CeraCoat Direct Review: Nanotechnology coating
CeraCoat Direct is the network marketing arm for CeraCoat’s product line. Launched in 2009, CeraCoat Direct appear to based in the UK and provide a London based address on their website.
Both CeraCoat and CeraCoat Direct were founded by Elio Keller (photo right), with CeraCoat based in Switzerland and founded in 1998.
I’m not entirely sure what the relationship between the two companies is, but on the CeraCoat Direct page another company, “Success One Ltd”, is listed as the ‘exclusive Direct Sales Distributor for Ceracoat products‘.
Success One Ltd appears to be the parent company of CeraCoat Direct, with Keller (photo right) serving as the President of Success One Ltd. Whether Keller personally owns Success One or not isn’t clear.
Prior to CeraCoat Direct and Success One Ltd., Keller doesn’t appear to have any experience within the MLM industry.
The CeraCoat website does however credit Keller as having ‘worked for companies like CocaCola, Bahslen, Villiger and Buhler‘.
Read on for a full review of the CeraCoat Direct MLM business opportunity.
The CeraCoat Direct Product Line
CeraCoat is a coating for any surface, using nano technology.
Ceracoat claim that their product line is the result of ‘over 20 years of research and development‘. In a nutshell, CeraCoat is a liquid application that you apply to a surface. Once applied, the CeraCoat product then repels liquid.
An infomercial for CeraCoat’s “Absorbing Surface Protectant” goes into more detail.
CeraCoat Direct offer CeraCoat’s product range in what they call “ProfiBOX” multi-packs, the products don’t appear to be sold individually:
- Non-absorbing Surface Protectant (bathrooms etc) – $402.19
- Ceramic Engine Care (engines, gear box, differentials, chains, suspensions, hydraulic systems) – $517.10
- Windshield Care (vehicle windshields and “glasses”) – $255.36
- Vehicle Exterior Care (vehicle body) – $402.19
- Absorbing Surface Protectant (clothes, shoes, furniture, carpets, curtains, all kinds of textiles, leather, wool, polyester, mixed fabric, absorbent wood, etc.) – $287.28
A variety pack which contains one sample of all of the above plus Vehicle Interior Care, Shoes Care, Bathroom Care and “a shoe” (??) is also available for $319.20.
The CeraCoat Compensation Plan
The CeraCoat compensation plan offers affiliates direct sales commissions, with residual commissions paid out using a unilevel compensation structure.
Direct Sale Commissions
CeraCoat Direct offer a 30% direct sale commission on the sale of CeraCoat Direct products to customers.
Residual Commissions
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of the structure, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1).
If any of these level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates of their own, they are then placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel structure.
There is no depth or width limits as to how many affiliates can be placed within a unilevel compensation structure.
Using the above unilevel compensation structure, CeraCoat Direct pay out affiliates down three levels of recruitment:
- Level 1 – 30%
- Level 2- 12%
- Level 3 – 2%
Upon recruiting 10 new affiliates and achieving the “Gold Group Manager” affiliate membership level, the level 2 unilevel commission percentage is raised to 12%.
Upon recruiting five affiliates who in turn go on to recruit two new affiliates of their own, the level 2 unilevel commission percentage is raised again to 17%.
Joining CeraCoat Direct
Affiliate membership to CeraCoat Direct is free.
Conclusion
Unless I’m missing something here, CeraCoat Direct appear to only allow distributors to purchase products directly from the company via ProfiBox multi-packs.
Given the price points of these multi-packs running into hundreds of dollars and the liklihood of a retail customer needing such a large supply of the products in one order being slim, it appears as if CeraCoat Direct’s product line is aimed solely at affiliates.
The idea being that affiliates purchase the product themselves and then resell it to customers. This creates the red flag of affiliates being the only direct source of revenue for CeraCoat Direct themselves.
I couldn’t see anywhere on the CeraCoat Direct website where customers would be able to purchase individual units of the CeraCoat product line.
That said, the commissions generated via CeraCoat Direct’s compensation plan are solely based on the sales of the product.
No mandatory purchases are required from affiliates, however a stronger focus on retail sales and availability of a more retail friendly product offering and pricepoints would alleviate the 100% affiliate revenue red flags that currently exist.
Recruitment requirements to advance in the compensation plan were a potential red flag, however as they only increase the percentage paid out on the sale of products and nothing else I don’t seem them as an issue.
Marketing wise I’m not entirely sure where CeraCoat fits in. The company claims its product range is “unique” but then also that it sells “at same price as in the shops”.
If CeraCoat Direct’s product range truly in unique, why would it be in the shops? And if it isn’t unique, what is the advantage to the retail customer when buying from CeraCoat Direct or one of its affiliates?
All in all I’m left feeling a little mixed about this opportunity. On one hand they have a real product that I can certainly see as being useful to people, but the MLM marketing side of things seems to be not quite well thought out and developed as it should be.
Especially considering CeraCoat Direct entered the MLM industry four years ago now back in 2009.
Aquaphobic coating had been around for decades. Scotchguard ™ was the best known, and a more recent one is LiquiPel. There’s also NeverWet, NanoPool, UltraEverDry, AlwaysDry, WaterBeader, LotusShield…
With that being said, CeraCoat may get a lawsuit from the more established “CeraKote”… who makes special finish material for firearms.
A discussion here basically says that the website looks like it was made by a used car salesman (i.e. NOT trustworthy). Now that it went MLM, even less so.
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=72088
All in all, looks impressive, but under HEAVY competition, and may even be overpriced.
Interesting,
I have evaluated products, and no doubt, they work, and evidently the first attempt to enter worldwide distribution didn’t go so well given few ever heard of products.
I can only assume this is why they changed up marketing to a binary now, and no longer require large purchase volume, but individual items as needed, bit difference, and should make it much easier to market.
Bottom line, great product line, sure solved my issue with brake dust on alloy wheels which were always a pain to keep clean, washing car is as quick as spraying down car with hose, a real time saver, and time is money as we all know.
As many have learned, you can have the best product in the world, but unless people know about it, it will sit on store shelves given price point is higher than all the other similar products.
Consumers rarely research a product before using it, most buy based on repeated commercials, as in the success of As Seen On TV products, which are mostly junk as I evaluate them all as a hobbie. lol
So will CERACOAT-NAOTECH succeed with new binary and no longer requiring major purchase, yes, I think this little change will enable more to access product with a price point of $14.00 for affiliates and getting positioned in binary can provide an incentive to build business with product line.
So time will tell, but as in my case, trying sample got my interest, but buying into a bulk purchase for retail was not my cup of tea, I hate retail sales.
lol Now with wholesale sales being focus and on each item, this may just be the secret to mass marketing where you can demonstrate how clean your vehicle is with good old show and tell, referral marketing works.
MLM in many cases carries more negative reputation, so we shall see, love the products, so I think these changes will make a big difference. And for those who have used CeraKote for guns, I must say their product is a different product, and they sue anyone who uses their product name, so we shall see.
Success to all,
@Nano
Can you confirm there’s no retail activity taking place then?
Focusing on wholesale is just another way of saying focusing on affiliate recruitment and their purchases.
