Bode Pro Review: Can BK Boreyko resurrect Vemma post FTC?
BK Boreyko is best known in the MLM industry for founding Vemma back in 2004. At its peak, Vemma was doing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales.
In 2015 the FTC shut Vemma down for being a pyramid scheme.
The case played out in court until December 2016, wherein Vemma reached a settlement agreement with the FTC.
In addition to $237 million dollar partially suspended and $470,136 payable fines and the surrender of various real estate and business assets, Vemma and Boreyko agreed to cease pyramid scheme business practices.
About a month after the FTC Vemma settlement, Boreyko (right) announced a new MLM business venture, Bode Pro.
Read on for a full review of the Bode Pro MLM opportunity.
The Bode Pro Product Line
BK Boreyko refers to the Bode Pro’s product range as nutritional nootropics.
For those unfamiliar with the term, nootropics
are drugs, supplements, or other substances that improve cognitive function, particularly executive functions, memory, creativity, or motivation, in healthy individuals.
Bode Pro’s specific line of nutritional nootropics include
- Happy – energy drink mix “designed to make you feel focused and give you a different kind of energy”, also acts as a hair, skin and nail supplement
- Bode Pro Burn – energy drink protein supplement (available premixed in a can or as a powder mix)
- Bode Pro Shake – fitness and weight management shake
- Bode Ionic – liquid plant source mineral supplement
- Bode Strong – vitamin and nutrient supplement, available in a single-serve packet or in a 32. oz bottle
- Bode Energy – natural caffeine based energy drink range with a “full dose of clinically studied vitamins, plant-sourced minerals and phytonutrients” (available as premium, sugar-free and bold (50% more caffeine))
At the time of publication retail pricing for Bode Pro’s products was not available.
Bode Pro will launch with powdered versions of their products in March. The rest of the product range is expected to be released over the next three to six months.
The Bode Pro Compensation Plan
The Bode Pro compensation plan combines direct retail commissions with a unilevel residual backend that pays seven levels deep.
Bode Pro Affiliate Ranks
There are twelve affiliate ranks within the Bode Pro compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Influencer – be a Bode Pro retail customer and refer one new retail customer to the business (meeting this qualification permits a Bode Pro retail customer to sign up as an affiliate), also must remain retail commission qualified
- Gold Influencer – remain retail commission qualified and have at least two retail customers
- Platinum Influencer – remain retail commission qualified and have at least four retail customers
- Platinum Influencer (MLM commission qualified) – as above plus generate 150 GV a month
- Star Platinum – generate 500 GV a month
- 1 Star Platinum – generate 2500 GV a month (no more than 60% counted from any one recruitment leg)
- 2 Star Platinum – generate 10,000 GV a month (no more than 60% counted from any one recruitment leg)
- 3 Star Platinum – generate 20,000 GV a month (no more than 60% counted from any one recruitment leg)
- 4 Star Platinum – generate 100,000 GV a month (no more than 60% counted from any one recruitment leg)
- 5 Star Platinum – generate 200,000 GV a month (no more than 60% counted from any one recruitment leg)
- Elite Influencer – generate 350,000 GV a month (no more than 60% counted from any one recruitment leg)
- Ambassador Influencer – generate 500,000 GV a month (no more than 60% counted from any one recruitment leg)
Retail customers count towards the above qualification criteria provided they purchase and continue to purchase at least 25 BV worth of product each month.
BV stands for “Business Volume” and is used to measure sales volume generated by Bode Pro product orders.
GV stands for “Group Volume” and is sales volume generated by retail customer orders and that of downline affiliates.
Retail Commission Qualification
Bode Pro affiliates must maintain 50 PV in sales volume each month.
PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by retail orders and that of personally recruited affiliates.
At least 25 PV of the required 50 PV must be sourced from one or more retail customers ordering Bode Pro products.
Retail Commissions
Retail commissions start at 15% and increase to 25% as a Bode Pro affiliate acquires more customers.
- Gold Influencer – 20% retail commission
- Platinum Influencer – 25% retail commission
MLM Commission Qualification
Only Platinum Influencer and higher Bode Pro affiliates can earn MLM commissions.
To qualify for MLM commissions 50.01% of a Platinum Influencer or higher ranked affiliate’s monthly GV must be derived from retail customer sales.
Residual Commissions
Residual Commissions in Bode Pro are paid out 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.
Bode Pro cap payable unilevel levels at seven, with commissions paid out as a percentage of GV generates across these levels.
- Platinum Influencer affiliates earn 5% on levels 1 to 3
- Star Platinum affiliates earn 5% on levels 1 to 4
- 1 Star Platinum affiliates earn 5% on levels 1 to 5
- 2 Star Platinum affiliates earn 5% on levels 1 to 6
- 3 Star Platinum affiliates earn 5% on levels 1 to 7
Matching Bonus
Bode Pro Star Platinum or higher ranked affiliates can earn a 5% matching bonus on residual unilevel commissions their downline earns.
The Matching Bonus is paid on up to four levels of recruitment, as per the following qualification criteria:
- one personally recruited Platinum Influencer affiliate = 5% match on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates)
- one personally recruited 1 Star Platinum affiliate = 5% match on levels 1 and 2
- one personally recruited 2 Star Platinum affiliate = 5% match on levels 1 to 3
- one personally recruited 3 Star Platinum affiliate = 5% match on levels 1 to 4
Leadership Bonus
The Leadership Bonus is an additional bonus of up to 5% paid out on a Bode Pro affiliate’s downline sales volume.
- 4 Star Platinum affiliates earn a 2% Leadership Bonus
- 5 Star Platinum affiliates earn a 3% Leadership Bonus
- Elite Influencer affiliates earn a 4% Leadership Bonus
- Ambassador Influencer affiliates earn a 5% Leadership Bonus
Rank Achievement Bonus
Bode Pro reward affiliates with a Rank Achievement Bonus as they qualify for each rank within the compensation plan:
- Influencer – $5
- Platinum Influencer – $20
- Star Platinum – $200
- 1 Star Platinum – $500
- 2 Star Platinum – $700
- 3 Star Platinum – $1000
- 4 Star Platinum – $2500
- 5 Star Platinum – $5000
- Elite Influencer – $10,000
- Ambassador Influencer – $25,000
Joining Bode Pro
Bode Pro affiliate membership requires first signing up as a retail customer (placing at least one retail product order) and introducing at least one other retail customer to Bode Pro products.
A retail customer is counted so long as they’ve placed a 25 BV or more product order in the last calendar month.
Once this qualification criteria is met, Bode Pro affiliate membership is $29.95 and then $9.95 a month.
Conclusion
My initial reaction to BK Boreyko launching Bode Pro was that it was an attempt to somehow circumvent court-ordered retail requirements in Vemma.
