Thursday, November 19, 2009

Amway Associated Press Article


This was something I saw on the wire. I know a few people in Amway and have spoken to them over the past few days. It just appears that this "steamlining" is exactly that. Just reorganizing of certain areas of the company that had gotten too fat. Anyone have any other ideas, input?

Amway Axes 93 Employees
Posted on 18. Nov, 2009 by Dan Mitchell in Amway, Network Marketing News

ADA TOWNSHIP, MICH. — Direct-selling giant Amway says it's eliminating 93 positions in the United States and Canada over the next 15 months due to a consolidation of its financial operations.

Amway Corp. said in a release issued Monday most of the jobs are finance-related and will be trimmed at its global headquarters in Ada, Mich., just east of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Amway says it hopes to eliminate as many positions as possible through attrition and early retirement, and by moving employees to open positions elsewhere in the company.

Its European operations also are being streamlined but the company says it won't have details about that until next year.

Source: Associated Press

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

DIRECT SALES PAYOUTS


Interested in who pays the highest to Distributors? This was originally a breakdown created by an insider with Manatech. I have had many discussions via email about this information, so I am very interested to get some feedback after posting it here. We don't have many views now, but the email blast goes out tomorrow so I am expecting that to change. Keep the information coming!

What do the major direct sales companies actually pay out to their own distributors?

Amway
Amway pays out 30%.

Here is a link to a recent interview with Doug DeVos:
http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2009/02/qa_steve_van_andel_doug_devos.html

For a time Amway was publicly traded in Japan and thus figures could be reverse engineered. The payout percentage was the same. Amway Japan 1998 @ 30.0%

The great question for Amway is if it counts payouts to unoccupied positions in its tree as part of the payout to the field? This is relevant because the Amway Company allows breakage. A leading distributor can be removed or dismissed. But his position then usually reverts to the company. Thus the company receives this money as well. If this is counted as “pay out to the field” then the actual payout to working distributors may be substantially less than the 30% claimed. Even as it is, Amway has the lowest payout of any major MLM company.

Furthermore, it is widely believed that Amway aggressively seeks to limit by law the payout of other companies. In Korea, Amway alledgedly helped write a law that limits all MLM companies from paying out more than 35% of its sales income to its own distributors.

Herbalife
In 2008 Herbalife paid out 33.8%

Manatech
In Q2 ’09 Mannatech’s payout was 59%, the highest for any Direct Sales organization.

While its payout varies for each quarter the annual average is between 44 and 46%.

(Attached is the annual report, page 38 has the income statement. Quarterly report info is based on our websites that show quarterly filings)

Details on Mannatech payout.
2008 Annual payout @ 44.9%
Net Sales of 332,708,000
Distributor Commissions & Incentives of 149,595,000

Q2 2009 @ 59.7%
Net Sales of $77,644,000
Distributor Commissions & Incentives of $46,419,000

Q2 2008 @ 47.6%
Net Sales of $86,781,000
Distributor Commissions & Incentives of $41,368,000

Six Months ending June 30, 2009 @ 54%
Net Sales of $148,345,000
Distributor Commissions & Incentives of 80,145,000

Six Months ending June 30, 2008 @ 47%
Net Sales of $178,232,000
Distributor Commissions & Incentives of 83,860,000

MonaVie
MonaVie’s payout is reportedly between 32% and 36% of Sales. With the new sales of EMV payout % are probably closer to 32%.

Details for MonaVie: The company will not disclose any actual numbers. They do state that they payout 50% on commissionable volume but according to Newsweek that is only 1% of its sales force. If you take into account that they have split PV then the payout is significantly less than 50% of sales. Below is a payout for each product based on product sales:

22% payout on 1 case of EMV (Cost of $68 for 30 in volume: Payout is based on 50% of 30 volume (15/68 = 22%)

25% payout on 3 cases of EMV (Cost of $198 for 100 volume: Payout is based on 50% of 100 volume (50/198 = 25%)

27% payout on 6 cases of EMV (Cost of $375 for 200 volume: payout is based on 50% of 200 volume (100/375 = 26.6%)

38% payout on 1 case of MonaVie Pulse (Cost $131 for 100 volume: payout is based on 50% of 100 (50/131 = 38%)

38% payout on 1 case of MonaVie Active (Costs $130 for 100 volume: payout is based on 50% of 100 (50/130 = 38%)

41.6% payout on 1 case of MonaVie Original (Cost $120 for 100 volume: payout is based on 50% of 100 (50/120 = 41.6%)

An important question for Mona Vie would be if they count their large “headhunter” fees as payout. Mona Vie reportedly pays between $1 million to $5 million as personal bonuses to networking leaders as enticements to leave their own MLM companies and work with them. These kinds of bonuses are not available to the average person and if they are counted as payout by the company then the amount will shrink even more for the average distributor.

This from Newsweek, “… according to MonaVie's 2007 income disclosure statement, a federally required printout of their distributor earnings. More than 90 percent were considered ‘wholesale customers,’ whose earnings are mostly discounts on sales to themselves. Fewer than 1 percent qualified for commissions and of those, only 10 percent made more than $100 a week. And the dropout rate, while not disclosed by MonaVie, is around 70 percent, according to a top recruiter.” - By Tony Dokoupil, Newsweek, Aug 11, 2008,
http://www.newsweek.com/id/150499

Nu Skin
In 2008 Nu Skin paid out 42.4%

USANA
In 2008 USANA paid out 41.6%

Xango
In 2008 Xango paid out 50%

Conclusion: Manatech’s 59.7% payout, reached in the Second Quarter of 2009, is the highest payout of any major MLM.

MLM SITES

I have received multiple emails about the payout breakdown I received from an insider at Manatech. I have forwarded it to many of you but will be directing people to this site, beginning tomorrow, where I will post the breakdown. In the meantime. Here are some very helpful sites for commentary and resources as they relate to the industry.

http://www.mlmwatchdog.com

http://mlmblog.typepad.com (this site has moved to the next one below but there is a ton of excellent archived information still on this one.)

http://mlmblog.net/page/2

http://www.mlminsider.com/

http://www.dsa.org/

http://www.wfdsa.org/

http://www.directselling411.com/

Saturday, November 7, 2009

The First of Many

Hello all,

Let me say first that the name of this blog may be a tad bit misleading. This is definately a pro direct sales blog site. A "whistleblower" is someone who takes the truth and makes that information public, be it bad or good. The purpose of this site is to do exactly that with an industry that we all care for. The Direct Sales industry is full of opinion, testimonials and emotion. There is no place for that here. This is a place to discuss facts, the industry and how to make it better, bigger, faster and stronger.

We hope that this will be the beginning of something great. We have a small group of individuals from different companies within the direct Sales industry that will all be contributing to this blogsite. Check back regularly for new posts and feel free to comment. Remember that we welcome objectivity, accuracy and truth. if you push a particular agenda or a certain company in particular we will ask you to back it up with facts. Expect to be challenged and to be criticized but all within the scope of leaving this industry a little better than we have found it.

Espinoza