Agreed, I don’t like retail either, as I think most do not like retail sales, but I like this for it allows free distributors to purchase at 30% discount, so obviously everyone will register as a associate and purchase from themselves, and certainly, they will want to spread the word, but it is not retail in the traditional sence as I see it.
Who wouldn’t want to register to save 30%, and given retail order sites will not be active until tomorrow, that will tell us more about retail selling, for now, we can only speculate on who will retail products. Given it is such an easy product to demonstrate, I am sure there are many retail venues to retail products, so time will tell.
As I see it, wholesale is no different than selling retail at discounted prices. It is up to individual on how they want to sell it, but the bottom line is people will be buying the product for the product in the end, even if for personal use, sales are sales.
We all know most MLM’s or based on self consumption to a large degree anyway, so with Ceracoat, the carrot is the free distributorship discount offered, and with no mandatory purchase or autoship required.
I think once people experience the products performance it will take off, sure has taken off even without the products being sold yet, so the real test is to see how many of the initial 1000 distributors will make personal purchases to try out products since they are real time and money savers.
Heck, I would buy it just for use on keeping brake dust off my alloy wheels. There are so many uses, I just discovered another one, when it snowed the other day, I had treated hood with sample, and the snow just slide off hood while snow froze solid on trunk and roof I didn’t protect.
Same on windshield, so if I no longer have to srape ice off windshield, I’m sold.
Success to all,
Update:
With beta testing of free distributorship period coming to a close, an adjustment to site based on beta testers input, things are looking better every day. Product orders will start to be processed in a few days, so this will be the real test as I see it.
They are using well known shipping and distribution company used my thousands of companies whereby shipping costs will be kept low given the dozens of shipment points around country and world.
If this works as planned, shipping should be quick and cheap given product is so efficient you don’t need a lot of product to apply to a vehicle, so this is good start as I see it.
The merchant account is administered through same, so this too should eliminate the hassles many start up companies have to go through to start, especially when you go from zero to thousands of transactions overnight.
We all know how bank merchant accounts work these days, especailly if you are an MLM company, very difficult, so this appears to be another issue which will not create a problem.
I liked the fact the company listens to us, and I have had numerous talks with management on some of the issues I had early on, not product related, but operations wise having been in business myself for years.
I pushed on issues of who was MLM attorney, and if they were properly registered in all states requiring such, and this is now done and verified.
The other issue I had was any mention of income potential by chart, even with disclosures, not smart to play with fire. So I suggested using simple excel calculator and let people put in their own numbers, staying away from the big numbers which no one ever attains in MLMland other than a select few as I have seen over the years.
The NanoTechnology is the future, and having been involved in research in this industry, I understand how CeraCoat-NanoTech works and got to evaluate product through my German contacts last year.
Product is well proven in many European countries for years going back to initial introduction in late 1980’s when invented by Dr. Elio Keller. More enhancements to nanotechnology has been applied since, so product has been improved and many other applications have been thoroughly tested by independent sources.
Certifications are now posted on site along with $5M Euro liability insurance policy which I had asked for, so again, they listen to field and suggestions, and I like that.
Bottom line, no risk, no inventory requirements, no cost to register as distributor, free replicating websites, purchases are your option, and with minimum purchase requirement to open up your 1-5 levels is reasonable at just $39.00 and to open up compensation on all levels, just a purchase of $51.00 is required, very reasonable as I see it.
No confusing hype over income strategies, simple unilevel, no BV nonsense, points to dollar volume, simple enough for newbies to understand.
From a marketing standpoint, sure, there are a few similar products offered in industrial accounts, that is how I was first introduced to ceramic nanotechnology, but you have to purchase it by gallons, if not by 55 gal. drum.
Having purchased similar products by the drum, costing over $10,000. several years ago to waterproof earth bricks we had developed, I am very familiar with technology.
In fact, with results even better with testing I have been doing on roads, this may be the asnwer to preventing erosion, so this is far more than an automobile protective coating, waterproofing of leather, vinyl, tiles, granite, marble, stone, bricks, grout to prevent mold, never mind glass and windshielf treatments which stop water spots and build up of dirt and soap scum in shower enclosures.
Simply put, the applications are endless and waterproofing your coats, hats, pants, tents, sleeping bags, the list goes on and on. The fireproof protection is another soon to be released product, so will everyone want this CeraCoat-NanoTech nanotechnology?
I can’t imagine anyone not finding this product line to be in high demand with so many money and time saving applications. Look at the water you will save not having to wash cars as often, cleaning bathrooms, floors, etc. Then the time saved can add up quickly.
Simply put, I am sold on product and now it is up to the company to deliver, so when it does, I will report back.
Success to all,
(Ozedit: Spam removed)
Is the focus still on internal consumption or is retail a factor now?
An MLM opportunity without a focus on retail is doomed.
Good question,
Focus has always been on retail, but in reality, with free distributorship offered, who wouldn’t want to save money by purchasing products from their own distributorships, so it is all a matter of how you want to define a sale.
Is it internal, yes, I suppose you could say this, but how many other MLM’s are almost totally internal consumption? Amway comes to mind as the largest self cosumption MLM. In fact, I can’t ever remember purchasing any MLM product or service retail.
As I see it, this is a highly retailable product once demonstrated, but how many will want to go this route, I don’t know. I do know there is money to be made selling to wholesale users like auto dealers, auto detailing shops, at home shows, state fairs, etc.
You set your own prices at those venues, so I don’t see a real problem with offering free distributorships to allow anyone who wants to purchase product to get discount.
Is this then still considered internal consumption, and if so, so what, it is not the same as charging for a distributorship like almost all others do in some shape or form, whether it be for marketing portfolio, website or sales tracking, they all charge something which has been accepted over the years, as long as commissions are not derived from these fees. Several companies have been in gray zone with coding bonus deals like ACN like deals.
So I guess it comes down to time will tell. Personally, I would like to see it done like AirRestore does, they offer their distributorships at $39.00 and they send out portfolio for distributors with a marketing package, and a website, which is typical, and FTC doesn’t have issue with anything under $100. range last I checked.
If you make a purchase at same time for any unit, you get free distributorship, and given the company has a 30% wholesale to retail spread, it comes out close a zero cost distrubutorship.
If you look at their website, it has no mention of distributorships, so I like that strategy and have suggested it to CeraCoat NanoTech to adopt.
If you are giving a prospect the option of buying retail verses wholesale with no cost to become a distrubutor, is that then technically a retail at a discount sale given no commissions are earned by simply referring a distributor who makes no purchase from you initially, or maybe never, but if and when they do, it is a discount purchase as I see it, not a technical internal consumption purchase in the traditional sense.
As you can see, this is a gray area and if MLM attorney approved it, I would have to agree, not a legal issue as it would be in other cases where a hefty fee is paid to become a distributor and commissions are paid to recruit others with some variation of coding bonus systems.
I for one am interested in selling technology without distributorships being focus, so we shall see if this gets changed.
Success to all.
