speak at their functions with a speakers fee. Back in the early 90s I didn't see new diamonds speaking for other groups. These days the Whalen's and Tracey eaten is paid to speak in yager and bww.
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