Analogies always to the rescue!

Amway diamonds and emeralds are very good with analogies. The analogies are so convincing when you hear them that you think you are a fool to think otherwise. But they are very carefully crafted.

One striking example of this analogy trap I remember is with respect to the corporation name change. As you might know, quixtar was originally Amway business. Amway then changed to quixtar when it went online. Then they realized that quixtar brand name was not flying too good, so 10 years later they decided to go back to the old name Amway and put a global behind it and call it 'Amway global', to make it sound like a new business. So now the business is called Amway global.

One diamond, named Sanjiv & Shauna Sahay made 2 CDs at different times about handling objections.

The first one was made when the name was quixtar. One of the questions you used to face from a prospect those days was "Is quixtar not the same as Amway?" To handle this question, Sanjiv suggested the following analogy to be used by IBOs:

IBO: "Do you know who makes Lexus?"

Prospect: "Toyota"

IBO: "Why don't they call it as 'toyota plus'? Why do they call it a different name?"

Prospect: "But lexus is different..."

The prospect is now confused. (One of my uplines' favorite statement was 'If you cannot convince them, confuse them'.)

Then the IBO can really nail the prospect by telling

"See quixtar is a different brand, just like lexus is a different brand. It is as ridiculous to say quixtar is just amway, like it is telling lexus is same as toyota."

(Of course, many times the prospect does not get convinced with this and finds some other reason not to sign up. But you see, whether the prospect gets convinced or not, all the IBOs, who are already in and are themselves confused, are now convinced. Because once you sign up, you need to defend your decision to sign up - so you look for reasons to defend your decision. The main job of these analogies is to keep the confused IBOs in for longer, rather than use them on new prospects.)

Then the name changed from quixtar to amway global. Sanjiv Sahay made another CD about handling objections. In this one, he uses another analogy.

"What does microsoft name itself when it goes to India? you know... they name it Microsoft India, you know. They don't call it zebra.com, you know... is that correct, you know? Same thing here, you know. We are creating one global brand, you know... you know... One amway global brand you know..."

(Yes, Sanjiv Sahay uses those many 'you know' when he is talking. If it was irritating for you to read those many 'you know's here, then imagine listening to a CD made by him with half the talk being just 'you know's... and pay $7.50 plus tax for that CD!!!)

So who is the fool here? The guy who Amway IBOs calls as a LOSER, or the Amway IBO himself???