WWDB Teaches "No Sales Required"?

One thing I recall being taught by some WWDB leaders was that there was no selling of products required. You could ask a prospect if they liked selling, and if they said no, you could say "great, this business is perfect for you". If they said they enjoyed selling stuff, you would also say "great, this business is perfect for you". I would guess that most people do not enjoy selling things, and if you add in the high prices of products and a spotty Amway reputation, then it makes it that much more difficult to move products to non IBO customers. For this reason, many IBOs simply "buy from themselves" with little regard to finding actual customers.

Some WWDB leaders exclusively taught the philosophy of buying from yourself. That way you are moving volume but you don't have to get uncomfortable enough to go out and sell stuff. You just use your own goods each month and try to sponsor people who also want to buy from themselves and get others to do the same. I believe this method of business may be borderline on illegal so it would likely be taught in smaller settings rather than on a major function stage. That way the upline can claim plausible deniability and state that the downline must have misunderstood what they were taught.

Oddly enough, if you stop and think about this for a minute, in what business can anyone earn a nice living without selling a product or service? The answer is there are none, but some uplines trick their downline into thinking they can earn financial freedom from self consumption. I once asked my sponsor how Amway tracked our customer sales to determine who qualified for a bonus and my sponsor said not to worry about it since no one bothered to check. Imagine that? While the upline might mention sales as a means of remaining in good legal standing, but the reality was a different story. And it makes sense. To the upline diamond, whether you bought or sold 100 PV makes no difference to them. They get credit for your volume whether you bought or sold it.

While there are some IBOs who do sell some goods, I would think that anyone with significant products sales is a rare individual indeed. Looking back, many of my sales were to those who were probably more sympathetic to my cause than a genuine want or need for Amway products. This can be confirmed by the apparent relatively few ex IBOs who continue to buy Amway goods. If ex IBO sales were common, then Amway sales would coninue to skyrocket even if IBOs were dropping like flies. But Amway sales have been tanking since 2013. Their sales peaked at 11.8 billion and has decreased each year since, coming in at 8.6 billion in 2017.

If your upline teaches buy from yourself, no sales required, run fast in the opposite direction.

WWDB Teaching?

In the past, we have had some really good discussion on this blog about how someone can build a business in Amway without abusing downline. I was an IBO in WWDB, and I was given really bad advice from upline. Some of these uplines are still around and apparently still giving some of the same bad advice to downline. Having said that, I believe there are some factions within WWDB who may be operating differently.

A contributor on this blog, James C. has explained in some of his comments, how he operates, contrary to the mainstream WWDB teachings. Thus I was inspired to write this post. My sponsor and uplines were Harimoto, Wolgamott, Duncan. We were taught that Amway saves marriages, and that the rest of the world gets divorced. Ironically, I believe Wolgamott is now seperated and possibly divorced or in the process of getting divorced. Greg Duncan was touted for his financial acumen and told the audience that only stupid people took out loans, even to purchase a home. Then we find out he was in bankruptcy proceedings with interest only loans. This is just a side bar. I will further explain what other advice was given to rank and file IBOs.

My sponsor and uplines told us that we should never miss a meeting. Period. That missing a meeting was setting a bad example for your group. In fact we should always purchase extra tickets to meetings and functions as an incentive to bring guests. We were taught that in addition to standing order, we should be purchasing 5-7 extra tapes/cds each week. Afterall, you can't listen to the same recording each day if you are core. We were told that if you had downlline who quit, you could not cancel a standing order because it was too much trouble to call upline who called upline who finally reached Greg Duncan to cancel a standing order. I found it ironic that they NEVER complained about calling upline who called upline who finally reached Greg Duncan to ADD a standing order.

Our group was also told that nobody made a cent of profit from the tools. A lie that nobody has ever been accountable for to this day. If selling products were ever mentioned, it was only so IBOs could earn money to buy more function tickets and/or standing orders. Our upline also enjoyed holding meeting after meeting, AFTER the functions. Thus IBOs went home after 3:00 in the morning at times, even on nights when the job was waiting for them the next morning.

Our upline also taught more tenured IBOs that money wasn't important in the business because we are friends for life. The group was taught that we could have our families skip meals in order to buy more tapes/cds. IBOs were told that they should NEVER quit, unless they give up on life as they would be doomed for financial failure. This is some of the bad advice I heard from some WWDB leaders. These leaders are still around today and I believe some of this is still taught. What does your upline advise?

WWDB Wants Your Money At Any Cost?

When I was an IBO in WWDB, the speakers told all kinds of lies. That WWDB was a non profit organization. That the diamonds did not profit from the sale of support materials. That WWDB helps save marriages. That diamonds pay cash for everything.

I remember a function where Greg Duncan said people who made loans were stupid. Hmm, I wonder how Mr Duncan had some homes foreclosed if he paid cash for them? Some IBO's even denied that Mr Duncan filed for bankruptcy even when the State of Montana had public records of it.

Other teaching from WWDB was how your family could skip meals to buy standing orders or skip your mortgage payment as banks won't foreclose right away. That would allow you to attend the major functions. Can you imagine the nerve of these folks to give this advice? Clearly the WWDB leaders wanted to extract as much cash from their downline at all costs. I do not believe they gave a shit about their downline.

While some of this may have reformed over the years, I have been following the blog of a WWDB IBO who indicates to me that the teaching is still pretty much the same. I'm sure WWDB edits out some of the questionable stuff from their CDs to pass accreditation standards but the IBO's are basically being taught the same stuff now as when I was an IBO.

