Have a listen to this, bearing in mind we are talking about cheap synthetic rubbish duking it out among themselves. Stick to the natural vitamins please!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
MLM USANA - is it really all that cheap or better quality?
I have written previously about the rip-offs of multi level markeing schemes (MLM). I am constantly being asked about one in particular, USANA.
Have a listen to this, bearing in mind we are talking about cheap synthetic rubbish duking it out among themselves. Stick to the natural vitamins please!
Have a listen to this, bearing in mind we are talking about cheap synthetic rubbish duking it out among themselves. Stick to the natural vitamins please!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
what? you mean i didnt need to take out a second mortgage? and they look like such nice trustworthy people too. just like real estate agents.
Gary,
It is truly a shame that you have failed to understand the efficacy of Usana’s range of Nutritionals and the misinformation you’ve chosen to believe from your brief internet browsing. As a person perusing the internet I fell upon your site and the very first thing I thought of was, ‘this guys losing sales to Usana’ why an earth would he go to so much effort to upload some information on MLM on a health site’. You seem to focus on the MLM model quite a bit and in fact seemed to be quite irate about it over discussing the products, thougt it was a health site, you simply mentioned synthetic rubbish and something about sticking to natural vitamins. Hmmm, great advice, again, not clued at all.
It’s clear that you recommend Kordels and Nutra-Life products, as one would guess they simply have offered the appropriate sponsorship deal for you but given your level of education I would have thought you could see the difference between a USP / BP manufactured product and a product made to the same standards as chocolate chip cookies. I do not see Australian and NZ manufacturers pumping purified air in to their facility, nor see them quarantine their ingredients for 6 months for a host of ingredient testing, nor when I was consulting myself could I find a NZ nutritional supplier prepared to guarantee their product in writing for an elite athlete at a professional level as most of the standards here in the Australasian markets are required to the TGA only and of course most suppliers of nutritional supplements would only voluntarily adhere to a food standards.
I can’t say I’ll spend too much time here but I feel it’s warranted to invest a small amount of time to educate the uneducated as it’s what you do in your industry isn’t it??
First off Usana isn’t based on levels, so no we’re not traditional MLM. Usana is based on product volume. Your statistic; 86% of people never make enough money to cover their monthly minimum expenses – well aside from the rather lucrative tax entitlements a Usana associate can receive from a home based business, averaging ($2 -5000 per year) this is based on what accountants are suggesting the average PAYE salary earner could get, most people are not in Usana to make money, if you would like this statistic I will be more than pleased to locate it for you but it’ll be closer to the aforementioned statistic on your site.
But lets say it isn’t, just for kicks.
Check out the world today Gary. If you are into statistics you’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule, 80% of the worlds wealth is own by 20% of the people because 20% of the people are prepared to do whatever it takes. If you looked at the statistics of how many people succeed compared to how many “fail,” you could draw the conclusion that most fail. Factually, the statement is true.
But why people act as though this is different than anything else is unknown to me, because the same could be said about anything people attempt!
According to the National Association of Real Estate, over 80% of people who get their real estate license quit in their first year - most never sell one home. But the real estate institute won’t give you the average earnings of their realtors, nor will insurance companies on their brokers. Usana is at least honest with their high % of people joining the company for their superior products only over making money – that is clearly stated on their documents.
Most people who want to sing at the Opera fail.
Most people who want to play professional sports fail.
Most people who start a business fail.
Most people who want to play a musical instrument quit.
Most people who want to get into shape quit – and who want to lose weight fail.
So while it is true that most people fail at Network Marketing it is also true that a majority of people fail at every other pursuit!
Gary, in your industry if someone goes on a diet and exercise program and then cheats by eating things that are not on their diet program and/or by not exercising when they’re supposed to, can they really blame their “failure” on the diet and fitness industry? No. You would hope not…or you’d be out of work.
If a person fails, it’s because they failed, not the industry!
So if 90% of people fail to maintain weight loss through dieting, isn’t fair to say that Gary Moller is equally as evil? As you are suggesting MLM is because Gary Moller is in the weight loss industry, Gary Moller knows that statistic yet still practices health and wellness. Is Gary Moller a parasite that sucks US$.80 a minute talking with New Zealand based clients to discuss nutritional advice when the statistic clearly shows that 95% of people fail?