Admittedly this didn’t make much sense. The FTC aren’t stupid and BK Boreyko didn’t strike me as someone bull-headed enough to think he could get away with a simple company name-change.
Having gone over Bode Pro’s business model, I’m happy to report it’s one of the most retail balanced MLM compensation plans I’ve reviewed to date.
There is the lingering doubt of whether Boreyko would have implemented a retail-centric plan like this without the FTC looking over his shoulder, but ultimately the answer to that question is irrelevant:
For better or worse, Bode Pro is the next chapter in BK Boreyko’s MLM career.
Bode Pro affiliates can’t sign up without being a retail customer themselves first. This is a great move as it familiarizes a prospective affiliate with the products (no chance of “pay this much to get a business opportunity”).
They also need to acquire and maintain at least one retail customer with a standing monthly order.
This is a key component of the retail-centric nature of Bode Pro’s business model. Marketing Bode Pro’s products to a retail audience without a direct financial incentive is a great test for prospective affiliates.
Put simply: If you can’t generate at least one retail customer before signing up as an affiliate, MLM isn’t for you.
To qualify for the MLM side of business, a Bode Pro affiliate needs to acquire at least four retail customers. Beyond that their entire organizational volume also has to be 50.01% in favor of retail.
To help affiliates generate retail sales activity, Bode Pro offers two great incentives.
The Loyalty Program rewards retail customers with up to two free products for every six months of consecutive orders.
The “Get Happy” Program gives a retail customer a free Happy product if they refer two retail customers who each other Happy in a calendar month.
For most retail customers the first option is probably of more value, hence it’s the default option for all new customers.
Retail pricing for Bode Pro’s products is currently noticeably absent. I imagine full details will be released after Bode Pro prelaunches (full launch appears to be scheduled for March).
Looking at the bigger picture, there’s no question about it. If you don’t believe in selling products to retail customers and earning a legitimate income in MLM, Bode Pro is not for you.
Vemma was undoubtedly a pyramid scheme and by owning and operating it, BK Boreyko someone who profited via pyramid scamming.
Professionally and financially, Boreyko has paid a hefty price for his actions.
Meanwhile I can guarantee at some point Bode Pro affiliates are going to have to address the Vemma issue with retail customers or potential affiliates.
My advice is not to shy away from it. Bode Pro marks a departure from Vemma and will hopefully set a new benchmark for retail volume expectations within the MLM industry.
If the products are appropriately priced and affiliates are able to build a solid retail customer-base, Bode Pro might very well even exceed the financial success Boreyko saw with Vemma.
Good luck!
Bode was a product line under Vemma. By chopping it off from Vemma, it’s clear that BK consider the Vemma name tainted.
Oz do you ever get compensation in any form for reviews?
I sent him a chocolate Santa at Christmas, does that count?
No.
This one is credit where credit’s due.
Color me skeptical, but will fake retail customers count? Ya know, the same ones Amway uses.
Or, you could carry on focusing on recruitment and the income opportunity. You simply delay affiliate status for a month, dub them a retail customer for a month which will also boost the retail percentages, and you’re good to go pyramiding.
Seriously, am I missing something?
Again how do you sell retail if you are not signed up as a member somehow?
Whats this? A good review on an MLM product? It’s been a while Oz 😉
Regular affiliates seem to only earn discounts, not actual $$$$ by referral, not until they hit platinum. And these guys don’t sell retail specifically, but rather, sign up retail customers.
We’ll have to see if it’s possible to get around the restriction by signing up twice, once as affiliate, once as customer, to get around the 50% retail mandate.
@Char
You need to maintain 50.01% retail volume across your downline or you don’t get paid anything.
@Terrence
Retail customers can refer other customers to business. They get a ref link to track referrals but don’t earn any commissions on sales.
For Bode Pro customers not interested in the business opportunity they can get free product via the two loyalty programs.
OZ, although each end of your statement was technically current, allow me to offer some, dare I say, alternate facts.
Vemma was actually “shut down” after an ex parte hearing, meaning the judge only heard the prosecution’s (FTC’s) case, but the defendant (Vemma) wasn’t even aware the hearing was taking place – and for only 26 days.
After the next hearing, where Vemma was actually allowed to defend themselves, the judge ordered their assets to be unfrozen, and allowed them to live on to fight another day.
That ultimate legal showdown never occurred as the parties reached a settlement instead. But contrary to the impression your statement would surely leave on anyone not familiar with the case, Vemma has been open for business, as an MLM company, for the past year.
Your opinion differs from that of the presiding judge. Had he agreed, Vemma would not have been allowed to reopen, and BK would likely be in custody.
As you should know, Zeek Rewards, TelexFree, and FHTM are examples of what happens to companies when they are found to be “undoubtedly a pyramid scheme”, and their owners are adjudged to have “profited via pyramid scamming”.
At which a Judge shut down Vemma for being a pyramid scheme, based on presented evidence by the FTC. This is pretty much how all MLM companies are shut down by regulators.
Whether Vemma were aware of the hearing is irrelevant.
Without the MLM component, which is where the pyramid scheme lay.
because rather than try to defend a pyramid scheme business model in court (and lose anyway), BK and Vemma settled and agreed to stop running a pyramid scheme.
But not as the pyramid scheme it was pre-FTC shutdown. They’ve had to adopt a retail centric business model which resulted in Vemma losing millions of dollars (affiliates who made money in the pyramid scheme had trouble with retail requirements).
Opinion my ass. Vemma was shut down for being a pyramid scheme based on a recruitment-driven pyramid business model. They were not permitted to return to this model after the FTC shutdown and eventually settled and agreed to stop scamming people.
Those are facts, not opinion. And the Judge signed off on all of it.
With the exception of FHTM, the FTC had nothing to do with Zeek Rewards and TelexFree.
Quite obviously the FTC handle pyramid scheme cases different to the DOJ and SEC and have changed their approach since FHTM.
Spare me the spin Len. The sooner the MLM industry acknowledges its flaws the sooner as an industry it can work to address them.
Next you’ll be telling me Herbalife wasn’t a pyramid scheme too.
He is going to kill the industry with this bs 50% customers to qualify for commissions. It is legal to have personal consumption of products to get commissions.
If it’s not every mlm company out there should be fighting the government for it.
That’s not in question, nor is it the issue.
The issue is an MLM company having little to no retail sales activity. That makes it a pyramid scheme.
You should not be required to have customers to get paid. Yes they do help you make money also but should not be a requirement to get paid. Just my expert opinion!
No retail customers in MLM = pyramid scheme.
We’ve seen time and time again what happens when an MLM company doesn’t monitor retail activity among its affiliate-base.
Personal consumption is good enough. I do agree you should have customers but should not be a requirement to get paid.