An IBO has been in disucssion with me and he has yet to deny any of what I have mentioned here. He only makes the same tired arguments that my experience is dated, even though the IBO's I get information from are current IBOs.

Beware of the wolves in sheep's clothing. These folks will say they are your friends and mentors but all they really want is your cash. If these leaders were so great and such good examples, why did a tenured leader like Wolgamott walk out on WWDB? Why do they sell their downline voicemail? Who the heck needs voicemail these days? If they had good information that downline could use to build their business, why not issue it on a youtube account and make it free? I think the answer is obvious.

Amway WWDB Teaching?

In the past, we have had some really good discussion on this blog recently about how someone can build a business in Amway without abusing downline. I was an IBO in WWDB, and I was given really bad advice from upline. Some of these uplines are still around and apparently still giving some of the same bad advice to downline. Having said that, I believe there are some factions within WWDB who may be operating differently. I contributor on this blog, James C. has explained in some of his comments, how he operates, contrary to the mainstream WWDB teachings. Thus I was inspired to write this post. My sponsor and uplines were Harimoto, Wolgamott, Duncan. We were taught that Amway saves marriages, and that the rest of the world gets divorced. Ironically, I believe Wolgamott is now seperated and possibly divorced or in the process of getting divorced. Greg Duncan was touted for his financial acumen and told the audience that only stupid people took out loans, even to purchase a home. Then we find out he was in bankruptcy proceedings with interest only loans. This is just a side bar. I will further explain what other advice was given to rank and file IBOs. My sponsor and uplines told us that we should never miss a meeting. Period. That missing a meeting was setting a bad example for your group. In fact we should always purchase extra tickets to meetings and functions as an incentive to bring guests. We were taught that in addition to standing order, we should be purchasing 5-7 extra tapes/cds each week. Afterall, you can't listen to the same recording each day if you are core. We were told that if you had downlline who quit, you could not cancel a standing order because it was too much trouble to call upline who called upline who finally reached Greg Duncan to cancel a standing order. I found it ironic that they NEVER complained about calling upline who called upline who finally reached Greg Duncan to ADD a standing order. Our group was also told that nobody made a cent of profit from the tools. A lie that nobody has ever been accountable for to this day. If selling products were ever mentioned, it was only so IBOs could earn money to buy more function tickets and/or standing orders. Our upline also enjoyed holding meeting after meeting, AFTER the functions. Thus IBOs went home after 3:00 in the morning at times, even on nights when the job was waiting for them the next morning. Our upline also taught more tenured IBOs that money wasn't important in the business because we are friends for life. The group was taught that we could have our families skip meals in order to buy more tapes/cds. IBOs were told that they should NEVER quit, unless they give up on life as they would be doomed for financial failure. This is some of the bad advice I heard from some WWDB leaders. These leaders are still around today and I believe some of this is still taught. What does your upline advise?

WWDB And Marriage?

So many Amway apologists talk about changes, and that critics are outdated, yet we keep seeing exmples of this stuff where it's painfully apparent that WWDB leaders are still teaching things like this. I will edit and add on more testimonies about WWDB saving marriages. http://amwayblog.com/brad-wolgamott-blog/ Dreambuilder for life says: May 6, 2010 at 1:23 pm For all of you who are being so critical, not once have I ever heard a diamond in Worldwide Dreambuilders claim to be super human or better than anyone else. In fact it is quite the opposite. Worldwide diamonds are constantly saying that they are nothing special, human just like the rest of us. If you put people up on a pedestal you Will be let down because no matter how hard we try, people are not perfect. And here is a nice fact for you; within this organization that many of you are being so critical of, the divorce rate is less than 1% compared to our national rate the ranges anywhere from 60% all the way up to the low 80’s. Get your facts people and quit being so judgemental of other people! I am sure you are not perfect either! Another WWDB IBO statement: http://expeditionoftruths.com/2010/03/22/calgary-regional-rally-reflections/ I’m SICK and tired of all the divorces out there, all the negativity out there, so what’s so wrong about re-educating myself with positive energy where people have AWESOME marriages?? By the way, the divorce rate in the normal job world is over 60%, the divorce rate in our line of business is about 2%. Joe's commentary: I doubt these IBOs are making this up. They are being taught this crap by WWDB leaders, apparently.

Amway Is BBB Accredited - What About WWDB?

One of the things Amway IBOs like to proclaim is that Amway is BBB accredited. Amway may be accredited by the BBB but that rating is irrelevent when it comes to evaluating the Amway opportunity for the independent distributors. Thus, although it would appear that WWDB is not accredited, even if they were, it would not mean that joining WWDB would ensure any degree of success as an IBO.

http://www.bbb.org/eastern-washington/business-reviews/business-opportunity-companies/world-wide-group-llc-in-spokane-valley-wa-25000084/

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WWDB Causes Bankruptcy?

A recent site visitor comment on a WWDB article:

I will at least give you my first name. I had this EXACT experience. I was a sucker, believed I could do this. At one point had 2 1500PV downlines, and when I cancelled my standing order, because I could listen to the previous 100 CDs over and over and get the same info, I was shunned, not supported, and after spending good money that I really was stupid enough waste going to out of town functions, am now declaring bankruptcy. This was back in 1999-2001 in the glory days of quixtar, but the tactics are the same, the only way you will make money is to produce your own CD and force it on your downlines! Not sillyness! Completely TRUE!

By John D on WWDB Cutthroat Businessmen Posing As Your Mentors ... at 10:28 AM