If you’re reading this review, chances are you’re looking for information on ViSalus Sciences.
You could be looking for information on the ViSalus Sciences Business Opportunity, or perhaps a friend told you about one of the ViSalus Sciences Products, but either way, before you get involved, I encourage you to read this entire third party review to see if the company is right for you.
In this short review, I’ll go over VISALUS and I’ll also give you access to what I would call a totally “unfair advantage” should you decide that VISALUS is the right company that you want to get involved with.
VISALUS THIRD PARTY REVIEW
It seems like almost every second day, I get approached by someone about the ViSalus business opportunity. But recently, it seems that I’m getting an unusually high amount of calls from people asking me “Have you ever heard of this thing called Body by Vi”? Who hasn’t? The company has created a phenomenon in the North American market.
Some of these people are ruthless and can’t understand why I said no so many times. No matter how many times I said NO, they just kept on calling and emailing me. So I decided to do a little more research online to find out if ViSalus is all of what they say its cracked up to be or or whether the company is just ONE BIG SCAM.
In this short but detailed review of ViSalus, I will discuss the company’s background, the products, the compensation plan and what it truly takes to succeed in a company like ViSalus.
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Visalus – The Company
ViSalus is a Network Marketing company based out of Troy, Michigan. And although the company has just begun to attract attention, surprisingly, ViSalus is a 7 year old company. Now, while they are 7 years old, it seems they are just now starting to hit major momentum. In the past year and a half, it seems that one distributor, Kyle Pacetti has been responsible for the majority of the companies momentum and influx of new Distributors and is currently the top income earner in ViSalus. But prior to Pacetti’s involvement I had never even heard of ViSalus.
In recent months, ViSalus is attracting some of the biggest marketers in the industry, so I have to admit, it has me looking even closer at it than ever before.
Who Controls ViSalus?
Many people don’t realize that ViSalus Sciences was recently acquired by Blyth Inc., a home fragrance products company that is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the trading symbol (NYSE:BTH) . Blyth Inc. now controls 57.5% of ViSalus. This means that ViSalus Sciences is now controlled by another company’s Board of Directors which means that Blyth Inc. really decides what happens with ViSalus and what changes that they want to make to the company in the future. What this also means is that ViSalus has been given a significant capital injection for marketing and awareness, which explains the significant exposure this past year. From recent promotional tapes with Hulk Hogan, it seems that some of that money may have been used for celebrity endorsements as well; however, ViSalus management and Hulk Hogan both deny any payments were made.
If you’re looking into Visalus from a business perspective, this may be a good thing. Why? Because most new network marketing companies never make it past their first 2 years. Since, Visalus is 7 years old, they don’t run the risk of going out of business like most new start-ups do. And since the company is just now hitting momentum, it can still be considered a ground floor opportunity and a great time to join them. Momentum is the time when people start piling into a company by the tens of thousands and often times companies can double in size within a few months.
One would think though that with 7 years of business, marketing a line of quality products – that ViSalus would have already hit momentum years ago – but the management claims that with the change in the economy, they revamped their sales model completely – shifting from products to “kits” and then streamlined their message making their system simple and duplicatable. This was a brilliant marketing strategy and one that has the entire industry trying to copy the model that ViSalus has invented.
I will be the first to admit that this company by far has the best marketing materials that I have ever seen. In fact I would go as far to say that ViSalus has set a completely new standard in their marketing materials because they have completely removed the “stigma of MLM” and they are targeting the consumer market.
ViSalus Management Team
CEO Ryan Blair, has led Visalus to an impressive 1,200% growth in it’s first 3 years. He has been featured on CNBC, MSNBC, Time Magazine, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes magazine. Many of the people involved in Visalus corporate have decades of network marketing experience in various network marketing companies including Herbalife, Mary Kay and Amway. In addition, the ViSalus corporate team, board members and sales support team have a significant amount of experience and background in the Direct Selling Industry. This is all good – as experience in Direct Sales from the management team is the core of a company’s success.
The ViSalus Products
As far as their products go, ViSalus markets several science based nutraceuticals that are designed to aid in your overall health and well being. According to the ViSalus corporate website, some of their products include: Trim Slim Shape, ViSalus Neuro and Vi-Pack Anti-Aging and Energy Supplements.
