Mannatech Compensation Plan Review 3.0
BehindMLM first reviewed Mannatech back in 2011.
Key areas of improvement I identified were the headache-inducing complexity of Mannatech’s compensation plan, mandatory affiliate autoship and high start-up costs ($3800!).
A 2015 compensation revision saw Mannatech scrap the high start-up cost but overall retain a lot of what made the original compensation plan confusing.
A lot of the confusion in the plan stems from Mannatech’s use of non-standard industry terms, which requires someone trying to understand the compensation plan look up and keep track of ten to fifteen acronyms.
Issues identified in the 2015 revision include pay to play concerns with the All-Star qualification and direct recruitment commissions on affiliate packs.
On July 1st, 2017, Mannatech launched a new compensation plan.
It’s with great excitement and enthusiasm that we enter into a new era as Mannatech.
Developed in collaboration with Associate field leaders across the globe, this Compensation Plan has been specifically designed to reward you fairly and generously for the hard work you put into growing your business.
Read on for BehindMLM’s third Mannatech compensation plan review.
MannaTech Affiliate Ranks
There are nineteen ranks within the Mannatech compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria they are as follows:
- Associate – sign up as a Mannatech affiliate
- Silver Associate – generate at least 100 PV a month, recruit and maintain at least two active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 300 GV (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
- Gold Associate – maintain at least 100 PV a month, maintain at least two active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 750 GV (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
- Director – generate and maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least two active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 1500 GV (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
- Silver Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least two active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 2500 GV (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
- Gold Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least two active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 4000 GV (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
- Executive Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least two active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 6000 GV (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
- Silver Executive – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least two active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 10,000 GV (no more than 60% from any one unilevel leg)
- Gold Executive – maintain at least 150 PV a month, recruit and maintain at least three active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 20,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg)
- Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least three active affiliates and have a total monthly downline volume of at least 40,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg)
- Bronze Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least three active affiliates, have a total monthly downline volume of at least 80,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 1 Leader Point
- Silver Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least three active affiliates (two Gold Executive or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 160,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 2 Leader Points
- Gold Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least three active affiliates (three Gold Executive or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 240,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 3 Leader Points
- Platinum Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, recruit and maintain at least four active affiliates (four Gold Executive or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 320,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 4 Leader Points
- 1 Star Platinum Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least four active affiliates (four Presidential Director or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 640,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 6 Leader Points
- 2 Star Platinum Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least four active affiliates (four Presidential Director or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 1,250,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 8 Leader Points
- 3 Star Platinum Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least four active affiliates (four Presidential Director or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 2,500,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 10 Leader Points
- 4 Star Platinum Presidential Director – maintain at least 150 PV a month, maintain at least four active affiliates (four Presidential Director or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 5,000,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 10 Leader Points
- Crown Platinum Ambassador – maintain at least 150 PV a month, recruit maintain at least five active affiliates (five Presidential Director or higher), have a total monthly downline volume of at least 10,000,000 GV (no more than 70% from any one unilevel leg) and maintain at least 15 Leader Points
PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by orders placed by an affiliate and their retail customers.
GV stands for “Group Volume” and is PV generated by an affiliate’s downline.
An active affiliate is one who meets rank qualification criteria and has purchased Mannatech products within the past six months.
Leader Points are generated based on downline affiliate ranks:
- Gold Executive = 0.5 Leader Points
- Presidential Director = 1 Leader Point
- Bronze Presidential Director = 1.5 Leader Points
- Silver Presidential Director = 2 Leader Points
- Gold Presidential Director = 2.5 Leader Points
- Platinum Presidential Director and higher = 3 Leader Points
Retail Commissions
Mannatech pay affiliates a commission when products are sold to retail customers.
Retail commissions are calculated as the difference between the wholesale and retail cost of ordered products.
Power Seller Bonus
The Power Seller Bonus is applied to monthly generated PV.
The more PV a Mannatech affiliate generates in a month, the higher the Power Seller Bonus percentage applied:
- generate up to 150 PV in a month = 5% Power Seller Bonus
- generate up to 500 PV in a month = 10% Power Seller Bonus
- generate 1000 or more PV in a month = 15% Power Seller Bonus
Retail Autoship Bonus
A $75 Retail Autoship Bonus is paid out monthly if a Mannatech affiliate has and maintains five retail customers on autoship of 100 PV or more.
Recruited Affiliate Autoship Bonus
A Mannatech affiliate who qualifies for the Retail Autoship Bonus is classified “AQ Personal Qualified”.
If an affiliate is AQ Personal Qualified, they can receive a $300 Recruited Affiliate Autoship Bonus if they recruit and maintain at least two affiliates who are also AQ Personal Qualified.
First Order Bonus
The First Order Bonus is a commission paid out if newly recruited affiliates purchase a Mannatech “Value Bundle” of products.
