I now have three friends trying to sell me Arbonne crap. Is this some sort of pyramid scheme?

5/23/2012 7:28:48 PM

i dunno but i had some body butter and a scrub from when my aunt sold it, and i liked it. so it's at least a decent product. i'd rather folks sell that than that 31 bag shit.

5/23/2012 7:31:37 PM

I think that it is kinda like Avon.

5/23/2012 7:35:07 PM

5/23/2012 7:38:33 PM

Lol my one friend keeps trying to sell me their energy drinks. I don't even drink Red Bull why would I drink the Arbonne ones.

5/23/2012 7:44:44 PM

HEY GUYZ IF ANYONE KNOWS ANYONE IN THE BAR AND RESTAURANT INDUSTRY SOME RANDOM DICKHEAD WHO CONTACTED ME ON FACEBOOK WOULD LIKE TO TALK TO THEM. HE'S PRETTY SURE THEIR BUSINESS WILL BENEFIT FROM OFFERING SHITTY ENERGY DRINKS THAT NOBODY HAS HEARD OF RATHER THAN THE MOST POPULAR DRINKS ON THE MARKET TODAY.

lulz.

5/23/2012 8:46:22 PM

It's more Mary Kay than Amway

nice products too

I agree with elkbaby! Thirty-One is a shitty product.

5/23/2012 9:03:24 PM

I realize this thread is about Arbonne ....which I am not selling. Hear me out, maybe I can offer some insight.

I am in outside sales, which is currently salary+commission, but will move into straight commission starting at the beginning of July 2010. I have been in this position since July 2009. I have competition from several direct manufacturing sales reps, large distributors, and local distributors. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Direct Advantages: Immediate knowledge of new technology, no middle man mark up, one shipping bill (paid by manufacturer or buyer of goods), access to larger range of non-commodity items, control inventory, have access to many distributors that can effectively sell their goods which increases market share, and set prices of commodity they manufacture.

Direct disadvantages: Typically have 1-3 sales reps per region (i.e. southeast, mid-atlantic, northeast, etc.) limiting the number of accounts they can successfully manage/cold-call, lack physical customer service or physical technical service available to or affordable for smaller users or altogether, are sometimes not trustworthy because they will go in behind their distributors that sell their commodity to one account in large quantities (i.e. they missed a big account, and have found out about it through a distributor selling their particular product) which leads to the distributor not selling their product anymore, have too many distributors selling the product ultimately driving the set price down through deviations, possibly rely on distributors to actually sell the product, and competition from other direct sources.

Large distributor advantages: have access to other commodities that go hand in hand with other manufacturers (poor example- grocery stores sell milk as well as cereal), get direct pricing, many locations regionally or nationally easing the shipping burden of buyers with multiple locations, personal service either customer or technical, many sales reps that are able to cover a broader territory, access to multiple manufacturers of the same commodity allowing to keep prices in check, service programs that smaller companies can't offer and direct providers can't match in price or value, and experts of many many commodities as opposed to one or a few.

Large distributor disadvantages: smaller local distributors creating price wars (think Michael Scott Paper Co vs Dunder-Mifflin), direct mfg's going in behind and stealing business, limited access to all of the mfg's (you won't find Harris Teeter name brands in Food Lion and visa versa), can't truly set prices because it's based on both supply and demand, territory management, and tough growth prospects in slower economies (this is true for direct as well really)

Local distributor advantages: Typically a good ol' boy setting where the seller and the buyer know each other for years (this does happen at all levels, but mostly at the local level), local folks are right down the street and can be used in emergencies, if the local guy buys at high enough volumes then there is no shipping charge to the end user, and access to both direct mfg's and large distributors.

Local distributor disadvantages: easily beaten in price, array of commodities, array of technology, lack of trained staff, low cash flow, etc etc etc.

This is what I have noticed in my six months, I am sure there are plenty more that need mentioning. The way I am setting myself apart as a sales person is this: I go after the big accounts right now while I am new. The big accounts, if I land them, will take care of me while I am new and building a customer base. The money made off of those allows me to focus free time on smaller accounts that get me higher margins. I build up big accounts, I would like to have 5-10 of these, then get 20-30 medium accounts. If I lose 1 or 2 big accounts, the 20-30 medium accounts keep me afloat while I go after new big accounts. I don't really waste time on small accounts simply because they basically pay for breakfast or something really small.

I will say this, if you can't get a big account in the first 6-8 months (assuming you have cash flow that you can ride this long) you could be in a world of trouble. If you can get one, it will really make going after the others a lot more enjoyable and less stressful. It's simply just very exhausting wasting any time on anything other than big accounts in the very beginning. You work just as hard on the medium sized accounts and see 1/3 to 1/36 of the money in my situation.

If you have any other questions, you can PM me. I hope this helps in the slightest!

<had to be done>

5/23/2012 9:46:35 PM

Quote :

"It's more Mary Kay than Amway"

It's all pyramid right?

5/23/2012 10:02:57 PM

does mary kay make you add folks underneath you to sell the product also?

I have no clue about this shit

5/23/2012 10:04:03 PM

I get your point. With Amway it seems like you *have* to have people under you. With Mary Kay maybe you can get by just selling lots of product without people under you. But I'm imagine you still get more $ if you get people selling below you.

5/23/2012 10:07:03 PM

yeah probably

5/23/2012 10:09:49 PM

Yeah I think with Mary Kay you're supposed to recruit underlings.

Here's an interesting article about Mormons and pyramid schemes: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/mitt-romney-nu-skin-multilevel-marketing-schemes

5/24/2012 8:49:28 AM

I wouldn't buy shit like this out of principle, even if the products were amazing.

I had a friend almost get sucked into Amway, and he was convinced that I would buy his stupid Amway products online vs. going to the store.

5/24/2012 9:04:54 AM

Before I get trolled, I don't sell this stuff, although you can pay something like $1k and get set up as a sales rep, but I love the Vemma drinks. Verve in particular, the energy drink is way better than red bull or any of that other shit. I buy it online by the case, so just because it's not sold in stores and dominating the market doesn't mean that some of the lesser known stuff isn't good. I don't necessarily drink it for it's energy or health properties, I just love the way it tastes. I don't think it' s a pyramid though, the guy that owns the golf shop in my hometown has a display and sales it, and I see quite a few pro shops selling it.

5/24/2012 9:09:56 AM

You know what my favorite energy drink is?

WATER.

5/24/2012 9:11:10 AM

^

5/24/2012 9:16:39 AM

And not that flavored water shit. Water has a flavor already, it's call water. If you add shit to water to give it flavor, it's not water, it's some other shit. And since when can't people just drink water?

5/24/2012 9:20:15 AM

yeah but isn't Mary Kay makeup a quality product?

5/24/2012 9:21:47 AM

I just realized some body butter I've been using the past 2 days (because I ran out of my regular lotion) is from Arbonne.

It's not bad

5/24/2012 9:47:30 AM

I love all my friends who peddle this shit on facebook. 99% of them are married women. They act like this is done awesome job they have, pushing all their crap on their friends.

5/24/2012 10:41:24 AM

y'all wanna come to my scentsi party?

5/24/2012 10:47:03 AM

^^ Today a friend of mine invited me to some tupperware party shit she's throwing. And then her "coworker" start spamming the shit out of the event wall so my inbox was flooding with stupid messages about their products. It's bad enough having friends trying to sell me shit without having someone I don't even know spamming me.

5/24/2012 11:21:20 AM

I'm soooo tired......Somebody get me some Red Bull water.

5/24/2012 11:24:26 AM