Would you be interested in a business that cost $595.00 to join and promises that you can make millions as a IBO, Independent Business Owner?
Most people would jump at the chance to join such a business.
Now how would you feel if this company that cost $595.00 to join and charges you to attend meetings to teach you how to make more money actually shows in their printed business material that the average business owner make around $1,400.00, gross, per year. Heck I can make more that that by picking up beer and soda cans and recycling them for cash.
I don't know about you but speaking for myself I would be very upset.
Maybe it's because I was raised to be honest when dealing with people that when I find that I have been lied to I get mad as a wet hen and I expect most of you feel the same way.
In case you are wondering just what the name of this company, that seems to be lying to you to get to join up, it's Quixtar.
Now that you know the name of the company lets take a look at how it works.
Quixtar was founded in 1999 and is now run by the same company that owns Amway.
In North America you can only join Quixtar through the referral of an already established member known as an IBO, Independent Business Owner.
The way that Quixtar operates is that every IBO has access to selling Quixtar products through the Quixtar website.
As an IBO you are encouraged to purchase as many Quixtar products as you can and at the same time recruit more IBOs.
The way this works is that your referrer gets a percentage or a commission from the products you purchase from Quixtar. Likewise you will get a commission from the purchases of all your IBOs, the people you get to join.
According to Quixtar your commission percentage depends on your IBO level within the company. So, in theory, the more people you recruit the higher your level gets and the more commission you get.
There are several problems with this business model that your Quixtar rep doesnt tell you about.
Quixtar wants you to rely on one-on-one communication and word of mouth advertising. Quixtar even has severe limits on your freedom to advertise your website online, a resource that they will not let you use properly.
In this day of e-mail, drive through any things, and internet ready cell phones, who has the time to listen to you talk, for hours, about vitamins, or whatever youre trying to sell?
You would think they would want you to use every means of advertising you can come up with in order to increase your sales. But for some reason they continue to tie your hands when it comes to trying to sell the products. Its almost as if they dont want you to sell the products.
You would think they would want you to use every means of advertising you can come up with in order to increase your sales. But for some reason they continue to tie your hands when it comes to trying to sell the products. Its almost as if they dont want you to sell the products.
Since Quixtar products are priced right around retail your income from Quixter is not going to support you and your family unless you can convince your down-line people into buying all their goods from Quixtar.
Now you have a situation where you're not allowed to properly advertise on the internet and a need for people to purchase Quixtar products daily.
Now you have a situation where you're not allowed to properly advertise on the internet and a need for people to purchase Quixtar products daily. Quixtar also likes to reassert its credibility by pointing out all the name brand companies that it's partnered with.
The thing is that large corporations don't care who is selling for them as long as they are moving product. Lets face it they are the ones making the money not you.
Another thing about Quixtar is the fact that you will be competing against every one of the other IBO that are trying to sell the same things you are for around the same price. Mainly because of the way they control and limit the way you can advertise the products you are trying to sell and the fact that commissions on the items you are selling are so small. I really don't think you are going to be able to make any real amount of money with Quixtar no matter what their sales pitch tries to tell you.
If you do try the Quixtar all I can do is wish you luck and shake my head as I walk away.
Most people would jump at the chance to join such a business.
Now how would you feel if this company that cost $595.00 to join and charges you to attend meetings to teach you how to make more money actually shows in their printed business material that the average business owner make around $1,400.00, gross, per year. Heck I can make more that that by picking up beer and soda cans and recycling them for cash.
I don't know about you but speaking for myself I would be very upset.
Maybe it's because I was raised to be honest when dealing with people that when I find that I have been lied to I get mad as a wet hen and I expect most of you feel the same way.
In case you are wondering just what the name of this company, that seems to be lying to you to get to join up, it's Quixtar.
Now that you know the name of the company lets take a look at how it works.
Quixtar was founded in 1999 and is now run by the same company that owns Amway.
In North America you can only join Quixtar through the referral of an already established member known as an IBO, Independent Business Owner.
The way that Quixtar operates is that every IBO has access to selling Quixtar products through the Quixtar website.
