In the last twelve months I’ve learned a lot about Arbonne Cosmetics and what a mire they can be for people weak enough to think you can get rich working part time from home. There are plenty of people out there who sell Arbonne, a ‘natural’ cosmetic (most of their products do contain mineral oils, despite the company’s sales pitch claims – but so do most other cosmetics), part time and make a little money. They follow the tried and true Avon Lady model of getting a few loyal customers willing to shell out big bucks for these high priced cosmetics, and regularly selling to them. To the best of my knowledge, people aren’t generally dissatisfied with Arbonne products, they are high quality. And if you don’t mind spending a lot of money on these products, this may be the brand for you.
But, Arbonne products are no better than many other lower priced products available through retail outlets, health food stores, or other cosmetics sales companies. And they cost a lot more. So, there is a limited target clientele for Arbonne and the folks at the top of this pyramid know for most sales reps the life of service of any of their customer relationships isn’t going to be ten or twenty years. So they need to make money off people who sell the product too, not just the people who buy it. They encourage sales people to get ‘down-line’ distributors and have those folks do parties and get more people, etc. etc. Anyone involved in a process this focused on lengthening the chain of distribution should be wary. If, as many are trained to say, the products virtually sell themselves, why do you have to go out and get bigger and bigger sales networks? Why do you have to worry when an area has become saturated with sales people (not necessarily with actual end use sales volumes)?
Arbonne doesn’t advertise on TV or in print with its specific product claims. This is how they get around truth in advertising laws. They train their salespeople with pitches that are largely embellishment, but pretty harmless. But they focus on making these sales people either true believers in all the product claims, or sharp talkers. I have sampled some of these products and they are okay. They are much more expensive than the cosmetics I normally buy, and they have no greater benefit to me, other than, I guess the psychological benefit I might attain if I believed this $28.00 rub I put on my stomach to ease monthly cramps worked better and more holistically than the $7 rub I can buy in any drug store. The hucksters who follow me through the mall snaking their ‘herb wraps’ around my neck are selling the same sort of wild claims of stronger benefits from a ridiculously expensive product. But at least the huckster at the mall who tells me the neck wrap that has been microwaved and is now easing my stiff neck can be mine for $30, will come down to $10 if I insist. After all, his product only cost him about $5 to make or purchase. It’s not the same with Arbonne. The distributors or independent contractors get a 30% discount and must buy the product themselves to sell to others, so they have to pay their Arbonne ‘up-lines’ that amount to break even. That makes it in their best interest to swear by the uniqueness of the product and dismiss complaints that the prices are too high.
Again, I’m not knocking the products. They are just as good as any other moderately priced cosmetics you can buy at the department or drug store, or through Avon or Mary Kay (sorry to mention the competition, especially Mary Kay, I know how the pink Cadillac ladies get under the skin of the Arbonne folks). But, I am warning people who think they can work a few hours a week getting other people to also sell Arbonne and make any money at this. To make money you have to aggressively sell product, lots of it. If you buy $1,000 worth of Arbonne products a month, you have to sell them all to gross $1,400 and make $400. It’s pretty basic math. But, what Arbonne stresses to its independent contractors is to sign up five people here, five people there. You make about $50 for signing up the five people. You have to travel all over to do it, especially if you have the bad luck to live in an area that’s already saturated. And you have to be willing to go out in public, maybe to high end salons, maybe to other places, and talk up the product and zoom in for the kill, relentlessly. This is not something people can do part time. If you want to acquire lots of ‘down line’ people to get your small percentage of their sales volumes that hasn’t already been sucked up line by the people above you, you have to both get new people to sell, sell product yourself, and hope they sell a lot of product. And hope everyone is keeping accurate records and all money is flowing where it should.
I have watched while people close to me have neglected their families, their actual jobs (which could earn them a living and which can grow as they grow), to follow the Arbonne dream of the Mercedes. Every month they buy product, go hustle up new down line folks, and hope for an extra $50 at the end of the month. From the perch at the top of the Arbonne pyramid, these are the people you like. They bring in all these new distributor fees to you every month. They aren’t selling as much because they are focused on expanding, so not as much product has to be produced, distributed or sold. Less work for you with all the sales records. Meantime people desperate for a big jump in lifestyle, chug along, bothering people at work with sales pitches, ruining family gatherings with sales pitches, and squandering precious resources constantly re-investing their own capital in Arbonne. If you aren’t regularly making a set amount of money every month from sales six months into starting something like this, give it up. If you aren’t willing to accept your product may not be all you’re selling it as, and just accept that your clients think it’s okay anyway, move on to other pursuits. And most of all, if you’re stretching the truth with people, conning your own family, friends, co-workers into selling alongside you even though you know you haven’t made much money at this, look deep inside your own soul and save it before it’s too late.
