WAHM Forums

Hi,


My friend and I are new consultants. We are selling our products to the girls at our work, the Nutrimin Set at 20% off, individual items at retail, bonus products with each order. If they have the passion to start their own business, 35% off. We also get the host special, $100 of items for $20. We are building the sets and will then sell them.


Our upline does things differently. Then sign EVERYONE up as a wholesale buyer. They send everyone information about selling. The new consultant then gets all the bonuses themselves, the host gets no retail, right now money, just volume sales.


My friend want to discourage people from just paying $29 to get a 35% discount, we want people who REALLY want to sell. I don't want to pressure everyone after they signed up. I think that if I get a few people that REALLY want to sell, rather then pressuring people that all signed up, that would be better.


Our upline is really discouraging our way and now says they won't help us. I see many of you do it my way, some people get signed up and some don't. Some of you get right now money AND sign new consultants up if they want.


The upline also says we will loose customers to other #bonnebusiness buildersin the long run?


What do you think?Edited by: courtneyclv

Wow, I cannot believe an upline would actually discourage you and say that your method of business isn't good! Who are they to tell you how to run your own business!

Everyone has the option of doing this the way they want, and if they cannot see that....to heck with them I say. Sorry for sounding rebellious, but you are helping them out by selling and they aren't even willing to assist you. Rubbish...

Themain goal should not be recruitment. The FTC and DSA warn against companies that do this. @rbonne doesn't, but sounds like your upline does. I would do what works best for you and makes you the income that you feel you deserve and enjoy. Dont do anything only for the fact of pleasing your upline.

Also, if they are your friends anyway...I doubt they would go off and sign up with someone else. The general rule in @rbonne anyway is to always go with the person who first introduced it to you.

My 2 cents....

Edited by: nbrendal

Did your upline say they won't help you or that they don't know how to
help you? If you are not following your upline, then they don't
have anything to offer you. It's not personal, it's just
reality. They have only known success with their methods.
If you want to go a different way, that's fine, but don't expect them
to be able to help you build your business in a way that is foreign to
them.



As far as losing people to those that offer wholesale... you really
need to look at the area in which you live. In our area, if you
don't offer the wholesale option to people and they buy, for example, a
whole RE9 set and then get invited to another party, where they find
out that for just $29 they can sign up and get 35% off, why wouldn't
they??? I would always try to refer the client back, but if they
have not been given the option, they may be a little ticked off that
they spent all that extra money.



In our successline, we offer the wholesale option to everyone. We
do not then "pressure" people into becoming consultants. Out of
fairness to your upline, maybe you should investigate this
further. Most @rbonne reps have no desire to pressure
anyone. We offer wholesale because we know that wholesale
consultants purchase more products, more frequently, than retail
customers. I receive money in my check each month from WCs that
order on their own. I do nothing and get paid on it!!
Because they use the products more, they are the most likely to fall in
love with the products and ultimately decide to do the business.



So, if I was you, I would talk to my upline more about their
advice. It can only help you to get more knowledge. If you
still decide you want to go your own way, at least you will be
informed. I am sure they are willing to work with you, but you
cannot expect them to train you on the methods they don't use.



Cheers,

-Beverly

I agree with Beverly (can be challenging to teach a "foreign" system). How can you guide someone if you've had no experience in that area?What if the give you "advice" and it doesn't go as you hoped/planned?


It's best to stick with what the company offers plus it's only fair to the client to offer them the THREE ways to win....let them decide which one fits them best.

I offer the3 ways to winto everyone (retail, consultant account, & biz builder.) All they have to do is go to the website to figure out that it is available & then they may have a bad taste in their mouth that you didn't offer it. I know that if I felt that way, I definietly would not go back to the person who charged me retail, I would go with a new person. I do not pressure anyone to do or become anything, the choice is theirs. It is true that someone buying at wholesale is more likely to reorder more frequently & try various products than someone buying at retail.


Not everyone is going to sign up for the account, so there is the possibility of retail customers.

I have to agree about not being able to help teach you something that is foreign to them. Remember, this business is all about duplication. Your upline is doing business the way she was taught to do the business. She can't help you with an approach she doesn't know or understand.


