Plexus Worldwide Review: Pink drinks & autoship recruitment

Plexus Worldwide initially launched in 2006 and are based out of Arizona in the US.

So the story goes, the original owner of the company sold it to Alfred Peterson due to poor health.

Peterson partnered with Tarl Robinson, with the pair formally taking over Plexus Worldwide in 2008.

Plexus Worldwide’s initial offering was a breast check and breast cream product, with the company expanding into weight loss in 2009.

Curiously, today Peterson’s name is not listed on the Plexus Worldwide management roster. Tarl Robinson serves as Plexus’ CEO.

Peterson (right) appears to have stepped down from his role as International President in mid 2014, with an email sent out to affiliates claiming Peterson wanted to spend some time with his new wife.

Apparently Peterson and his wife have since filed for divorce.

Why Peterson hasn’t returned to Plexus Worldwide in a management capacity since 2014 is not known.

What we do know though is Peterson filed a lawsuit against Plexus Worldwide and Tarl Robinson a few months back. A Notice of Intent to Dismiss was filed back in August but thus far the lawsuit remains unresolved.

The specifics of the lawsuit have not been made public.

On the MLM history side of things, Plexus Worldwide claims Robinson (right) is

a successful and experienced entrepreneur who brings extensive business knowledge to the company.

He has created success in a variety of businesses, including as a field rep in direct selling as well as within traditional business models.

Other than Plexus Worldwide, I wasn’t able to dig up any specific examples of MLM opportunity Robinson has been involved in.

Read on for a full review of the Plexus Worldwide MLM business opportunity.

The Plexus Worldwide Product Line

Plexus Worldwide market a number of health and wellness products, with their weight loss products being their flagship offering:

The synergistic effect of Plexus Slim and Accelerator+ taken together can help you lose more weight faster than you ever thought possible.

• Plexus Slim – “the most-natural way to lose weight and inches by burning fat, not muscle”, retails as a 30-day supply for $84.95
• Accelerator+ – “helps speed up weight loss and overcome weight plateaus”, retails at $39.95 for 60 capsules

Plexus Slim and Accelerator are marketed as being complimentary to eachother, with a combo pack sold for $114.95.

Other products marketed by Plexus Worldwide include:

• Plexus MegaX – “achieve optimal heart health with a plant-sourced omega product”, retails at $39.95 for a bottle of 60 softgel capsules
• Plexus Block – “blocks absorption of starches and sugars promoting healthy blood sugar levels”, retails at $39.95 for a bottle of 60 capsules
• Plexus Boost – “an alternative companion to Plexus Slim, formulated to energize your life”, retails at $39.95 for a bottle of 60 capsules
• Plexus XFactor Family Chewables – “contain(s) the superior New Zealand Blackcurrant, which is a powerful nutrient-rich berry known for its potent antioxidant properties”, retails at $34.95 for a tub of 60 tablets
• Plexus XFactor – “a turbocharged multivitamin and antioxidant supplement”, retails at $39.95 for 60 capsules
• Bio Cleanse – “helps cleanse, energize, support weight loss, and relieves occasional constipation”, retails at $39.95 for a bottle of 120 capsules
• Plexus 96 – a “protein shake on-the-go”, retails at $32.95 for 12 servings
• Plexus Ease Cream – “fast, temporary relief of discomfort”, retails at $39.95 for a 4oz bottle
• Plexus Ease Capsules – “For maintenance of discomfort, you will want to take the Plexus Ease Capsules”, retails at $44.95 for 60 capsules
• Pro Bio 5 – “designed to encourage balance through the intestinal tract”, retails at $34.95 for a bottle of 60 capsules
• Plexus Nerve – “a specially formulated combination of vitamins, minerals, herbs and amino acids to help support healthy nerve cells and nervous system”, retails at $47.95 for 60 capsules
• Breast Chek Kit – “enhances touch sensory for more effective and accurate breast exams”, retails at $34.95
• Body Cream – “a unique skin renewing cream with Spirulina Algae and Activated Charcoal”, retails at $49.95 for a 3oz bottle

The Plexus Worldwide Compensation Plan

The Plexus Worldwide compensation sees affiliates paid upfront retail commissions, with residual commissions on downline sales volume paid out via a seven-level deep unilevel team.