How widely spread a disease is doesn’t tell us anything about how “healthy” it will be to be infected. 🙂
If most people use the same excuses, the problem will eventually become too big to handle. Amway comes to mind as one of the biggest problems, so I didn’t understand your logic when you used Amway as an example. I obviously don’t have the same feelings for Amway as you do. 🙂
Autoship can clearly be defended. Some self consumption among distributors can clearly be defended, at least to a certain degree of self consumption. Internal sales can be defended if you find the right arguments for it (or maybe it’s about avoiding the wrong ones?).
Here you’re talking about retailers (auto dealers, auto retailing, etc.)? They will usually not buy from MLM, they will buy directly from a manufacturer or wholeseller WITHOUT the “MLM additional charges” (“MLM wholesale price” is usually much higher than normal wholesale price, because of the multiple levels of commissions).
The only ones who will accept “You set your own prices” logic are income opportunity seekers who are buying into an opportunity. But they will often PREFER high price / high profit. They will look at how much the compensation plan can pay back to themselves, “the higher price the higher compensation”. Ordinary consumers don’t work the same way.
So unless you were talking about a hypothetical scenario, price level will affect the sales volume in different parts of the market (e.g. it will affect the ratio between internal and external consumption).
I’m not familiar with AirRestore. I’m not familiar with CeraCoat either, but there I could focus on some general issues in your post.
“MLM attorney approved it” isn’t exactly a good argument to use here. We’re the “wrong type of audience” for arguments like that. You were lucky in that you only made a general “If …” statement rather than a specific one.
But all in all, you managed to communicate it well. Some of your arguments are actually relevant “at first sight”, e.g. “the problem isn’t about X, it’s about Y” types of arguments.
The cons are it’s under heavy competition via traditional retail channels, and therefore it can’t compete on price alone. And these are not exactly “lots of refill” products… You apply it once, and you don’t need to reapply for months.
@nano
And I quote (comment #4):
You’re unlikely to focus on something you don’t like. And if you’re attracted to Ceracoat and “don’t like retail”, this is likely indicative of a lack of retail focus in the company.
Why would you be attracted to a business model (retail focused) that you “don’t like”?
Well, there’s sales to retail customers and affiliate sales (internal consumption).
Close to 100% internal consumption indicates a lack of retail viability of the product line.
It is on the MLM company to come up with a compensation plan that encourages retail, or a product line that is retail viable.
Inflated product price then becomes the defacto affiliate fee and commission qualification.
Not really. This is an established arena. You either have significant retail activity or you don’t.
If you don’t, then you’re running the risk of attracting regulatory attention.
Blatantly false. Under no circumstances are affiliates (who have access to the income opportunity) retail customers.
This is neither a grey area, nor does an MLM attorney “approving” it have any relevance.
Nice to hear but that wasn’t your sentiment back in early December.
Just because I don’t like retail doesn’t mean much for all the others that do. I have corporate clients, or wholesale buyers, so this is not consumer retail in the traditional sense. I am not the door to door type of salesperson, so again, my preference, not anothers.
Private labeling is common in the industrial products market, so there is a market for those with industrial accounts, and again, this would not be promoted via the MLM route which as mentioned, is a negative to many, and I agree. As I also mentioned, I have never purchased any MLM product at retail for this very reason, mark up is usually significant.
You mentioned competition in #9, sure, there are similar autocare products by the hundreds, waxes, polishes, etc., but nothing like CeraCoat in any mainstream store like Walmart, as example, which is often used when comparing MLM products. I have found no product which comes close, at any price to date, so competition is not an issue.
Please note, the products are not yet available to distributors, so when I said in Dec. I am not into retail, I have indeed seen the light as I was at a family get together and I had the only clean car in lot, so all of a sudden I had people asking how I kept such a clean car in a snow, sleet and salted roads, so maybe I shouldn’t write off retail since product results sells itself.
As to a statement that under no circumstances are my distributors or affiliates not retail customers if they have access to commission structure. How would anyone know what price they are paying, or if they don’t sell any product and don’t earn any commissions, then they are simply buying at a discount.
Simply put, having access to commissions does not mean anyone earned commissions if they didn’t promote product. How many people register as affiliates just to buy the thousands of internet promoted products at discount. I know I do. lol So I don’t see this as being an issue.
Again, since we don’t know who will sell retail and who will only focus of recruiting given product has not been released to the masses yet, that is why I said time will tell. Since product can be demonstrated so easily, perhaps more retail will be focus, and that is why I suggested having a retail only site like AirRestore does which I also and distributor for, so hopefully this suggestion will stick.
Distributor phase was for beta testing stage, so with many of us requesting a retail site, all this debating back and forth on potential risk of authorities could be mute.
Obviously, there are millions of people who do not have internet access, so for these people, retail is the only way to acquire products, and as in any business, distributor sets his own prices, so I don’t see any issues with FTC and free enterprise where market demand determines prices.
Who said prices have to be inflated to pay commissions, every product has a built in profit margin. True, most MLM’s are overpriced, but how many have an exclusive product, most are me too products which you can get similar products at Walmart, as example.
If anyone can find same quality product elsewhere, let me know at what price and where. I found only one which was close to same, although toxic polymer based protective coating, and price was higher, but I will keep searching and researching market.
Success to all,
What they do or don’t after signing up as an affiliate is irrelevant.
That they signed up as an affiliate makes them participants in the income opportunity, and not retail customers.
As I’m understanding it, retail still doesn’t appear to be viable if you guys don’t even have replicated retail fronts yet. Taking orders from retail customers and submitting them manually is unlikely to viable if recruitment of affiliates is far more lucrative.
If one registered as a member, affiliate, and had no interest in marketing products, but was just interested in discount, that is not going to be an issue with authorities for there has to be complaints attached to any action by FTC, as example. To be a participant, you must be involved in earning commissions as I see it.
With thousands of companies offering memberships, and with it, discounts, so again, no issue with authorities I can see. I am affiliate with dozens of companies, yet market them to no one, and earn nothing, so where would the problem be without any complaints.
Another example, I am affiliate with iHerb and they went with MLM concept last year, and I do refer others for discounts and credits to be applied to my orders, and everyone who orders is an affiliate and is technically in an MLM as it is now, so there are hundreds of similar programs.
The whole purpose of regulations on retail verses internal has been going on for decades, and the only companies who were attacked were those which have had large amount of complaints for various reasons. In fact, I can’t think of one affiliate program having ever been attacked by FTC.
So with Ceracoat site saying member registration, the focus is not on income opportunity only, and that is what FTC has had issues with in past. Simply put, if you are forced to make a purchase just to earn the income, that is a problem if there is majority of purchases are from distributors only, and again, there has to be complaints to initiate any investigation by authorities, so I think Ceracoat is safe.
Retail is very viable for as I have seen, everyone who sees proof of product exceeding their expectations, they want it. Most don’t even ask how much, or ask about income opportunity, it is purely product driven demand. How many will order a stock to retail is unknown, but I have many who plan on doing just that.
I am not into stocking product or inventory management, those days are long gone for me, I work on the computer for 90% of my income and don’t want the hassle of traditional sales. I will demo product and then send them to my website, simple and effective.
I have been asked on the spot to buy product when they see my car so clean, so again, I may have a few bottles on hand, but that is as far as I will go, time will tell how many want product immediately. With multiple shipping points, deliver is suppose to be three days for most.