As an IBO you are encouraged to purchase as many Quixtar products as you can and at the same time recruit more IBOs.
The way this works is that your referrer gets a percentage or a commission from the products you purchase from Quixtar. Likewise you will get a commission from the purchases of all your IBOs, the people you get to join.
According to Quixtar your commission percentage depends on your IBO level within the company. So, in theory, the more people you recruit the higher your level gets and the more commission you get.
There are several problems with this business model that your Quixtar rep doesnt tell you about.
Quixtar wants you to rely on one-on-one communication and word of mouth advertising. Quixtar even has severe limits on your freedom to advertise your website online, a resource that they will not let you use properly.
In this day of e-mail, drive through any things, and internet ready cell phones, who has the time to listen to you talk, for hours, about vitamins, or whatever youre trying to sell?
You would think they would want you to use every means of advertising you can come up with in order to increase your sales. But for some reason they continue to tie your hands when it comes to trying to sell the products. Its almost as if they dont want you to sell the products.
You would think they would want you to use every means of advertising you can come up with in order to increase your sales. But for some reason they continue to tie your hands when it comes to trying to sell the products. Its almost as if they dont want you to sell the products.
Since Quixtar products are priced right around retail your income from Quixter is not going to support you and your family unless you can convince your down-line people into buying all their goods from Quixtar.
Now you have a situation where you're not allowed to properly advertise on the internet and a need for people to purchase Quixtar products daily.
Now you have a situation where you're not allowed to properly advertise on the internet and a need for people to purchase Quixtar products daily. Quixtar also likes to reassert its credibility by pointing out all the name brand companies that it's partnered with.
The thing is that large corporations don't care who is selling for them as long as they are moving product. Lets face it they are the ones making the money not you.
Another thing about Quixtar is the fact that you will be competing against every one of the other IBO that are trying to sell the same things you are for around the same price. Mainly because of the way they control and limit the way you can advertise the products you are trying to sell and the fact that commissions on the items you are selling are so small. I really don't think you are going to be able to make any real amount of money with Quixtar no matter what their sales pitch tries to tell you.
If you do try the Quixtar all I can do is wish you luck and shake my head as I walk away.
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2 comments:
Hi Daniel,
One of the most frustrating things with dealing with Quixtar issues on the internet are posts like yours - quite frankly, if what you said was a true reflection of the Quixtar business then I'd likely have the same opinion.
The problem is, it isn't. I don't know whether you were misled or lied to or misunderstood, or somewhere in between, but clearly something has gone wrong.
First of all, it doesn't cost $595.00 to join Quixtar (now known as Amway Global). As you can see on the registration form it costs $50. There's also an optional membership in the IBOAI for $9 and an optional product test pack for $78.75.
If someone was telling you it cost $595 then they were probably offering you other support materials as well. These support materials are not from Quixtar, they are offered by a number of third party companies. Quixtar rules explicitly state that anyone offering you such materials needs to let you know they are optional.
If they didn't, then I'd ask you to report the offender to Quixtar.
Next, Quixtar does not charge you to attend meetings. The recent National Spotlight Tour, which included a deal of training, was free of charge, as are the only Quixtar University courses.
Again, you were probably being offered seminars by some third party company. Just like you can get training from a number of companies to help you become an expert in Microsoft Technologies, and they charge you for this training, there are a number of companies that offer training and support to Quixtar business owners - and they charge you for this training.
Again though, it's not Quixtar you're talking about.
Next, that "average income". It's a figure mandated by the FTC, and it appears you failed to notice the fine print on how it's defined. You may indeed make more than the average IBO by picking up beer and soda cans ... but you also would have worked much harder than the average IBO! Many people become IBOs simply to buy the products. Many people join up (remember, it's cheap at only $50!) just to give it a go, but then decide to do nothing with it. Statistics show that less than 13% of IBOs ever sponsor anyone, only about 6% ever sell products, and only about 1% put in the suggested work necessary for 6+ months.
Not surprisingly therefore, most IBOs have very little "income" and that drags down the average. Also not surprisingly, this means teh income of the 1% is actually pretty decent. Quixtar reports the average "Platinum" makes $50,000/yr and the average "Diamond" over $150,000/yr. Not bad for a part-time business started for not much!
