Global Bank Academy Review: Personality training & passups

Global Bank Academy operate in the training MLM niche and are based out of the US state of Arizona.

Credited as the Founder of Global Bank Academy is Cheri Tree. Other executives cited on the Global Bank Academy website include:

• Jenny Luetkemeyer – President
• Steve Petersen – Compliance Director
• Daniel Silver – Chief Operations Officer
• Phillip Lechter – Vice President
• Jason L. Gust – Chief Technology Officer
• Pat Mickelson – General Manager
• Marc Gleeman – Chief Communications Officer
• Joy Elizabeth – International Events Director

As per her Global Bank Academy corporate bio, Tree (right) has

more than 20 years experience in sales and a Multi-Million Dollar income (and) is a leading authority on sales and sales training systems.

Using the B.A.N.K. system, Cheri took her annual income from $72,000 to over $500,000 in 12 months and over $1 Million within three years.

Tree appears to come from a speaking and training background, with there being no mention of an MLM history in her bio.

According to Tree’s LinkedIn profile, she founded Quattro University (2008) and Global XTS (2010).

Both of these companies appear to have operated in the training niche, with Quattro University packages costing over $20,000 and Global XTS courses up to $1997 a year.

Global XTS are still operating today, with Tree having left the company in March of 2014. That same month she went on to launch Global Bank Academy.

Read on for a full review of the Global Bank Academy MLM business opportunity.

The Global Bank Academy Product Line

As per the Global Bank Academy website,

The BANK Personality Sales Training System is a revolutionary training program designed to increase your sales up to 300%. This system was designed and formulated over the past decade by its author and creator, Cheri Tree.

BANK™ teaches you how to completely customize your sales presentation based on your client’s BANK Code.

This system will give you the skills and tools you need to profile your prospects and determine their BANK Code in less than 90 seconds. Once you know their BANK Code, they’ll give you their PIN code!

Products listed on the Global Bank Academy website include:

• Bank Pass ($109 and then $29.95 a month) – “designed to quickly and effectively identify the BANK™ Code of your contacts or potential customers”
• Bank Pro ($495) – “7-hour downloadable training program”
• CodeBreaker Summit ($1995) – “intensive 2-day experiential learning program”
• Blacklist ($5000) – “a private and exclusive, invitation-only, membership guild of top producers”
• Masters of Bank Acumen ($5995) – “intensive 4-day Masters of BANK Acumen (MBA) LIVE program”
• Professional Higher Development ($11,995) – “LIVE training event (that) combines the precise balance of exceptional training and extraordinary mentoring interwoven with the proven and powerful BANK Methodology”

Global Bank Academy Compensation Plan

Note that Global Bank Academy do not provide a copy of their compensation plan on their website.

I’ve put together the following analysis on what information is publicly available. Pertaining to commission payouts offered on specific products, I found price differences between compensation plan material I cited and the price list on the Global Bank Academy website.

As such, the specific dollar payouts at some of the Global Bank Academy product levels might be slightly off in some instances.

The Global Bank Academy compensation plan sees affiliate sign up and then pass up sales commissions to their upline. In turn, affiliates they recruit pass-up sales to them.

Commission Qualification

In order to qualify for commissions on any of Global Bank Academy products, an affiliate must either

1. pass up one retail sale (including commission) to the affiliate who recruited them or
2. purchase the product themselves

Pass-up Commissions

Global Bank Academy pay residual commissions using a perpetual 1-up compensation structure.

A 2-up compensation structure sees an affiliate pass-up the commissions of their 2nd, 4th, 6th and every 6th sale to the affiliate who recruited them.

For the purpose of pass-up calculation, each Global Bank Academy product level is tracked independently of the others.

Residual commissions are paid when a Global Bank Academy affiliate recruits new affiliates, who in turn pass up their 2nd, 4th, 6th and every 6th sale thereafter.

The exception to this is if a Global Bank Academy affiliate doesn’t qualify themselves for commissions via self-purchase, in which case they pass up both the first and second sales commission they make.

This continues throughout an affiliate’s downline, with everyone passing up commissions to the affiliate who recruited them, right up to the corporate position at the top of the Global Bank Academy compensation plan:

As for how much of a commission is passed up on each product sale,

• Bank Pass ($109 and then $29.95 a month) – pays $50 commission and then $15 a month
• Bank Pro ($495) – pays $250 commission
• Bank CodeBreaker Summit ($1995) – pays $1000 commission
• Blacklist ($5000) – commission value unknown ($2500?)
• Masters of Bank Acumen ($5995) – pays $3000 commission
• Professional Higher Development ($11,995) – pays $5000 commission

Note that the Professional Higher Development package is made up of all of the product levels below it.