Retail customers differentiate legitimate MLM companies from product-based pyramid schemes. Without retail activity, MLM affiliates are just getting paid based on recruitment activity.
Significant retail activity is also a way to provide legitimate product value, as opposed to a monthly fee to participate in an income opportunity (bundled with a product or service).
You support product-based pyramid schemes. Best of luck with the scamming.
@Rick
“Expert opinion” ?? You’re kidding right ?
You don’t seem to even understand the basic principle behind selling through a network and how it all started!
Paying someone a commission once an actual product or service is sold to an end consumer. Do you think those commissions are created out of thin air or what??
Not only are your 2 posts contrary to each other “1.) You should not be required to have customers” and 2.) “I do agree you should have customers”, they’re by far the dumbest posts I’ve read here in a very long time.
So please, GO AWAY!, get back to the drawing board and get yourself educated first before coming back here and giving your “expert opinion”.
How is this up for debate? If the general public does not and will not buy a product then it’s just a recruitment money game.
It’s insanity to think you’re running a business if everyone in the entire company just hires people.
So an affiliate is called a retail customer temporarily? I don’t see how this changes things. In fact, I believe this skews the numbers worse than before.
Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree and I will concede if my plan won’t work:
In my scenario, I am a recruitor and will promote the business.
Month one, I recruit 4 retail customers who will convert. Essentially, I recruit four affiliates whom I DELAY signing up.
Month two, original 4 customers are now affiliates, I recruit 4 new retail customers aka soon to be next months affiliates, who count as that months 50% retail (who will be affiliates)
Month three, the same conversion above. And so on..
If all customer/recruits follow this, I have a rolling pseudo 50% retail customer group volume.
I invent four personal retail customers that buy from me every month to meet that qualification – easy to do.
Help me understand why this won’t work.
Unless they sign up as an affiliate they remain a retail customer.
If you’re only recruiting four each month you’re not going to be able to balance your GV vs. your retail volume.
Eg. assuming recruited affiliates generate some GV, after a few months let’s say you have 16 recruited affiliates. Recruiting four retail customers probably isn’t going to balance your GV 50.01%.
So you get paid nothing.
And if you’re suggesting you recruit four and those four recruit four and everybody in your downline is going to be recruiting four new affiliates each month forever – that’s a pretty unrealistic target.
I think what it boils down to is that it’s in everyone’s interest in the entire affilliategroup that enough retail sales are done +50,01 or no commissions will be paid.
Sign up an affiliate that doesn’t sell product? …too bad, no dineros for you.
It should eventually lead to recruiting a condensed group of active productselling affiliates who in turn and in advance will have to sift themselves and only select recruits with a healthy focus on retailsales etc. etc.
Affiliates that, after a certain period, turn out not to be actively selling product should be simply removed from the downline to prevent the active ones not getting paid by those inactive “watering down” the groupvolume.
@Oz – seems easy to me, you just get your downline affiliates to create new accounts after a month and buy their Bode powder using their new accounts, while they do their recruitment of friends and family into the scheme via their old account. Hey presto, all your sales appear as retail.
I realise that reviewing the merits of powdered sugar is beyond the scope of this website but surely if these products were any good they wouldn’t need the pyramid stuff.
@Malthusian
If you’ve got friends and family legitimately buying product, why do you need to create a fake retail customer account?
Also getting every Vemma affiliate to create fake retail accounts to maintain 50.01% GV isn’t going to happen. It’s just way to much effort for it to happen.
There’s no immediate payoff remember, all you’re working towards is a monthly residual. The only time the fake account stuff happens is if there’s an immediate payoff to be had. That’s not the case in Bode Pro.
so all prospective affiliates sign up initially as ‘retail customers’ and go on 25BV per month autoship, and hang around in the hope of recruiting a new retail customer and becoming a bode pro affiliate?
this seems to me, to be a roundabout way of separating non recruiting affiliates [on autoship] from recruiting affiliates and calling the former ‘retail customers’.
why are the so called ‘retail customers’ buying 25 BV every month? is it for the product or for remaining qualified just in case they find someone to recruit in as a ‘retail customer’?
also in MLM, only around 25% affiliates manage to recruit anybody at all. the rest of the affiliates just hang around buying product and hoping to recruit.
so in any downline, there will always be a large number of non recruiting members compared to recruiting members. to remain qualified, these non recruiting members will continue to buy 25BV every month and hence the 50% ‘retail volume’ will not be difficult to generate at all.
in vemma, boreyko argued that the non recruiting affiliates on autoship, were buying the product for self consumption and were hence retail customers.
bode pro seems to be saying the same thing – everybody is a retail customer unless they recruit!
this is just not sitting well with me, something seems amiss.
You can’t sign up as a Bode Pro affiliate if you haven’t signed up retail customers first. You also need to maintain these retail customer numbers.
Retail customers can’t earn any commissions, nor can they recruit affiliates. An affiliate’s own autoship also doesn’t count towards their monthly PV requirement.
If they don’t execute an affiliate agreement, they’re not affiliates. Not much point in speculating what they are or aren’t outside of signing up as an affiliate or not.
well, this is easy stuff then. if you actively recruit, you sign an affiliate agreement, and ‘technically’ become an affiliate. if you hang around purchasing 25 BV every month in the hopes of finding someone to recruit you ‘technically’ remain a retail customer!
if the mere technicality of signing an affiliate agreement is what the FTC is looking for, the MLM industry will be happy to oblige – as long as no one asks questions about why the hell ‘retail’ customers are purchasing 25BV month after month.
maybe the FTC can coin a new term for MLM – instead of ‘retail customers’ they can call them ‘prospective/failed affiliates’.
amway with 25% recruiting affiliates would have a 75% retail customer spread. all they need to do is tell these people that they will be called retail customers and cannot sign affiliate agreements till they recruit new ‘retail’ customers.
as it is, these 75% cannot earn MLM commissions and usually hang around buying small quantities of product for self consumption. at least they got to buy product at a discount and didn’t have any autoship requirement, like the new bode pro ‘retail’ customers will have.
this type of compensation plan seems to be less about ‘retail'[ ie product value] and more about technically defining who an MLM distributor is, based on his ‘behavior'[recruiting/non recruiting].
Unless you sign an affiliate agreement, you can’t be an affiliate.
I don’t see the problem with a retail customer ordering a consumable product each month (25 BV min has got to be a reasonable quantity). If it was $100s worth of product each month, then yeah there’s a problem.
Remember Herbalife pretending their non-recruiting affiliates were retail customers? When they finally added a preferred customer option practically nobody switched to it from memory. It was all baloney.
Technically you could sign up four fake retail customers, foot the bill yourself and get each and every affiliate you recruit to do the same.
That’s a hell of a lot of effort for a 5% residual commission and no immediate benefit. I really don’t see it happening to be honest.