And as to your last point about submiting them manually, yes, that could be done if you want to retail and customer has no computer, but I prefer to have hundreds of others doing the selling and refering other affiliate members which is always far more lucrative then going out to sell retail only.
It is the old scenario of earning $100. for each sale you make, or earning $1.00 override from each sale from a hundred affiliate members working in your organization. This scenario is always more attractive to me and everyone I know. I am pushing for retail site and made some headway since last post, so all this may be mute next week.
Success to all.
Then they are an affiliate. It’s up to the company to introduce a wholesale customer class if they wish to offer a discount, or price their products accordingly in their retail offering(s).
There are an abundance of regulatory actions revolving around a lack of retail activity. I suggest you go read up on Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing.
Unless said “thousands of companies” are MLM opportunities, they are entirely irrelevant.
Furthermore that does not sound like an MLM business opportunity.
Neither of which are cash commissions, and as such are entirely irrelevant.
One problem yes, but plenty a passive pyramid schemes is possible too (free affiliate membership with commissions paid on attached product or service with no customers other than affiliate participants is hardly new).
Entirely false.
Well then there shouldn’t be a problem.
So how many sales you figure you can do a week? A month?
You do have to keep in mind that people around you is limited and soon you’ll reach saturation. You can recruit some downlines who share your enthusiasm, but they’ll soon run into the same problem.
So the question is, as you keep saying “I rather earn $1 off 100 people than earn $100 by myself”… Can you find 100 people who can sell the stuff week after week, knowing that repeat sales is months in the future, i.e. when it wears off?
That’s PARTLY true. People can be failed income opportunity seekers too, e.g. they can have TRIED to make money by recruiting other people, but have failed to recruit anyone.
I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing here, but FTC won’t need formal complaints to look into a business. It will need to file a formal complaint AGAINST the business for any court actions against it (e.g. injunctions). It won’t need any complaints from participants or customers.
If people really are buying the products or services, or it easily can be defended that they actually do that, then the formalities will be less important (whether they’re registered as customers or as distributors). “Realities will beat formalities” if we’re talking about the weight it will have as evidence.
RETAIL PRICES
I actually found single unit retail prices for each of the products, when I tried to check some details on the UK based website.
If I have interpreted it correctly, there will be few MONTHLY repeated sales to the same CUSTOMERS (the ones primarily buying products for personal use). None of the products are typically “monthly consumables”. They are “consumables”, but not on a daily or monthly basis.
You can look at the list of products I posted. Most are delivered as 200 ml spray cans. Only a few of them seems to be “frequent use” products, e.g. the Windshield Duo Bag may have some frequent use. Many of the others seem to be “apply one time” or “apply one time per season” or similar uses.
I didn’t find the new binary compensation plan. Do you have a link to it? Please disable the link, posting only the address (no “http” and “www”), or use the NOLINK method I used in post #16 (it replaced “http” with “NOLINK”).
The reason why CeraCoat has switched to MLM as a distribution model seems to be about that the products will need some personal explanations, both to get people interested and for how to use the products.
Shelfs in a retail store won’t offer that. People working in a retail store with multiple products may not offer that either (he had multiple videos talking about how to use the products).
From the “Conclusion” part of the article:
It looks like the company has switched to MLM (direct sales) distribution method, after many years selling through ordinary brick and mortar retailers.
The company owner was even trying to explain MLM / Direct Sales as a distribution model, using some “old fashioned ideas” like you could find in the 1980-ies. He’s not really “into” that part himself, e.g. I had the feeling that he partially was trying to explain it to himself. 🙂
It also looks like he has looked at other “alternative sales models” before he decided to go for MLM. He mentioned “TV Shop” types of sales as a random example. I believe he may have tried something like that earlier.
The “Old fashioned MLM ideas” I mentioned is that some types of products will need some additional sales efforts person-to-person. They won’t sell much if they’re placed in a shelf in a retail store (other than to customers already familiar with the products). CeraCoat seems to be that type of product line, it will require a lot of explanations to new customers.
I found a more detailed description, but it’s clearly from a third party source (from a book or something similar).
NOLINK://www.ceracoatdirect.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=129&lang=en
The company owner doesn’t seem to be very familiar with sales methods himself, e.g. he was more into “explaining” the products than into “selling” them. I watched 2 of his “home made videos” (office made videos), and the focus was on how to use the products rather than on sales arguments, in both videos.
“Sale is about decisions”
Sales methods will usually focus on WHY people should buy something, the RESULTS they will get / the problems it will solve / etc. if they buy a product, trying to get the customers to make some “buy now” or “buy later” decisions (preferrably the first one). The company owner had a few sales arguments “randomly mixed in”, but I had to watch the whole video to find them.
“Multiple markets?”
The product line is actually designed for multiple markets, e.g. “textile protector” is actually a different market than “vehicle care”. Different markets may require different sales methods. For people doing the sale, that will typically result in a focus on the “best selling product”, ignoring the ones that are more difficult to sell.
Companies should actually do the same, focus on the best selling products and retire the products that don’t sell.
The sales arguments I detected:
“If you protect it, you will be spending less time on cleaning it”.
“In the long term, you will also spend less money on cleaning it”.
“You can also make a lot of money on selling the products”.
It wasn’t exactly the same words he used, but the IDEA was the same. I only watched the 2 first videos I found.
“Focus on relevant questions”
I would potentially have looked at the QUESTIONS customers have asked over the years, the questions they ask BEFORE they make decisions. People will usually ask some questions if they’re interested, e.g. “How often will I need to apply it?”, “Why do we need multiple products (they all seem to be about the same)?”, or other relevant questions.
As far as I could see, the “ProfiBoxes” mentioned in the article contain 9 bottles of the same product. It makes sense from a wholesale perspective, e.g. it will reduce the shipment costs per product, but it won’t make the same sense from a consumer perspective.
From my POV, CeraCoat is clearly product oriented (opposite of opportunity oriented). CeraCoat Direct is probably an attempt to solve a problem for how to distribute the product in multiple geographical markets without hiring a complete sales force in each and every country / each and every district.
The company owner has identified some parts quite correctly, e.g. he has identified that the products may need a lot of explanations when presented to new customers. “Old fashioned Direct Sales” may be a solution to that. But I don’t think he’s “there” yet in coming up with a complete idea.
It looks like he’s trying to apply the realities to his own MLM theories, rather than the other way around (“realities first” will usually be a better idea).
That statement wasn’t very understandable. 🙂
I identified his MLM ideas to be “Old fashioned, from the 1980-ies, probably from a book or similar third party source”, a theoretical idea rather than an updated idea based on realities and personal experience. In some parts, I had the feeling that he was explaining MLM as a business model to himself.
The reality is quite different from his ideas. Most MLMs today are more about “Selling the Dream” than about selling products. Products are necessary to make recruitment rewards look more like “sales commission”, to make the opportunity FEEL more like real business.
When an idea fails to reflect the realities, the idea will need to be adjusted. The opposite thought set, expecting the reality to adjust itself to match a personal “World View”, simply won’t make any sense.