The beautiful thing about this business is that you can do it the way you want to do it. However, if you are going to "reinvent the wheel" then you have to be ok that there isn't someone there to guide you on it. I'm sure if you need questions answered or things like that which she can help with that she will.


As far as offering the discount to everyone, that's your choice. You can work that out as you want. Just be prepared that as your area has more & more IC's then people will start to find out that they can get a discount for just $29. I'm in Oklahoma so the chances of me selling retail & them never finding out about the discount are pretty slim. I also want people to get the best deal possible & that is the discount. I never force though, just give them all the info & then let them decide.


Just do what's best for you. I think it's a great idea to talk more to your upline about it to really get her reasonings. If you still go your own way & she can't help then so be it, no harm done in talking. But it might give you better understanding on why she feels like she can't help guide you.





Edited by: Soonergirl74

part of the three ways to win is asa CLIENT, everyone always seems to forget that, sometimes we need to go back to the basics and realize that the "let's sign everyone up" deal was a reinvention of the wheel, that's not always how it was done.


I started signing everyone up too, but now with some of them I wish I hadn't because they still call me for orders because of not wanting to pay shipping on 2 or 3 products, much less one. I don't sign everyone up anymore, I'll tell them about the account, I also tell them that because of shipping charges this would be best for thosewho know they will be ordering alot on a regular basis.Then I'll tell them that Ioffer retail clients terrific incentives (like buy 100 get 50 or purchase 50 get a free sea salt scrub). Most will go for that instead of the account. That will get more products in their hands (150 worth as opposed to 100), for basically the same amount of money (100-discount+29) and more volume for me because I use the discount (right now money) to order their incentive. It's all about great customer service, you take great care of your clients, they'll come back.


As for the sponsor not helping, that's wrong. It's her responsibility to help those she sponsored, regardless, it's in the policies and procedures manual. If she's absolutelyrefusing to help you, then I would say if she is that adamant about it, that you may be able to request an upline change, that's my opinion of it.smileys/smiley2.gifEdited by: cassandra

Yes Cassandra but the point is you tell them about it & then let them decide. I do the same. If someone doesn't want to sign up that's fine with me, I'll take the commission. My personal consultants can also stick their orders with mine once a month if they are only ordering one or two items. I let them know that if they have the order in to my by a certain date I'll order it for them & split the shipping. Big orders they do themselves. That way they get the best of both worlds.


Yes it is the responsibility of a sponsor to help their downline. I just wouldn't assume that she's absolutely refusing to help at all until they talk further. It may be that she just doesn't know how to help with what Courtney's specifically doing. There are other ways she can still help her though.


If she's cut off completely then she may be able to get an upline change. If that happens though I forsee a lot of change requests b/c I know there are A LOT of uplines who cut off their IC's if they don't do certain things. (which I think is wrong)

I DO offer the 29 to everyone, but I also let them know the shipping charges beforehand. Most people when this is offered will go for the "buy 100 get 50 free" or "buy 50 get 25 free"deals instead of the 35% discount... I don't know why that is, but it is, maybe they feel they are getting more for their money?I can turn my right now money into more volume, that's how I pay for their freebies. I had actually gotten this idea from the mystarz.com website when it was up a little over a year ago, there was a file about how you can increase your volume with using retail sales. I'm not reinventing the wheel, just getting back to basics.


The ones who are more interested in the nutrition and weight loss, things that will be needed monthly are the ones who are going for the ID because they can get the additional discount with autoship.

I'm sorry, but I totally disagree with the sponsor "not knowing how to help her." It does not say in the manual that you are to only help your downline if they are doing the business the way you think they should.


There are many consultants who are, and never were, interested in spending the time and energy it takes to build a business based on residual income. Many signed on knowing they wanted to sell for retail profit. It takesalot less effort to make $200 in retail sales, than to make $200 in residual as a DM. I understand the "well, if you don't offer them the account, someone else will." But, I don't think IC should be looked over b/c they still want their 35% profit.


Courtney,


You do the business whatever way you wish to. If your upline refuses to help you, definetly let Arbonne know. But, you do not need your upline to feel successful. I think you can still offer the account, and get your profit. What I usually do is mention the account, but if someone is placing an order less than $100, I usually just charge retail. I started noticing the same trend as Cassandra. I gave everyone the account, and they are STILL expecting me to place there order and deliver it b/c that is what alot of people are used to. Yes, I do have a few independent souls who like to do their own ordering, but if they are only ordering a couple products, they want to save on shipping. So, now, I am ordering their products and delivering them for basically nothing. Sure, I could ask them to come pick it up, but it is all about good customer service.


