Building an Amway business. That's what many IBOs set out to do, except they don't know how to build a business, and based on IBO behavior and the things they say and do, it makes me wonder what their upline actually knows about building a business. A typical business owner will get started, and needs people to know that their business is there.
When you open a store or a restaurant, you may not make a lot of money inittially because not enough customers know about your store and you have not yet built a reputation. New customers who have a good experience are likely to return for more, and they are also likely to tell others about your store. Over time, you create a customer base and your weekly sales become consistent and somewhat predictable. Conversely, if customers have a bad experience, they are likely to tell others as well.In the Amway business, many IBOs have no idea about building a business. They are shown great (apparent) wealth by upline, and then told that their business activity consists of showing the plan, listening to standing order and attending functions. Most of an IBO's activity, as prescribed by upline, costs money instead of generating sales. Some uplines do teach IBOs to sell items, but more often than not, it is not taught as a priority.
What's more, as I said, a new business will get repeat customers when a customer has a good experience. What do you suppose happens when IBOs lie or trick people into attending Amway meetings, or deceive people about their business, or make up wild stories about perfect water? What happens when you embellish the truth about success and then cannot provide an answer when a recruit asks and IBO how they are doing in the Amway business? What happens when an IBO tells a potential recruit that he or she is a loser or stupid for not joining Amway? Would you return to a store if they called you stupid as you were leaving? What if you were called a loser?
These are the reasons why IBOs in general cannot get enough customers to sustain a consistent and predictable amount of sales, and why over the years, Amway has at best a spotty reputation. Just the mention of the name Amway and you may get funny looks from people. It is why certain internet zealots promoting Amway do more harm than good.
1 comment:
This problem is one that Amway shares with all other cults. A real business does all it can to keep customers happy -- it caters to them, does not insult them, and works to satisfy their needs. That's how you build a dependable customer base.
A cult is different. It is concerned with ideological purity and has a very strong ""us against them" mentality. The way to make money in Amway is not by selling products to the general public, but by recruiting new people into the cult to be your down-line. In other words, the people you are trying to recruit are your potential customers. If you lie to them, and insult them, and treat them with contempt (as all cultists do when they are rejected), you are basically harming your customer base. This is why Amway's reputation is in the toilet.
This is also why at some Amway functions, the Goads sing the song "Some will. Some won't. So what?" That is a perfect encapsulation of the entirely wrong attitude to take towards your potential customers. It basically means "I don't give a shit if you join Amway or not. There are plenty of others who will join!"
That is a cult attitude. It is deeply resentful and negative. And you can see that attitude every time some Amway freak shows up here to complain about what people testify to concerning their bad experiences in Amway.
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