Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Amway IBOs Fail By Design

When I was being prospected into Amway, I saw the 6-4-2 plan. I am fairly certain that most groups still present the Amway opportunity using the 6-4-2, although I am aware that some groups use different variations of this. The plan sounds so simple. Just sponsor 6. The next layer does less than you and sponsors 4, and the next layer does even less and sponsors 2. First of all, most IBOs don't sponsor a single person to begin with. Many IBOs are unable to even show the plan to another person. So if you cannot achieve even the first step, how can you possibly make the plan come to fruition? The answer is you can't and most people never get past the first step. How do you build an empire that way?

Only a fraction of 1% of IBOs ever reach platinum. Out of those who do reach the milestone, few are able to maintain the business and even fewer ever go on and achieve higher levels such as emerald or diamond. WIth the attrition rate of IBOs so high, even recruiting new IBOs basically keeps you even. The effort required to maintain the business can become a full time job or more for some people. My former sponsor was out showing the plan for himself or for downline every night of the week, save for the functions and other meetings. Amway he said, needs to become your life if you want to succeed, and that's probably true even for diamonds. There is no "freedom" that these diamonds speak of. You switch one full time occupation for another, although you could argue that a diamond's work is still easier than a 9-5 job.

You have so many factors working against you that it takes an exceptional (and possibly lucky) individual to be able to overcome the challenges to reach a recognized pin level such as diamond. The spotty name reputation of Amway, the higher (on average) prices of their products, the high attrition rate and the fact that any higher level requires a large downline. These factors make it nearly impossible for anyone to go diamond and reach what appears to be the pinnacle of Amway success. Sure, some IBOs may not have such lofty goals, but the "plan" is designed to achieve diamond. I have not ever seen or heard of a plan for an IBO to achieve 600 PV.

In many instances, whether it's a business, or a sports team, or some other activity, you will notice that the winners or the successes often have a great system. Many fast food businesses for example, have a processing system. A great football team might have a great offensive or defensive system. A large business may also have a proven system. This is where the problem lies in Amway. The system is ineffective. The system as shown to many prospects, needs many "lower level" IBOs working in order for someone to achieve the levels such as platinum. Thus most people fail because the "plan" is designed that way.

As you cannot control the actions and beliefs of others, you cannot make people join your business. You cannot make them see the plan. Thus in the past, many IBOs resorted to deception and lies to get people in front of the plan. In college, I was invited to a "beer bust", only to walk into an Amway meeting. The person who invited me said we would do the beer bust after the meeting. Thus my first impression of Amway was a bad one. As one can reasonably conclude, Amway IBOs for the most part, end up failing. But they don;t fail for lack of effort. They fail by design. That's how the 6-4-2 plan is set up (or whatever version your group uses). It is in my opinion, failure by design.

3 comments:

kwaaikat said...

With the odds, you said it takes an "exceptional (and possibly lucky) individual". Since this mathematically comes at the expense of most of your downline chasing false dreams, I think we should add "compromised ethics" to luck and exceptional ability.

If you are such a disciplined person with exceptional sales ability, you can probably do very well anyway, in a normal commissioned sales job, or business, with self respect intact.



Joecool said...

Thanks for the comments. I believe that people who excel at Amway are likely to be good at other more ethical ways of making a living. But my take is that when someone goes diamond and realizes the scam, it's practically too late to quit. They've invested too much time and effort so they end up paying it out, even if it hurts others.

ELMEC said...

OpiniƵes vs factos.