Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Desperate Amway IBOs?

In some recent comments, one thing I have noticed about Amway IBOs is "desperation". I believe this to be true as IBOs who are trying to build a business are in a precarious position. For one thing, Amway products in general are not priced at a competitive level with big retailers so IBOs are at a disadvantage. Lacking retail sales, and IBO must self consume 100 PV, which can cost about $300 or so on average. Most people that I know do not spend $300 a month on consumables such as toilet paper and vitamins that IBOs claims simply "replaces your shopping habits" Even when I threw a party for 40 guests at my home, I still did not spend $300 at Costco that month for my own goods plus the party. Now maybe you would spend a lot on consumables if you have a really big family, but not for singles, couples or families with 1 or 2 kids.

So why are IBOs "desperate"? I believe it is because the cost of the goods starts to become a burden for most IBOs and the disadvantage in cost makes selling products very very difficult. So with that in mind, the only other way for an IBO to increase volume is to sponsor downline IBOs in the hopes that they will also move volume. Thus IBOs do not get paid directly for recruiting (which allows Amway to remain legal), but the emphasis of most business builders is to sponsor downline because selling is more difficult. And because many IBOs are "desperate" to generate volume, they resort to trickery, deceit, and sometimes outright lies in order to get people to a recruitment meeting. It is why Amway has developed a reputation in North America. I believe Amway sales in North America is shrinking because of this, but I cannot confirm it since Amway no longer reports North American sales seperate from their global sales.

But this continued emphasis on sponsoring and showing the plan is the very reason why most IBOs can never build a sustainable business. For example, the Walton family can take a trip to Mars and WalMart will continue to have their sales go through the roof because they offer good products and rock bottom prices. Customers see value in WalMart goods and will shop there loyally for decades to come. Amway IBOs rely on IBOs joining and primarily self consuming products. This doesn't work because two thirds of IBOs quit in less than a year, possibly because there's not enough value in remaining, and the vast majority of the remaining IBOs quit within a year or a few years thereafter. Some diamonds may be able to keep replacing the quitters, at least enough to sustain some Amway income, but probably not enough to "walk away" from their businesses. For smaller volume IBOs, they simply cannot keep replacing what few downline they may have had, and eventually, they quit too.

For many, it's hard to quit if they were "serious" for a while because they have invested time and money and they are hopeful that their investment will eventually pay off. But at some point, it seems that desperation eventually sets in. Even diamonds who may be living bonus check to bonus check, probably cannot quit because they too, have invested much time and effort into their business. But recently, we have seen evidence of what I speak about. Diamonds quitting, diamonds resigning, and diamonds in financial difficulty. The writing is on the wall.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

How do you know so much about Amway?

Joecool said...

I was an IBO many years ago and I've been blogging and researching about Amway for many years.

Anonymous said...

The biggest problem for Amway right now in North America is the near impossibility of new recruitment. Nobody wants to get dragged to their stupid meetings, and nobody wants to sign up as a new IBO. You have to find a prospect who hasn't heard of Amway or MLM schemes, and that's pretty tough these days.

Without constant new recruitment, Amway withers and dies.

Anonymous said...

The root problem is that in NA, everyone can just google am*** and read all the stories of former IBO's being lied, abused and exploited by upline. Newbies can even search anything about the truth of mlm.

John Doe said...

Anonymous,

It is just North Americans that are researching this subject. I have recently started a blog, and I can see where the traffic is being generated. There is traffic coming across the world, and from places I couldn't have dreamed of reaching. It is amazing to see everyone across the globe looking for answers on this subject, because this has spread like the virus from Resident Evil.

Anonymous said...

The deepest levels of anger in Amway right now are in the Platinum and the ranks coming below that. The diamonds and other big pins aren't especially unhappy because they're raking in all that tool-and-system-and-function money.

But Platinums and those below Platinum are enraged because it's getting harder and harder to recruit in North America. For these guys, new IBOs are like blood to Dracula. They just gotta have them! This is why the insistence on IBOs bringing new prospects to meetings, and making up huge lists of possible contacts, has gotten much more intense over the last few years.

The big problem for Amway is the internet. They are infuriated by its unstoppable breadth, scope, and influence. Blogs like this one have hit Amway like a lead pipe in the face.

Joecool said...

It was the internet that made it impossible to hide the "truth about Amway".

When I was an IBO, upline insisted that nobody profited from the tools and functions. When that was un-hideable, then upline admitted they made profits but lied and said profits were minimal.

But anyone with a calculator can easily see how much profit can be had by running a functions or selling $7 cds that cost 50 cents to produce.

Anonymous said...

That is why your sponsor will say: "Don't google about this secret".

Anonymous said...

Look what happened to Scientology after the coming of the internet. All the horrible stories of abuse and viciousness and financial criminality couldn't be covered up any longer -- and the actual off-the-wall insanity that was being taught about aliens and Thetans and the other crackpot notions of H. Ron Hubbard became public knowledge as well. Scientology took a major hit from all of these revelations.

The same has happened with Amway. And that's why Amway hates the internet with a savage passion.