I send this message to inform IBOs tha they should be aware of their circumstances in business. What I mean is when you are a new IBO, it is common for you to buy/sell your 100 PV, and perhaps listen to some cds. If you basically did what your sponsor or upline advised, you made your 100 PV bonus level and you will receive a bonus from Amway for about $10. If you did as advised by your upline/sponsor, then you likely made a namelist and started contacting some potential business partners aka prospects. You're probably excited because things are going as you hoped or expected. You did your part and a bonus is on it's way to your doorstep. Heck, you may have even sponsored a friend or relative because of your newly found excitement and enthusiasm. Business is booming right?
But what happens after a few months? If you are still doing 100 PV and have no downline, then what are the chances that you will ever achieve anything? What if you sponsor someone who does nothing? Your excitement is wearing off and now the Amway opportunity is becoming "work". You are also starting to notice that it is starting to get expensive to continue to purchase products, many of which you never purchased before. For example, were you buying cases of energy drinks and "high end" vitamins before Amway? Did you buy $50 cases of bottled water before Amway? Supposedly their laundry soap and other cleaners are highly concentrated, therefore your consumables are the nutrition/vitamin products. Were you taking supplements and spending a couple hundred a month doing so?
Even if you managed to find some downline, are they duplicating what you do? Are they also moving volume and sponsoring downline? If not, what are your chances of fulfilling the 6-4-2 plan or some similar version of it. When I saw the plan, I thought it was reasonable and I was on my way to platinum. What I discovered though, is that as you progress, upline has greater expectations of you and that includes more tool purchases. (I was in WWDB). In the end, my recommended tool purchases ate up any profits I had and at the 4000 level, I was just about breaking even, which means I was at a loss when factoring in my time spent and other miscellaneous expenses such as gas money.
Where are you at? If you're been in for more than a year, are you on schedule to become platinum or are you at 200 PV with one downline? One thing I noticed while I was an IBO is that people who went platinum did it in about 15 months or less. If you aren't making progress, chances are you will never make it. Maybe you have a small group with 600 PV? You still aren't close to a net profit. For the vast majority of people, success is not right around the corner. What's around the corner for most is more time lost, more money expended, and no progress. If your group is not growing each and every month, you are sliding backwards. If you don't constantly have new IBOs coming into the group, you are probably stagnant. With about half of IBOs dropping out each year, keeping a group together is a tremendous task. More likely an impossible task. My former sponsor ended up sponsoring more than 100 people but he never made Q12 platinum and is nowhere near that level now, 22 years later. I shudder to think how much time and money he's lost.
IBOs, where are you at after a few months? Where are you at after a year? If you haven't gone platinum, it is nearly a certainty that it will never happen, despite what your upline might say. The facts are there, it's a matter of whether you want to believe it or not.
8 comments:
Pretty reasonable post, Joe. I wish I had followed through on my original commitment of evaluating at 6, 9, and 12 months of signing the contract. My logic was, regardless of the "reasons", if I had not achieved my definition of reasonable success within a year, I was done. Instead, I permitted my upline to persuade me to break the promise I'd made to myself, and I lingered on for years. It was my decision, I realize.
Some people end up staying too long because upline wisely teaches you to "never quit" or "success is just around the corner" or "quitters never win". WHile it's subtle, it is a very powerful way of keeping people around just a little bit longer. If people actually measured profit and loss and looked at their business objectively, they would either not join or quit very quickly.
Even I had the thought of "what if" when I fianlly decided to leave Amway but the facts were enough to convince me.
Like many cults, Amway uses "fear-and-shame" devices to keep people in their institutionalized structure. They try to make you ashamed of not being loyal to your up-line, of not working hard enough, or of not being of the same sterling character as others who have "made it" in Amway. If you decide to leave, you are a "quitter" -- another abusive term for somebody who has weighed the evidence and changed his mind about a scam. People change their minds all the time in business and financial matters -- they aren't "quitters" if they come to a realization that "the Plan" is a piece of shit based on nothing but smoke and mirrors.
The other Amway tactic is to stoke fear and apprehension in persons who are thinking of dropping out. "You'll stay poor! You'll be stuck in a J.O.B! You won't get a private jet and a yacht! All those wonderful diamonds and platinums won't talk to you anymore! Your love-bombing Amway pals will turn against you forever!"
These things work on insecure and uncertain persons who are desperate for some kind of human connection to success, and to those whom they think are successful. They don't work on people who can think independently, and who aren't "other-directed." This is why Amway prefers to get as recruits the more marginalized and underachieving types as IBOs -- the people who don't seem to have much success, who are in dead-end jobs, and who are susceptible to hyped-up sales pitches. They'll never go diamond, of course -- but they can be trusted to hang in there for years, coughing up cash regularly to their up-line. This is why those stupid meetings and rallies are so important -- they keep the poor fools energized.
Amway tells you "not to be quitter." But they sure as hell want you to be a loser. That's the way the bigshot Ambots stay rich.
Excellent points. Yes, the uplines craft in these subtle messages that make it hard for someone to quit. Such as quitting makes you a loser with no hope or that success might be right around the corner. It does make some people stay in longer hoping that their fortunes will turn around. But I'm confident that staying in longer only adds to your losses.
I am a new Ibo with Amway. Although I respect referral marketing and enjoy selling their products, the conventions is where I am drawing the line. It clearly states on the CD's (which I got for free and would never pay for) that they make income basically by selling motivational tools. I am thinking, why is this if they are making that much money to begin with? I understand that people should stay motivated in their business but this is not training at all. Hearing relatable stories may get people to try harder, but will not increase volume but will increase sales in tools. I just dont feel right paying 100 dollars for a conference ticket to hear someones similar story. In their meetings, they single me out because I don't have a ticket to the conference. I am in the business for me and I like selling their products, but ultimately it will cause some confrontation. So i will update and tell you what they try to do after I tell them I am not going.
Good comments. Yep, I agree. The functions are not necessary except for those who profit from then functions.
Spot on!! They employ a "bait and switch" strategy to lure more prospects. They dangle you with a "bait" which consists of yachts, mansions and women, so that you are convinced to join. Also, they know how to play with your emotions. In other words, they know how to fish and if you are not careful then you will be caught in their hands.
Yes, Amway is a bait and switch scam. They lure you in by getting you to disclose your hopes and dreams. Then they tell you that Amway is the only way to achieve those dreams is Amway and the key to achieving your dreams is to buy cds, voicemail, books and function tickets from them.
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