IBOs Talk A Good Game?

 Having blogged for a number of years now, I have observed that Amway IBOs talk a good game about retailing, sponsoring and doing Amway business activities. They will tell you to set yourself up with 20 customers, sponsor 6 frontline, show a number of plans and set up certain follow ups with contacts, and doing other activities supposedly to build an Amway business. I find if humorous when these same IBOs start throwing insults or diverting the discussion when someone asks if they are actually making money. Of course, it would be understandable if a new IBO would admit they had not made a fortune as of yet, but it seems that even that response is not forthcoming from IBOs.  

It seems that the Amway business is simple enough. Buy some products, sell products and try to sponsor some downline in order to leverage your volume with your downlines. IBOs mistakenly believe that you can build it once correctly and that the income will flow into future generations. What goes unnoticed is that IBOs come and go with such a high frequency, that a business generating residual income would be like a sandcastle on the beach. You might build it nice and big, but the waves of attrition would quickly turn that sandcastle into nothing. The same would be true of an Amway business. The IBOs dropping out would wipe out your business unless you are constantly replacing the people who quit. IBOs like to talk about Amway sales and how the company is growing in sales, but the Amway sales have no relationship with making IBOs more profitable. 

IBOs may also toss in comments about how they are nicer people or how they are improving their marriage because of the Amway business. I often wonder how that can be when functions and meetings take you away from your family and spouse. I suppose it could be because the uplines talk about people being nicer or tossing out lies about Amway and the AMOs saving marriages. I remember a WWDB diamond talking about how WWDB members had a 2% divorce rate while the rest of society has a 60% divorce rate. Ironically, that diamond's marriage ended in divorce. I believe this crap is still taught as a WWDB IBO who blogs, had mentioned this tidbit on his blog last year. I don't believe Amway IBOs or anyone else has a higher or lower rate of divorce than society, but it becomes an issue when uplines teach it and their downlines repeat it. 

So, it would seem that IBOs talk a good game. They know what to say and how to act, but they're like poker players who are bluffing. If you call them on it, they are likely to fold in their hands because they don't have the goods. It is why many Amway discussions turn into a insult contest, when the IBO suddenly gets confronted with facts that are contrary to upline teaching. It's usually quite funny but I wonder if these folks question their upline or go on their merry way repeating uplines lies? It becomes apparent to everyone but the IBO when they are repeating crazy stuff taught by their upline. Good luck to anyone who tries to build this business against nearly insurmountable odds.

Inconvenient Facts?

 So many people get duped into thinking that they will somehow get uber wealthy by becoming an Amway IBO. Many recruiters will tell stories about how they were once broke, but signed up, endured challenges and now they are diamonds enjoying untold wealth and luxuries.  They may even tell stories about how they ran out of Amway toilet paper and winded up using Amway tissues or paper towels to remain 100% loyal to Amway products.  People get caught up in "dreams" and are often encouraged to ignore the facts. People running businesses should pay close attention to the facts because it tells you much about your business and your likelihood of success. But what are some facts about the Amway business that many people don't know about? I have outlined a few important ones for those who harbor dreams of going diamond:

1. The average diamond, according to Amway (before annual bonuses), earns about $150,000 a year. Yes, some of this may be supplemented with money from the sale of tools and functions, but after taxes and business expenses such as travel to and from the many functions that a diamond attends would leave a diamond living an ordinary middle-class lifestyle (and possibly in debt), not one with mansions and sports cars as portrayed in many functions or meetings. Update: Now Amway lists the average earnings at nearly $600k, but that is for Q12 diamonds (qualify diamond for all 12 months in Amway fiscal year). Q12 diamonds are the exception and not the normal in Amway. Amway no longer mentions "regular" diamonds but I have no reason to believe that the average diamond in Amway increased or decreased significantly.  A Q12 diamond is the rare exception and not the rule.

2. Most IBOs are NEVER able to sponsor a single downline. Pretty hard to develop six (6) downline platinums when most people cannot sponsor anyone. And how do you grow and maintain a group when most of your group won't be able to sponsor anyone despite all of the training?   Which begs the question, why pay for training that doesn't work?

3. Most Amway products are purchased by IBOs and not necessarily sold to customers. Name a real business that sustains itself by having its own workers or sales force purchase most of the goods. MLM is probably the only business where this occurs. Understandably, it explains why 99%+ Amway IBOs lose money.

4. For most IBOs, the cost of functions, standing orders and other support materials represent the reason why most business building IBOs lose money and it also represents a significant profit for some of the diamonds who sell the materials. Because Amway doesn't say which diamonds are currently qualified, you easily could have "former" diamonds who are still speaking at functions who make more on tools and functions than from Amway.  Would you pay money to see a diamond who perhaps qualified once in the 1980's and never qualified again, to hear what they have to say about building an Amway business?

5. Not working hard is not necessarily the reason for someone's failure. But conversely, working hard does not equate success in Amway. I would guess that out of those who work hard, it is still a fraction of 1% of hard working IBOs that even attain a significant profit. Doing nothing won't get you anywhere, but in this business, working hard often gets you nowhere as well. It is my informed opinion that the cost of the support materials is the direct reason why so many IBOs lose money, even out of those who work very hard.

I could go on and on, but these are a handful of facts that IBOs and information seekers should be aware of. I welcome differing thoughts and opinions, unlike many pro Amway supporters.