Avant’s new prices: Reflecting the true product value?
A couple of weeks ago now it was announced that Avant were looking to make their products more accessible by reducing the purchase cost and altogether removing their premium product.
Avant’s products, which previously cost between $1595 to over sixteen thousand dollars were slashed in price by up to $5,000.
But why the adjustment and on a larger note, why such a dramatic price adjustment?
Avant’s premium conference, Transcend, which was a five day conference retailing for $16,495 has been completely removed from the Avant product line.
With Avant still being in their first year of business and a Transcend conference yet to take place, presumably it was dropped due to poor ticket sales and fears of low attendance numbers.
Replacing Transcend is a new one day conference ‘Empower’ (a name awfully similar to Wealth Masters International’s ‘MPower’ product). Avant’s Empower conference comes in at a retail cost of $2295, much more attractive than Transcend’s previous $16,495 price point.
The remaining Avant products, Elevate and Transform have also received price adjustments.
Elevate, a 72 day home based course, has dropped from $1595 to a retail of $495. While Transform, a 3 day conference, has been slashed to almost half the original price of $9495 to just $5495.
Along with the price reductions also comes a hit in associate commissions and no doubt this will put added stress on Avant associates to sell the same products for roughly half the commissions.
This assumes of course that Avant has proportionally reduced the company’s share of the retail product price in line with the associate’s commission. Previously this was roughly a 33/66 split for Elevate and Transcend and just under 50/50 for Transform.
Regardless of what the new commission splits are though, one thing is clear: Avant’s products don’t have any real quantifiable monetary value. And this I believe is reflective of the personal development niche in the MLM industry at large.
Sure there are research and development costs but beyond publishing expenses, factoring in an actual retail price seems to be a pie in the sky affair. And if Avant’s recent price adjustments are anything to go by, wildly flexible.
How many other products could company’s take a 50% hit in retail and still remain viable?
Whilst the price reductions will no doubt make Avant’s product line more accessible (as is the company’s stated public intention), one can’t help but ask if it was viable from the company’s launch, then why didn’t Avant launch with lower product prices.
Well, I can think of one obvious reason… greed. Or to put that greed into context, the belief that the general public at large would be willing to pay whatever price Avant decided to set for its product line. Which, by the recent price reductions were originally clearly artificially inflated to be well above their market worth.
For such a drastic product price change and the removal of the premium 5 day conference, Transcend, to all take place in Avant’s first year of business (Transcend has been scrapped before a conference was even held), product sales must have been somewhat sluggish to say the least.
Try as much as you can to put a positive spin on it, it’s hard to ignore the reality of such large price reductions as anything but a realistic adjustment in product prices from previously grossly inflated price points.
When we’re talking products that cost thousands of dollars and half of the money you pay in retail goes straight to the company associate, one can only wonder if the perceived value actually lies in the product itself, or in the bank balance of the person you’re buying from.
If thousands of dollars can be instantly wiped from a product line with little to no impact on the product line or company itself, was there ever any measurable additional value to begin with?
Here’s the Million Dollar question, Oz. What happens to all the people who bought those high-priced tickets to the Level 2 and Level 3 conferences?
Do they get a refund?
Here comes the real million dollar question.
What about those distributors that pocketed $5,000 and $10,000 per sale? Do they have to return their earned commissions?
Good luck with that.
Most, if not all, MLMs sell overpriced products. It’s a circle – the need to pay their sales people or distributors enough of a commission or residual to entice new signups and retain current personnel, which in turn inflates the price of the product, which in turn ensures that the products are mainly bought by those same distributors – with the added requirement of buying specific products at specified intervals and amounts to “qualify” to sell those products.
Oz has touched on this repeatedly when he calls these companies pyramid schemes, and he’s right.
Over the last few years, MLMs have seen recruitment increase while sales decrease. Unemployed people will look for opportunities to make money when they can’t find a job. At the same time, their lack of income prohibits them from purchasing expensive products, and retail sales are almost nonexistent in most MLMs.
Whether Avant’s prices were or are over inflated becomes irrelevant, because:
1. the product just became easier to sell, and sales volume will make up for huge commissions
2. the prices are attractive when compared with their competitors
And high prices prohibit sales in more ways than one. Not only will potential buyers balk at a high price tag, many of the sellers – who signed up due to the economy – can empathize when the buyer takes a step back.
They won’t go for the close; they’ve experienced the same thing. Believe it or not, most people that become involved with MLMs are decent people; although sociopaths tend to thrive.
Avant made a positive move (this should not be taken as an endorsement in any way). I wager that they’ll see:
1. an increase in sales
2. an increase in recruitment
3. predatory distributors leave
Their competitors in turn will use the lower price as a scare tactic, valid or not, to cross recruit Avant’s distributors into leaving the company. Cross recruiting is alive and well, and any MLM distributor knows that the surest way to increase their downline is by signing up an experienced network marketer.
The experienced marketer will bring a percentage of their downline, and their signer or enroller will not be burdened with the task of training them (if they provide training in the first place).