Check Match and Royalty Residuals

In promotional material for a Global Bank Academy webinar held in February, there is mention of both a “check match” and “royalty bonus”.

Despite my best efforts, it appears details on these aspects of Global Bank Academy’s compensation plan are not publicly available.

As such I’m unable to provide any further information on these two components of Global Bank Academy’s compensation plan.

Joining Global Bank Academy

Affiliate membership with Global Bank Academy is $175 annually.

Conclusion

There seems to be a general veil of secrecy surrounding Global Bank Academy, with visitors to the website refused access (to even the most basic of information), unless they visit through an affiliate referral link.

Even with an affiliate link however, crucial business opportunity information such as compensation plan details are absent.

Using a perpetual 1-up compensation plan, the question of legitimacy with Global Bank Academy lies with affiliate commission qualification and non-affiliate purchase of their products.

Typically training package MLM companies are affiliate-heavy, meaning it is mostly, if not exclusively, affiliates purchasing the company’s products.

When an affiliate is able to qualify themselves for commissions via a self-purchase, this creates the possibility of a chain recruitment scheme.

Here an affiliate can sign up and then purchase Global Bank Academy’s products, separately or for $11,995, and then focus on recruiting other affiliates who do the same. They also recruit new affiliates who buy in and at no point are retail a focus or being made.

Not helping is the fact that retail viability is tied into an affiliate self-purchasing Global Bank Academy’s products, with this also qualifying them for commissions.

Cheri Tree herself acknowledges this in a Global Bank Academy marketing video, explaining that an affiliate can pass-up a retail sale to their upline,

or you can do what I highly recommend, which is a lifetime activation on our products, is to purchase the product.

You see to be a product of the product. If you’re gunna recommend something to me, I’m gunna ask you “how are you using it?”

I’d hate for you to tell me, “Well I don’t use it, I just want to sell it to you.” That would almost feel a little bit weird.

The outcome of this is you wind up with an opportunity being marketed as a defacto self-purchase opportunity, with the alternative pass-up existing solely for pseudo-compliance.

From the same marketing video quoted above, Cheri Tree advises prospective affiliates

You need to decide at this point, what products you want to purchase and become activated.

No product purchase is legally required to represent our program in the marketplace, however of course, winkwink between you and me, obviously we know why you would wanna use our products to get those results and benefit.

Furthermore all commission examples in official Global Bank Academy video presentations run on the assumption that an affiliate has self-purchased products to qualify for commissions.

If most, if not all, Global Bank Academy affiliates have qualified for commissions via self-purchase, then the reality is this purchase is acting as a defacto mandatory affiliate purchase required to participate in the compensation plan.

That an alternative commission qualification option is present is irrelevant if nobody is qualifying via it.

Why am I making such a big deal about this?

If Global Bank Academy is mostly filled with affiliates who have purchased products to qualify to earn commissions when they recruit new affiliates who do the same, effectively the company is then operating as a product-driven pyramid scheme.

Unfortunately you and me do not have access to Global Bank Academy’s sales date, but as a prospect affiliate there are certain questions you can ask to verify whether or not retail activity is taking place.

First there’s the obvious, ask your prospective upline whether or not they qualified for commissions with a retail sale or if they bought in.

If they bought in, ask how much they spent.

Then, ask about their downline (affiliates they’ve recruited). Did any of them qualify with a retail sale or did they all buy in too?

Again ask how much they spent as this is likely what you yourself are going to be up for should you sign up as a Global Bank Academy affiliate.

Needless to say, a lack of retail activity revealed during your questioning should pop up as a massive red-flag.

And if retail activity is taking place, try to ascertain how much of the sales volume generated can be attributed to it.

For example a prospective upline might tell you they have ten retail customers who have purchased the bank-pass. But if they also have ten affiliates who have gone “all in” and purchased the PHD for $11,995 each ($110,950), then their generated retail activity is clearly insignificant.

All in all I see Global Bank Academy as a throw-back to the personal development companies of the 2000s. They charged thousands of dollars for their courses and events, with none of them having any real significant retail activity taking place.

In essence, the training and development offered was really only a tie in to the business opportunity, in most cases serving to “train” an affiliate on how to sell the opportunity itself.

Global Bank Academy affiliates actually making retail sales (and not just at the lower-tier products) would dictate otherwise, but history shows us that this is unlikely.