One of
the biggest arguments that people being prospected by an Amway IBO come up with
are that they are not salespeople and are not interested in being a
salesperson. The brainwashed IBO fights back with the response that Amway is
not about selling: register, set up a store, buy from your own store, convince
family and friends to shop at your Amway store, and sign up others to join
Amway and teach them to do what you do.
Yeah almost anything looks possible on paper but the reality of trying to get
it off the ground is another story.
Ambots argue that Amway is not a pyramid scheme because they have actual
products for sale. Overpriced, substandard products, but nevertheless an actual
product for sale.
Amway’s own sales figures show that less than 4% of their sales are to people
who are not registered IBO’s so the other 96% are IBO’s who are self consuming
their own products or inventory loading. When the IBO’s are not self consuming
their own products or inventory loading they are on a rabid quest to recruit
others to do the same thing.
Self consuming, inventory loading, recruiting new cult followers. Pyramid
scheme!
I argued with Ambot that I am not a salesperson therefore Amway is not a good
business choice for us. I don’t have a sales type personality like many people
who are not comfortable approaching a stranger and striking up a conversation
and hope to sell them a house, a car, or a pair of shoes. Our upline told us we
didn’t have to be good salespeople to make our riches in Amway. That was one of
many lies told to us. Amway “independent business owners” are really
commissioned salespeople and to some extent everyone has to sell either the
Amway business module or Amway products.
Or those who can’t do either self consume and inventory load Amway products so
they can get the PV and into a higher bonus bracket for paltry commission
checks from Amway.
Ambot had been brainwashed by his upline to believe he didn’t have to sell
Amway products to make it big in the business which is what he tried to convince
me. What!? What do all those fucking board plans say? You make your money in
Amway buying their products and recruiting other people who will also buy Amway
products. You have to be good at selling Amway products and good at selling the
business opportunity to convince someone else to pay $150 to sign up and spend
$300 month buying Amway products to consume. In other words be good at selling
hope and dreams. You have to also be good at motivating any downline you sign
up not to quit and to keep buying Amway products and investing in the tool
scam.
Seeing as how I’m not good at selling I was unable to sell Ambot on the
truth that he was really a commissioned salesperson in a futile business
venture. Nobody wants to buy Amway’s shitty overpriced products and no one
wants to join the Amway cult. That has nothing to do with his sales ability.
Its just that he’s chosen a lousy product to believe in and a lot of people in
the states are already aware of the Amway scam.
Amway’s shitty reputation for overpriced substandard products and cult
practices makes it really hard to sell others on this poor business
opportunity no matter how good a salesperson you are.
The problem with your husband Ambot was that, deep down, he really wasn't motivated by a need to make money from the Amway Plan. His actual motivation was TO BE IN AMWAY, and to be surrounded by other Amway persons whom he admired and respected and wanted to imitate. Money was a secondary consideration.
ReplyDeleteI think this psychological drive is one of the least understood things about how Amway works. People hanging in with Amway for fifteen years and still being insanely loyal to it despite losing money -- it makes no sense at all, except as a psychological compulsion. Some persons have to be a part of something bigger than themselves: a church, a temple, a club, a social gathering, a fraternity, a league, or anything else where they can feel wanted and supported. Money is not the issue. Belonging is.
Psychologists call this "ratification of self-worth." For many persons it is much more important than making money.
The higher-ups in Amway know this, which is why they are so very concerned that an IBO always be "fired up" with tools and meetings and functions and constant interaction with his sponsor and his Platinum. Only in this way can the psychological compulsion be maintained. And this is why up-line is fixated on breaking up a marriage where one spouse is skeptical about Amway, and also convincing the IBO to drop any friends and relatives who "don't support" him in his Amway business.
Anonymous - that's a good point. Are Ambots motivated to make money or are they motivated be inside Amway the Cult of Greed?
DeletePsychological compulsion? Addiction? And as you said the drive to be part of something even bigger than themselves. Things that have been studied by psychologists and people who stage interventions to get brainwashed cult followers away from the cult.