A 15% First Order Bonus is paid on Value Bundle orders made by personally recruited affiliates within thirty days of signing up.
Residual Commissions
Mannatech pay residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
Mannatech cap payable unilevel levels at seven, with commissions generated based on GV generated by downline affiliates within these seven unilevel levels.
How many levels a Mannatech affiliate can earn on is determined by rank:
- Associate – no unilevel commissions
- Senior Associate – 3% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- Gold Associate – 4% on level 1 and 2% on level 2
- Director – 5% on level 1, 3% on level 2 and 2% on level 3
- Senior Director – 6% on level 1, 4% on levels 2 and 3 and 3% on level 4
- Gold Director – 7% on level 1, 6% on levels 2 and 3 and 4% on level 4
- Executive Director – 8% on levels 1 to 3, 6% on level 4 and 5% on level 5
- Silver Executive – 8% on levels 1 to 3, 6% on level 4, 5% on level 5 and 4% on level 6
- Gold Executive – 8% on levels 1 to 3, 6% on levels 4 and 5 and 4% on level 6
- Presidential Director – 8% on levels 1 to 3, 6% on levels 4 and 5, 5% on level 6 and 4% on level 7
- Bronze Presidential Director and higher – 8% on levels 1 to 3 and 6% on levels 4 to 7
Big Leg Infinity Bonus
The Big Leg Infinity Bonus is a monthly bonus percentage paid out on unilevel volume generated by an affiliate’s strongest unilevel leg:
- Executive affiliates receive 1% on strongest leg volume from level 6 (capped at $200)
- Silver Executive affiliates receive 1% on strongest leg volume from level 7 (capped at $400)
- Gold Executive affiliates receive 1% on strongest leg volume from level 7 (capped at $600)
- Presidential Director affiliates receive 1% on strongest leg volume from level 8 (capped at $800)
- Bronze Presidential Director affiliates receive 1% on strongest leg volume from level 8 (capped at $1000)
The strongest leg in a unilevel team is the leg that generates the highest GV each month.
Side Volume Infinity Bonus
Whereas the Big Leg Infinity Bonus pays only on strongest leg volume, the Side Volume Infinity Bonus pays a bonus commission on volume generated in the other unilevel legs.
- Silver Presidential Directors receive a 1% Side Volume Infinity Bonus, capped at $2500 a month
- Gold Presidential Directors receive a 1% Side Volume Infinity Bonus, capped at $5000 a month
- Platinum Presidential Directors receive a 1% Side Volume Infinity Bonus, capped at $10,000 a month
- 1 Star Platinum Presidential Directors and higher receive a 1% Side Volume Infinity Bonus with no earning cap
Note the Side Volume Infinity Bonus is paid out on level 8 and deeper volume, regardless of qualifying rank.
Mentor Bonus
The Mentor Bonus rewards Mannatech affiliates each month based on the rank of affiliates they have personally recruited.
The Mentor Bonus starts at the Gold Associate rank as follows:
- Gold Associate ranked affiliate = $30 Mentor Bonus
- Director ranked affiliate = $40 Mentor Bonus
- Silver Director ranked affiliate = $50 Mentor Bonus
- Gold Director ranked affiliate = $75 Mentor Bonus
- Executive Director and higher ranked affiliates = $100 Mentor Bonus
Note that the affiliate receiving the commission must be at the same or higher rank than the rank of the affiliate they earn the Mentor Bonus on.
If the affiliate receiving the commission is at a lower rank, they are paid the Mentor Bonus at the rate of their own rank.
Eg. If a Silver Director has personally recruited an affiliate at the Executive Director rank, they only receive the Silver Director $50 Mentor Bonus for that affiliate.
Leader Check Match
The Leader Check Match utilizes the same unilevel team structure used to pay residual commissions.
The Leader Check Match is a matching bonus, paid on the residual commission and Big Leg and Side Volume Infinity Bonuses earned by Executive and higher ranked downline affiliates.
How many generations of Executive and higher ranked affiliates the Leader Check Match is paid out on is determined by rank:
- Silver Executive – 20% on one generation (capped at $250 per generation)
- Gold Executive – 20% on two generations (capped at $500 per generation)
- Presidential Director – 20% on two generations and 10% on the third (capped at $750 per generation)
- Bronze Presidential Director – 20% on two generations and 10% on the third and fourth (capped at $1000 per generation)
- Silver Presidential Director – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth (capped at $1500 per generation)
- Gold Presidential Director – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth and sixth (capped at $2000 per generation)
- Platinum Presidential Director – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth and sixth (capped at $2500 per generation)
- 1 Star Platinum Presidential Director – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth and sixth (capped at $3000 per generation)
- 2 Star Platinum Presidential Director – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth and sixth (capped at $3500 per generation)
- 3 Star Platinum Presidential Director – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth and sixth (capped at $4000 per generation)
- 4 Star Platinum Presidential Director – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth and sixth (capped at $5000 per generation)
- Crown Platinum Ambassador – 20% on two generations, 10% on the third and fourth and 2.5% on the fifth and sixth (capped at $10,000 per generation)
Note that generations in each unilevel leg are calculated independently.
