Building an Amway business. That's what many IBOs set out to do, except they don't know how to build a business, and based on IBO behavior and the things they say and do, it makes me wonder what their upline actually knows about building a business. A typical business owner will get started, and needs people to know that their business is there. Building a customer base and building steady volume is building your business. But so many IBOs reek of desperation to try to recruit and sponsor anyone with a heartbeat that they end up turning people off and actually hurting the chances of other IBOs by contributing to the already spotty reputation that Amway carries with it.
When you open a store or a restaurant, you may not make a lot of money intitially because not enough customers know about your store and you have not yet built a reputation. New customers who have a good experience are likely to return for more, and they are also likely to tell others about your store. Over time, you create a customer base and your weekly sales become consistent and somewhat predictable. Conversely, if customers have a bad experience, they are likely to tell others as well.
In the Amway business, many IBOs have no idea about building a business. They are shown great (apparent) wealth by upline, and then told that their business activity consists of showing the plan, listening to standing order and attending functions. Most of an IBO's activity, as prescribed by upline, costs money instead of generating sales. Some uplines do teach IBOs to sell items, but more often than not, it is not taught as a priority.
What's more, as I said, a new business will get repeat customers when a customer has a good experience. What do you suppose happens when IBOs lie or trick people into attending Amway meetings, or deceive people about their business, or make up wild stories about perfect water? What happens when you embellish the truth about success and then cannot provide an answer when a recruit asks an IBO how they are really doing in the Amway business? What happens when an IBO tells a potential recruit that he or she is a loser or stupid for not joining Amway? Would you return to a store if they called you stupid as you were leaving? What if you were called a loser?
These are the reasons why IBOs in general cannot get enough customers to sustain a consistent and predictable amount of sales, and why over the years, Amway has at best a spotty reputation. Just the mention of the name Amway and you may get funny looks from people. It is why certain internet zealots promoting Amway do more harm than good.
17 comments:
Actually, Amway's reputation is more than just "spotty." It's downright poisonous. During a class of college seniors I was teaching last semester, I just mentioned the phrase "Amway distributor" in passing in my lecture. The entire class cracked up in derisive laughter, as if I had said "Kim Kardashian." Amway is a joke to most people -- a bad joke.
And quite true -- Amway IBOs contribute to the company's bad reputation by being snotty and arrogant and cultish. Who the hell wants to join a "business" where you're not allowed to "say negative," or where you can't make a major purchase without consulting your "up-line," or where you are required to wear a business suit to a private meeting at someone's house? What kind of robotic freaks are in a business like that?
Amway freaks are always saying that when you have a dreadful "JOB," you are a slave to the whims of your boss. Well, who's more of a slave than the lowly Amway IBO, who can't go to take a piss at "Dream Night" without getting yelled at by his up-line?
Yeah, there's irony in that train f thought. At a job you answer to a boss but in Amway, you not only have to dress how they want, you must also conform to their hierarchy and do other weird stuff. At least a job ensures you get paid whereas in Amway you end up paying so you can make your upline rich.
The typical Amway "IBO" quickly learns it is much harder to sell Amway than they were led to believe. It's hard to recruit a downline to invest their hard earned $$, time and reputation in a company with a reputation so shady that even THEY tell you not to say the name of the company.
The newly minted "distributor" soon finds the product itself doesn't sell because it is so vastly overpriced. Then they are told the real money is in recruiting others, but that doesn't work either because 99plus % of those who try it lose their money they put into it. But the hook is set because they desperately want to get their money back and not admit they just plain got scammed. Even trying to suck in friends and family. Then it is even more painful to give up and admit they were trying to sell snake oil all along. So many of them keep trying, throwing good money after bad, often until they just can't afford to do it any more.
There is an excellent short video out there called "How To Spot A Pyramid Scheme". It's easy to look up and describes Amway and other MLM pyramids to a "T". Joecool, I can't imagine how many people you have saved from being taken in by Amway over the years but it's probably enough to earn you a spot in heaven by now.