The intention of a retail customers as far as I’m concerned is irrelevant. If they’re not an affiliate they can spend $100s on product a month if they want.
If they’re wasting their money how is that different to ordering $2000 worth of Big Macs from McDonalds each month? You can’t blame McDonalds for selling you products you ordered as a retail customer.
Within the context of MLM, retail customers aren’t part of the business opportunity so they can hardly claim to be victims of a pyramid scheme if it comes to it.
Plus from memory I remember reading/hearing Boreyko mention a refund on retail orders.
Without access to the business opportunity there’s no motive to do so other than wanting the products. Remember, 25 BV a month is for active retail customers and is a requirement restricted to affiliates. There’s no obligation for a retail customer to purchase anything otherwise (other than qualification for the loyalty bonus).
Either you find retail customers interested in purchasing Bode Pro product each month or you won’t get anywhere in the business opportunity.
what about ‘Wanting’ access to the business opportunity? is that motive or not? you Have to be a Retail Customer purchasing 25 BV if you want a shot at being a bode pro Affiliate. this is not retail, it is the ‘first step’ to being a body pro affiliate.
how many bode pro ‘retail customers’ are going to buy less than 25BV? i can tell you now, it will be a very small number.
i think that was vemma, as herbalife has yet to implement the changes ordered by the FTC?
when people are told- hey! ‘step down’ from being affiliates to customers – they run scared, especially when you’re under attack from the FTC. this is why non recruiting vemma affiliates didn’t convert their status from affiliate to customer because people don’t like ‘losing’ something they have.
so boreyko wiped the slate clean and started over again with bode pro, only this time around he said to people – hey! sign up as customers and ‘step up’ to being an affiliate!- this will be more palatable to people.
the ‘motive’ of body pro’s ‘retail customers’ is definitely suspect to me. retail should have no motive except for product value.
so, looks to me that herbalife will have no problem following the 50% rule either. just some technical adjustments, as far as i can see.
it’s not like affiliates will have to search out ‘pure’ retail customers at all, just prospective affiliates willing to buy some some product as they try to succeed, which is what was happening all along, as it is. i say potato you say potahto or something like that.
No you don’t. Self-purchase doesn’t count towards PV, GV and BV. This is a noted departure from what is typical of MLM compensation plans.
Might have been, was going off memory.
Except they don’t need to buy anything (other than perhaps one order to sign up as a retail customer in the first place).
The 50.01% retail volume requirement also kills the idea long-term.
can this retail order be of any value, or does it have to be 25BV in order to be able to step up to being an affiliate [along with recruiting a new retail customer]?
Doesn’t appear to be. Influencer just requires 25 GV and one active retail customer. MLM commissions kick in at four active retail customers and 150 GV.
what is an ‘active’ retail customer? is it one who is on autoship of 25BV?
in a video on his FB page where boreyko explains the comp plan, it is not clear [to me] whether or not retail customers have to be purchasing 25BV in order to step up to being an affiliate.
i suspect that though [on paper] a 25 BV autoship may not be ‘mandatory’ for retail customers, in ‘practice’ it will be followed, and the autoship recruitment game will play out [like vemma] under the new garb of ‘technically’ retail customers.
So no more “opportunity” meetings? What will they be called, “Future affiliate” meetings?
The fact that people are “required” to join as a retail customer is suspect. It creates a pool of “pseudo retail customers” doesn’t it?
I’m with you Anjali.
Yup.
There’s nothing about it in the comp plan document.
The challenge still remains in how long a retail customer will keep ordering product when other similar products sell for less if they do the research.
non recruiting affiliates, which bode pro is smartly trying to pass off as retail customers, have a motivation to purchase product which is not based on price alone, but in part on the chances of them earning MLM commissions if they recruit well.
these hopefuls hang around for some time trying to get in the comp plan and if they cant, they move along. there is always high flux in this section of prospective MLM ers – they come in, do a try out, most cant swing it and they move on. this is why an MLM has to recruit continuously to make up for the non recruiters who keep leaving.
at least when these nonrecruiting affiliates are honestly called by their true name, and keep buying small quantities of product for self consumption while they wait to succeed, they have the protection of the FTC which in case of any fraud or deception, will fine/shut down the MLM and make repayments to these low level affiliates.
bode pro is going to call these non recruiting affiliates ‘retail’ customers and keep them on autoship of 25 BV [because it is the most convenient way to roll this game] and these guys will have no recourse in law for damages, because they have bought product at retail, and as oz says if someone buys 2000 burgers from mcdonalds, it’s their problem!
if one crackpot buys 2000 burgers from macdonalds one could ignore it, when most retail customers of bode pro will buy 25BV every month, we have to ask for ‘motive’. to my mind, this is a deceptive practice and not retail.
why will most body pro retail customers buy 25 BV? because, when i want to become an influencer, i need to recruit one retail customer who is active [will buy 25BV every month] to complete my GV quota of 25GV.
when i was recruited in as a retail customer, i was required to sign up for 25BV every month myself, to act as the active retail customer for my recruiter.
see the picture^^? most, if not nearly all, retail customers are going to come in at 25BV autoship! ‘Retail on Autoship’ is a brand new style of inventory loading thunked by the vemma autoship creator benson boreyko! but shush, this is ‘retail’ so everybody shut up!
on becoming an influencer, i will continue on 25 BV, because though it does not help make me retail qualified, it is required by my upline to complete his monthly qualification of of 50 PV [ 25 BV from 1 active retail customer + 25 BV from me, his downline affiliate]. my own downline will do the same favor for me.
see the picture^^^? every friggin body, retail or affiliate in bode pro, is going to keep buying on autoship, and the pious religious boreyko will go to sunday church and thank the lord for resurrecting vemma in a fashion which is acceptable to diehard retail supporters like the [outgoing] FTC and oz.
it’s a win win guys! don’t worry about those poor schmucks on ‘retail’ autoship, they are retail customers and can lump it!
no wonder boreyko is grinning so widely!!
Yep. All that Anjali. ^^^^^^^ Well said.
I also think this will especially suit the big recruiters who can consistently bring new people in every month. Dub them retail first, roll them up, replace. Any unsuccessful hopefuls will help makeup their retail numbers.
This whole thing just irks me. It’s worse than before.
Is not everyone technically a customer? I tried my company’s products and like them so I keep buying them. So there should be nothing wrong with anyone earning from this mlm game.
Saying you don’t have customers is bogus when everyone is already.
@Anjali
You do realise that you start to sound a bit desperate trying to prove that in your opinion this is not a well balanced plan do you ?
No it’s not, since A. autoship is not required so should I (or my customer) receive too much product for self consumption in a month (not likely but we don’t know that yet) I/he can simply turn of autoship since: B. I don’t qualify for commissions by ordering products for personal use.