Global Pool Bonus
Each month Mannatech place 1% of company-wide sales volume into the Global Bonus Pool.
Silver Presidential Director and higher ranked Mannatech affiliates can qualify for shares in the Global Pool, provided they have held their rank for at least three consecutive months and have either
- sold three Value Bundles (200 PV or more each) to personally recruited affiliates in the past month or
- have had a personally recruited affiliate qualify as a Director or higher in the past three months
If the above qualification criteria is met, Global Bonus Pool shares are allocated as follows:
- Silver Presidential Directors receive 1 share
- Gold Presidential Directors receive 1.5 shares
- Platinum Presidential Directors receive 2 shares
- 1 Star Platinum Presidential Directors receive 2.5 shares
- 2 Star Platinum Presidential Directors receive 3 shares
- 3 Star Platinum Presidential Directors receive 3.5 shares
- 4 Star Platinum Presidential Directors receive 4 shares
- Crown Platinum Ambassadors receive 5 shares
To arrive at a final figure, the base share values above are multiplied by how many Executive or higher ranked affiliates they’ve personally recruited.
Incentives
The Mannatech compensation plan mentions “incentive compensation”.
Mannatech’s exciting incentive programs can result in awarding you cash, prizes or admission to special events.
You might even find yourself at an exotic location, accompanied by your Mannatech friends and business Associates!
No specifics are provided, the those curious advised to visit the Mannatech website ‘to learn how you can qualify to earn incentive awards‘.
I might be missing something but I couldn’t see anything about incentive compensation on the Mannatech website.
Joining Mannatech
Basic Mannatech affiliate membership is $49.99 a year.
If you wish to sign up with a Value Pack you’re looking at $149.99 to $249.99, depending on which products you purchase.
Conclusion
When I recapped my last two Mannatech reviews I groaned at the prospect of wading through another complicated mess.
The good news is Mannatech have upped their game on this front.
The current Mannatech compensation, although lengthy (36 pages!), is relatively straightforward to understand.
For the most part Mannatech have abolished their use of non-standard terminology, although a few examples still exist (Downline Point Volume instead of Group Volume, for example).
Overall Mannatech’s new compensation plan is pretty robust and wide-ranging on the type of commissions offered.
It’s a unilevel comp plan with an infinity bonus, supplemented by both retail and downline purchase incentive bonuses.
The focus on retail sales is generally strong, however the only instance retail is mandatory is for autoship related bonuses.
The core of the compensation plan sees Mannatech affiliates able to self-purchase their monthly PV requirement, which creates the potential for chain-recruitment.
Not helping is the ridiculous requirement for Mannatech affiliates to purchase product.
The compensation plan material defines an “inactive affiliate” as one ‘who has not ordered any products or bundles in the previous six months‘.
Monthly PV can be achieved via retail sales exclusively, but if a Mannatech affiliate themselves don’t purchase something every six months they’re deemed inactive.
Which means they don’t get paid.
Granted a purchase every six months isn’t too bad… it’s still pay to play. More importantly it encourages an affiliate to get it over and done with via monthly autoship, which could come at the cost of retail sales.
While the autoship bonuses are nice, they can be ignored. Which is a shame, as requiring five customers on autoship to qualify is otherwise a great driver of retail sales.
The Power Seller Bonus then becomes a personal rebate, as inexplicably it counts both an affiliate’s own purchases as well as retail volume.
A good starting point to evaluate whether your potential Mannatech upline is focused on retail sales, is to find out how they’re generating their required PV each month.
If the full amount is via self-purchase, you need to make sure they’re generating the same amount at least in retail volume each month too.
Ideally an affiliate only purchases product if they actually need it, but that would require only retail volume counting towards monthly PV.
Mannatech haven’t set up their compensation plan this way, and in any event there’s nothing wrong with affiliates purchasing product (provided there’s a healthy amount of matching retail sales going on too).
One particularly nice touch I thought was the use of Leader Points over straight downline rank criteria. Leader Points offers far more flexibility when building a downline, as opposed to only counting specific downline ranks and otherwise ignoring others.
Generally speaking Mannatech’s 2017 compensation plan revision is a significant improvement over their previous efforts.
One thing to watch out for going forward however is how high the current qualification criteria rises in early 2018;
In January 2018, there will be slight increases in qualification requirements (Personal Point Volume, Group Point Volume and active legs).
Personally I’d like to see a 40/60 split in required PV, based on up to 40% self-spend and 60% minimum retail volume. Such a change could even be implemented today without much drama, but I’m not running Mannatech.