Additional rank-based bonus pools are also available.

Commission Qualification

In order to qualify for commissions, a Plexus affiliate must generate at least $100 in sales a month.

These sales can be their own purchase of Plexus products or retail customer orders.

Qualifying to Earn Income

In order to earn commissions and bonuses you must be Qualified. Being Qualified means that your Annual Membership as a Plexus Ambassador is current and that you have a Backup Order (AutoQualification) in place.

If you fail to be Qualified, you will not receive bonuses and commissions.

Note that Plexus requires every affiliate to sign up for a monthly autoship order, which orders the difference (up to $100) if they fail to generate the required $100 themselves.

 

Update 7th January 2017 – As of September 2016 Plexus have removed the Backup Order qualification requirement.

Plexus affiliates can still qualify for commissions via a monthly autoship order, however it is no longer a requirement that an affiliate have an autoship order in place. /end update

 

Plexus Worldwide Affiliate Ranks

There are eleven affiliate ranks in the Plexus Worldwide compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

• Associate – sign up as a Plexus Worldwide affiliate (no autoship order), not eligible for commissions
• Ambassador – commission qualified affiliate, single level commissions only
• Senior Ambasador – recruit and maintain two commission qualified affiliates
• Silver Ambassador – recruit and maintain three commission qualified affiliates
• Gold Ambassador – maintain three personally recruited commission qualified affiliates and have a total downline sales volume of 100 GV
• Senior Gold Ambassador – maintain Gold Ambassador rank and have a total downline sales volume of 250 GV (210 GV max counted from any one unilevel leg)
• Ruby Ambassador – recruit and maintain four commission qualified affiliates and have a total downline sales volume of 500 GV (400 GV max counted from any one unilevel leg)
• Senior Ruby Ambassador – recruit and maintain five commission qualified affiliates and have a total downline sales volume of 750 GV (600 GV max from any one unilevel leg)
• Emerald Ambassador – recruit and maintain six commission qualified affiliates and have a total downline sales volume of 1500 GV a month (1175 GV max from any one unilevel leg)
• Sapphire Ambassador maintain six personally recruited commission qualified affiliates and have a total downline volume of 3000 GV (2250 GV max from any one unilevel leg)
• Diamond Ambassador – recruit and maintain seven commission qualified affiliates and have a total downline volume of 4500 GV (3375 GV max from any one unilevel leg)

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is the accumulated PV of an affiliate’s entire downline.

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by a Plexus Worldwide affiliate’s own purchase of products and retail customer orders.

Retail Commissions

Retail commissions on the sale of Plexus Worldwide products to retail customers pay out at up to 25%.

How much of a percentage is paid out is determined by the total sales volume of a an affiliate each month (including volume generated by their own purchases and that of preferred customers):

• less than $100 = not commission qualified
• $100 to $499.99 = 15%
• $500 or more = 25%

A direct upline commission of 5% is also paid out on retail commission earned.

Recruitment Commissions

When a new Ambassador joins the company, they can purchase a Welcome pack from
$99 to $199.

These Welcome Packs are commissionable, with a 50% commission paid to the recruiting affiliate.

Upline commissions are also paid out, with the direct upline receiving 25%, their upline 15% and their upline 10%.

Note that these upline affiliates must be commission qualified, otherwise the commission rolls up to the next qualified affiliate.

Plexus Points Commissions

Plexus Points are points allocated to affiliates based on how many commission qualified affiliates they have in their downline each month.

The allocation of Plexus Points is tracked 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 go on to recruit new affiliates of their own, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel structure.

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.