Ray, your analysis is spot on. I believe that many folks won't complain either because they are too embarrassed that they actually fell for the scam. But yeah, there is subtle peer pressure not to qui, or you'll be labeled a failure or quitter and of course, upline teaches that failure is always your own fault.
I'm not sure how many people have been helped by the information on this blog, but I imagine it's quite a few. The thanks and nice comments have been enough to keep me motivated to keep blogging all these years.
If there's PV in heaven, Joe Cool will be Triple Diamond Crown Lord High Ambassador-in-Chief!
And Joe, you are also judged by the enemies you make. The vast army of Amway sewer-rats who hate you and who are trying to destroy your blog are ample and rock-solid proof of your value. As they say in Spain, "Viva siempre!"
Thanks for your kind words. I certainly appreciate the nice comments once in a while instead of the poison that some IBOs drop here.
Although sometimes reading the poison is entertaining. Anyway, I'm glad some people did find useful information here so they don't get hoodwinked by the Amway uplines.
For now I'm okay with pressing on and keeping this blog updated.
What would happen if the prospect has sharp eyes and when showing "the plan", the prospect looks at the small print with the statements saying:
- The average income of an active IBO is less than $200
- Last year, about 0.04% reach platinum
The upline would say most do nothing and quit. You're sharp, you can be the leader and outwork all of the others and I can show you how. Just plug into the cds, books and functions and you can't fail. If you do all the CORE steps for 12 straight months, 100% you will succeed.
That's what I heard.
Yes, it's part of their game. They will say things like "follow everything we tell you to do and duplicate upline and success is guaranteed", and when the inevitable failure happens they just come back with "well, you must not have done it right. Work harder". Which is bullshit because they can say that to anything as it is so vague as to what really is "working harder".
Upline's whole job is to keep the suckers going for as long as possible to maximize how much they can siphon from them before they crash and burn. And then always put the blame on the victim.
That's what makes this whole thing worse. You bust your hump working and if you do not make it, you're told you did it wrong or that you didn't work hard enough. It's a total scam.
I just met with a sweet young couple this week who wanted to show me this business that they were in to see if I was interested. The funny thing is, as they were giving the presentation I thought, this sounds like AMWAY! The presentation was done with so much excitement, and emotion and praise to all of the people who have gotten rich. The couple that mentors them are such wonderful great people. They have been to some conferences and was about to attend another one soon. They were so excited about what they were learning from books that they have been reading (one of the books was brought to the presentation). They kept mentioning their distributor and finally at the end, they revealed that their distributor was AMWAY! But they were just the distributor and nothing more for their business.
I actually felt slightly deceived.
I saw presentations just like that. When Amway was mentioned, some people abruptly got up and left. Tells me that whoever invited them were deceptive about Amway.
But yeah, people can get excited because they are sold on dreams of wealth and early retirement and not about a scammy Amway business.
Mindless enthusiasm. It's the engine behind every successful Amway presentation.
If you don't share the enthusiasm, you're considered a grouch, a grinch, a curmudgeon, a pessimist, a buzz-killer, a wet blanket, a party-pooper.
Amway prides itself on being based on a irrepressible, brain-dead, North American optimism. That's why Ambots tend to have that stupid big grin on their faces.
I wonder if they still have it after they've lost their shirts.
Yes, some are grinning while they are losing their shirts because they are told that they're doing well and the money will be there or they're told that success is right around the corner if you keep working.
The upline is good at finding your hot buttons and exploiting it to keep you motivated while you are losing your shirt.
After the presentation, even though they mentioned AMWAY at the end of their presentation, the hype did get me a little and I agreed to attend a meeting next week to learn more about the business. So today, after the hype wore off, and I was able to think more rationally, I let them know that I didn't want to be an AMWAY distributor and I wished them much success.
They asked me why the change of heart? I said I don't want to work for AMWAY! They said that's fine, we don't work for AMWAY! I thought, yeah okay! I didn't respond!
Yeah they work for Amway. They move Amway products at their ow expense and they don't even get paid unless they move a quota (100 PV minimum). They are commission only sales people.
Only because they gave up.
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