-If my upline wants to qualify for commissions he/she better go to work! selling product to someone else than me, or train me in selling actual product to customers… required my a**!
If I don’t need it for personal use, I’m not going to order it and stack it in my garage.
How long do you think they’ll keep hanging around?
And if they can’t maintain at least 1 active customer for 3 months they’ll will be reclassified as customers again… Poof!! $$ gone.
There are plenty of barriers throughout the program to weed out the inactive and reward those actively involved in selling product first before they can even begin to build a downline.
nope. everyone cannot be treated as a customer in MLM, without studying ‘why’ they are customers. this is because a valueless product can be sold in an MLM only for the financial incentive attached to the product.
product bought and consumed by MLM affiliates is called self consumption and though commissions can be paid on them, some believe that sales to customers must be more >50% for an MLM to be legitimate.
customers are the retail customers who have no affiliation with the MLM and purchase the product only for it’s value [as perceived by them].
affiliate consumption is not considered to be a retail sale to a customer, because being affiliated to the MLM, their motive behind purchasing the product is suspect.
i admit that affiliates will have some motivation to use the product of their MLM for the financial incentives that may accrue, and they may also actually like the product too. it’s hard to separate the two motivations from each other and decide which motivation is the primary one.
an easy way to check whether affiliates are buying the product only for the financial incentive, is to have some pure retail in an MLM. if the product is bought with no strings attached, by a sizeable number of retail customers, we establish that the product has real market value and explains why the affiliates are buying it.
in vemma the FTC decided the pure retail has to be >50%. in herbalife the FTC decided the pure retail has to be >66% and i found that pretty unfair.
the nature of MLM being that of a product connected to an income opportunity, makes it difficult to find and retain pure retail customers at >50%, as most people are attracted to the ‘package’ and not just the product.
instead of understanding the nature of MLM and treating it accordingly, the [outgoing] FTC has insisted on >50% retail.
well, so boreyko is now giving them what they want without giving up anything at all. and the industry can follow suit. sign everyone up as retail customers and put them on autoship!
the funny part is, affiliates motivations to buy product has always been under the microscope, but apparently retail customers motivations for buying MLM products don’t matter at all!
anyways, welcome to the world of >50% retail in MLM. it’s so easy, i should have never bothered to resist it.
@Anjali
Guess it’s a good thing than that affiliates in Bod-e don’t qualify for commissions purchasing products for them self.
Problem solved, nothing suspect.
Only orders starting from my downline customers/affiliates will start to count for commissions.
If an *affiliate* in my downline places an order for themself there’s good chance it’s for actual self consumption.
Some simple observations:
1) The market for powdered sugar and vitamin supplement woo-woo is a crowded one. We can probably discount the notion that Boreyko knows some secret formula that makes his products much more effective, or cheaper to produce, than Gatorade.
If he did he could sell his product via conventional channels and not share his profit with a large network of sellers going door-to-door, or waste his time devising complicated compensation plans.
2) So his powdered sugar is largely the same as any other powdered sugar. However it is more expensive for people to buy.
Because commissions have to be paid to his network of people knocking on doors and the complicated compensation plan has to be administered and this has to be costed in to the product – a cost that numerous rivals don’t have.
3) So why would people buy this stuff and not (as Anjali notes) one of its cheaper rivals? Because its sales staff are that persuasive? That seems rather implausible.
4) Therefore people are buying this stuff to get into the *cough* business opportunity. All else is window-dressing.
Not if you are only spending £x on a product because you hope to make £x + n later from selling it to others. And if a product exists that does exactly the same and costs less than £x but does offer the promise of making £x + n later.
if this product was so great and in such demand, he would have kept selling under the vemma name and brought it back with a repaired rep. he had to change the name for a new scam.
SO is he asking his Vemma list to join this so as to close up Vemma?
I picked my username for a reason…. the Model used by ALMOST every MLM company today is BROKEN. MLM is different from Direct Sales for one basic reason:
Direct Sales – Reps sell a “product or service” and have to compete on value (price is part of the discussion)
MLM – Reps sell “hope and opportunity” (price is not a factor – it’s all emotion based. Ever heard this before?
MLM Guru flashes his/her check and asks, “Are you going to let the price of our products stand in the way of achieving financial freedom? Your family deserves better. Are you a winner or a loser? Besides, just get 4 others to pay the extra price AND your products are FREE”
Any conversation about Retail Sales within the MLM Model has to start with this basic fact: MLM products, with rare exceptions, are overpriced.
Then add the digital options (Amazon, Jet.com, eBates etc) to the distribution channel and it becomes clear:
MLM ADDS cost to the delivery of products. Today, it is all about the elimination of those costs.
Now, can anyone explain how MLM can success in the Direct Sales space?
In the year 2017, the consumer is moving towards the digital channel and away from high-price delivery models.
Plus, the majority of people do not see themselves as sales-types. They fear the thought of selling anything…period. Fact: Most people fear rejection and public ridicule.
It’s basic stuff even though most people are still stuck in the past. Digital will eventually beat all other forms of distribution and messaging.
One obvious example:
During this past Presidential election, $1.5 billion was spent by one candidate and supporters on print media, tv ads etc. Another candidate used digital (twitter) to state their case for FREE.
Guess who won?
Final comment: I might not use digital marketing but I would hate to compete against it.
MLM – Broken Model
25 BV a month for consumable Bode Pro product is like one BigMac a week consumption wise. It’s not going to raise any eyebrows.
If it was 100 BV worth of product I might raise an eyebrow. 25 BV is well within the boundaries of monthly personal consumption of a consumable product.
I drink an energy/nutritional powder mix with water (non-MLM) and go through more than ~$30 a month. I see genuine Bode Pro retail customers doing the same.
my worry is not about whether the quantity of bode pro product it’s ‘retail’ customers will be purchasing each month is an easily consumable amount or not.
i am questioning the ‘motive’ of these retail customers who will be purchasing 25BV every month, which is the exact amount needed to play the recruitment game in bode pro.
are they genuine retail customers if their motive is to get in the comp plan?
when bode pro launches in feb, hordes of ‘retail’ customers will sign up to purchase 25BV . isn’t that strange? do newly launched products attract so much retail consumer interest right off the bat, that too with no advertisement except a website?
the honest truth is that seasoned MLM participants and hopeful MLM participants will sign up as bode pro retail customers and when they recruit they will be called affiliates.
this behavior is not ‘retail’.
i dislike the dishonesty of calling it ‘retail’.
if bode pro hopefuls who buy small amounts of products [with a future profit motive] can be called retail, why isn’t affiliates buying small amounts of product [with a future profit motive] retail? neither can hope to earn anything much till they actively recruit. the difference is only one of signing an affiliate agreement, the behavior is the same.
it’s just old wine in a new bottle, the substance is the same.
