Monday, January 10, 2022

Why Amway IBOs Fail?

 Over the years, there must have been tens of millions of IBOs who had some experience with Amway. Obviously, not all of these folks got involved in a system or had the intention of trying to make millions of dollars. But looking at the business as a whole, the number of people who make a significant income from Amway is a tiny fraction of 1%. If a typical platinum has about 100 IBOs in a group, then you can conclude that platinum is in the top 1% of all IBOs. And we know that many IBOs quit and go through the business each year. The attrition rate can be staggering for bigger pins who need to keep working to replace those who quit.

But the question that seems to be ignored is why so many IBOs end up failing? Now for the sake of this discussion, let's exclude IBOs who do nothing and quit. Let's talk about IBOs who make an earnest effort. Often, the serious IBOs will be on the system consisting of voicemail, standing order, functions, books and other meetings. These all come at a cost, therefore, IBOs need to make several hundred dollars a month or more just to break even. I might add that a rank-and-file IBO who earns about $200 a month from Amway is way above average and the vast majority make far less than $200. Amway reports that the average income of active IBOs is about $200 a month but that includes the diamonds and other big pins. Therefore, the average business building IBO is operating at a loss.

Let's look at some of the reasons why IBOs cannot succeed. In general, Amway product pricing is higher than local big box retailers. Amway pays bonuses; therefore, the bonus payout is included in the price of the products. I suppose a platinum gets a good deal, being at the 25% level, but a platinum is in the top 1% of IBOs. The majority of the rest receive a paltry 3% which leaves them at a loss when business expenses are factored in.

Past IBO abuse and past IBO behavior makes it nearly impossible, at least in North America, to find potential downline IBOs and customers. Seems everyone knows of someone who was tricked into an Amway meeting or was deceived about Amway in some manner. I believe Amway has seen a decline in sales in North America, with foreign countries being responsible for any current growth in business.

Another factor is that IBOs are taught by uplines to engage in too many activities that do not produce income. Attending meetings, listening to cds/audios, reading books and other functions cost the IBO money. They do not result in more sales to customers. These non-income producing activities seem to be the majority of an IBO's activities, thus it's easy to see why so many IBOs fail. While system leaders claim that their system works, there is no reasonable evidence to support this claim. Just the fact that new diamonds and emeralds are so rare these days suggest that the system, with their severely limited success is producing less success these days.

All told, an IBO's chance of succeeding in earning long term sustainable income is so tiny that IBOs seriously would be better off buying lottery tickets instead of buying tools such as standing orders and function tickets. At least buying lottery tickets would not use up 10-15 hours per week of your time, and your chance of winning is about the same. The system doesn't work, it is why most IBOs fail.

2 comments:

Amused Mastery said...

Honestly, the business building methods used in Amway are horrifically outdated and ineffective, and it's why I left recently after 3 years of doing everything I was supposed to do.

For an industry called 'network marketing', there's very little, if any, marketing being taught or used. "Make a list of friends and family" is a trainwreck waiting to happen b/c 98% of people don't have a contact list full of individuals that want to dive into a new venture, let alone Amway. Oh and once that list runs out, that's where you learn how to stalk people in public places...I mean cold contact. It's no wonder why people drop out lol.

The tools are an issue too, 99% of the content is motivation and success stories. Nothing wrong with a little uplifting material, but there's no content geared around tactically building the business, it's mostly expensive hype. What kills me is that there's so much resistance to bucking the system at all. The people on stage are teaching you what they did to build the business back in the 1980s, ignoring the fact that it's a post-COVID internet age and you'll get left behind trying to use the same tactics.

Don't get me wrong, I do like network marketing as a business model, but Amway's one of the biggest offenders when it comes to giving people 'systems' that don't actually work. It's no wonder their growth has stagnated at 8 billion for the past decade or so.

Anonymous said...

Your up-line in Amway is not interested in talking to you about how to sell Amway products to non-Amway customers. That's because the products are purely a disguise for the actual business of Amway, which is recruitment of new members and keeping them enthused about paying their monthly fees, buying tools, and purchasing function tickets.

I'm amazed that Amway IBOs don't see this. They must really be stupid.