One of the things my upline leaders used to always talk about was how they wanted everyone to succeed. That they don't succeed unless you succeed. Looking back, I believe they were lying and simply wanted the faithful downline to keep spending money on tools whether they succeeded or not. Now I am not claiming that every single upline leader does this, but primarily the ones who run "systems", such as WWDB, N21, BWW, LTD and some others. Fact of the matter is that they succeed whether you wind up homeless or not. Once you buy products and/or tools and functions, they profit at your expenses.
When I stopped and really thought about it carefully, pretty much every piece of advice I received, I had to pay for. Voicemails, standing orders, functions, open meetings. I know these are supposedly optional, but in reality, they are a defacto requirement. Anyone with a "dream" is going to buy the tools because the leaders will tell you that you cannot succeed without tools. Ironically, the same leaders will blame individuals and cite personal responsibility for the failure of downline IBOs, even the ones who did everything they were told or advised to do.The leaders are edified and touted as having great business and financial acumen, thus not following their advice would seem foolish. Yet Amway defenders will try to claim that IBOs should discern the good and the bad and operate independently. It's a redundancy that many people do not see. Sure, a downline should not jump off a cliff because upline said they would pad their fall with a pile of cash, but many IBOs put in an earnest effort in Amway, only to fail because of the flaws in the business model of Amway and reputation issues that Amway has. These IBOs are told they were lazy or quit too soon, or did not try hard enough. Yet the very few who manage to break thru are edified along with the system while ignoring the multitudes who do not make it.
The bottom line for IBOs and prospects to know, is that I believe most IBO leaders do not know you or care about you and your success. They are more interested in selling you websites, voicemail, standing orders and functions. They know that people will come and go, and they are perfectly happy replacing quitters with new people, as long as the system tools keep flowing. I believe some of the US diamonds are now hurting as Amway is not growing rapidly in the US. I read recently of Amway downsizing some of their operations, seemingly confirming that US sales are down. Also, to note, Upline leaders would have to share tool profits with new emeralds and diamonds, which is why I believe they do not want new success.
I believe that Amway, other MLM businesses, or real estate gurus, or financial gurus with paid informercials all have very limited or rare success with their financial systems. Infomercials usually have a disclaimer that success is a "UNIQUE" experience. Amway is no different. But I believe in all of these cases, more money is generated in selling the system than by actually running the system. If not, success stories would be rampant, and people would line up to sign up instead of having to be deceived into even hearing the pitch.
A low-level IBO will NOT succeed in Amway if he has to pay fees constantly for meetings, tools, voicemail, functions, and a website. There is no way in hell that his retail sales of Amway products to the general public will ever come near the money that he pays out for those things.
ReplyDeleteWhat your up-line wants is this: that you stay in the business for as long as possible and send him all the monthly fees that are required; that you recruit more IBOs underneath you to do the same thing; that you go to every big function to keep his Platinum boss happy; and that you'll keep on hoping that someday Amway will make you rich.
That's it. He doesn't give shit about anything else.
If you fail and quit, all he thinks about is replacing you. If you never break even, he doesn't care. If you are financially ruined, it is of no concern to him.
Thanks Joecool, good for calling out this oft repeated line for what it is.
ReplyDeleteYes it is true that since sales commissions are passed upwards, of course upline will do better if their downlines succeed and sign up many others beneath them. But since this is mostly not the case, since most distributors will not have a single downline as a matter of mathematical certainty, the second prize by a long shot is to keep downline from quitting, so they themselves can at least keep on skimming the monthly commissions from their downline's self consumption purchases.
It is no surprise then, that most of the "training" in the tools system is not strategic business analysis or financial management, but inspirational content to keep failed business builders going in spite of lack of results, for as long as possible, sprinkled with some persuasion techniques to sell the dream to others. The guy who tried to trap me was full goal setting, dreaming big, mottos on perseverance, leadership and motivational hype, but for all his years in the business did not seem to know what the basic financial statements were. He did not learn much about business, I would say.
I'm digressing. Back to the point. Yes you can bet upline will be happy to share in the spoils if downline succeed (assuming for a moment that is a good thing), but they'd rather have 50, or 100 or 500 non-succeeding downline stay in the business with their lack of success, than having these distributors quitting. An upline does not feel any pain from a non-succeeding but loyal committed downline, in fact having a lot of these is much better than not having them.
They'll say "MLM is not for everyone" (implication, only with a "business mindset" like themselves), but at the same time they won't ever advise a non-succeeding downline who is going nowhere, to quit. They also won't turn away any willing prospect, saying it does not sound as if the prospect has the right mindset. I know because I tested the last recruiter. I showed interest, but objected in every way saying I liked my free time, I liked my job, I'm not the sales type, I don't really want to work my back end off for more money, and the guy kept on saying I should join.
For all their wanting downline success which I agree they won't say no to, they'll take any failure, even a guaranteed failure, and keep them in as long as possible (and to cap it all, shun that very person, the person they had begged to just give it a go, on the day he or she has had enough!!).