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???

Amway business is like a vending machine!

An analogy statement that is often made in the Amway business is this:

"Amway business is like a vending machine. If you go to a coke vending machine and it requires $1 for a can of coke and you put in 95 cents, then what do you get? You get nothing. Even if you song and dance after putting 95 cents, nothing comes out. Same thing in Amway. If you do almost all the work required, that is, if you do almost all the 9 or 10 core steps but not quite all of them or not quite all the time, then you get nothing. It is either everything or nothing."

This is a statement that needs to be told to every prospect at the time of signing up, but as usual, Amway IBOs lie to new prospects and get them signed up!

This is why Amway is a stupid loser's proposition. Now, let us say, a top-grade new graduate makes $60,000/yr in his first job. Then how idiotic would it be to tell a guy who only has mediocre grades to tell that he will make either $60,000/yr or nothing! If I am a mediocre guy, I would at least expect a pay of $50,000/yr or $40,000/yr.

One has to think why this statement is made. It is made so that people who are doing all the work and not getting results, still feel that they are missing something! If

someone is showing 3 plans per week,

doing 300 PV per month,

selling 50 PV customer volume per month,

listening to 1 CD a day,

reading daily for 30 minutes,

attending all associations,

counseling monthly,

is accountable and

listens and leaves kate messages regularly,

then the top Amway guys claim that it should work for him! That is, you have put in the $1 in the coke machine. Sadly the coke can does not come out from the Amway vending machine!

I put in the full $1 for 3 years, week after week, month after month, year after year, only to find that the Amway vending machine does not deliver the coke, as promised! The only thing it delivered was a big hole in my bank account and credit card debt!