“Missing factor”
I made several other comments like that, e.g. “He seems to be more into explaining the products than he is into selling them”. Explaining a product is fair enough as a sales method, but sale will usually require an extra factor. People will need some help to make decisions too, the “buy it now” decision or “buy it later”.
“TV Shop” is using the “Order within 60 minutes, and we throw in an extra steak knife” to push people to make a decision to buy it now rather than later. That’s a type of “hard selling”, but more “soft selling” will usually make it easier for people to make decisions.
That little “extra factor” was missing in the 3 videos I watched. They focused primarily on the product itself, explaining some general details for HOW to use it more than on WHY people should use it. Often it raised more questions, e.g. “Why do I need multiple products? You used the same product on both types of surfaces”.
I live in Norway. The “Windshield Duo Bag” could act as a gate opener in that geographical market if it works against ice too. It’s relatively inexpensive (compared to the other products). “Ice free windshield and mirrors, €10 for the whole winter” can meet a market there during the winter season. “No fog on the inside of the windshield” can meet a market too. They can both be compressed into a “Clear View” sales idea.
I didn’t find any answers to “Does it work on ice too?”. I didn’t even find a “Windshield” video, other than a “mud demo” (half the car protected, the other half unprotected).
Well I am impressed, a lot of questions, concerns, opinions etc, so this does prove one thing, the information is out there, in fact several more video have been put up in back office, so you are correct, Dr. Keller, the inventor is more into explaining and demonstrating product than marketing it.
And obviously he is not an experienced MLM expert. That is why he is relying on others to handle that part of business, all he wants to do is sell more products worldwide.
It was mentioned that saturation could be an issue, and I highly doubt that, just too many applications in too many markets to ever be saturated.
The windshield kit is the lead in for those that are not sales oriented, so it won’t be difficult to sell this product as I see it and when those who do see the results, it will lead to other purchases, that is how impressive product works.
As far as being a consumable, yes, it is, but not to the degree of weekly, and since you only need one small purchase a month of $39.00 to earn commissions on your organizations sales, commissions should easily cover your own purchase.
I see this as a positive since most in MLM never earn more than the burn on products and marketing, so if it is easy to cover your own purchases, and certainly easy to demo and retail person to person, I do see a consistant consumable potential for most.
You have to see all the videos to see how effective product is, and as to products, there are technically five different products, the auto windshield kit, spray glass for larger applications in home or industrial commercial applications like office buildings, retail stores, etc.
Engine treatment which increases MPG and extends oil change intervals to 30K plus extends life while increasing performance, and it is certified third party proven results.
There is the auto finish protective coating, goes on like liquid polish. Clothes protective treatment which also protects carpets and just about everything else.
The leather care, and then the fireproof enhancement treatment which I wish I had before carpet by fireplace got burn holes from ash pops which burned spots in rug.
A few more specialized products are in final testing and certification. It is a food safe product, and for those who have granite countertops in kitchen, if seals and is anti bacteria treatment as well as sealing surface which is dangerous for food poisoning issues if you don’t bleach them down regularily.
Saturation, I don’t think so.
I am sure everyone has seen window washers dangling from buildings, well, what if they no longer had to clean windows, just coat them once every couple years. How much time and money would that save them a year? Just another example of larger potential orders.
I am also sure you have seen the regular window cleaners at store front retail establishments which again must be kept clean and inviting critical in retail stores.
Windows stay clean as a whistle, and if they do get a little dirty, you can just take a quick hose to them and they drip down dry in seconds. This will save store owners thousands a year as well for the larger retail stores or grocery stores which have a lot of glass.
I didn’t mention the grafitti protective coatings which make it impossible for paint to stick to, this is commercial side of business which is not suited for MLM model, so this is a multi faceted business opportunity, something for everyone.
Here is another one I just got done demonstrating for a client who owns upper class white table cloth bistro. I sprayed a small portion of table cloth and then poured a dark burgandy wine on it, bingo, beaded up on surface and then just absorbed it with napkin, clean as a whistle, and it blew him away.
He spends thousands on professional cleaning service for table clothes a year. Another easy sale which anyone can demonstrate, sales oriented or not, easy. Agian, this is just another example of thinking big, not the one time sale, or once a year sale.
I know how impressed I was with protecting my boots and shoes, and who wants to ruin a good pair of leather boots or shoes in winter. How many people wear boots and shoes? Hunters, another friend and client owns sporting goods store, so I demonstrated it on tents, sleeping bags, even guns. Big order here as well as he wants to retail it.
Another one I tried pitch on, another commercial account. I pulled into grocery store lot and I asked my wife, what do you think of that big red sign letters of store name? She immediately said how dingy it looked and made her not want to go into this particular store which was not in our area. She saw what I saw, a dingy sign, all dull and oxidized wasn’t inviting as first impressions are most lasting.
I can revitalize plastic to new with a five minute application, and a video done on a platic vacuum in back office of my site gave me the idea, it does amazing things to look of dull worn or oxidized plastics.
I then visited another client who owns three auto dealerships, and I said how does he like to clean his alloy wheels on his demo? No one likes the brake dust issues, I know I hate it because my alloys are intricate and very difficult to clean.
I applied product to just three spokes on one wheel in less than a minute, as I didn’t have much left from samples I was evaluating, well, he called the next day having visited family and had driven almost 200 miles in winter rain ice mix weather. He couldn’t believe it, wheel was covered with usual brake dust except where I applied CeraCoat-NanoTech, another big sale pending.
I then told him you can do the whole vehicle with similar results, and light went off in his head. He hires a mobile car wash service for his lot cars and they are there almost twice a week, more when weather is bad as in winter. Since it goes on like any preperation polish would on all new lot cars, he said this would save him a fortune on wash costs.
I will be going back to demo on a car next week when I have more product on hand. He said off the top of his head he could save several thousand a year at each dealership plus use it as an after sell which are far and few between in recent years at most dealers.
Who that buys a new car wouldn’t want it treated to stay clean longer, shines longer, uses less water to wash and less cost going through car washes saving who knows how much time and money. Would it be worth selling for $125. a car as a dealer installed option?
I have a friend who has a few car washers, but I don’t yet know how they will feel about it since it will cut down the need to wash cars, so maybe I will just pitch him on glass protection and allow wheel treatment. Have to think about this a little longer, but could be another volume purchase.
Like I said, there is no chance of saturation once you watch all the video applications. Another asked about compensation plan, and I said it was a binary, that too is up on site, and they took my advice and added an excel plug in calculator you can enter in whatever number you want to see what your potential earning might look like.
I got word that they are reviewing my suggestion to have retail site once launched and have affiliate option hidden which would force more retail sales, and more profits more quickly for everyone.
I hope the accept this suggestion as well since this is a product focused company, not the usual get rich quick look at me, we pay big coding bonus on new recruits. lol
If I missed covering a few answers, I applogize, getting late and all the information one would need is in back office, and you can register at no cost or obligation, and for thos worried about filling in SS or banking, you can skip those blocks and still get access to all the certifications and dozens of video demonstrations.
