Have you ever been to Amway?

Reflections on the management of direct selling employees in Amway China Enterprise Group

Today, I think everyone is familiar with the word "Amway", and the image of "Amway" also brings us some more or less derogatory meanings in the traditional sense, or less positive ones. The reasons for this have to be thought-provoking. Let's do some analysis from the perspective of human resource management to explore some reasons behind these phenomena.

Let's briefly introduce Amway: Amway is located in Ada City, a small town in Michigan, USA. In 1959, the founders, Mr. Jay Van Anluo and Mr. richard devos, who were only in their twenties, took the first step in Amway's career in the basement of their home, actively devoted themselves to improving the quality of life of consumers, and realized their rapid development while serving consumers. In November 22, Forbes, a well-known financial magazine, ranked the 27th among the top 5 private enterprises in the United States with a performance of $4.5 billion. In January 23, Amway ranked 14th among the top 2 family businesses in the world by American quarterly magazine Family Business. ..... products cover daily necessities, fast-moving consumer goods, nutrition and other aspects of life, such as: anti-aging series and Nutrilite natural B vitamins tablets, Nutrilite multivitamin/mineral nutrition tablets, vitamin C complex tablets, calcium magnesium tablets, vitamin E and B carotene and artistry whitening essence, moisturizing mask, cleansing mask, micro-particle scrub cream and lipstick series; Artistry make-up series, whitening care series. ......

As such a world-famous enterprise, Amway China has not left a good impression on Chinese people in the traditional sense. What is the reason?

First of all, according to my own visits and some exchanges with the direct selling agents of Amway's bottom products, I feel that there are many boasters. First, I exaggerate the efficacy of the products and make a fuss about the added value and health and safety, such as Amway's mineral nutrition tablets, which are basically similar to some so-called health care products such as bird's nest, Cordyceps sinensis and melatonin in China. Secondly, I focus on throwing out the temptation of interests and entering with the so-called zero threshold. Having a perfect career plan for Amway people, constantly strengthening Amway's management freedom and humanization, rich profit returns, fair distribution of benefits, simplified interpersonal communication among teams, lifelong career of Amway, etc., all these words sound refreshing compared with traditional industries, especially young people who are not deeply involved in the industry are very easy to be introduced, but it is quite different from the words after careful understanding. It is manifested in arbitrarily raising the efficacy of one's own products. The so-called freedom and humanization is only to promote products by oneself with interests as the guide. Amway has a strict profit distribution system. The more products you take, the higher the level, the greater the discount you enjoy. Amway people at the bottom level are euphemistically called to buy a set of products they try out from referees at a price of 15%, and then share the beautiful effects brought by the products with familiar friends, and use the word "share" for themselves. Use the development of off-line idealized quantitative fission state to calculate the rich return of profits, and talk on paper to confuse new people.

Secondly, under the strong recommendation of product agents and online referees, I went to the Amway classroom training meeting many times and felt the training meeting of Amway employees to improve themselves. At the training site, the basic routine was that lecturers took pains to teach their past brilliant experiences first, and then they became Amway people under the recommendation of XXX. I feel great honor and enjoy being a member of Amway, and I feel great sense of accomplishment and happiness in helping my friends and solving problems. Without exception, there was great applause under the podium, and I was eager to try my best. The atmosphere was extremely warm, which was an irresistible subtle influence on the newcomers. Then, about half an hour's product exaggeration demonstration, boasting, and then publishing some chicken soup insights, exaggerating enthusiasm in the employee interaction session, and then asking questions about the newcomers. This kind of "chicken blood" training has to be suspicious, but it is also a compromise and basic blind obedience of the newcomers to the collective atmosphere.

