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December 30, 2007
LTD opens for Huckabee in Iowa
By Truth in A/QMOs
A crowd of hundreds had to sit through listening to Larry Winters and Joe Markiewicz before getting to hear from the person they came to see, Mike Huckabee. The name Quixtar never came up, but according to the article there were "some in the crowd" to share all "the good news of a company called Quixtar Inc."
Huckabee said it was a great group of folks, but denied any association with the crowd. Mike Waechter (Diamond in Iowa), who organized the event, also said that Quixtar did not sponsor the event, nor did they endorse Huckabee. Apparently the question came up about what people were led to believe about this meeting. Waechter had this to say:
"I don't think people were misled . . . Some people left saying they liked everything about it. They enjoyed it, every part of it."
However I think Bill Evanich, who is a Huckabee fan, and one of the people to attend the meeting might disagree. Here is his comments about what he thought the meeting was:
"We found out later from a friend it was some kind of Internet marketing thing,"..."I thought it was political, and that we'd get to ask questions."
Of course many people know how forthcoming IBOs are when inviting people to the Secret Meeting. So I guess it should come as no surprise that they would be any different with other kinds of meetings. I suppose from their perspective they were saving those people. I am thinking since only about 3.4% of Quixtar sales were from actual customers, the next meeting they might want to consider is how to actually sell the products to someone besides themselves, before preaching financial freedom to others.
December 27, 2007
TEAM blogs sure are interesting.
By Truth in TEAM
During my hiatus from blogging the whole TEAM v. Quixtar debacle began and as many of you know a new batch of blogs hit the scene. I have seen them referred to many times as simply the "TEAM blogs". I have taken some time to review some of them and read some of the articles on a few of them. One thing that I can say for sure is that they are interesting to me.
Now I don't know about the rest of you but for me it seemed for quite sometime if you looked up Quixtar on the internet you got either a "critical" site, or a "pro" site, with many of those being ran by Quixtar corporation. These TEAM sites however bring a twist with them with the fact that they praise the training system and bash Quixtar/Amway as a corporation trying to take freedom from the IBOs.
In some cases I can see their point as I also feel some of the Quixtar rules are are unfair, especially when an IBO wishes to leave Quixtar for another MLM. However their praise and rational for training systems is something I no doubt disagree with. I like this new twist however and while I think they go just a bit too far with the whole freedom fighters who will fight day and night by each other's side routine, I certainly look forward to seeing how many of these blogs last and which ones stand out from the rest.
December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas to all.
By Truth in Miscellaneous
Just wishing a Merry Christmas to all who read this blog. Whether you agree, disagree, or in some cases severely disagree with me I hope you have a wonderful Christmas no matter how you are spending it.
December 23, 2007
Retailing apparently adds legitimacy.
By Truth in Quixtar
You will have to forgive me for writing articles about posts from other blogs that you may have already read quite a while ago. I was out of the loop for quite some time while chasing down some of my ambitions. But since being back writing for this blog I have gotten back into the practice of reading other blogs about Quixtar and most of the time I find something that I like to post here and comment about. Today was no different as I started reading some of the past stories from the True IBO Stories blog. In a story from June of this year Joe and Christie Ison of Arkansas after having been in Quixtar for four years decided to become a strong retailing group and made an interesting discovery.
Retailing adds legitimacy, we've found. Quixtar has been the leader in making sure we are all FTC compliant, but we've discovered that going beyond the minimums creates even more growth. Keep up the good work on retail training (like the new Ribbon online training) for IBOs! (emphasis mine)
Who knew? Now first of all I would like to give kudos to Joe and Christie for looking to a focus on retailing as a way to increase their profits rather then just sponsoring. All too often I would see groups do a big push on sponsoring as a way to show success and retailing to customers was that pesky thing Quixtar wanted you to do, and most times ways were found to get around that.
I am not surprised that they found more growth through an increase in retailing. I mean it only makes sense that the more you are retailing to actual customers rather then just each other the more you look like a "legitimate" business, and the more interest you will create. They don't have to answer questions with questions when prospects ask how much they are making or what kind of success the group has had. They don't need to spin tales about this one guy in this one group who went super diamond platinum in a month even though he was skeptical. They don't need letters from the FTC to show how selling to each other is really selling products. They have all they need and that is numbers that make them look like a real business selling real products to real customers.
