After years of studying Amway and blogging, I've noticed some things taught by IBO leaders that simply do not make any sense. It doesn't make sense business wise and it just doesn't add up. I know that sometimes, you need to think outside of the box and go against the grain to succeed, but some of the IBO practices are simply insane and it's no wonder that so many IBOs fail in their pursuit of their Amway "dream". These same leaders may encourage you to disregard facts and just follow them. Blind loyalty like that can end up costing you a lot of money.
Most IBOs never sponsor a a single downline and relatively few products are sold to non IBOs. These are the reasons why most IBOs do not turn a profit but for some reason, many IBOs still seem to think that training materials are worth the money. The training might motivate you with the "rah rah" tactics, but in the big picture, are ineffective in generating more sales and getting IBOs to sponsor more people. If Amway tool and training worked, Amway sales would far greater than the approximate 8.3 billion they did last year, which is down more than 25% since 2013.
Also, "buy from yourself:, a fairly common practice, is a bad idea. It is okay to support your business, but if you are the primary or only customer, you won't make money. Any profit you might turn is coming out of your own pockets. I don't know of any successful stores where the primary customers are the owner and the store employees. Yet some IBOs think this is how they will succeed. Also, for this reason, IBOs are always recruiting because they need downline to try to generate more sales volume. But because sponsoring people into Amway is nearly impossible, most people wind up recruiting but never sponsoring a single downline.
Sponsor others. So you are struggling as an IBO. But the key to success is to try to open other stores by sponsoring downline. As a famous Amway apologist likes to claim, you do not get paid (directly) for sponsoring others. So why is this the emphasis for so many IBOs? Why would you think that opening more (Amway) stores will make you successful when you are running a failing Amway store yourself?? Yes, it is a way to possibly generate more volume, but your "success" will only come by having a bunch of struggling businesses sponsored by you. Is that how you wish to succeed? Also, the quest to sponsor others is probably how Amway got a bad reputation when IBOs tricked people into attending recruitment meetings and/or being deceptive when inviting someone to see the plan.
Folks, a business needs customers to succeed. I live in Hawaii and when tourism is slow, our local economy suffers. It's a very similar concept to your Amway business. Without customers circulating money through your business, you will eventually go out of business unless your job income continues to fund your Amway business. But I'm assuming you don't work a job just to keep your Amway distributorship going. Bottom line, if your Amway business can't support itself through sales, why are you still running it?
The idea of "buying from yourself" is like eating your own flesh instead of having a meal. It's totally insane and meaningless.
ReplyDeletePeople don't make it in Amway because they refuse to face the fact that running a successful business means HAVING ACTUAL CUSTOMERS who want what you're offering and selling. Without real customers paying you real money, you don't have a business.
Why is it so hard to recruit down-line? Simple: You are basically asking people to do the same thing that you're doing, i.e. recruit. You're not emphasizing the need to sell Amway products (in fact, some of the Amway subsystems tell you that you don't have to sell anything to outsiders, but merely "self-consume" the Amway products).
But if you're just buying stuff and consuming it yourself, how the bloody hell is that a "business"? If I buy milk every week at the grocery, does that mean I'm in the milk business? If I buy meat regularly for my family, does that mean I'm running a meat market?
Amway basically tells people to ignore facts and reality, and pretend that they are something different than what they obviously are. You don't have any customers, but you're still "an Independent Business Owner." You self-consume your Amway products, but that means that "your business is growing." You're losing money every month, but "success is just around the corner." What utter and complete bullshit!
Your comments are spot on. When you "buy from yourself" you are a customer. Name one person who got rich being a great customer.
ReplyDelete*crickets*