Next, you say "According to Quixtar your commission percentage depends on your IBO level within the company. So, in theory, the more people you recruit the higher your level gets and the more commission you get. "
This isn't the case. Your commission percentage depends not on the number of people you recruit, but on the volume you create. Some people do that entirely through retail sales. Others do it by building a team, recruiting others and sharing the profit. Most do it with a combination of the two. It's little concerning indeed that you made no mention of non-IBO customers and only recruiting others to become IBOs. In order to receive your commission, Quixtar requires that you also have a certain amount of non-IBO customers. It would appear whoever attempted to recruit you also neglected to mention this!
You go on to say - who has the time to listen to you talk, for hours, about vitamins, or whatever youre trying to sell??
I've no idea - who? Certainly not me. Who suggested this is what you do? It *is* however suggested you spend time explaining the various products features and benefits. This is the very advantage of the marketing model. These days mass marketing simply does not work well. Internet marketing per se is also incredibly inefficent. The WOM model is to have higher quality exclusive products that are marketed based on their features and benefits over competitors. There's two major advantages to this - (a) you can charge more, so there's more profit and (b) they can't get the products elsewhere, so you have a loyal customers.
Once the education is done and they get used to the products, then they can continue to buy stuff (and you profit) without much intervention on your part. I have people in my group ordering online every monthy that I haven't spoken to in nearly a decade!
This approach works. 60% of Amway's turnover is Nutrilite nutritional products and Artistry skincare and cosmetics. Nutrilite is the best selling nutritional brand in the world (over $3 billion in sales), by quite a distance, and Artistry is one of the World's top 5 best selling cosmetics brands.
The "restrictions" come about for a number of reasons, but the primary one is to prevent people making false claims, both about the products and the business opportunity. It still happens of course, but allowing anyone to say anything anywhere would very quickly lead to disaster, as it has for similar companies that have been more lax. Of course, one major reason is that if it was left open, where would be the business opportunity? Someone with more money than you or I (say Rupert Murdoch) could reasonably easily control the entire marketing spectrum and there'd be no business for us.
You go on to say - the products you are trying to sell and the fact that commissions on the items you are selling are so small.
I'm not quite sure where you get this idea from? The total commissions available are up to about 64%!! Not exactly "small".
Finally you say -
I really don't think you are going to be able to make any real amount of money with Quixtar no matter what their sales pitch tries to tell you.
You may think that, and your entitled to an opinion, but it would be that - an opinion - and it would also be one you held that was completely contrary to facts. many, many, many people make significant incomes from Amway - some as much as 8 figures a year. That's "real money" in anybodies book. Every year in the United States there are hundreds of new IBOs qualifying at the platinum level ($50k/yr average) and dozens at Diamond and higher ($150k/yr average).
It's real money. It's been around 50 years and is one of the largest private companies in the world and most successful in it's field. Literally tens of thousands of people around the world live full-time off their Amway/Quixtar businesses.
Like any business it takes a lot of hard work over quite a lot of time to succeed, but it's cheap to start, has low running costs, and anyone is welcome to give it a try. What's more, if they don't like the business or the products - no problem, they can get all their money back.
What can be better than that?
Hi Daniel,
What an excellent post. Your honesty and candor were very forthcoming in your message. IBOFB is an Amway apologist so he wants to spins the facts to make Amway look good.
It is true that $595 is not what Amway charges to get started, but Amway does nothing to stop certain groups from selling their opportunity that way so it's just as well they charge $595, in some instances.
The products are priced too high. It's like paying for a mercedes and driving off with a Hyundai.
You can't advertise so your ability to increase volume is limited to word of mouth which is very inefficient.
The compensation plan practically requires you to recruit others, or else you cannot generate enough volume to make more than a few bucks.
You are right, walking around picking up recyclables or spare change is likely to be more lucrative than Amway. Heck, panhandlers make more than the average IBO.
Great post!
http://joecool-quixtar-thedreamorthescheme.blogspot.com/
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