Fortunately, I am in an area where Arbonne is still new. What i have thought about doing at parties is giving a great discount on the RE9, but not really pushing the accounts. Then, after the customers have been using the products and know they want to reorder, I will explain the account benefits to them. Alot of times at parties, the whole account idea confuses them anyway b/c they are so used to paying retail at parties. For my one on ones, or results approach, I do offer the account, b/c usually these generate in large sales.


In arbonne saturated areas, it could be a problem to lose them to the next consultant offering them the account. I have actually had other consultants offer MY wholesale account buyers their personal discount just to add volume. Sometimes I wish it wasn't so easy to become a consultant. Sometimes I wish we could just go back to the basics of selling a product, making a profit like so many other mlm companies and your business growing over time.Edited by: bbrown1226

bbrown you took the words right out of my mouth. I find it hard to believe that her upline just doesn't know about her method of business. I mean..I run my business a certain way but I understand many other ways of doing it..so if someone came to me and asked me about an alternative way I would at least be able to assist them...and I DEFINATELY would if they were in my downline. The job of the upline is to encourage and support his/her team. Not say "Well I dont know anything about your method so I cant help you"...And what is her method?? Oh it's just selling the product....How could a person not "understand" that method?

Looking back on what Courtney said..

Our upline is really discouraging our way and now says they won't help us.

I gather from that that the upline most likely just doesnt like that she's focusing more on selling the product instead of sponsoring/recruitment. IMO that's how this business should be run..but thats just me.
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Cassandra, I don't think we are in disagreement here. People I talk to know that there is shipping as well. I've just never had anyone have a problem with it &amp; think it's better do forgo the 35% off for any incentives I might sometimes offer. My only point was that you gave them the choice, which in my opinion is always the best policy.


As far as the stuff with the upline, I think some of us are just giving her the benefit of the doubt...as I tend to want to do with other ICs. I never want to think the worst.


However I stated that it is wrong to put conditions on helping your downline, imho. But to me it's common sense that if the upline wasn't trained on any other approach then it is going to be hard for her to train her downline on a different approach. YES she should be there to help as much as she can with all other aspects but it's kind of like blind leading the blind when it comes to strategy in that case.


My sponsor, who no longer does the business, was heavily into the party system. I was completely uncomfortable with that system. So I looked elsewhere &amp;researched other things that I would hear about. I did that on my own &amp; I did not expect her to teach me any of them b/c she didn't understand them. How could she help me with it at that point?But she was still there to help with all other aspects that she could guide me on.

I just don't get that having Retail clients now is "reinventing the wheel", when it used to be THE wheel, kwim?smileys/smiley36.gif

ha ha ha, obviously selling retail isn't reinventing the wheel. Perhaps I chose the wrong cliché. But if her upline hasn't been taught to “discourage people from just paying $29 to get a 35% discount" &amp; only give it when a person wants to be a business partner then the way they are planning on building their business is foreign to <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">her[/I]. I'm sure she sells retail if the person doesn't want the discount but that isn't where she starts. The two are completely different philosophies of doing the business. That is all I meant by that saying.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><O:P></O:P>


If you have that fundamental difference of philosophy then it's harder to coach. The upline is going to be training the rest of the team on the approach she uses. Doing conference calls, live meetings, sending emails whatever. If Courtney &amp; her friend disagree with the approach the upline trains on then those things will not be helpful to them. <O:P></O:P>


The upline CAN &amp; SHOULD still help them in other ways. She can help them with understanding how the successplan works ,how to input orders &amp; sign people up, info about products &amp; also rah rah for them, giving them encouragement. She can give them ideas for approaching people, 30 second commercials. She can give them the generals but it’s going to be hard for her to train them past that <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">if [/I]she’s never known any other way but the way she was taught.


Luckily there is AU &amp; the L&amp;B's along with everything else so they do have a lot of training to help them as well. So everyone can use a strategy that works for them. <O:P></O:P>Edited by: Soonergirl74