I wanted to write this post because I once had a debate with an Amway IBO who was bragging about Amway partner stores. The tag line is that Amway certainly does their due diligence, as well as partner stores as partner stores would not want to associate with Amway if they were a scam, etc. After reading this post, you will see that "partner" stores would be insane not to partner with Amway. Before going into that, maybe someone can explain what due diligence was put into partnering with Worldcom (formerly MCI) and Enron, for selling energy products and services. Surely all those high-priced lawyers must have known about these epic failures (scams)?
Now, when an Amway IBO refers to a partner store, we are talking about a one-way road. What I mean is that Amway sells products for these partner stores, but the partner stores don't sell any Amway products and have nothing to do with Amway other than a business agreement (apparently) to allow Amway IBOs to act as commission only salespeople for these partner stores. Amway IBOs take on all the time and personal expenses of moving partner store products, often at noncompetitive prices, and get a small commission only if they meet a minimum quota (100 pv), which is roughly $300 USD.Imagine that a partner store basically has the entire Amway sales force potentially selling their products and the partner store can charge whatever they want. The Amway IBOs are often taught to buy from Amway and the catalogs, so the entire sales force often becomes loyal customers as well. And to make the deal even sweeter, the partner stores pay nothing unless the Amway IBO sells at least $300 worth of products, although partner store and Amway products can be commingled. In my way of thinking, it's a no brainer for partner stores to hook up with Amway. They have no risk and potentially a lot of addition sales. High upside and no downside.
And the cherry on the sundae for Amway and the partner stores is that Amway IBOs will also recruit and train other Amway and partner store commission only salespeople at their own time and expense. Amway and partner stores can't possibly lose!! I almost want to go an create Joecool's widgets and become an Amway partner store myself. If Amway people sell my $100 Joecool widgets that cost me $5 to make, I rake in huge profits and the most commission I would pay is about 25%. It's a great deal because Joecool has zero risk. I only pay if the product gets sold. and I don't pay if products don't move. I might even be able to sell Amway IBOs my catalog so they can sell my stuff. It's heads I win and tales they lose for me.
So, if you ever hear about and Amway IBO bragging about how Amway partner stores like Nike, Barnes and Noble or whatever big-name company might "partner" with Amway, you can laugh to yourself and to use Amway's own catch phrase: "Now you know".
3 comments:
Even if we forget for a minute that thousands of different business in the world sell Nike. Even if owners of brands like Nike supposedly raise the profile of Amway by letting Amway sell their products.
Even then, it is Amway who is "partnering" with Nike, not the IBO or distributor. If you're a distributor and what you have is an authentic business, Amway would be your supplier. Their fortunes are as irrelevant to you, as the fortunes of the Coca Cola company are to a soft drink stand that sells Coca Cola. The fact that they are so hung up on their supplier, is indicative of thinking of Amway as their employer. What else does "we are partnering with a bunch of blue chip organisations, like Nike" mean? Who are the "we"? It is not the bunch of IBO's who have got no agreement of any kind with Nike, it is the Amway Corporation!
The same goes for pointing to Amway having been in business for however long, and Amway's customer complaints resolution rating with organisations like the BBB.
A soft drink stand owner won't say "we" in reference to what Coca Cola is doing. The only reason an IBO would say "we" when it is really the Amway corporation, is because they think of themselves as working for Amway, in other words, to use their own words: employee mentality. The main difference between that and the "employee mentality" they are criticising, is that those they criticise do not claim that their employment is a business. That and those the criticise usually get paid a lot more.
The IBOs are trying to somehow use the credibility of partner stores to justify their position that Amway isn't some sort of product pyramid, in my opinion.
The "partner store" crap is just a blind and a distraction. It simply allows IBOs who are seeking a down-line to puff up Amway's lousy reputation by claiming that the company is "partnering" with big-name corporations. You're not a "partner" of Macy's if Macy's just pays you a few bucks to sweep up in front of their main entrance.
Big-name corporations don't give a shit about Amway. They just allow Amway to sell some of their stuff.
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