Sometimes Amway drives me nuts.

From this month’s Amway Amagram throughout Europe –

Read the GIP 2013/14 section on your local Amway website available from September 2013

GIP stands for “Growth Incentive Programme”. It’s a program that is announced yearly with various rewards and incentives, including free business trips, for ABOs who grow their businesses. Great, right? So why does it drive me nuts? Because the first day of qualification is September 1 the beginning of the new Amway “year”. And the requirements for qualification are made available when? After then. Many of the incentives require you to have qualifying volume for 12 months, so to receive the reward that you learn about in September you already need to be in qualification.

Now, to be fair, many of the incentives are for people who have already reached Platinum and above, and they do get notified of the GIP details a little bit earlier (but often not by much). ABOs below platinum, however (ie those who most need incentive, as they’re not yet making much money) – it’s kept secret from them. This is even the case with an incentive that’s probably the most popular – the Amway Leadership Training Seminars (LTS). Qualifers have just recently been enjoying EuroDisney, courtesy of Amway. For various reasons I haven’t been actively building an Amway business for some years, and I don’t qualify for these Leadership seminars, but as a parent with two young children, an all expenses paid trip to EuroDisney is a huge attraction for me. When did Amway Europe first tell me and other not-yet-qualifying ABOs about the EuroDisney incentive?

After it was too late to be able to qualify!

What on earth is the logic behind this? What is Amway thinking?

Watch this video, this is for the Amway Europe LTS in 2014. Have you ever wanted to go on a cruise through the magnificant fjörds of Norway?

Looks beautiful doesn’t it! Can you picture yourself on the boat? The snowcapped mountains rising from the see around you? Treading the streets of cities that were founded more than a thousand years ago? Climbing to the top of Pulpit’s rock, with it’s  sheer cliff face dropping to the waters more half a mile below you?

Put yourself in the picture! Would you like to go? All paid for by Amway? Does that motivate you to build an Amway business?

Sorry, you had to be in qualification for that a year ago. It’s too late. But don’t worry, there’s another trip coming up you can qualify for! It’s  …. somewhere … put yourself in the picture! Imagine going there! Imagine walking the … beaches? streets? ????…

This is NOT motivating. Indeed, psychologists will tell you that this kind of “disappointment”, seeing what you can’t have, what you’ve missed out on, can be demotivating.

I simply don’t understand why Amway doesn’t have these incentive programmes decided upon and publicised 6 to 12 months in advance? You’d still motivate the leadership who are already or on their way to qualifying but you’d also motivate the new ABOs, and the many many ABOs like myself that have not yet prioritised building an Amway business.

C’mon Amway Europe. Fix this.