Plexus Points are allocated on up to seven unilevel levels, as per a Plexus affiliate’s rank:

• Senior Ambassador – earn Plexus Points on levels 1 to 3 of your unilevel team
• Silver and Gold Ambassador – earn Plexus Points on levels 1 to 5 of your unilevel team
• Senior Gold and Ruby Ambassador – earn Plexus Points on levels 1 to 6 of your unilevel team
• Senior Ruby Ambassador and higher – earn Plexus Points on levels 1 to 7 of your unilevel team

How many Plexus Points per commission qualified affiliate are allocated, is determined by what level of a unilevel team they are placed:

• commission qualified affiliates on levels 1 to 3 generate 5 Plexus Points
• commission qualified affiliates on level 4 generate 4 Plexus Points
• commission qualified affiliates on level 5 generate 3 Plexus Points
• commission qualified affiliates on level 6 generate 2 Plexus Points
• commission qualified affiliates on level 6 generate 1 Plexus Point

The value of Plexus Points is a floating number each month, based on company-wide sales volume.

50% of Plexus’ company-wide sales volume is put into an Ambassador Pool.

All Plexus Worldwide affiliates earn from the Ambassador pool, with the total value of funds in the pool divided by the total number of Plexus Points generated that month and distributed out to commission qualified affiliates.

To give you an estimate of the value of Plexus Points, Plexus estimate ‘that the value of each point will never be lower than $1.80’.

As Personal Volumes build through retail sales and preferred customers, Plexus Points will also increase in value.

As proof, since this plan was introduced the value of a Plexus Point has ranged from $2.82 to $4.89.

Rank Achievement Bonus

Upon qualifying at certain ranks, the following Rank Achievement Bonuses are paid out:

• Silver Ambassador – $100
• Gold Ambassador – $250
• Senior Gold Ambassador – $350
• Ruby Ambassador – $500
• Senior Ruby Ambassador – $750

Note that if any of the above ranks are achieved within 30 days of joining Plexus as an affiliate, additional bonus amounts are paid out as follows:

• Gold Ambassador – $350
• Senior Gold Ambassador – $700
• Ruby Ambassador – $1200
• Senior Ruby Ambassador – $1950

Emerald Bonus Pool

The Emerald Bonus pool is made up of 3% of Plexus’ company-wide sales volume.

The pool is paid out monthly and divided equally among Emerald ranked affiliates.

Sapphire Bonus Pool

The Sapphire Bonus pool is made up of 1% of Plexus’ company-wide sales volume.

The pool is paid out monthly and divided equally among Sapphire ranked affiliates.

Diamond Bonus Pool

The Diamond Bonus pool is made up of 1% of Plexus’ company-wide sales volume.

The pool is paid out monthly and divided equally among Diamond ranked affiliates.

Diamond Re-entry Position

When a Plexus Worldwide affiliate qualifies as a Diamond Ambassador, they have the option of creating another pay position within their existing unilevel team.

This position is entered directly under the affiliate’s existing position, effectively allowing an affiliate to double up on generated downline volume.

Joining Plexus Worldwide

Basic Plexus Worldwide affiliate membership is $34.95 annually.

Optional Welcome Packs are available, which also include the first annual $34.95 annual affiliate fee:

• Tri-Plex Welcome Pack – $133.95
• Double Tri-Plex Welcome Pack – $233.95
• Slim & Accelerator+ Welcome Pack – $133.95
• Double Slim & Accelerator Welcome Pack – $233.95
• Slim & Boost Welcome Pack – $133.95
• Business Booster Welcome Pack – $233.95
• Slim & X Welcome Pack – $133.95

The primary difference between the above Welcome Packs are the discounted products bundled with each pack.

Conclusion

Known as the “pink drink”, evidently the Plexus Slim product has developed quite the following over the years.

As I understand it the drink is basically an appetite suppressant, taken before meals.

The rest of Plexus Worldwide’s product line compliments the flagship Plexus Slim offering, but I do suggest trying them out before committing to anything.

Also be aware of the retail cost of the product, particularly in terms of comparing it to what’s available from the competition.

On the compensation plan side of things, the first thing that struck me was the mandatory signing up for autoship.

The Plexus Backup Order (AutoQualification) is designed to protect Ambassadors against accidentally missing their monthly qualification.

If you do NOT have $100 Personal Volume during the month, you will not be qualified to receive checks from Plexus.

