One of the things my upline always pushed on us was the tools system. While the tools are said to be optional, they are not promoted that way. They were promoted as vital, necessary, almost as if you were insane to try and build an Amway business without tools. Basically the tools were a defacto requirement. My upline always claimed that nobody ever "made it" without tools. Some Amway defenders like IBOFightback insist that the tools work, and that IBOs who were on the system proved it with higher levels of success and product volume. But the tools work for maybe a fraction of 1% of IBOs who try them.
IBOs participating in the system (voicemail, book of the month, standing orders, functions, etc) do more PV. I believe this is true, but it is true, only because once the upline can convince you to participate in the system, then that same IBO is also convinced that they should or must do 100 PV as part of the deal. People who aren't convinced that the system is vital, subsequently do not purchase or sell as much PV because they have not been convinced that moving PV will make them successful.
Critics and Amway supporters have debated this issue for years, but clearly, the evidence supports my position. Why? Because if there was a true demand for Amway products because of their quality and/or value, then there wouldn't be such a steep drop off in movement of volume when an IBO becomes a former IBO. Many, probably most former IBOs never buy a single Amway product once they leave the business. If the products had true quality and value as Amway supporters claim, why don't people continue to purchase 100 PV per month when they quit? Because they never wanted or needed all of that product in the first place?
If someone is convinced that Amway will be their financial savior and that by using tools and moving 100 PV will result in long term financial security and residual income as claimed by upline, then that is what they will do in hopes of achieving the end goal. When that goal or dream doesn't materialize, the former IBOs realize that the tools and products no longer have the value they once thought they had. How many former IBOs will buy standing order or attend functions? If these materials really made you nicer, or saved marriages, why don't any former IBOs keep buying them? Why do they resort to selling them for pennies on the dollar on Ebay or Craigslist?
Bottom line is that the tools don't work. They only work for the uplines who directly profit from the sale of tools, plus the artificial demand in product sales created by those IBOs who are convinced that Amway wil make them rich. Once the reality sets in that Amway will not make them rich, and that the tools are simply draining their resources, then the demand or tools and Amway products disappears almost instantly. There is no unbiased evidence that I know of to suggest that these tools work, and basically, the miserable amount of new diamonds emerging in the US seems to confirm this fact.
I urge IBOs and information seekers to take this message to heart.
8 comments:
Yeah, I got sucked into another one of those multiple level marketing schemes once that was just like Amway. One of the higher ups there who was not even my upline but was one of the "rock stars" of the group leaned heavily on me one day saying: "I'm going to be teaching the (Some B.S. Name) training seminar and I expect to see you in it." Since I didn't have a job at the time and had used up what little savings I had back then I couldn't afford to keep feeding money into the scam. I was forced to start thinking about it and once you regain the ability to think for yourself again anybody in the bottom 99.5% and maybe more than that will break free from it. Once you regain your freedom you ask yourself "How did I ever let myself get sucked into this thing?"
Great comment. I was the same way once I quit. I asked myself why I didn't recognize the scam sooner. Probably because I was sponsored by a close friend.
Joecool I was checking one of your earlier posts and noticed lots of people there promoting their own little MLMs. I don't know if they are just garden variety MLM suckers looking for other suckers as they have been tricked into doing or if they are actually doing the smart but sleazy thing by starting up their own original pyramid using some ostensible product or service as a legal front for it.
"Multi level marketing" schemes will continue to victimize the honest public until public awareness of what they really are makes them go the way of the dinosaur. That gives real purpose to this blog. It's hard to imagine a greater gift than helping save another human being from having their life swept up in one of these insidious schemes.
Meanwhile the mother of all pyramid scams, the big "A", might be nearing its final days. The top of its upline is like a hungry tapeworm feeding off the the dollars from the bottom. While their deliberately complicated "commissions" system and book keeping gymnastics might conceal this monumental flaw from the unwary even their smoke, mirrors, bells and whistles cannot mask the ridiculous price of their actual product they must charge in order to feed that parasite. Sales are down, nobody wants to pay fifty bucks for a bar of soap except maybe the poor IBO sucker who empties his bank account to fill his basement or trailer with boxes of them. About the only opportunity they offer anymore is to get in and compete with all the other slimy shysters to hawk the ridiculous "tools" to the poor suckers at the bottom and even that doesn't feed the pyramid itself.
Yes, I saw that Amway sales are down a billion dollars from last year. Amway says it's from currency changes but we will see. I believe Amway US was a bit stagnant this year but Amway doesn't release detailed figures so we have to guess based on the information that Amway did release.
As a former MLM victim/sucker I feel a little less gullible knowing of even doctors who get sucked into this scam. I personally knew a pharmacist in my group. So you don't have to be stupid to fall for it.
But whenever I tried to sell somebody who had even a basic knowledge of real business I quickly found it was a no go at all. The fact is that even an Ambot with a PhD in B.S. cannot answer the questions asked by someone with even a GED in real business.
Great comment! Thanks for sharing that. Most people figure it out pretty quickly but some get sucked in pretty hard. My sponsor was a physician and he is still hard core after 20 years.
Have been there, quit half a year ago after being with Amway for 9 month... still recovering!!! Cann not believe how they were lying a little bit at a time, and then my patience evaporated and I realized that I am loosing my mind... by listening to a complete stranger how I should invest my money;) life without THIS BUSINESS is much more FUN!
Yes, the uplines tell small lies until they get you hooked then it's usually too late and you've lost some decent money. Most people see thru it quickly and get out but some folks get hooked badly.
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