If you can carve out a retail market and resist the temptation to pay your own PV each month and focus on recruiting others who do the same, it might be worth a revisit if you’ve evaluated Mannatech in the past.
Good luck!
Oz, you are wrong on this one. The PPV (Personal Point Volume) includes your own order (Including other one time orders placed on your name) and your Preferred Customer orders (on Automatic Order or not). ALL those form part of your PPV.
The Associate does NOT HAVE to buy any product in order to get paid. It can be all his own orders (because he WANTS the products), or only his Preferred Customers or both. They just have to RENEW their position once a year with the $49,95 renewal order.
Also, their branding changed so maybe you should update their logo on this post?
Appreciate your thorough analysis.
Just wanted to point out one statement that is inaccurate. You mentioned the “active” clause, as an associate who has purchased within the previous 6 months, and in your words “don’t get paid” if they don’t meet that definition.
Mannatech uses that as a “legal” definition for active associates/customers for the quarterly reports. It is not used for compensation. The new qualification rule only requires PPV (which as you correctly point out CAN be your own purchases OR customer purchases).
Thus, an affiliate can earn money from Mannatech and theoretically NEVER have to purchase any product. Once they have purchased the initial $49.99 fee to get started, they are eligible to earn income for a year (until Renewal).
Thanks for the feedback guys.
I’m quoting the Mannatech compensation plan directly here:
If you look at the rank requirements, other than associate they all require active downline legs.
Why have “inactive” status in the compensation plan if it means nothing regarding compensation? And it obviously does, as per the above rank requirement example.
As its written the Mannatech compensation plan suggests inactive affiliates don’t earn commissions. Can we get firm clarification on this? (anyone from Mannatech corporate want to chime in?)
Thanks for the suggestion but this is something I usually leave alone. Means going back and editing a lot of posts if I try to keep up with every MLM company’s branding.
Oz, an inactive Associate is someone who has ZERO PPV’s. An ACTIVE Associate is someone who has PPV’s from his own order OR from his Customer orders or both.
He can have 2000 customers and ZERO downline and STILL make a lot of money. The downline requirement is only for leadership levels if you want to earn money from their sales volume (their own order IF they want to buy it and their customer orders combined as his/her PPV’s).
No it isn’t. It’s written in the Mannatech compensation plan in plain English:
Single-level retail sales has nothing to do with the MLM opportunity so I’m not sure why you’d bring it up.
An Associate needs PPV of 150 or more. That can come from customers ONLY if the associate so wishes.
When the PPV from customers shows on the system, Mannatech sees that associate as ACTIVE even if the associate himself bought nothing. He can have 1000 customers which contribute to his PPV.
Yet that’s not what the official Mannatech compensation plan documentation says.
Look I’m not doubting you, as pay to play in an otherwise reasonable compensation plan seems out of place, but that’s what Mannatech have published.
I agree. but look at all the details as well. Look for the FAQ’s regarding the comp plan. That will help tremendously.
Mannatech’s new comp plan does not require an associate to order products in order to get paid.
All the issues the FTC has with mlm’s is taken out of the way with this new comp plan. It is set up in such a way that one can qualify for leadership levels based purely on one personal customer orders and the downline’s customer orders.
Maybe this videos might help:
(Ozedit: Spam removed)
Ignoring the official Mannatech compensation plan doesn’t help.
Just a clarification: You say Associates and Retail purchasers to qualify.
They are not paying Retail. They (Preferred Customers or Consumers) are paying the same wholesale prices as Associates (Business Builders).
Retail purchasers do not even get an account number and their purchases are not in the compensation pool. They are treated totally separate from the comp plan.
Retail customers pay wholesale on autoship. Are you asserting that regular retail customers who just put in a random order are paying wholesale (same price affiliates and preferred customers pay)?
If so then how does a Mannatech affiliate make money on non-preferred customer retail sales?
Retail customers do not do pay wholesale on autoship.
Preferred Customers (with an account number) pay wholesale whether it is auto order or one time order.
Associates (with an account number) pay wholesale whether it is auto order or one time order.
Those few who pay Retail usually just want to ‘check a product out’ and receive no customer number. The commission from their order goes to an Active Associate (one who is ordering every month) – on a rotating basis. That Associate will receive an email saying there was a Retail order made and it is up to the Associate to follow-up with the person.
ProTip: Preferred customers are retail customers.
Preferred Customers (& Associates) pay 10% less for product than Retail Consumers. Therefore they are not the same.
How much you pay for products doesn’t define you as a retail customer in MLM. Not being an affiliate and purchasing products does.
The real difference is one has an incentive to buy the stuff, the other just want the stuff. I’m sure you can figure out which is which. That crucial difference is what separates a customer, from an associate.
To put it more plainly, a customer is OUTSIDE the company. An associate is INSIDE the company. Get it?