So if I missed anything, sorry, so just ask away, CeraCoat-NanoTech is indeed a one of a kind product, and as many have begun to see if their is competition, only on industrial side, and they are polymer based, and you need protection to apply along with spraygun and compressor access and cost way more.
Success to all.
(Ozedit: This is not the place for spammy press-releases.)
When will non affiliates be able to purchase? I tried to add a product to cart but it is not possible to make a purchase.
Retail sales will go live shortly, sales tax tables are being added and testing will last another day or so.
Took them TWO YEARS to go retail via MLM?
So until then, it’s a product-driven pyramid scheme.
nano, i have been reading your posts with great interest, and there is an honesty in your explanations, which demands benefit of doubt, in your favor.
you have portrayed, that cera coat products are highly retailable for a wide variety of uses.
this just flies in the face of the fact, that retail is not available to non affiliates, from the website. it does not take 2 years to make a website shopping friendly.
‘yo’ exposed your achilles heel.
Good point,
Ceracoat has been on market for over a decade in parts of Europe, this was primarily commercial product, not retail. Further development for cosumer market and increased applications came about a few years ago.
I was in Germany when I was first exposed to product in 2011. Dr. Keller, the inventor started to focus on retail, but like all products in a highly competitive market, the most expensive products never jump off the shelves without heavy advertising campaign, never mind wholesale distribution and sales people to get product into retail outlets.
It is not easy to get a new product into retail chains or auto parts stores without a backing of massive advertising campaign.
So here we are, what better sales strategy than direct marketing, or MLM, affiliate marketing, whatever you want to call the many niches in direct marketing.
The web videos do the selling on the internet, but again, seeing is believing, so a face to face direct sale was obviously the best way to expand sales worldwide.
As effective as the web demo videos are, you still have to drive traffic to product regardless of which method of advertising is used.
Anyone who has been in the product development and wholesale distribution would know this, so not to bore those who are not interested, I will leave it there.
Bottom line, Dr. Keller just wants to sell more product worldwide, take it to the next level if you will. Affiliate membership concept with the hated pyramid of MLM was chosen a couple years ago, but it never went beyond the concept point, never launched, but word spread about product and the demand increased, as my interest did when I saw Ken Howard take on the new master ditribution rights to products.
He has put together a team to bring this to market via free affiliate membership concept, and infused it with the uni-level compensation plan which is the oldest and most proven of all auch plans.
As to being available to non affiliates, of course it is, but not during this beta testing phase where interest in product was being evaluated from member response levels, which has been very strong.
In fact, the auto detail industry is all over this having been able to evaluate it for past few months as the strategy to get feedback on application issues, as in, how easy is it to apply, unlike all the other products which require a professional to use, as in needing spray guns, protective resperator, rubber gloves, controlled temperature, dust free environment, etc.
These new easy to apply consumer direct products is reason for taking this new marketing approach, pretty simple decision as I see it.
Now here was the final piece of the puzzle, international distribution, and again, anyone who has tried to launch a product worldwide knows, it is not easy, nor is it inexpensive, never mind the reglulatory obstacles.
Anyone who has shipped liquids knows the hassles involved, so as I stated above, it takes time, and word about product coming was way too early. It proved the market was there, so this was all part of beta testing phase, and now, finally, all these factors are in place for worldwide distribution, customs clearance was longer than usual due to terror alerts, the final tweaking of comp. plan and website design, more tweaking, along with compliance issues are now in place with retainer of attorney.
Final research to identify and contract with distribution centers, customer support had to be put in place, product inventories at all the shipping locations was delayed due to customs, so again, it is not as easy as some might think.
So much is involved to bring any product to market, and these factors should at least explain why it took over a year to get to this point.
Achillies heel, that is funny, as if it is ours alone. Every business has to go through this exact precedure to bring a product to market, so sorry to have bored those who are already well versed in the procedure, never mind all the compliance issues, distribution issues, customs, and website development, merchant accounts, customer service for products, then again for member support, training, sales tax compliance, certifications for worldwide distribution, Safety data compliance documents, and on and on it goes.
For those who think it is easy to bring a product to international markets, never mind U.S. with EPA terrorists attacking companies, especially ones outside of U.S. production, it is a nightmare, believe me, I have been there.
I would say the time involved is quite normal in the industry from my experience. So hopefully the logistics overview better explains what is involved for all businesses, not just CeraCoat NanoTechnology which already had a well established technology, retail acceptance, certifications complying with safety, labels which must be approved, all the issues a brand new product would also face.
It takes many years, and going through this with another product, one which also faced FDA regulations, forget about it, never again, took five years to jump through all the hoops called regulations.
Going through patent office is another nightmare, and I have seen it all, so I would close by saying, it ain’t easy. lol
Nice try, but those commercial customers were still retail customers.
Until Ceracoat introduces retail sales, you’re looking at a product-driven pyramid scheme (mandatory purchases to qualify for MLM commissions, with commissions earnt via the recruitment of affiliates who also must purchase the product).
are you saying to be successful an MLM has to start out it’s life as an autoship recruitment based model, and gradually open itself to retail? NAW !
if cera coat was selling its products from the last ten years, where’s the excuse to not do ALL the planning, and then launch as a proper MLM offering products, to Anyone who wants them.
nano, nano , thou arst slippin’.
If that’s the problem (expensive product / competitive market), then MLM will most likely be the wrong type of solution.
MLM can be useful if you wish to expand a business into new geographical markets, but don’t have the resources to do it by traditional distribution methods. MLM is relatively inexpensive for that purpose, e.g. to build up an organization.
When you first have established the business in those new markets then MLM will be more costly than traditional methods. Traditional distribution methods will gradually become more effective and less costly, allowing for reduced prices (or higher profit margins).
As far as I could see, it wasn’t the marketing that was missing, but the distribution method. Yo in post #25 couldn’t find out how to order the product in retail. Oz didn’t find any retail prices when he initially checked the website.
For me, it looked like a typical “sell a starter kit (‘ProfiBOX Mix’), and then set them up on monthly autoship” type of opportunity (where people can sell the opportunity itself = the IDEA of how much money people eventually will make from customers and from a downline).
Distribution of goods or services is about the whole process, “from the drawing board to the garbage bin” (or wherever the product eventually will end up). All parts of the process will need to be adjusted to match the other parts, as a “distribution chain”. CeraCoat seems to have some weak links in the chain, while other links seem to be over dimensioned.
As far as I could see, it wasn’t the marketing that was missing, but the distribution method. Yo in post #25 couldn’t find out how to order the product in retail. Oz didn’t find any retail prices when he initially checked the website.
For me, it looked like a typical “sell a starter kit (‘ProfiBOX Mix’), and then set them up on monthly autoship” type of opportunity (where people can sell the opportunity itself = the IDEA of how much money people eventually will make from customers and from a downline).
Distribution of goods or services is about the whole process, “from the drawing board to the garbage bin” (or wherever the product eventually will end up).
All parts of the process will need to be adjusted to match the other parts, as a “distribution chain”. CeraCoat seems to have some weak links in the chain, while other links seem to be over dimensioned.
To answer the above, there is no typical starter kit you must purchase to become an associate member distributor affiliate, however you want to be referenced as.
