There's a new kid on the block. They are supposed to be a secret, yet if you Google them, they are all over the internet. Yoli is a new network marketing company which is positioning themselves as "something different" "by distributors, for distributors". I watched their webinar and I studied their compensation plan. And what I came away with was ANGER!! Read why below......
Yoli's comp plan is a common binary with a lot of breakage going back to the company due to qualifications and the whole binary lessor leg payout thing. I am so tired of companies saying that they are different, yada yada yada..and then recycling the same old type of plans that are not in distributor's best interest. To me it's just a repackaging, even if the product is somewhat unique. They are based in Salt Lake City area, just like all the companies that they are copying. They've spent a good deal of money on a big building and fancy furnishing. Even their pin levels have almost identical names to another binary juice company.
Yoli's product is called a Blast Cap. It appears to be a small receptacle filled with a nutritional powder that gets screwed onto a water bottle, pushed, and the powder dumps into the water and creates a juice. It's a nice idea. Certainly makes shipping easier. But beyond that, it's another line of nutritional juices in an already saturated juice market.
Yoli says that they are different and have been created for the distributors success, by people who have been distributors. Distributors who REALLY want to make a difference in people's lives and not just boost their own bottom line, would NEVER go with a binary. It makes me so angry to see another company creating a big mound of hype, yet really putting out there a copy-cat company. There is nothing new at Yoli besides that small plastic cap and that's not different enough to make their statements ring true.
With our new company, we spent 4 months just on the comp plan...to make sure that it really was unique and in the distributor's best interests. (In fact, it is so unique that our computer programmer has to create new mathematical formulas. He cannot use the long list of formulas that he has that work for the majority of compensation plans.) Only then did we decide on a product line that went with our philosophy. We are not based in Utah. We are not spending money on a big building and fancy furnishings. We are being fiscally conservative and making sure that any extra funds are spent where truly needed and we will continue in that vein into the future.
Our CEO has been in the industry for 42 years...he is so angry about how companies speak one thing and then do another. That's why we exist today. Yoli says they are "by distributors, for distributors". We say that too, but with us it's true.
6 comments:
Wow. Insightful stuff. Glad to know someone's keeping an eye out for distributors. Every company (and comp plan) is not created equal. This only goes to show that one really needs to do their due diligence when choosing a company to represent. Thanks for outlining the issues so folks can know what to look out for.
Wishing You the Best,
Ben
Some people have contacted me and informed me that I have mis-represented Yoli and have not truly understood the facts. I would be happy to hear more about the company. My writing is purely my opinion based on the information that Yoli has communicated publicly their webinar and on the PDF file detailing their compensation plan. I review these things critically and had a very strong emotional reaction to this one and decided to write about it.
Deborah,
A few comments on this post:
1) As I understand it, Yoli is a hybrid compensation plan. A binary, plus a unilevel with dynamic compression.
Unilevels are often cited as the most "fair" of all. They reward those who produce results for the company, and they do little for those that don't.
But, it's hard to get people excited about a unilevel. There's little sense of teamwork. Which is where a binary fits in nicely... it creates a strong sense of teamwork and momentum.
I don't think it's a bad plan at all. In fact, the break-even bonus is pretty darned cool, and something I would like to see more companies implement in this economy.
2) I would be worried about any compensation plan that only a programmer could understand. That sounds like a great way for the company to keep its distributors in the dark.
Compensation plans in MLM don't have to be complex, they just need to encourage the right set of behaviors:
Production, and Teamwork.
Good luck with your business!
Sincerely,
Jeff Hoffman
It appears you misunderstood me. Our compensation plan is actually very simple. It is not that a programmer is the only one who can understand it. But rather..that the formulas for the computer needed to be devised from scratch. That's an indication that we in fact did not copy cat and make small changes in already existing types of comp plans, but in fact developed something completely new. This being said...it is easy to understand for distributors, with no hoops to jump through that keep people from getting the money they deserve, while sending breakage money back to the company. We have no leg balancing requirements, no volume requirement and you achieve your pin levels based only on your efforts and the training of your team. If someone under you drops out after you've worked hard to reach Gold or Director or whatever, you do not lose that position. Our point was to solve the issues that prevent people from succeeding as much as we possibly could. Of course, in the end you still need to work hard, be committed and learn about how to do this business. Nothing that's worth it is a get rich quick scheme. But as a powerful business model, network marketing done right is amazing.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I have learned more about Yoli over the past few weeks. In the greater scheme of companies out there it looks decent from my perspective, though I still do not think that what they are doing is truly new and different..just a spin..even though it's a good spin.
Deborah Tutnauer, LCSW
Hi Deborah,
While I understand how you may have initially felt, as someone who checks out your blog from time to time, I was surprised to see you wrote your original post before really looking under the hood.
Like you, I also used to get mildly annoyed every time I came across a binary, knowing that the majority of them only reward the heavy hitter and the company while riding on the backs of the average to less experienced distributor.
That's undoubtedly the perspective from which you composed your original post.
Unfortunately as you've now learned from others who contacted you, there was more to this comp plan that you didn't tell your readers about.
As far back as a year ago, I started hearing about "hybrid" binary plans and that they were intended to retain the sense of urgency from the original binary concept, but reward a far wider range of members than the binaries of old.
The old binaries are still out there, but they aren't the only game in town any more.
Yoli is an extremely creative hybrid plan, giving the distributor the ability to reach the "break even" point with as few as 2 personal members and 6 personals as a worst case basis.
This distributor friendly "break even bonus" comes from money the old style binaries would reserve to stuff the coffers of the companies.
Now the average builder can hit the highest levels of this comp plan by simply helping their personal referrals "break even" with 2-6 personals (very doable for anyone), then teaching those new members to do the same thing.
This encourages active teamwork among the masses of average members rather than just over-rewarding the heavy hitter.
Talk about a simple way to approach things! No need to break out the calculator or worry about complicated downline commission algorithms.
Just "break even" and help others do the same. That's how one succeeds in the Yoli model.
The unilevel component provides excellent rewards for the average networker who simply continues to engage and build, while still providing those who can move large numbers with a tremendous financial incentive to build this business.
Over the past year, I've moderated my personal viewpoint on all comp plans, realizing that these structures can't be accurately judged just by hearing their name.
Today, just because something calls itself a binary, matrix, or unilevel, it no longer necessarily means what we think it does.
These days, the only way to safely comment on a company is to look under the hood and more fully examine what is really being offered, especially if we are reviewing an opportunity so as to give our readers a fair and unbiased report.
I was glad to see you've reconsidered your original stance, now realizing there is more to Yoli than originally met your eye.
Thanks for being a fair minded voice in this industry.
Ted,
I appreciate your well constructed comment and your thoughts. Their addition will give people more useful information. There appears to more good going on at Yoli, than bad. But I still have to stand behind the fact that my original post was an emotional reaction to a Yoli presentation. I made that clear from the get go.
In my mind, "something different" needs to be REALLY different...from corporate structure to compensation to target market to product. The Yoli presentation that I saw initially stuck a really strong "oh no..not another one" chord with me.
I've found the input from you and others who I respect, to be very valuable. It is honest conversations like these that are the things much needed in our industry.
Thank you,
Deborah Tutnauer
PS. Your name does not link anywhere. I would appreciated knowing who you are.
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