95% of businesses fails within the first 5 years, does this mean that all businesses are bad? No, it’s a real business statistic, but banks despite the failure rate are still lending. If you look at the typical job, the employee is never going to make more money than the owner of the company. If you draw out on paper the structure of a typical business, say Hells Pizza, you have the 5 delivery drivers down the bottom, couple of shift managers, and then the owner. Logically thinking about it, the delivery driver will never make more money than the manager, who will never make more money than the owner…and that’s the way it should be. The CEO put out the risk, they should be rewarded. So we’ve established the ‘pyramid’ shape is either something in Egypt or the basic corporate structure of a business right?
Does Usana have a top of the ‘pyramid’ as you suggested - sure they do, Jeff Smith who was the very first distributor in Usana 15 yrs ago, well my brother who started just 5 yrs ago went from being a Lawyer to a Usana distributor is earning more than Jeff, the first Usana distributor who is still in Usana, in fact there were 100,000 distributors globally when my brother got started and now he’s the top 25 income earners globally….wahlaaa, back to the 80/20 rule. Those in Usana who have the most customers earn the most money, simple. Those who iron the most shirts at Green Acres Iron Franchise, earn the most money – simple concept when you think about it. So 72% of the money goes to 2.6% of the people…bummer most aren’t deciding to pull finger really.
So your argument is mute if you also consider me being a ‘parasite’ that sucks the life from people below me dry because I’ve created time and financial freedom in less time you could get someone to lose weight and keep it off, in fact I still have my friends who go fishing with me midweek because they don’t need to hold down a job either, my wife loves me being at home full time with the kids, so relationships a whole lot better, can’t say it’s damaged my self esteem considering the international speaking I do as a result of my teachings and personal development I’m getting from top business coaches as part of Usana – all of this in 4 yrs. Did I run this like a business, yes, did I fail anyone, no, did people give up and put it in the too hard basket? Yes, they same as most lawyers never make partners! They put it in the too hard basket and settle for mediocrity. Has everyone been successful in Usana in my business, no they generally decide if they don’t make money in the first month, they’ll chuck in the towel….the same reply goes to your weight loss clients…stick at it, be consistent and the rewards will be far greater than you’ll ever expect.
As for listening to a convicted felon, Barry Minkow and placing it on your website proves to me how little you really do know about this industry. If you would care to educate yourself on the industry feel free to go to www.firstclassmlm.com and have a read. Tim Sales is not recommending a company – just educating people. If you would like to learn more from me and Usana, feel free to call or email or go to www.dsanz.co.nz this is the watchdog of the industry – about 150 legitimate companies (Usana is one) are involved in direct selling and whoever are members need to follow their rules and regulations as strictly as the Better Business Bureau practices. There are a lot of dodgy MLM companies and people at the top make the most money and most don’t make it as a partner to the DSA. Worth educating yourself because you can’t look at this entire 72 yr business model and claim as a health coach you know everything about MLM – if you had a food poisoning, you wouldn’t stop eating, not all food establishments are bad.
Trust me, my business is going fantastic without you, I have no desire to want you as part of my organisation so feel free to call me if you like.
Cheerio
Dale
Thanks for the comments Dale. My problem is with the evangelical pyramid model of MLM which is exploitive of well-meaning people who are trying to get ahead. The products are over-priced. Sure some people do well; but at the cost of wrecking the lives and relationships of many more others.
I prefer to deal with reputable NZ companies that sell quality products direct to the retailer without all these agents taking their cut along the way.
Gary, you being a health professional, I would assume its quality of product that is most important to you and your clients?
If you look further at the Usana products you'll be very impressed.
You mentioned that you "prefer to deal with reputable NZ companies that sell quality products direct to the retailer without all these agents taking their cut along the way."
This comment begs the question - What is the cost to produce a product from one of those companies vs what people pay for it?
Standard retailing involves a product going through many hands, adding the shelf space, advertising and retail margins, all standard business activities which typically make up 75% of the price a customer pays.
Getting a product direct from Usana "all those agents taking their cut" makes up only 39%.
Based on those figures, $100 spent on a store bought product would give you $25 worth, versus $62 from Usana.
It's not rocket science! Just like cell phones have advanced over the last 15 years so has direct marketing, and so have health products.
Chris
This is not the reality in terms of price comparison. These MLM products are overpriced for goods that mostly cost just cents to manufacture. When comparing vitamins with vitamins, I think we should expect the synthetic version need to be sold dirt cheap because they probably do not work all that well anyway as compared with those from natural sources like herbs.
Pyramid scheme products are deliberately overpriced to lure people into becoming an onseller to receive the discounted goods. Even then very few people make a viable business out of these questionable schemes. Most lose their money.
Perhaps you would like to list several common USANA products such as various vitamins along with their pricing and I will do a comparison?
Post a Comment