Again, no fee to join as member, no purchase of any kind required, although you would be a fool to not evaluate the product yourself before trying to market it, but again, no obligation, and certainly, no autoship, a big negative for most looking at MLM companies where most mandate autoship.
The focus is not on selling the opportunity, it is more a matter of offering the opportunity for free, no selling.
For those in other MLM deals who earn commissions on selling the opportunity, I can see your concern as this is called head hunting and many companies have operated in this way to increase commissions on low margin services like the typical MLM telcom did like Excel and even ACN to this very day, tons of travel deals used the same model, and now MLM mobile and energy resellers use this model. CeraCoat-NanoTech does not use any form of selling the opportunity, it is free to become member.
Distribution is the key to success, and when a product, any product does make it to the shelves of a retail store, it takes a ton of time and resources to accomplush this in any manufacturers strategy.
It takes sales people within distribution industry, whether employed direct or contracted to major distributors, this is a huge expense for any business. Then you have to back product up with massive advertising before most major retailers will even give you a chance to get on their shelves.
Millions are spent developing a product, design and labeling, compliance, certifications, and advertising is always one of the most expensive for any business. That is why As Seen on TV infomercials are such a huge success, it costs less than traditional distrbution.
For those who do not have experience in bringing a product to market, no matter how good the product is, I suggest you do your research for it is not easy. Been there, done that, and it took over five years to get on shelves of major pharmacies, so I would never go that route again no matter how good my product was.
So I explained tradional distribution, the TV infomercial strategy and that leaves the direct marketing strategy which most will call door to door selling like Avon, Tupperware or Fuller Brush did when they started decades ago.
Certainly, they still exist, and as we know, Avon converted to MLM model several years ago, so many, many others use both, direct marketing and MLM which I feel is the right strategy as it is proven over and over again in the market place.
My days going door to door are long gone, so direct marketing is not my chosen strategy, yet many of my group are using this strategy as they are comfortable selling a product they can demonstrate in less than a minute with absolute positive results every time.
Seeing is believing, and some might not believe our videos, so face to face demonstrations are far more effective. I did dozens of face to face demonstrations during my evaluation and research stage to allow me to see to believe anyone could succeed with CeraCoat-NanoTech products.
Persoanlly, from what I have learned, if you can’t succeed with this product, you might as well give up for you don’t have a chance in your own home based business given most products are not going to produce instant results.
In fact, name one other direct sale or MLM product which can be demonstrated so easily. Maybe Avon or Tupperware, but they are few and far between.
I have a friend who owns chain of car washes, so I ran it by him as an extra profit center offering to apply special windshield protection to car wash customers.
So he runs video demo on loop in waiting room to test response, and it was overwhelming, he put a $2.00 option on his menu of services, and the hand dryers apply CeraCoat-NanoTech in a couple minutes, and although he isn’t sure he wants his customers to have access to the product directly, at least not yet, he was impressed as returning customers were raving about getting splashed with slushy snow given last wet snow storm.
Slush didn’t block windshield, flowed down instantly, and when car goes through wash cycle, water just sheets off windshield along with soap which is sprayed on car.
He is going to take video of this to add to video demo we provide. Just another example of my recent experience demonstrating nanotechnology.
One other point, the retail prices are the only prices that will show up on site, member wholesale prices show up only after placing your order.
Retail sales only site is being created where no mention of discount membership will be promoted. The first site was to evaluate response from everyone, and retail only demand was stronger than expected.
We all know some people hate MLM and are turned off by income opportunities, so live and learn.
Mate if you have to make mandatory purchases to qualify for commissions, that’s as good as having to pay to become an affiliate.
And that’s worse because it’s literally “pay to play”.
No mandatory purchase, you can register for no cost affiliate associate member, and simple send your retail site to others, and earn retail 20% commission, and no personal purchase is require, so you obviously are trying to imply otherwise and I fail to understand why?
Just because you are an anti MLM zeolot, doesn’t mean you should misreprent the facts. If you choose to earn residual override commissions, then yes, this requires a purchase of just $39.00, no mandatory autoship, purely optional.
Home many MLM deals can you list who offer free no cost associate membership to access wholesale prices even on your own personal purchases?
How many do not charge for website or any distributor fees? How many offer both retail and wholesale options? How many offer commercial option selling to industry or private branding?
Pay to play, not even close, so get your facts straight, there are options, nothing is mandatory, so please name any other MLM companies which operate with no purchase required to earn 20% on retail sales?
That’s not MLM. You yourself have confirmed affiliates must purchase products to withdraw MLM commissions.
And I quote:
Call them what you want:
In Ceracoat Direct affiliates participating in the MLM opportunity are forced to purchase products to qualify for commissions.
Yet what you wrote above is exactly the definition of pay-to-play.
Other MLM companies are entirely irrelevant, we’re focusing in on your “pay-to-play” no retail MLM opportunity here.
What is it about you that you refuse to understand the facts. If you like to retail, then one can retail with program as an associate member affiliate, no purchase is required, and you earn on what you sell, as in, direct marketing option, no MLM if one does not target those looking at a business opportunity.
And no personal purchase is required, so what is it about this you don’t seem to understand. I have explained it a dozen ways, and yet you still think this is someohow pay to play, it is NOT.
Let us define options, you either choose to retail, no cost website, no purchase required, it is straigt up affiliate program, simply refer retail customers to your web site, is that clear?
Another option is for those who want to build a team of other affiliates, then you would refer them to your affiliate member site, not the retail site.
And for those like you who are confused over the different options, a separate website for retail only and is not going to mention any income opportunity at all.
Another option will be for commercial purposes, no income opportunity, and this option will target large corporations or rebranding clients who have a line of products already, whcih there are many.
So as you can now see more clearly, there are options, nothing is mandatory, nothing, no purchase, no member fees, no obligations, you choose what you want to do with product, and if you choose to be a retail customer only, that is fine with me, I earn 20% on all purchases made through my retail website.
Simple affiliate option like the thousands of others out there on the internet. This option has nothing to do with MLM.
If you want to utilize the power of the MLM option, then you do not have to make a purchase, you still have the retail option which comes with the MLM option, so you decide once again how you want to run your business.
If you happen to have others who ask and want to become customers, affiliate members or commercial buyers, then you need to purchase $39.00 for month to qualify for organization override commissions, simple, and a clear option, not mandatory.
Other MLM’s are not irrelevant which use mandatory purchases, for they are completely legal and have been for decades, in fact, name one that doesn’t require qualifying purchases, not many I know of do not require distrubutor fees, or mandatory purchase.
With all the real scams out there, I am amazed you are unwilling to see the difference. Are you just so anti-MLM that you will never see the difference between the explained options? I call it like I see it, and this is not the cookie cutter typical MLM deal.
I have a real business. I do not have to pay anyone to sell their products. It’s just that simple.
Non-MLM is irrelevant.
But like you said, you’d have to “be an idiot” not to self-qualify yourself for MLM commissions with a purchase.
Which indicates that by and large that’s what most of Ceracoat affiliates are likely doing.
And again, as per your own words, it’s mandatory:
Call it whatever you want. As per your own information MLM commission qualification in Ceracoat clearly requires a $39 a month purchase.
