When I was an IBO, our group used a 6-4-2 Amway recruitment plan. I believe many groups continue to use a 6-4-2 plan or a 9-4-2 plan, except for those teams perhaps who emphasized stacking where you basically work 2-3 legs and keep driving depth, of course having your business down 2-3 legs makes you less profitable, but it does create some stability for your upline (They have your best interest at heart?). But the point of this message is how many IBOs must you sponsor to accomplish this plan? I know the Amway recruiters will say all you need is six (6).
"All you need is six". I heard the saying "some will, some won't, somewhere, six will". But what exactly does that mean? MOST IBOs will not sponsor another IBO. Apparently Amway, formerly Quixtar released a figure that stated 1 in 5 IBOs sponsor another IBO. Amway apologists have said many times that most IBOs "do nothing". Thus, if only 1 in five IBO can manage to sponsor others and most "do nothing", one can easily conclude that you cannot sponsor only 6 other IBOs. If most do nothing and only 1 in 5 sponsor another IBO, you may need to sponsor 10 or more IBOs just to find a single downline who can sponsor a downline.Thus, if you go by Amway's numbers alone, the more realistic version of the plan would be 30-20-10, based on the 1 in 5 numbers. Does this still sound attractive? Can you find 30 people to see the plan, let alone find 30 people to register? Do you get positive reactions when you mention "Amway" or do you get funny looks? Are you upfront with prospects or do you leave out "Amway" when prospecting?
You could be lucky, and sponsor say 20 people and go platinum or higher, but conversely, you may have to sponsor 88 people to find 6 downline capable of sponsoring others. If you have not sponsored a single person or have trouble adding new people each month, you should ask yourself an honest question. Is this business really working for me? To me this is pretty clear. You will not go diamond sponsoring only 6 downline, unless your downline never quits, or sponsors people before they quit. And even that doesn't guarantee anything.
Realistically, you will need to sponsor 20-30 people personal width, consistently adding new IBOs, or your group will suffer from attrition and backslide. Where are you at?
Even if we make it easier, even if "all you need is 2", and even if every joiner signs up that number until there are no more people left on Earth, even that guarantees that the majority will fail. That is because the world population is finite.
ReplyDeleteThe mathematical guaranteed best success rate under "all you need is 2" is half of all members minus one, about 50%. The majority of members will not have even one downline.
If all you need is 6, it gets much worse.
I am not a legal expert, whatever the legalities around Amway being a pyramid or not I cannot say. But my work does involve copious amount of mathematics, and I can say with certainty that a plan that involves signing up others for any member to get what he himself signed up for, is bound by the same mathematical constraints as pyramid schemes.
If all you need is 6, then 6-4-2 already means the 6 you sign up will themselves fail the, since they only do 4.
But what is really sad, is that what the maths tell us, is that the majority will not only fail to achieve 6-4-2, but that the majority will fail to sign up a SINGLE downline! One can draw any number of branching nodes on a piece of paper, and count the end points and the branching nodes. The end points will always outnumber all the nodes on top of them, put together. Sure they can sign up others, but it only pushes the problem out until it ends somewhere (which it will).
That will still hold try if a group consists of the nicest most helpful people on Earth, if each member somehow manages to work 18 hours a day, if all are super motivated, follow all the materials, and have great attitude. The maths guarantee that the majority in such a group will not have a single downline. And that is not talking about the vast numbers of the remaining members, who only have one or two downline members.
The typical defense is that corporations also look like that. While it is indeed true that most employees cannot be someone's boss, the difference is in a corporation you don't necessarily need to be someone's to get what you signed up for. In my last job, I got more than I signed up for without having people under me. It suited me fine, I didn't want to approve leave, and hear excuses for people coming late. I got what I signed up for and then some, as through my stay I got increases and bonusses, and attended overseas conferences in our field which I really enjoyed.
In Amway, as the impossibility of making a business from actual sales only in recent analysis on this forum has clearly shown, if you sign up to make it a business, if you sign up to earn money, you need to be someone's upline to get what you signed up for. Maths guarantee that for the vast majority, such attempts will be in vain.
kawaaikat, great insight as usual.
ReplyDeleteAs I said on another post, even if someone achieves that 6-4-2 plan and goes platinum or diamond, it will only mean that they have a bunch of downline who won't achieve anything.
As you say, even if everyone in the world signs up, you still have one platinum or diamond with large groups of downline that achieve nothing and lose money.