I don’t know how many times this has to be said, your own purchase volume doesn’t count towards Bode Pro affiliate qualification.
You can spend whatever 25 BV comes to or whatever 5000 BV comes to, it makes no difference to you wanting to qualify as an affiliate.
You don’t have to be an active retail customer either so there’s absolutely no monthly commitment required for prospective affiliates.
like i said, my own purchase volume will not qualify me, but it will qualify my upline. my downline’s personal purchase will qualify me. and everyone will buy exactly 25BV for personal consumption to help qualify each other. this is like self qualification one step removed. how many affiliates will buy anything less than 25BV for their personal consumption?
in FTC vs vemma, boreyko had proposed a comp plan to the court in which he replaced self qualification with downline qualification, but judge tuchi rejected it saying the ‘motive’ of the downline affiliates would still be suspect and it could be inventory loading instead of genuine self consumption.
truthinadvertising.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Vemma-order-re-revised-comp-plan.pdf
i see the same thing^^ happening with bode pro. downlines purchasing exactly 25 BV to qualify their uplines, which may not be genuine self consumption but inventory loading.
you mean i could buy one bar of bode pro happy whatever of say 5 BV once, and after six months if i find a retail customer who is willing to buy 25BV every month, i can become an affiliate? i seriously doubt that. i think mostly everybody will sign up for the 25BV retail autoship from the get go.
lets wait and see, i think this is vemma V.2 with some psuedocompliance retail stuff going on.
And retail customers will give a shit because …?
Like your other arguments, there’s a whole lot of assumption and extreme “what if” going on in favor of just accepting the facts.
Because Vemma was a pyramid scheme and by that stage the company culture was too far gone (Alex Morton).
Now there’s a solid retail barrier to affiliate membership and anyone looking to get paid to recruit is going to have to put in a ton of effort for not much of a return.
No, that makes it a pyramid scheme. You need money coming in to the business from the outside – the vast majority in a real business (say, 95% or better) for it to thrive for everyone.
Otherwise you’d need a dozen down line buying product for one person to profit, and that’s a pyramid scheme.
genuine retail customers will not give a shit, but when all prospective affiliates have to be retail customers first, they will definitely give a shit about qualifying their upline.
you have access to the comp plan. can i become an affiliate after buying a single bode pro product of say 5BV only once, many months ago?
and because at that point of time judge tuchi and the FTC did not know boreyko would invent a new autoship pyramid in which not only affiliates would help qualify each other [inventory loading], but prospective affiliates pretending to be retail customers would also help qualify each other’s retail quotas [inventory loading].
paging judge tuchi!! hello outgoing FTC, look at this before you go !! 🙂
Why?
We only see affiliates purchasing product they don’t need when it personally qualifies them for commissions. That’s not possible in Bode Pro (as a retail customer or otherwise).
You’re arguing a scenario I don’t think I’ve ever seen in an MLM company before. Reason being it makes no sense and goes against a prospective affiliate’s own financial well-being.
As per the Bode Pro compensation plan as it’s currently written, yep.
Jumping the gun there a bit no? An affiliate’s own autoship doesn’t qualify them for commissions.
The kumbuya scenario you’ve come up with isn’t feasible IMO.
you haven’t seen this scenario before because boreyko has freshly minted this trick.
people pay in MLM to stay in the game, not necessarily because they personally qualify.
instead of paying for self qualification they will pay for upline qualification and expect the same from their downline, and this culture will set in. everybody helps each other, because MLM is about team work and all that!
that’s good to know. as in any real world retail environment, i expect retail customers to buy a product or two now and then, and go on 25BV autoship only when they become raving fans of the product.
for instance, if a popular brand like pepsi were to offer autoship of one crate per month, only a small percentage of retail buyers would sign up for it, as retail customers usually purchase off and on, on a mood basis.
similarly in bode pro, customers going on autoship will be a small percentage of the total customer base, and at the very beginning of the launch very very few [i mean people will need time to become raving fans and go on autoship wont they?]
as every affiliate needs at least one customer on autoship, it follows that affiliate numbers will also be small.
on top of this, affiliates need not buy any product for self consumption as they cannot qualify on it.
putting these points together ie – small percentage of customers on autoship + small number of affiliates + low affiliate product purchase = low group volume = low MLM commissions.
hmm how many MLM ers would be interested in this^^ scenario?
except of course, if there’s a mad rush of ‘retail customers’ signing up for autoship left right and center like there’s no tomorrow, right?
if this happens^^ i’m thinking pepsi should immediately launch a retail autoship program because retail customers just looove autoship! they’ve been sleeping until now!!
As an affiliate, I “personally” only need 100 BV (25 x 4) retail a month to qualify regardless of how many are in my downline. And then my downline needs to do the same? We all need only 100 BV retail?
Or, say I have 100 downline @ 25 BV (2500), I have to “personally” retail 1250 BV a month to qualify?
Or, retail match 50% of my entire downline BV?
IMO this isn’t sustainable even in the short term. People stop spending money when there’s no personal benefit quick smart.
@Char
50.01% is GV, so whole downline volume.
Maybe not Pepsi (yet?) but a number of traditional manufacturers like Gilette with its razorblades and Hewlett Packard with inkcartridges have actually introduced Autoship Programs for their products traditionally sold through retail outlets.
Anything from flowers to diapers to kitty litter etc. is offered through Subscription Based Commerce.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of them have a sort of Incentive/affiliate Program attached to it..”recommend us to a friend and receive etc.
gilette is an old brand with probably many loyal customers. how many gilette retail customers do you think are going to sign up for this autoship? could around 80% or so sign up? because that’s the approximate autoship figure you can expect from bode pro ‘retail’ customers even though the brand is new.
this is because bode pro’s ‘retail’ customers are actually prospective affiliates investing money to get into the comp plan.
in an interview with tony cannuli who covers MLM, boreyko says something to the effect that for a 10 month period in vemma he started everybody off as customers and when they recruited he promoted them to affiliates. he says he had a customer ratio of 80% because he differentiated between customers and affiliates by how they behaved ie – recruiting and non recruiting.
he said now with bode pro he was doing the same thing of starting everybody out as customers, and 50% retail was a joke because he would have 80 % retail customers.
this^^ echoes what i’ve been trying to say here, that bode pro is vemma reloaded, with some deft technical adjustments to give the ‘impression’ of being true retail.
as for affiliates not qualifying themselves but qualifying via downline purchase being unsustainable as oz points out, boreyko had suggested this in vemma and was rejected because the FTC feared it might actually succeed. how he pulls this off remains to be seen. he may have another ‘trick’ up his sleeve!