From the analysis of the above phenomena, we can draw the following conclusions:

(1) The zero threshold for Amway direct sellers (employees) is based on the premise of becoming Amway customers first, which gives people the impression that they are profit-oriented (based on "economic man" and ignore the diversity and complexity of people-"complex man");

(2) Amway direct sellers don't have a basic salary, and at the beginning of Amway's career, they have no guarantee for their basic life. They all rely on their own development to get the profit from product commission (based on "self-actualization person", ignoring the complexity of people-"complex person"). As a result, people have to change their ways to complete their tasks by hook or by crook to get the profits they want, which will invisibly damage Amway's brand image and reputation. According to Maslow's human needs theory, there are five levels from low to high: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs. It can be concluded that people can only move towards higher-level demand development after the low-level needs are met, and Amway direct sellers can only gradually develop upward after the lowest survival needs are met, and finally achieve higher goals with the internal motivation of self-realization needs.

(3) Newcomers in Amway need to constantly share their "face" with their relatives and friends to promote their products (product-oriented, ignoring the principle of people-centered), because the impression of Amway people among acquaintances is greatly reduced, which will give people the feeling of strong implantation, which will make people dissatisfied and eventually damage Amway's brand image;

(4) The human resource management concept of Amway China is still based on the backward management concept of personnel management, and regards the direct seller as a "tool" to promote robots, which lags behind the development of the times. Modern human resource management concept emphasizes "people" as resources and people-centered, rather than focusing on product promotion;

(5) The career planning and design of Amway employees is also very simple, and they can only get a bigger discount by upgrading one level at a time in Amway enterprises. All of them are profit-oriented, ignoring the sense of accomplishment and happiness of other mental factors as a person, and failing to give full play to the potential of direct selling employees. The single solidification of direct selling employees' work will not help the continuing education and continuous growth of direct selling employees, which will eventually consume the confidence and enthusiasm of Amway people and ultimately damage the image of Amway brand.

To sum up, as an Amway direct seller, there are many problems in the management of Amway enterprises that go against the traditional people-oriented concept, which makes the impression of Amway brand in people's traditional hearts quite damaged, which is why the impression and evaluation of Amway China brand have almost disappeared and been negative in the Wang Yang sea of the market in recent years.

Before solving the above problems, let's learn about the differences and similarities between Amway direct selling and pyramid selling which has been criticized:

(1) Similarity of entry threshold: Amway's entry threshold is relatively low, but it does exist, especially taking product trial as the threshold, which is related to the high entry threshold of pyramid selling. MLM also has access threshold fees for subscribing products, membership fees, membership fees, etc.

(2) Different profit channels: Amway's direct selling mainly aims at promoting products with decent quality to obtain corporate profits. MLM, on the other hand, is an informal product, which does not aim at selling products for profit, but gains the right to join, introduce and develop offline products to obtain pyramid-like profit returns;

(3) the difference of products in kind: Amway direct selling enterprises have good R&D products to put into the market and pay the labor of products. MLM is to blur the purpose of products, or no products are put into production and sales;

(D) Similarities and differences in training contents: Amway direct selling and pyramid selling both attach great importance to training, while Amway direct selling training focuses on product promotion rather than employee skills and professional knowledge training. Because there is no good product for MLM, the training focuses on the chicken soup-style brainwashing education and training in Xiesri. In terms of training brainwashing, Amway direct selling and MLM have the same effect, and perhaps it is the same training as MLM.

(5) The way to treat new employees is different: Amway pays attention to caring, guiding, assimilating and brainwashing new employees in direct selling. The way MLM treats new recruits is more barbaric, strong care, assimilation, brainwashing and control;

To sum up, although Amway is a direct selling enterprise, Amway China's direct selling has many similarities with pyramid selling, and the operation methods of direct sellers in many aspects are even equivalent to pyramid selling, which makes people feel disgusted and even scoff at Amway China's direct selling model. To a great extent, this also comes down to the problems in the recruitment, training and management of direct sellers in Amway China, which speaks grandiose about the purpose and mission of the enterprise, but does another means and results.

In view of the above reasons, if Amway China wants to completely change some biased views on it and re-establish a trustworthy corporate brand image, it needs to make improvements in the following aspects:

(1) Strengthen corporate sense of mission and social responsibility in corporate culture training, focus on product knowledge and skills training, do less false boasting and exaggeration, establish correct values, and take into account humanization, rationalization and profit-oriented at the same time.

