I will admit I haven't been accosted by any Amway representatives lately. I'm certain they still exist and I'm certain some of the recruiting tactics used back in the day are still used now. When I had my first brush with Amway, I was outright lied to about attending a "beer bust". I showed up at my friend's house ready for some beer and chips and I get stuck in a stinking Amway meeting. I remember sitting in the meeting still ticked off about it and to make it worse, the presenter also spoke about association and how we would be left behind if we don't join because our friend in Amway would have to associate with Away folks, who were destined to become rich. There was no beer to be had so our gang left and went out to a local pub for some beer. That was my first brush with Amway.
My second brush with Amway was a high school acquaintance who saw me working at my second job at the local market and asked if I was interested in making more money. I told him I was doing just that with a second job. I asked if he was pitching Amway, and he admitted he was. I asked him if actually made any money at it and he admitted he had not. I told him to come back and see me if he was still involved and making money a few months later. I have never seen him again to this day.I finally did get sucked into Amway when an old friend of mine joined and prospected me. So I ask him if he's made money, and he said no. I also told him to come back and show me later if he makes money. He came back 6 months later and said he was now a direct distributor and making about $1500 to $2000 a month. He said it was easy, and he could show me how to do it. Being a man of my word, I saw the plan and I signed up. I was still a bit skeptical, but I got in and the rest is history. (My story is on this blog)
But what I saw were dishonest Amway tactics. We were told to give half-truths (lies) to prospects. We were told to fake it will we make it (lies) and the upline used all kinds of angles to make Amway seem better than it was. Older but unsuccessful IBOs were told that Amway was more than about money. That we were making lifelong friends and becoming nicer and better people. That were were a small army making the world a better place. (How is the world better when you deceive people to make your upline rich?). We were told that Amway saves and strengthens marriage (even though our upline Diamond got divorced (Wolgamott).
Despite all the tactics and tricks used by our Amway upline, there was little to no success to speak of. Even our former upline Diamond (Harimoto) moved to the mainland (Hawaii is too expensive? Not enough people to recruit?) and it was hard to believe, seeing that he loved the ocean and ocean activities.
Amway sales and revenues have dipped about 25% since 2014 and I can only imagine it will get worse as the antics and tactics used by upline are easily recognizable and ineffective at this point. The internet also made access to information so readily available that prospects can easily find pertinent information and have enough disclosure to make an informed decision about Amway. And that's why Joecool's blog still exists to this day.
It is funny that on the other part of the world (I've heard the other day that Botswana, our neighbouring country, is antipodial to Hawaii, so we're almost right on opposite sides of the Earth) things are so cunningly similar. Having lived in the UK, I know it's not very different there either.
ReplyDeleteIt seems wherever Amway has been active, the name is a liability. It is either not mentioned , played down, if not outright portrayed as if the presentation they want you to pretend is something completely different. You mentioned Quixtar the other day, this has been abandoned, but people still have tricks to play it down. The LoS that operates in here is Network 21, and people are also try to brand it as not Amway, but some sort of exclusive organization of professionals, that merely operates "in partnership" with Amway, i.e. not the Amway we've heard the bad things about (though in actual fact it is exactly the same). And yes, in the end, the tactics of N21 that I've observed and learned about, or WWDB or whichever organisation described, are very similar.
If I compare that to two examples of real business, a friend of mine owns a tyre fitting business, that is affiliated with a brand. When you see him, he wears the cap, the t-shirt, the key holder. The brand is an asset in marketing. Customers don't come to him in spite of the brand, but because of it. I myself worked for a company that had the distribution rights to a software product. Even though that business was not the software product company itself, it boasted this association in every possible way. Even the company colours were designed to match. In both these cases, the brands that they had the rights to market, were huge assets. Imagine Amway distributors wearing Amway branded merchandise when they approach people, opening with whether you'd want to learn more about being a distributor for Amway. Absurd as it sounds, if Amway had a good name and worked for many people, that would not have been a problem!
In Amway the brand is not only not an asset, it is an embarrassment to people who build their business in association with that. In businesses generally, if a new brand starts to become active in a region, it sometimes take a while to build awareness, so the longer a brand is marketed, the more the brand helps. With Amway it seems to be the exact opposite, the longer Amway has been in a place, the more people know it, the more mentioning it scares people away.
My brother was called by someone he knew, after studying. The friend told my brother about this exciting business opportunity, and he thought my brother would be ideal for it, but he was a bit cryptic about what it was. So my brother said "Of course I'll come and listen. Just tell me what it is beforehand. I don't want to drive all the way there, and (jokingly) just to find out it is Amway.". My brother thought he had made a joke. But the voice on the other end fell silent, and then said, deflated, "oh, so you know about Amway".
Anybody reading this who is unsure. That is not normal. If you cannot be proud of the brand, that is one thing, and you should be worried. But if the brand is the very thing that puts people off, and you have to hide it, hoping to disclose the brand only when they have to sign and when the prospect will be surrounded by smooth talkers with all the answers, then it is time to run. The arguments of why Amway has a bad name (the bad apple argument, the lazy loosers spreading rumours argument) are hilarious.
If Amway did good, such arguments won't be needed, and mentioning the A-word would have helped getting people to a presentation. Imagine that.
Spot on comments and exceedingly true! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteWhen you're afraid to say the name of the company you represent, you are in big trouble. Amway has lost 25% of its profits over the last decade because of this hypocrisy and deception.
ReplyDeleteWe here in the anti-Amway blogosphere have done this. Our publishing of the truth about the Amway racket, and about the lying and fakery that are at the heart of the Amway scheme, have turned the Amway name into mud.
Let's crack open the champagne and celebrate.