the point remains that retail on autoship, fueled by a motivation to get in the comp plan, is hardly retail; and if this is retail then affiliates buying small amounts of product for self consumption with motivation is also retail.
on the subject of affiliates consumption of product being retail, MLM attorney kevin thompson who was also on the show with boreyko, said that the industry would be working to get the anti pyramiding law HR 5320 passed within the next four years [within the tenure of the trump administration]
instead of applauding fake retail, why not honestly recognize affiliate self consumption as retail, and also insist on some real pure retail? keep it simple! why play pretend and make companies jump through technical hoops?
btw, not only is a 25 BV autoship available for bode pro’s ‘retail’ customers, but also to the low level affiliates called influencers.
influencers have to remain retail qualified by sourcing half of their PV of 50 from an active retail customer [25 BV] and half can be sourced from a downline influencer [25 BV].
so the autoship is a strategy to help influencers achieve their quotas easily, and you can easily expect the large majority of the ‘retail’ customers and influencers to be on autoship because that makes this game so easy to play. just like vemma.
this program is about selling product to hopeful affiliates [who in MLM are called non recruiting affiliates] and not about retail.
this program is about convincing hopeful affiliates to stay on autoship for at least 3 months [because you did so yourself to help your recruiter] and helping them find their own hopeful affiliate who in turn will go on autoship. the flux was always high with non recruiting affiliates, and will remain high with these ‘retail on autoship’ customers too.
the lure of money is very strong, you change the rules of the game [self qualification/downline qualification] and people will adapt quickly. as more MLM adapt this type of qualification to be ‘compliant’ it becomes MLM ‘culture’.
what i see is the separation of affiliates on the basis of their behavior ie – recruiting/non recruiting, and an increased degree of active recruitment of prospective affiliates required, to enter the MLM comp plan.
i don’t see the retail at all.
i support MLM, i didn’t support the >50% retail rule, but hey! if this^^ is retail, who am i to complain [wink wink]. but honestly, i would love to see some honest retail.
until today, critics have focused on the MLM model being about self consumption and not retail. by putting up an artificial barrier between non recruiting/recruiting affiliates and calling it a retail model, the criticism will now shift to the nature of retail in MLM and whether it is genuine retail or not. it’s like lipstick on a pig or something.
Not a great sign when you google “Bode Pro”..Vemma is the first couple of searches to show up…might’ve wanted to choose a different name their BK.
In the interest of clarity could we skip Affiliates and only use Customers and Influencers. ?
..after which they *only* can join ” the Loyalty Program OR the Get Happy Program”.
From first time retail customer through to Platinum Influencer it takes at least 5 retail transactions before you can even begin to build/recruit Influencers.
Meaning you have to find yet another retail customer who -besides his/her order – is willing to pay $29,95 + $ 9,95 monthly to become an Influencer and.. rinse and repeat.
Not if you don’t want to I guess.
in the interest of honesty can we call people what they are according to their behavior, and not pin psuedocompliance tags on them?
– will or not most ‘retail’ customers and bode pro influencer’s be on autoship?
– why do you think they will be on autoship?
if you answer the above honestly, you will empathize with me when i say i cant see the retail.
when i answer these two questions i see a ‘motive’ which is more than just natural demand for a product.
increasing the difficulty of getting in the comp plan, is not equal to saying that bode pro has acquired retail customers.
– Yes, if a customer is getting value for money/if he benefits from the actual consumption of the product.
– Yes, if an influencer is getting value for money/if he benefits from the actual consumption of the product…..since they don’t acquire points/qualify for commissions with personal orders.
And *only* if they – influencer- like the product they will keep ordering it, and only then their upline will qualify for commissions.
It makes *everybody* in the upline/downline responsible for their own actual sale of products to customers,autoship or not, some who may or may not turn into influencers later.
I take it with “getting in the comp plan” you mean before I can start building my own downline?
Until then I can only make profits on retail sales: the more sales the higher the profits.
– Min. 5 retail sales first: customer(=1 sale) ->customer makes new customer(= 2 sales )customer becomes influencer, as influencer make 3 more customers/retail sales before becoming, -> Platinum Influencer…and getting in the comp. plan.
How’s that not acquiring retail customers ?
when ALL affiliates have to start as retail customers, you are not selling true retail.
because hopeful affiliates are the large majority of this retail spread, they will ‘Behave’ like hopeful affiliates and not like retail customers. they will go on autoship because that’s the way to play the game.
remove the requirement for all affiliates to start as retail customers.
let them join as affiliates with a refundable kit. they have no need to go on autoship, as they cannot self qualify.
Q: how many ‘retail customers’ will they find that will go on autoship? A: the number will be vastly smaller than the autoship numbers of when all affiliates start as retail customers.
what body pro is doing is Deception. technically it may be retail but in purpose it is affiliate behavior. a rose by any name…
courts do not only ask WHO is buying product in an MLM, they also ask WHY they are buying.
when large numbers of low level affiliates and retail customers are on autoship which fulfill each other quotas, the ‘intent’ is fairly plain to see.
Really!!??
..meaning you *really* want me to start trying to sell YOU a product and perhaps getting you in my downline as an influencer/affiliate without ME having it used myself, not even once, not knowing how it tastes, not knowing if it does what it claims to do??
Good luck with that!
Be honest, would you buy such a product if I offered it to you that way??
First rule in MLM: USE THE PRODUCT!, see if you like it…
No they won’t, unless they like the product and *want* to use it themselves because there is no game to play/no qualification.
And no, I’m not going to order just to satisfy my upline.
Oh,b.t.w.refund ? From the comp. plan: ” Once you try these products, we believe you will become raving fans! If you don’t, we’ll give you your money back…up to a full year.”
There you go..
you could have sampled the product from your recruiter and decided to sell it without being a user/fan yourself, because you know there is a market for energy drinks.
my grocer often suggests new products to me, i don’t know or care if he uses them himself, i buy the product if it appeals to me as a retail customer. you don’t need to buy a merc to sell one, as the old cliche goes.
the honest truth is that bode pro Requires Mandatorily all affiliates to start out as customers, because they need to create a fake retail audience to satisfy the 50% retail rule.
say, you have two study groups. one is a group of people who don’t know or care if the product is an MLM offering. the other group is of people who not only know the product has an MLM opportunity attached, but are keen to be a part of it.
which group will buy more product? which group of people is more likely to be on an autoship of 25BV which is the exact autoship required to quickly rise up and become a part of the comp plan?
if i don’t go on an autoship of 25BV to help qualify my upline, how can i expect the same from the person i’m trying to recruit?
and if no one or very few go on autoship, how’s anyone going to earn anything substantial?
people are not dumb. they know they have to buy 25BV for their own future success. if they don’t manage recruit themselves in a few months time, they will drop off, which is what non recruiting affiliates have always done – buy product for sometime and then leave.
let’s not pretend these are real retail customers and what not, just because they haven’t signed an affiliate agreement.
a more honest way is to call these guys what they are ie affiliates, allow them to qualify each other for small personal purchases, protect them with buy back, and figure a way to write in some real retail into the comp plan, if these guys want to move up to higher earnings.
illogical 50% rules will just make people come up with devious silly solutions like bode pro, which even a 5 year old can see through.