The most marketed ViSalus product is the Body By Vi Challenge, which is a 90-day challenge – and their reps say that “The Challenge” itself is different for everyone. Like any weight loss or nutritional product line, ViSalus has plenty of before-and-after pictures and testimonials from people who have successfully gone through the Body By Vi Challenge.
ViSalus Compensation Plan
As far as the compensation plan goes, it operates on a uni-level platform and there are several ways you can make money. The different ways you can make money fall into three categories:
Upfront income on new sales
Residual income on reorders
Advancement bonuses
ViSalus – Waiting Room
ViSalus allows its distributors to reposition their new enrollments within a 60 day period. They call this the “waiting room”. It allows their distributors to reposition volume under people that they feel could be good promoters and its one of the reasons that ViSalus has created such massive momentum so quickly in the last two years.
This is an interesting topic. On one side, this can create the illusion of ViSalus Distributors gaining success and momentum in record time, when in fact, they haven’t even yet done anything. But on the other side, it move reps into GETTING PAID FAST which in actual fact is the reason why people join an MLM in the first place.
If you are working with a great team of promoters that give you the support and training you need a little hand up can be a good thing in life. It is definitely is a great way to attract bigger players when you can position teams of people under them to get them started in the business. Many people are offered BMW qualification virtually as soon as they join, and it can be pretty appealing for promoters that want to tap into a lifestyle and be part of a winning team of promoters.
For some people, this may seem like a great marketing play, others find it a little misleading. Like everything in life, depending on which side of the fence you are sitting on, the grass may look greener on one side than the other. Only you can decide. There are good arguments to support each side of the fence.
I always encourage people to ask more questions when they hear these type of stories from their friends and co-workers and find out more about the team of promoters and what type of track record they have in business and in life. If you are teamed up with the right people, it could be the stepping stone you are looking for.
Is The BMW Actually FREE?
You will hear many of the ViSalus Reps talking about a “FREE BMW”. Getting a “FREE BMW” is not really true. In fact it’s your personal credit rating that determines whether or not you get the BMW (in addition to certain volume requirements that the company instills on their reps to meet each month).
As we all know, the attrition rates in MLM can be quite high. People are highly motivated for 30 to 90 days until they realize they actually have to go to work and then low and behold – many quit. In fact, according to some of the top ViSalus reps the retention rates are only about 20%. So in reality, if you decide that ViSalus is right for you, make sure you have a lot more volume than the required monthly sales quotas before you’re putting your John Henry on that car lease and putting your credit rating on the line.
Keep in mind that if your monthly sales fall below ViSalus’ monthly sales quotas, you will be responsible for paying that $600 or more towards your lease. The responsibility will be yours to buck up for the payment that month in order to maintain your credit rating.
Personally, I would recommend opting for the $300 cash bonus instead. This way it will be a great cash bonus on months you qualify and if your volume ever drops for whatever reason, you’re not stuck with a car payment that month. Once you really gain some major momentum and you’re really in a position to afford the car, with or without the help of ViSalus, that’s the time to engage their offer. It’s always the safer way to play it and you won’t have the down sided risk.
What Is Classified As Enticement?
Back when MLM first got started, people used this strategy to recruit new reps into their businesses. They would hold up checks of $50,000 a month – or more – at their weekly meetings, as a lure to bring in new people. People would join in a frenzy thinking that they would get these type of checks in a short period of time as well. What was not disclosed was that many of these people were career network marketers but none of this information was ever disclosed to the public.
Almost none of the sign-ups would make the big checks as they thought – especially knowing nothing about the MLM business model. As a result, people felt misled, ripped off and like they had been scammed into getting involved with something when not all of the information was represented in its true light. It has since been labeled as enticement and its against the law. In fact, in online promotions, people have to put disclaimers on any type of income claims they make to protect themselves from large government fines.
One of my concerns back about 8 months ago with ViSalus is that some of their reps were using these same tactics to recruit new people into the company. Recently however, the company brought on board a compliance dept to make sure that the Distributors are in line with the company’s mission and long term vision. In fact, the company had to terminate a few reps to send the message that they are serious about protecting their brand for the long term. This has had a dramatic impact on the amount of respect I have for this management team. In fact, it looks like they have really pulled back the reins on their promoters.
In the second quarter of 2012 or there a-bouts…Visalus did in my opinion the unthinkable. Any reps that were promoting Visalus, EVEN TOP PAID AMBASSADORS that were promoting online tools and blog platforms like Empower Network and other training programs were sent cease and desist letters from the ViSalus compliance department prohibiting them from promoting ANYTHING other than ViSalus products. Since then, the companies sales have dropped by $90 million.