(2) Amway has developed many nutritional and health products based on improving consumers' quality of life. If the products are indeed superior in quality, effect and function to similar products in the market, we should consider appropriately lowering the price of the products based on the national conditions of China and the sense of social responsibility, so that more consumers can recognize their familiarity and benefit from health;

(3) In the recruitment of direct sellers, the threshold of direct sellers should be set appropriately, and the checks should be made in terms of professionalism, personal affinity, image temperament and whether they really love sales, instead of just taking employees as customers, taking zero threshold as a gimmick, and actually recruiting for the purpose of promoting products is criticized.

(D) Improve the humanized management of direct selling employees, and really care about the practical problems of employees, instead of just being superficial and paying lip service to direct selling employees by painting cakes. The first thing is to improve the working conditions of direct selling employees and set a certain basic salary system that is not lower than that of traditional industries to ensure the basic living guarantee of direct selling employees. Only when employees work without worries can they truly share and serve customers with enthusiasm and sincerity, thus enhancing the brand image;

(5) Continue to carry forward the fine tradition of the enterprise, concentrate on improving product quality and developing products with practical effects, and accumulate the trust and praise of the market little by little, instead of making superficial boasting and superficial articles through direct sellers, because you can deceive the market for a while, not for a long time, concentrate on industry and abandon retreat;

(6) To adjust the sales promotion methods of direct sellers, we should be a problem-solving direct seller in a timely manner, instead of a sales robot that only focuses on selling products, and finally make acquaintances around us stay away from it, and we should avoid it when training, instead of focusing on training employees into a sales robot;

(7) It is necessary to strengthen the supervision and management of Amway China's management mode and operation means, completely abandon the influence of pyramid selling thinking, draw a clear line with the criticized pyramid selling, train not to make products brag about the brainwashing mode of chicken soup, and direct selling not to become the development offline of pyramid selling, and treat customers honestly and trustworthy, keeping a promise;

(8) In the Internet age, information communication is so smooth, good things don't go out, and bad things spread thousands of miles. Consumers can communicate through many channels. Whether it is good or bad can't escape the baptism of time. Enterprises need to make more efforts to win the reputation of the market, instead of staying in the chicken blood model.

(9) Finally, uphold the truth, Do not forget your initiative mind, seriously engage in R&D and production, be honest and trustworthy, put the spirit of contract first, be more sincere, and be less routine and means;

To sum up, supplemented by the above-mentioned methods, it will definitely change the inherent biased thinking in people's minds, make people understand the essential difference between direct selling and pyramid selling in Amway China, and regain people's confidence and dependence on the brand.

Postscript: During the period of 23-28, Amway China was very popular in Guangzhou, Amway direct sellers were everywhere in the streets and lanes, and Amway advertisements were often seen. Charity sponsorship activities and small-scale sports sponsorship activities were often seen. There were several training sessions in prime time in the evening at various direct sales outlets every week. Amway can also spread quickly on campus, which is naturally related to the fact that it has not taken off the coat of pyramid selling essence. Among the inexperienced students and the graduates who are eager to find jobs, Amway is basically well known, and has been contacted and understood to some extent. More than ten years ago, I also contacted several Amway direct selling employees in Shanghai, including a 4-year-old elder sister and a newly graduated younger sister. They were all addicted to Amway's direct selling business, full of blood and enthusiasm. I wonder if they can still maintain that enthusiasm and still firmly believe in Amway's direct selling business. I remember a little sister who just graduated from college sold me an Amway toothpaste with a price of more than 3 yuan. In her eyes, I understood her helplessness and urgency. For this enthusiasm, I paid for one, or I didn't succeed in selling it for a long time. This little sister was very happy. In the following months, I received frequent contact from her ... I wonder how this little sister is now, whether the direct selling business is successful, whether she has achieved her expected ideal goal, and I also want to know her.

over.