MLM with mandatory affiliate purchases is the problem. Stop attempting to sidestep the issue with irrelevant waffling.
firstly keep aside your direct retail websites and commercial sales websites. those have nothing to do with MLM, and don’t clutter your post with this irrelevant stuff. it’s distracting.
talking ONLY about the MLM side, you admit- ‘then you need to purchase $39.00 for month to qualify for organization override commissions,’
this means all affiliates are on autoship, which means products are being bought, for the commissions they generate, and not for the product itself. please read the burnlounge appeal order 2014. it will help you understand why such mandatory product purchases are illegal.
you may say, it is only 39$, it can account for self consumption of the affiliates, BUT self consumption is fine ONLY if there is a lot of sales to non commission earning pure consumers. as i said, read the burnlounge order.
if all/most, affiliates are on autoship, it is a securities violation, it will be a ponzi scheme.
nuskin got in trouble some time ago, with a class action by canadian affiliates, alleging a ponzi scheme, and one of the factors for this, was nuskins [approx] 20$ autoship for distributors. the court found that a jury could reasonably make a finding of ‘securities’.
i asked you on another thread, but you dint answer nano, ‘what percentage’ of ceracoat affiliates are on autoship?
There are plenty of members who only want to retail, not build an orgamization.
(Ozedit: I’m going to cut you off there. Stop crapping on about the non-MLM aspects of CeraCoat Direct.
As per your own words, participation in the MLM opportunity requires mandatory affiliate purchases to qualify for commissions.
(Ozedit: Last warning. Stop crapping on about the non-MLM aspects of CeraCoat Direct.)
@nano
you seem like a old ceracoat distributor, who loves and has great faith in the products.
when you have great products, there is Simply No Need to require forced autoship. let the consumers Be! let them Decide, if they want to take on an autoship.
if you could convince ceracoat management, to let go of forced autoship, ceracoat could set the bar for MLM companies, with great products.
what’s the harm?
I am, and when you have evaluated all the products as I have, then you too would be a believer in technology, for it works exactly as the demonstration videos show on website.
As to autoship, there is no autoship required, it is an option only for those who want the convenience factor.
It was discussed and like you, I don’t like mandatory autoship for it chases away a certain percentage of associates who also do not like forced autoship.
Like every new business, you judge the demand and make adjustments, and all the adjustments to date have favored the associate members.
Several changes have been enacted which one was the elimination of autoship requirement for the very reason you mention, when the products are that good, you don’t need mandatory autoship.
and you fail to see that if this miracle wax was so great, it would be in retailers nationwide at an affordable price. there is never a reason for mlm to begin with other than recruit.
@Nano
So how many affiliates in CeraCoat are on autoship to qualify for commissions and how many are making retail sales?
You previously claimed affiliate purchases were mandatory, sounds like your company’s compliance dept got some pseudo-compliance into you.
Either way, you made that original comment for a reason, and it’s because that’s how you marketed CeraCoat – in that affiliates had to purchase to qualify for commissions (because nobody was making retail sales).
i disagree.
no product, however great, can sell itself off the manufacturing table.
a ‘plan’ has to ‘implemented’ to get it to consumers.
the ‘traditional’ plan is to distribute it to retailers nationwide. however the costs of implementing this system, are high.
the ‘MLM’ plan helps distribution of products in a more cost effective manner. recruitment is not ‘evil’. it is the mainstay and bloodline of ‘MLM’. ‘recruitment on steroids’ is the problem, and this has to be addressed in the context of MLM companies like ceracoat/GPP.
@nano
where is GPP’s office? where is it registered?
No affiliates I know of are on autoship.
The confusion factor is this, no purchase by affiliates was EVER required to earn on any purchases made in their organization down 5 levels, but it was initially required for commisions below the 5th level, and even that is now gone, so it had nothing to do with compliance.
So how do you explain most MLM companies require autoship? Are they all illegal?
So you were lying when you stated affiliates had to make a purchase to qualify for MLM commissions?
Wow, Ceracoat compliance really did a number on you hey.
Anyway if it’s gone then that’s a good thing.
Lol, sure it didn’t chief. Sure it didn’t…
That’s for a court to decide, but forcing your affiliates to purchase products to qualify for commissions in MLM (via autoship or otherwise) is a huge red flag.
That’s why such a big deal was made following your “affiliates must purchase product to earn MLM commissions” comments.
Anyway if it’s gone then that’s a good thing.
Where is this lying? I stated it as clearly as possible, the autoship OPTION was not mandatory, and it was orginally put in place as insurance on recieving commissions for levels beyond the 5th, so I can see how you could have missed that.
So to be clear, no autoship is required or mandated, but it is an option to insure you don’t miss a purchase to open up commissions on levels beyond the 5th which for 90% is not applicable.
This too is optional now, and only offered as an insurance for those who are looking at more than a passive income.
If roughly 90% of MLM companies require autoship to qualify for downline commissions, how are all these red flags being missed by regulators? With hundreds and hundreds of companies all requiring purchases, either autoship or qualifying purchases, how can you say this is illegal?
This would appear to be your understanding of illegal, but is it? Good question, and since the whole industry for the the most part requires autoship as mandatory to earn commissions beyond personal retail only sales, I started researching this and I couldn’t find one company which has no requirement of making a purchase to recieve downline commissions.
Can anyone name a company which pays every available commission in compensation plan without ever having to make a purchase? Most also require you to make a purchase just to become a distributor as another qualifier.
CeraCoat does not require even one purchase, and you can become an associate member to access 20% on your own purchase. Another question for you OZ, name one other company (Ozedit: Offtopic derail attempt removed)
All of the so called red flags in industry have been elminated as I see it, and if one does pop up, it too is elminated, even a pink flag is evaluated to insure long term success for everyone, another first in MLMland.
Just so we’re clear then, an affiliate can sign up, qualify for commissions with their own purchase and then recruit others who do the same.
No sales to actual retail customers required.
Please don’t make up bullshit statistics, you only make yourself look silly.
Autoship that is mandatory is a red flag, and any company requiring it is definitely in the minority.
(Ozedit: If you are going to cite statistics then you need to back them up. This does not work the other way around (you asking other people to back up statistics you quote.)
What one does or does not do is up to them, no required personal or retail sales are required, if one chooses to do nothing, then why would you or anyone care, for there would be no residual commissions, so what is your point to say self consumption is required, when it isn’t.
So since you are the red flag expert, please name a few companies (Ozedit: Offtopic waffle about “other companies” removed.)
And we’re back to “product purchase not required but *winkwinknudgenudge* if you don’t purchase products then you don’t qualify for residual commissions”.
In your own words, affiliate purchases are required to participate in the CeraCoat Direct MLM business opportunity.
Nano has already had this explained to him countless times. Spam removed.
This company is the worst MLM on the planet they take advantage of people.
The so called Dr is a reseller selling to to another reseller who resells to other reseller.
Elio Keller is nothing else than a pompous conman.
Posts fake pictures showing him shaking hands with delegates at the United Nations HQ in New York and luxurious holiday homes he allegedly owns. Ridiculous.