Jack Cheese said:
chimpanzee said:
Jack Cheese said:
Outlaw0206 said:
There is a pretty large team in the west Houston/ Katy area that knows the ins/ outs of how to be successful with driving business to Amway. No I am not on it. ha But I do know a few people involved and they do pretty well. Not my cup of tea personally, but the team they work with seems to be pretty successful.
If you weren't aware, there are a thousands of these "teams" across the world all trying to find the best way to get the most profit from driving business to Amway.
So all and all, my guess is that all these encounters are by people trying to grow their team.
Forgive me if I'm wrong but you seem to have some measure of respect for these teams.
What value do they provide? Who is the consumer and what is the product? These are very simple questions that should have straightforward answers if it is an honest business endeavor. But with amway and most other MLM schemes, the reps tie themselves into Gordian knots trying to give straight answers.
It's the hard sell face-to-face interpersonal pressure approach. They work because people are polite to them.
Amway
Tupperware/Mary Kay/SAHM side business "parties"
Time shares
Car dealer "finance guy"
etc.
I hear you and mostly agree, but I'm not willing to paint all of these direct marketing companies with the same brush. Pampered chef is one that my wife genuinely enjoys buying and thinks it is a good product. (No she doesn't sell pampered chef or any other product). But that's the exception.
Amway is the worst because the most precise they'll get is to point at common commoditized household products or vitamins as the "product" (if you can even pin them down to that level)... The whole model is corrupt and almost exclusively involves signing up other people. It's a horrendous shell game. No one who participates in this scam deserves respect. Especially not for being "good" at it.
The best explanation I have read for the business model is that it is a way for manufacturers to distribute their product without having to compete for shelf space. That makes a bit of sense for a premium product that is crowded out by low margin/high volume stuff, but the internet has pretty well cut that excuse out.
Amsoil (synthetic automotive engine oil) did the informal/decentralized distribution model to decent effect, AFAIK, they don't put a lot of incentive to sign up underlings, they just let anyone be a distributor for a nominal fee, so you get some hucksters on the internet associated with your product.
Funny you mention Pampered Chef. My wife has attended several of these parties and my impression is that it is completely reliant on the guilty feeling some women get when they don't go along with whatever the enthusiastic group leader does. There's is usually an enthusiastic supportive host and a separate seller, so if you don't buy, you feel like you are offending someone that opened their home to you and gave you a cucumber sandwich, not the person that is trying to get you to trade your money for a kitchen gadget that you don't need in an environment where you can't compare prices or quality. I've spent more time throwing Pampered Chef stuff in the garbage than my wife has cooking with it, at least your experience is more positive than mine.