We never want that to happen to one of our Ambassadors. That’s why we have put the Backup Order (AutoQualification) program in place.

Here’s how it works: if by the 25th of the month you do not have your required $100 in Personal Volume, your Backup Order (AutoQualification) will automatically execute a qualifying purchase on your behalf.

This makes sure that you qualify for the month.

Granted the idea is presented as a fallback for affiliates who don’t hit $100 in sales or personal purchases in a month, but for a new affiliate it’s pretty much a defacto commission qualification fee.

A new Plexus Worldwide affiliate is going to take a while to get established in their business. How long will vary from affiliate to affiliate, but it’s not unreasonable that new affiliates might not generate $100 worth of retail sales in their first few months.

Thus with a mandatory autoship order in place, their commission qualification is going to come out of their own hip-pocket.

In MLM commission qualification should always be based on affiliate’s sales performance, not how much money they spend.

Once commission qualified via autoship, a Plexus affiliate must then decide what to focus on.

If they focus on retail sales, they’ll be paid an upfront commission and that’s that.

Recruitment of affiliates is mandatory to qualify at higher Plexus affiliate ranks and pays out via Plexus Points.

Between the two, I think it’s pretty obvious that most affiliates are going to focus on affiliate recruitment.

These affiliates have to sign up for autoship to get commission qualified, with autoship chain-recruitment appearing to be the core of the Plexus Worldwide MLM offering.

Nowhere in the Plexus Worldwide compensation are retail sales required, with mandatory affiliate autoship qualifying an affiliate for all available commissions.

The Plexus Points idea was neat (something I hadn’t seen before), but again – if affiliate autoships are making up the bulk of sales volume revenue paid out through the points, that only re-enforces autoship recruitment concerns.

Here, for example, is how Plexus Worldwide describe the acquisition of Plexus Points in their compensation plan material:

By sponsoring new Ambassadors and by assisting existing Ambassadors in your organization to sponsor new Ambassadors, you will increase the number of Plexus Points you are qualified to earn.

Theoretically retail sales would contribute to the Ambassador Pool payout, but they ultimately have nothing to do with Plexus Point acquisition itself.

Plexus Worldwide could remedy the apparent autoship recruitment focus, by removing mandatory autoship and having affiliates qualify for commissions by generating a minimum $100 a month in retail sales volume.

This would encourage a retails sales platform and do much to balance out affiliate volume with retail volume in the bonus pools (the largest source of commission payouts).

On a micro-level, prospective Plexus Worldwide affiliates can check with their potential upline as to whether they are commission qualified via their own autoship purchase, or through a monthly minimum of $100 in retail orders.

Be sure to ask for the numbers over the last few months to rule out an abnormalities.

Also pay attention to how you yourself were pitched on the opportunity. Was it through the regular $34.95 a year affiliate membership or were you introduced to the affiliate Welcome Packs straight away?

Affiliate Welcome Packs in Plexus Worldwide are commissionable, which only further encourages chain-recruitment.

If your potential upline is autoship qualified, you can be pretty much guaranteed you’re looking at a $100 minimum spend on Plexus Worldwide products each month to remain commission qualified yourself.

And it thus follows on that to build your Plexus Worldwide business, you too will be looking to recruit affiliates on monthly autoship – at the expense of focusing on sales to retail customers.

On the offchance your upline has qualified through strong monthly retail sales, be sure to tap into their retail customer acquisition strategies if you choose to sign up as an affiliate yourself.

The Plexus Worldwide compensation does work against you, but that doesn’t mean you need to ignore retail sales yourself.

 

Update 7th January 2017 – Plexus Worldwide’s decision to remove the autoship order requirement to qualify for commissions is a step in the right direction.

However if you’re thinking about joining Plexus you should still check with your potential upline as to how they are qualifying for commissions.

Ideally you want to see 100 PV generated each month via retail sales. If the affiliate is qualifying via their own personal autoship (with little to no monthly retail activity), this is evidence of affiliate autoship recruitment still occurring despite the qualification change.