Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Just Give Me A Straight Answer?

One of the humorous things about Amway IBOs is their ability to say a whole lot without having any substance. They'll talk about how great the business is and how much they have learned and then when you ask if they made any money, you either get dead silence or you get some answer about how they's seen a copy of a check from someone's upline diamond or something like that. But it's very rare that an IBO will be upfront about their earnings. Of course I can understand that someone brand new might not have made a whole lot, but I have seen some IBOs outright lie and say they've been in Amway a month and they're making $5000 a month or some other tall tale like like.

Even when discussing some Amway released information such as the average earnings of an IBO, you can hear all kinds of excuses provided by Amwayers. They will make excuses like most IBOs do nothing. As if that isn't a problem in itself. Or they make stupid analogies about people signing up for a gym membership and then not doing anything. As if owning a business and exercising are the same thing. I even hear questionable claims about how so many people sign up as IBOs to get lower prices. I chuckle when I hear that because Amway's prices in general, are not competitive with big retailers. I believe that is because Amway must add the cost of IBO bonuses in the cost of their goods and services. While an IBO might save from the full retail price of Amway products, you can (in most cases) find the same or a similar product cheaper online or at Walmart.

Another area where IBOs like to divert the discussion is when the discussion is about the success rate of IBOs in general. Based on Amway's own numbers, less than one half of one percent of IBOs reach the level of platinum. Platinum is the level where allegedly, an IBO either breaks even or starts to make some net profit. It would depend on whether the IBO is involved in the tools and to whet level of participation. But IBOs like to downplay this fact as if people simply did not work hard enough or did not learn enough, rather than simply acknowledging that the system itself might be flawed. 

The last area I see issues is when talking about selling products. I suspect that product sales to no IBOs is relatively small. I believe there may be some exceptional people who can sell, but people in general, do not like to or do not possess the skills to sell products. Yet I see IBOs making all kinds of stories about "selling" to customers. I rarely get a straight answer about product sales as well. The fact that many Amway IBOs can't give a straight answer is quite telling.

1 comment:

  1. A real problem is that Amway (and every MLM system) is an inefficient and overly-complicated way of selling products. It involves orders and deliveries and pick-ups and a shitload of complexities.

    If people want toilet paper, all they have to do is go to the corner store and buy some, cheaply and easily. The same is true for toothpaste and bottled water and vitamin pills and energy bars, and whatever else Amway produces. Why the devil would you join an MLM (where you have to pay membership fees and a lot of other charges) just to be able to go through the process of ordering stuff and waiting for it to arrive? And then PAY MORE for it than you'd pay in a brick-and-mortar store!

    All Amway can argue here is that its products are of "higher quality," which is total bullshit. Amway's products are generic, nothing more. That's why Amway is afraid of opening brick-and-mortar stores, where the non-competitive nature of their stuff would be very clear. Who the hell buys Amway stuff, other than IBOs who are required to meet a PV level every month?

    The plain fact is this: Amway doesn't really have a product line. It just has a racket that is disguised by a non-retailable product line of generic crap.

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