This is a review of Amway company, and the prospect of achieving success by being an Amway agent (distributor). I have not joined Amway, but have been targeted for recruitment at least five times by ’’friends’’ (now ex-friends) and even attended their meetings.
First about their recruitment method, which tells a lot of the thick skin you need to have in this business.
My first experience was when an accquaintance who never bothered to keep in touch with me, suddenly called me up and said he is involved in a great new business venture with a multi-million dollar company, and wether I wanted to work with him. During the the 15 minute phone chat he was vague about what this business was about and then he fixes a time to come and explain it to me. He comes along with another person, his ’’mentor’’ he says (which by now I know is his ’’upline’’, his driving force) and asks me questions which seem part of a well rehearsed routine. Like, what are my major goals in life, wether I want to make more money, wether I am happy with my 9-5 job and dont want to retire early? Then he plays a cassette he brought with him, and theres a guy talking eloquently about how bad it is to have a regular 9-5 job, to work under someone day after day and probably be paid less than what you are worth, when you can start your own business.
The guy then takes a paper and pen and draws circles and networks and talks an hour and towards the end tells me the outline of how to make an alternate financial career through network marketing, as a side business with no more than 10 hours a week. Basically I have to pay Rs 4400 to become an Amway agent and then buy all my consumer/household goods only from Amway and I will get a commission from them (they say that as Amway sells directly to you, without shops, it is at factory cost and cheap). Then you have to recruit many people (downline) to work under you and you get a cut of out of all their purchases. They are your meal tickets. If the volume of purchases of your downlines exceed a particular level, then extra commissions kick in for you.
Hearing all this, I suspect that the volume of purchases for my household is too small to generate significant kickbacks. To generate the same salary that I get from my professional job, on a reliable basis from Amway, I must have several dozens of ’’downlines’’ making significant family purchases month after month - without dropping out . This is rather like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
At this point seeing my hesistancy the guy’s mentor next asks me something which makes me sit up. He wants a list of all my friends and relatives and their phone numbers! I refuse politely and say that I cannot put my family bonds at risk. The main target of Amway agents recruitment drive seems to be family and friends who will join up out of courtesy. Apparently this is also what the Amway motivation tapes tell him to so.
My opinion about Amway business is: a) It suits those people who can aggressively recruit many others to join as downlines and see to it that they purchase regularly b) It suits generally those who are not very capable or confident to excel in their professional jobs c) It is not something you can simply do in your spare time and make money as the recruiters claim d) Amway products are generally good quality but not cheap as they claim and you need to change your lifestyle to suit the Amway way (like always buying only Amway products) f) you will end up hurting many relationships by pushing Amway on to close friends and relatives g) according to internet articles regarding Amway in the USA, vast majority of Amway agents end up either losing money or making near zero profit and eventually drop out. But not before they purchased lots of Amway consumer products and motivation cassettes and made Amway’s day.