I have said it before and this story just helps confirm that what makes the most sense is what works the best. Focus your business on retailing first and the sponsoring of new IBOs will take care of itself. I would imagine Joe and Christie have what I would bet a majority of groups don't have in Quixtar and that is a group that as a whole makes a profit and not just those at the top.
December 22, 2007
Four Elements for a legal Quixtar
By Truth in Quixtar
Today I was surfing some of the past articles over on the Quixtar Ada-Tudes blog for some interesting reading. As I figured I came across an article that caught my attention. Gary VanderVen who is Quixtar's director of Business Conduct and Rules wrote an article titled "What makes Quixtar Legal". In this article he describes that there is no such thing as a legal pyramid scheme, and since they say Quixtar is legal, it is not a pyramid scheme.
He then goes on to list "four key elements" that makes the Quixtar compensation plan "legal and a model of integrity". I found these four elements interesting because there are three of them that I mostly agree with, and one that I don't think tells the whole story.
1. Sales-based compensation. Compensation in the Quixtar Plan is based on sales of products and services to consumers. An IBO who sponsors other IBOs earns income based on his own sales and on sales made by the IBOs he sponsors. Quixtar has various rules to assure that compensation is based on product sales.
This would be fine if it really was a plan that pays for sales made by an IBO and on sales made by IBOs he/she sponsors. Unfortunately for Quixtar and Mr. VanderVen this is not reality at all. The reality is that Quixtar IBOs are selling to the IBOs that they sponsor. Some would argue that IBO purchases count as sales, I disagree but will save that argument for another article.
My main issue is that no one has clearly shown me another business that simply makes sales to other businesses that sell the same products. Does that even make sense? Doesn't for me. One would think that if you own a business that sells many different types of products, you would have a certain minor "element" to your business I like to call customers. The only customers I ever see in this business is IBOs as customers of Quixtar. As far as I am concerned that is not a business at all. At best what you have is a wholesale buying club.
December 21, 2007
Would lower prices get you back?
By Truth in Quixtar
With all the talk about the Amway/Quixtar prices, especially with all the legal issues surrounding that very subject, would it matter to you if the prices were lowered to be competitive? Let's say that Quixtar does lower the prices of their products so that they are more competitive and so IBOs can actually sell a product at retail and make a profit. Would this be of interest to anyone who has never been or was an IBO? Would you entertain the thought of signing up again to sell products, or would it not be worth it?
Personally I don't believe I would sign up ever again, but I can't say I wouldn't be tempted if the prices were lowered to be competitive with what people are already paying. I just don't know if the lower prices would be worth it even if it was just to sell products. Frankly, I have been very disappointed with Quixtar's flexing of their corporate muscles with this whole TEAM matter. Don't get me wrong, this does not mean I am siding with TEAM (they have gotten quite stupid in their own right) but if Quixtar has admitted to knowing how high their prices were all this time it doesn't seem they really care for the IBO like they say. It's one thing to put out a feel good commercial, it's another to take action.
December 15, 2007
Job Mentality Defined
By Truth in Miscellaneous
Finally after all this time we now have the definition of "Job Mentality" thanks to a regular poster over at Insider's forums who goes by the name "TB2IBO". Here is the gem of wisdom from the oh wise one:
Job Mentality (as defined by me)--To negotiate the highest wage for the least amount of work possible. To always check results (ie.work a few hours and ask immediately "where's my check?") Desires security, although false as it is. Typically knows how to work hard, very hard for money, but doesn't always understand how money works.
So now a few comments of interesting things I noticed about this definition:
-First thing I notice is that they say it is "as defined by me", basically telling me they don't have it in them to call the spade a spade, they need that back door out.
-Next I point your attention to the arrogant, snobbish view of those who work for others. Saying that the objective is to do as little work as possible for the most money. I don't know about anyone else but I can say that many times I look for the work in my jobs to be challenging and fullfilling, and I seek a fair compensation for that work. But apparently to IBOs those of us who work are nothing more then blood sucking leeches. Wouldn't that put us in the same category as the Kingpins of AQMOs?