How am I going to do that if he didn’t purchase the product.?
Followed by: how is *your* customer going to sample it if *you* didn’t purchase it ?
you are missing the point i’m trying to make.
people can buy as much product as and when they want, without it being Mandatory.
when you force all affiliates to first be retail customers and purchase product if they want a shot at getting into the comp plan, it is ‘forced’ retail and not a true measure of product demand in an open market.
the argument for retail in MLM in premised on the need to establish Product Value. affiliates joining as customers and [mostly] buying on autoship to help their recruiter remain qualified while they await their own turn, is not true retail in my view.
@Anjali
If no one/affiliates would be required to purchase product, not even once, because in your opinion its “forced retail”, how are we going to find out if the product actually adds value and a demand for the product will show up because customers will start ordering it ?
“Forced retail” is your grocer who doesn’t have to use the product himself but he sure *has* to purchase/stack product on a shelf before he can start suggesting it to you.
And why is he suggesting that product, what’s his motive?
Are you going to make your grocer happy by purchasing product you don’t need or want so he has an income?
I don’t think so.
Am I going to (force) put my self on autoship for a product I don’t want/need, and stack it in my garage to make my upline happy because that way he qualifies ?
Hell no!
My upline wants to qualify ?
He has to do his job and teach me how to sell actual product to actual customers.
If they see value they will hopefully go on autoship and who knows even become affiliates/influencers.
really? bode pro needs to test its product value by forcing affiliate hopefuls to first buy products at full retail?
if boreyko is worried about his products value, he should give out free samples and run some surveys to see if his product will be accepted by a retail market.
then he can distribute his product via distributors or affiliates just like other products in the market are.
forcing affiliates to play pretend retail customers first, is just a method to help affiliates get their 50% retail quota, it is not about product value.
of course not.
but, if my grocer tells me that by buying product and giving him an income, i buy myself a chance to become a grocer and earn income like him, i will buy the product as a sort of ‘entry cost’.
in MLM it is called ‘pay to play’. just because my purchase doesn’t qualify me but my upline, doesn’t make it any less of an ‘investment’. just because i bought the product at ‘retail’ doesn’t mean the product has value, because my motive was to buy an entry ticket to an income opportunity.
you cannot force product on people just because they are outside the compensation plan.
I have a solution for the nagging MLM pyramid/retail problem.
The answer has been sitting in front of our eyes for almost as long as the MLM industry has been around. FRANCHISES!
If McDonalds operated the way MLM does we would find a McD’s on every street corner and the evidence of it being unsustainable or a “pyramid scheme” would be blatantly obvious.
The Franchisor would be raking in the cash signing up franchises with little chance of the franchise surviving while collecting the hefty franchise fee.
I strongly believe that there should exist a barrier to entry for MLM distributors. Maybe they should be exactly as the name suggests DISTRIBUTORS!
I propose a $5000 access entry point for a MLM distributor that then has no choice but to build a retail businesss. Retail customers can enjoy products either at retail or with a discount as a loyal customer. Loyal customers can then get their products paid for by referring others.
The Distributor can engage other distributors and earn royalties from that distributors organization so long as support and training is provided by the sponsoring distributor.
This idea that every person becomes a distributor is lunacy unto itself that has proliferated for decades slowly killing the business… a business that has way more potential than it is currently doing today.
This would erase MLM industry as we know it.
bode pro is now officially launched after a short delay of about a week.
in a video posted to FB, boreyko repeats his argument that in MLM around 70% people never refer anyone else and only 30% people manage to recruit anybody, and so that 70% should remain customers.
if the DSA is unable to push through it’s dream bill HR 5230 during trump’s tenure as president, i guess MLM will just start out all participants as customers first and get rid of the retail problem.
i may be missing the point, but to my mind it just seems like recruitment with a new label.
it seems like bode pro affiliates [called ‘influencers’] are buying samples at approx $3 apiece and handing them out to ‘customers’.
these ‘customers’ receive a letter from corporate which implies that the customer has paid for the sample.
this means that though affiliates are not expected to be ‘investing’ anything in bode pro products, they actually are, and there is no record of these expenses and the losses they make.
this also means that bode pro will be able to show that a large base of ‘customers’ are only purchasing samples, and a few of them become ‘active customers’ on autoship. this will help bode pro show a lower percentage of customers on autoship, and create the impression of true retail sales [having a high percentage of customers on autoship can raise questions about their motivation].
If someone is going to be getting into Direct Selling for the first time I would recommend that you start with a company who has already gone through the “spikes” of the FTC.
Yes, Vemma got nailed but the FTC picked the wrong company. Vemma made mistakes and was not the “Angel” in the industry.
Yes, the FTC sent a message to the industry but I would venture to say the majority of the MLM companies out there are not operating by the letter of the law. Get ready the FTC will find you.
Vemma got nailed and the result is the strongest survive and keep going. Hats off the BK Boreyko for coming back.
For the inspiring entrepreneurs interested in Direct Selling Bode Pro is a safe bet. Please don’t put your work into something that will eventually get nailed. You may be able to make a quick buck but it will not be long term.
Thanx for listening and the best to all in the Network Marketing Industry … We stand together, learn every day and all want to live the dream … ~bv
No they didn’t. Vemma was a pyramid scheme.
What is your definition of a Pyramid Scheme? Also, I did not say Vemma was not guilty … yes, they had their issues but Pyramid Scheme? … matter of opinion ~bv
The same as the FTC’s. More than 50% company revenue from affiliates = pyramid scheme.
Opinion my ass. Vemma agreed they were a pyramid scheme and promised to stop operating as one.
Those are the facts. The only person spouting opinions contrary to the facts here is you.
(Ozedit: Dummy spit removed)
You can cry all you want chief. The facts are still the facts.
Malthusian wrote …
What idiot retail customers would ever want to buy “his powdered sugar”? What differentiates “his powered sugar” from others powdered sugar?
I can’t imagine anybody building an MLM company based on somebody’s “powdered sugar.”
BK Boreyko and his family owned a vitamin supplement MLM company named New Vision in the 90’s. New Vision was charged by the FTC for making false medical claims.
New Vision claimed that one of their products could treat ADHD. In the early 2000’s, Boreyko folded New Vison company into Vemma.
Now that the Vemma name is tainted, it seems that he is going to fold Vemma into Bode Pro.