Visalus Quarterly Sales
1st Quarter 2012
$136,700,000
2nd Quarter 2012
$190,400,000
3rd Quarter 2012
$169,900,000
4th Quarter 2012
$127,000,000
1st Quarter 2013
$104,300,000
INSTANT RED FLAGS ON INCOME CLAIMS
Income claims? Really? A year ago the person that tried recruiting me into ViSalus as example was boasting a story about how his up-line is making $60,000 a month in under a year. As soon as I hear this, INSTANT RED FLAGS GO UP. As I do more digging, it turns out the couple were career network marketers that came from another organization with a team of more than 10,000 reps (No surprise). But the newbie rep that doesn’t know any difference could be setting themselves up for major disappointment if they aren’t making huge money with ViSalus within their first 6 to 8 months, so do more due diligence if one of these stories is presented to you.
Like I said, since the company has pulled back the reins on the promoters and let go of some of the people that seemed to be the source of this problem, I haven’t had any calls from ViSalus reps for the past 4 months. That is a good thing and it means that the company is positioning themselves as an industry player here for the long term.
When you’re dealing with mass marketing especially when it comes to the general public, there are specific government bodies that are put in place to protect the people. And ViSalus made the right move by sending the message to their promoters that if you don’t stay inline with the rules, you’re GONE.
All it takes is a few bad apples in the room of 3000 to 4000 people and BOOOOOOOM there goes your business. Government bodies are very strict when it comes to protecting the public and when income enticement stories are being used as a way to recruit new reps…..Houston we have a problem.
Income claims and unrealistic expectations are what has taken such an amazing business model such as MLM and tainted it with the words illegal scam and pyramid scheme. And what’s so unfortunate is that it only takes a few bad apples to ruin the whole bunch. Luckily, ViSalus has nipped the problem in the butt before it has become a serious issue.
Hopefully, this type of strict enforcement will continue by the ViSalus management team to prevent their Distributors from painting a false picture for the newbie reps. Having seen their corporate story, its very inspirational to see how a relatively young management team has turned the company into a mega marketing machine.
Although from a corporate level they have good intentions, its the Distributors that inevitably create problems and will need to be held accountable for protecting the brand. Only time will tell and since I have some very close friends that are marketing the company, I hope for their sake ViSalus lays down the iron fist.
ViSalus – Is It A Good Opportunity?
In closing, Visalus is definitely not a scam, but rather an established and stable company. They have a top-notch management team, a line up of high quality products and despite the enticement strategies that some of their reps are using – for the right person, the compensation plan could be lucrative. So you’re probably wondering, if the opportunity is as great as everyone is telling you, why am I not part of the company?
Well, the reality is that I was part of the company at one point, but I’m an online marketer and was using the Empower blog platform to market ViSalus. What happened as a result? I was car qualified in 10 days using online strategies and had a team into massive momentum in 3 months….then I got “the letter”.
Since my Empower Business was making me about 10 times the money, I had no choice but to put my resignation letter in. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the ViSalus culture…and honestly, if I hadn’t gotten that letter there is a good chance I would still be a ViSalus promoter. So it’s important to know that my personal choice is beside the point. The fact still remains that ViSalus offers fair value.
The challenge with ViSalus and any other network marketing company for that matter is that simply joining ViSalus will not automatically make you successful. At the end of the day, your success will depend on your ability to generate an endless flow of high quality leads. If you can’t generate leads, which will prevent you from sponsoring the amount of people needed to succeed, you will not make it in ViSalus.
ViSalus – How To Guarantee Your Success If You Join
My suggestion is to find a self branded attraction marketing system that will allow you to generate leads, brand yourself as a leader and expert and make immediate profits whether people join your ViSalus business or not. If you leverage a marketing system and combine it with the Visalus opportunity, you can be on your way to building a wildly successful business.
If you do decide that ViSalus is the right business opportunity for you, there are two things that will take you to the top: LEADERSHIP and MARKETING. It is critically important that you get the right training and that you learn exactly what to do to generate an unlimited supply of leads. The difference between people that make it to the top and those that struggle is directly related to these critical areas. Go here to find out how to Sponsor More Reps In ViSalus. Go here to find out more about Darren Little.
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