Amway / Quixtar
Amway, also know as Quixtar in North America has been trading for a long time. It is often seen as the granddaddy of all network marketing Ops. We got involved with Amway at the beginning of 2004 and lasted less that a year. We were in the Winbiz21 groups with Diamonds Stephen Stranney, Pat Stranney, Bert Gulick and Stewart Melville.
Product wise they offer a range of own brand goods and some other brand name items. They also offer the ability to buy through "partner stores" and earn points towards your bonus calculation that way. So what Amway products would you expect to find?
Products for the home, such as the SA8 laundry range and the Loc cleaning products. Products for the body like the Satinique hair care, the Protique hair care and the Body Series, Artistry and Tolsom skin care ranges. For your health there’s a range of nutrition products mostly under the Nutrilite Brand with the lead product being the Double X multivitamin. Also for the health and the home, there are other products such as the eSpring water filtration systems and the cookware.
Commission should be a combination of the mark up you receive for retailing the product (i.e. what you sold if for minus what you paid for it), from cash given back as a bonus depending on which percentage bracket you get places in one downline volume, and finally there are one off bonuses for reaching levels of achievement and paid vacations.
Sounds okay so far, right? Well no, there’s a couple of problems we found. Firstly the cost of the products makes retailing the things prohibitive. The training offered from the company itself is virtually nonexistent relying on your "upline" (the people that introduced you to the business) to supply you with sufficient training. The training offered, we found, taught no retailing at all. Instead you’re encouraged to meet your sales quota with personal purchases (that’s 200 GBP / $400 here) and encourage others to do the same. Introduce enough people and you’ll be in a high enough percentage bracket to earn money - although this can be variable due to the way the compensation plan works.
The compensation plan is an unlimited width / unlimited depth structure. Which is all fine and dandy. You achieve a level on the percentage table according to the amount of points generated by you and all the people under you in this structure. This percentage then represents your "group" earning. The value of that group earnings is calculated from the points itself (i.e. value of those points x percentage). This number looks good, but then is reduced to pay your group, so you deduct a value equal to the earning of each of the people you directly introduce. The amount left over, your "bonus cheque/check" is what you earn.
This number is often smaller than you’d think! Plus your success can be reduced by your own success. Obviously, as the people you introduce in turn introduce more people their percentage size of the group increases. So you have to make sure you’ve got plenty of width in your organization to profit.
Simply put, if you were to introduce only one person, and that person then pushed your group volume up to the highest level you’d only actually earn a discount on your own shopping.
We found that growing an organization wide wasn’t taught, in fact the opposite was taught. Slogans such as "How do you spell WEALTH?" "It’s D-E-P-T-H!". Building depth helps only the people above.
Another root of our problems was these teachings themselves. They cost you money, and you’re encouraged to spend the money on attending the in-house seminars and functions and buy the tapes and books encouraged by your upline. NOWHERE in any of this teaching (called "The System") was anything about actually making money with Amway. If they ever did broach the subject it was always vague and they’d dance around the subject and you’d never learn a thing. We believe that the point of the system is to purely make you dependant on the system and stay with Amway to continually line the pockets of the people at the top. The Diamonds running the "show".
October 29th, 2005 at 1:04 am
have you ever thought of working to becoming a diamond?
I have personally seen people start at 0 PV and are now Emeralds. How does that work?
Are you saying that 3 million people world wide are idiots and are duped? Nobel Laureats, MDs, LLbs, CPAs…..high educated people are being duped?
please. do everyone a foavr and keep your uninformed opinion to yourself.
November 1st, 2005 at 7:43 pm
[…] Actually, yes. In fact we thought of nothing else whilst we were in Amway. (Hence the Amway article you are commenting on). Our sights were fully targetted on that exact goal. We were going to be leading a group of IBO, speaking on stage and sitting on “that” table with the other diamonds at the weekend functions. […]
January 26th, 2006 at 2:19 am
Keith, you gotta wake up and smell the coffee! The money is in the system!! not Amway! Read merchantsofdeception.com or formerdiamond.com
May 13th, 2006 at 3:53 am
[…] Bill Britt (Surely not Amway’s Bill Britt?) writes a Brand Health Check column and starts of “With an image stuck in the 70s and a reputation for E numbers, Findus is suffering more than other frozen brands.” […]
July 17th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
HI MATE
I hv read the comments with pleasure and admiration of the depth of your understanding about the SYSTEM.I have total faith in the materials i have been receiving for myown PERSONAL GROWTH and i still feel highly that even if there was no possibility of making money at AMWAY,I would love to continue reading the sort of materials i have received from The SYSTEM.tHE AUDIO material is very character building even for someone interested in pursuing other business or interests.I would suppose you aint doing any better whatever you are involved in ANYWAY-and i would dare you to SPELL out your ACHIEVEMENTS since you left or even before you joined AMWAY!Either way i wish you well in whatever you are doing!
December 2nd, 2006 at 11:54 pm
You need to grow up nothing you have said is compatable with the truth the products offer outstanding value and the training comes from the team becoues they have been before you .Anyone reading this can expect the odd set back that is fine people who are winners in anything will grit there teeth and move onwards and upwards not give up and then put some rubbish on the web about it .If you dont like anything Iv said do let me know I would love to hear from you.
January 27th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Tangoscar and Rob are so full of crap. You can almost smell the brainwashing.
March 16th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Buliding and Maintaining a downline is a difficult task and is a big part of any MLM or Network Marketing business. I uses the following techniques to effectively manage my downline:
1. Ask questions - guide your downline to the answer for their questions by asking the right questions
2. Find each individuals strengths - find the strengths in each member of your downline and help them build their business utilizing there strengths.
3. Lead, dont pressure - lleading is about ,successfully working the business so that your downline members will want to follow you on their own accord. Don’t add pressure.
4. Manage your time - view yourself as a businessperson, and keep each conversation on task.
5. Consistency is the key to success - create a list of simple business building tasks, and your members to keep a log of the tasks completed each day. Teach them that success depends on how many of these tasks they commit to completing on a consistent daily basis.
6. Maintain communication - send team updates or newsletters via email to your downline at least every two weeks. Recognize achievements as much as possible.
7. Know when to move on - you cant make anyone work. You can lead, but if one of your downline wont follow - it might be a better use of your time to find a more self-motivated person.
April 10th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I have read your comments about Amway and the SYSTEM and felt I really had to reply. My husband and I were involved in Amway a few years ago. We attended the Seminars and Dream Weekends. The teaching we learned not only helped us with our business but with our three young children. Being around our “upline” taught them respect and honesty and also that in this life you get nothing for nothing. Due to some personal family problems my husband and I quit the business a couple of years ago but we have recently re-registered as, in our opinion, there is no other business to compare. Yes, it can be hard, but life can be hard, WORK is hard, but the rewards in Amway far outway the effort. My husband and I qualified for a FREE holiday to FLORIDA, all expenses paid. Neither of us EVER got that in our JOB. AMWAY WORKS!!!!!! Just because some people are unsuccessful at something doesn`t mean it doesn`t work. It just means they didn`t work hard enough at it.