This is likely where any predatory distributors will go. I define predatory distributors as those that lie to recruit, push really hard for product sales, then drop off the map when they’ve made as much as they can off of their downline. They also tend to market their own products in the form of paid training, internet sites, leads, ebooks, “secrets”, etc…
That’s my (very long) take. Another good article, Oz.
$16,0000 for a seminar and a bit of a holiday !!!!!! and people actually paid for this !!!! the mind boggles
You better believe it. I have gotten my hands on the current UK price list for some of the $cientology courses and you can see where Avant and Polaris get their rip-off price inspiration from.
Click HERE to see how much it costs to learn the secrets of the “religion”.
The cheapest item on the list is the CD player or “listening system” as they call it –265 UK pounds from Hubbard & Co. –Available from KMart for $9.95.
Avail yourself of all they have to offer and you would definitely need to sell your house (and or children). Even with their discounted prices the cost of moving to the higher levels is hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Maybe the Lavenias, Krolivers and the Payne in the bum should set up their own religion. Tony “Delete” Rush could be 1st pope, and Gene Braxton his altar boy.
@Here we go again
Very good points there that I hadn’t thought to think of.
I imagine Avant are going to refund the difference of the new conferences but as for commissions… yeah, wouldn’t want to be working for Avant’s accounting department right about now.
@D.F. — what you’re saying makes sense, but it doesn’t apply in this case.
I’ve learned that Avant is down to one employee, and that they are moving from their office due to an inability to pay their rent.
I was involved with Avant until recently, and it has been a joke. The Elevate Program didn’t ship on time. When it arrived it looked like something you could buy from the Dollar Store…..the packaging was cheap, and the box turned my hands black and silver.
The 72 day money back guarantee was rarely honored, then they dropped it entirely. Part of the 72 day guarantee was that we had to login to elevateprogram.com each day, but the website didn’t exist until a few weeks ago. So no one was able to login because the website didn’t exist, but refunds were still denied. Then the prices dropped, but no refunds were issued.
First Avant charged for the ACT Event, then they gave it away for free. Again, no refunds. And it was just a dog and pony show where Tony and Gene sold their game changer program. Gene and Tony charged $200 at the event, it didn’t launch for months, and when it did they charged another $200. And it was amateurish and didn’t work as promised.
No refunds of the price difference for Elevate, Transform or Transcend.
And there was a date listed for the Transform Event in the back office, then the dates disappeared. The event was cancelled, but Brent didn’t have the sand to say anything.
If you’re not careful when you sign up, you’re automatically charged and subscribed to the Avant Marketing System….. which isn’t that good. This is on top of the monthly subscription that you have to pay for the Avant Virtual Office, which is awful, too.
I heard a rumor that Brent Payne paid over $100,000 for http://www.weareavant.com. I don’t even know what to say about that.
Look, for anyone interested in Avant, you need to ask yourself if it’s worth your money and reputation.
* Do you want to sell products where the refund guarantees aren’t honored?
* Do you want to sell products where the price gets cut?
* Do you want to sell event tickets without knowing if the event will even be held?
* Do you want to sign people up for a company where the Founding Master Distributors are constantly selling their own products? e.g. “systems”, leads, books, etc…?
Brent Payne, Gene Braxton, Tony Rush, David Varrone, Kaz Spence and David Starkey all stand to profit, but it’s your reputation on the line. And your hard earned money.
Honestly, I don’t think Avant is a scam; I just don’t think Brent knows what he’s doing. Its been excuse after excuse. To misquote a song I heard — he changes his mind like a girl changes clothes.
Thanks for that insight ‘I left Avant’.
Kinda shows the difference between going into business with a solid plan as opposed to fluffing around with positivism and hoping for the best.
So they actually launched it hey?
I remember them publishing teaser videos over at ‘The Big News’ but then they fell short of the final fourth video which was supposed to explain their product.
For months the site was left unupdated promising a fourth video and then finally recently they’ve decommissioned the domain (as you can see The Big News is now defunct).
Tony “Delete” Rush and his toy boy Gene Braxton have departed USS Avant just as it sinks below the waves into oblivion. Their murine buddy Brent Payne is left clinging to the railing and singing “Nearer my God to Thee”.
No doubt we will continue to hear of their absolute excitement at whatever new scam they get into.
The Lavenias must be following closely considering the shambles of the Give(f)lopp enterprise. Will they be singing “Nearer my Xenu to Thee”?
God help WMI (Wealth Masters International) as all of the above have departed to there! Rush, Braxton and Lavenia – add that to Hamburger and you have the best of the best scum out there!
Seems like Weath Masters International are creating some sort of “jackpot”? “Just push the right button …”.
They teach how to reduce (avoid) taxes. Most consultants in Norway got their commission transfered to debet cards – “you can withdraw $2000 per week from any ATM without paying taxes”.
Just push the right button somewhere in IRS, and I’ll guess THEY will get a jackpot here.
Actually, it was a joke. I do have that information from a member, but I don’t have enough information. I’m not looking for that kind of information, either.