-I would also like you to notice that by this definition not only are those of us who have jobs blood sucking leeches, we are also apparently financially stupid. I find it amazing how apparently if you work hard for your money, you don't know how the money works. Is this to say then that if you don't work hard for your money, you do understand how it works? I will stop there but the questions left unanswered by that part of the definition could go on for a while.
Sadly as with many IBOs TB2IBO has failed to realize that no business, or business owner would be anything, or have any money if it was not for those who worked for them. Many times companies are taken to greatness not because of the person who founded the company, but rather because of an employee, or employees. I have said it before and will continue to say it, any IBO showing this kind of disdain towards those who hold a J-O-B doesn't know the first thing about business.
I assume in the interest of fairness TB2IBO also offered to define "business owner mentality" as well, I will be on pins and needles waiting.
December 13, 2007
Is Winters leaving the big Q?
By Truth in A/QMOs
Ty Tribble has reported over at his blog that he has noticed some "interesting search engine trends" that may suggest that Larry Winters is ready to bail on Quixtar. It seems Larry is keeping an eye on the TEAM developments to see what happens. The reasoning for leaving seems to be pointed at the change of name back to Amway. Obviously this is only very much a rumor at this point, but I thought it would be worth a post to see what kind of responses we get in the comments.
UPDATE FROM TY TRIBBLE'S SITE:
Ty has posted an update to be more specific on his rumor about Larry Winters and Quixtar.
To be more specific, I have noticed that people are finding my web site by searching "Larry Winters Leaving Quixtar". That doesn't mean that Larry Winters is leaving Quixtar, it just means that people are curious about that subject. In no way, shape or form am I reporting that Larry Winters is leaving Quixtar. For all I know people could have Larry Winters confused with Orrin Woodward.
December 11, 2007
Judge Rules against Quixtar
By Truth in Quixtar
In a bit of a late article that I just got in my Google Alerts, a judge ruled against Quixtar in their contempt complaint against former distributors. Apparently ex-distributors were prohibited from using their Quixtar networks for other businesses, and Quixtar claimed that they had violated that order. The judge ruled against Quixtar saying they did not have enough evidence to back that claim. The judge however did leave it open for an arbitrator to decide later if Quixtar is entitled to any damages.
There is also a bit about the Amway UK case. I found it interesting that the "self-imposed" reform efforts that Amway did was not enough to get the government to drop their case. The trial started on the 26th of Nov. I liked how the article describes what claims were made against Amway UK:
Government investigators reportedly found people misrepresenting the business, making false claims, downplaying the Amway name, signing up new distributors and making it sound like they didn't need to sell products to make money
Wonder if any of that is going on in Quixtar US?
December 8, 2007
Numbers from Amway UK case
By Truth in Amway
I got word that the Amway UK case has wrapped up and apparently a decision is expected in the next weeks. While looking up some information I ran across an article that posted some figures that came out during the case. I don't think the numbers show anything surprising. Basically the same old "a few got the most" that we have come to expect with Amway/Quixtar. Even the supporters agree with those kinds of numbers, but of course take the liberty and time to spin it so it doesn't sound so bad. At any rate here are the numbers and here is a link to the article, I leave you to decide for yourselves.
39,000
agents working for Amway
27,000
(71%) had no income
11,410
(30%) earned something
7,492
(of the 11,410) received average of £13.53 per year
101
agents received 75 per cent of bonuses
£116K
paid to top earner Trevor Lowe
26
number of years Mr Lowe was an agent
Source: Evidence at companies court hearing
December 4, 2007
Crosslining is fun!
By Truth in A/QMOs
So what's the deal with this no crosslining rule anyway? Seriously? So someone talks to someone in another LOS and gets some advice and they have to check with their upline? Who's business is this anyway? If the advice is good the advice is good and it shouldn't matter where it comes from. Granted there could be some cases where crosslining is not a good idea, but a good business person would know that.
So if you are an IBO have some fun, go talk to your crossline about business and if they bring up the whole "no crosslining" rule tell them to pull the plug out and live a little. It's your business, so shouldn't you be able to decide who you want to talk to about your business?