If you are looking for an in-depth totally unbiased review about the ViSalus business opportunity you have come to the right place. Before you make a decision about any company or make an investment in any business opportunity you should always do yourself a favor and take the time to do some necessary research first.
Important Note: This is an unbiased ViSalus review (meaning I am not a distributor of their products and I do not promote their business opportunity) look at the ViSalus. Your decision to join or not join the ViSalus business opportunity is entirely up to you.
At the end of this ViSalus review you have been given enough information to make an informed decision about the ViSalus business opportunity.
Let’s begin!
ViSalus At A Glance
COMPANY NAME: ViSalus Sciences
INDUSTRY: Health and Wellness
FOUNDERS: Ryan Blair (CEO), Blake Mallen (CMO), Nick Sanicola
COST: $49-$999
WEBSITE: visalus.com
ViSalus was started in March 2005 and is a subsidiary of Blyth, Inc. The company is based in Los Angeles, California, with offices in Troy, Michigan.
The ViSalus Misson
Taking the weight off the world™ one person at a time. 10 lbs. at a time.
According to the “Blyth, Inc., Form 10-K, Annual Report, Filing Date Mar 14, 2013 ViSalus has approximately 76,000 independent distributors.
Products
As an Independent Distributor with ViSalus you will market and promote weight management products and other nutritional supplements like essential oils, whole grape extracts and metabolism boosting tablets.
- The Vi-Pak line is their best selling product.
- The Vi-Pak product line was created by Dr. Michael Siedman, currently serving as the Director of Product Research and Development for ViSalus.
- Their 4 core products are:1. Balance Kit, 2. Shape Kit, 3. Core Kit, 4. Transformation Kit but they have more.
- Each kit comes with the Vi-Shape Nutritional Shake Mix. Some kits also include products to support metabolism, appetite suppression and energy.
TIP: Always look at the product first. If you would Not “willingly” buy the product and enjoy it’s benefits… why do you think anyone would? Marry the product with your own interests and needs. If you are interested in wellness, health & fitness, etc. then select a company who has a leadership position in these product lines. Don’t try to sell something you can’t get enthusiastic about… and which does not fill a proven need in the marketplace. Never mistake the “comp plan” for the opportunity… the opportunity is in the product. The most lucrative pay plan in the world will not pay you a dime if you cannot sell the product… and the customers do not willingly re-order.
How to promote the products
ViSalus promotes its products with the Body by Vi Challenge, a weight-loss and physical fitness goals oriented program designed to reward those with the best transformations achieved over a 90 day period.
Challenge participants can earn free products, prizes and vacations.
Last year ViSalus gave away over $47 million in FREE products, prizes and vacations to those on the challenge.
ViSalus teaches its distributors to host a Challenge Party as the best way to share the products, success stories and business opportunity from the comfort of their home.
A Challenge Party is simply a gathering of invited friends, or sometimes a community, where a variety of different flavor shakes are mixed so everyone can taste them!
NOTE: Anyone who participates in the Body by Vi Challenge can receive their product for free each month by sponsoring 3 or more people who purchase a kit of equivalent value
Independent distributors organize the event, either with a customer as a host and her guest, or simply by inviting the promoter’s own warm market contacts (friends & family) to come check it out.
Most network marketing companies like ViSalus teach their representatives to market their products to their warm market first.
The problem with this tactic is that invites rejection, your friends and family members are usually the hardest market to approach and the least responsive.
New independent distributors without any previous network marketing experience fall into this INDUSTRY TRAP over and over!
Besides what happens when you run our of friends and family to pitch your business opportunity to?
Let’s be real!
There are only so many family & friends you can market your business to and, in order to maximize the ViSalus compensation plan, you need to be holding a LOT of challenge parties and sponsoring a LOT of people every month.
The good news, the internet has made this possible. Let me clarify, I’m talking about using the internet to connect to others through some type of lead marketing tool. You “warm” those people up to you because they either like your ad, your blog post, your video… you get the idea.
FACT: 98% of network marketers are told their “warm market” is anyone they know. Just because you know someone doesn’t make them a prospect not a candidate for your business opportunity!A long term business is not built on your friends and family.
So where do the Top ViSalus earners get their leads from?
The Top ViSalus earners build their businesses totally different than the masses do.
The top earners who are making money in ViSalus are great at marketing, both offline and online.
They know how to generate traffic and leads, and then convert those leads into sales, and they know how to recruit the best people into their business.
If you want to become a top producer, you will need a powerful lead marketing system to foster and build a relationship with your prospects.
Not having a lead marketing system is why most ViSalus representatives fail; because they follow the masses and get the same old results.
All the big leaders I know, ‘think outside of the box’ and become independent experts in their chosen field, while everyone else just follows the advice of everyone else and becomes a ‘follower of the followers’.
That’s where that ‘cult mentality’ comes from and people begin to live inside ‘the land of ViSalus.
The Compensation Plan-Can I make money?
The ViSalus compensation plan is a unilevel with compression.
What is a unilevel plan with compression mean?
This means is you can only recruit people front-line to you. The more people you personally sponsor, the wider your organization grows.
You also earn a percentage through a certain number of levels of distributors within your organization. The higher the rank you achieve, the more levels from which you can earn commissions.
Example: If a company decides to pay $0.50 of every dollar earned to distributors, it will not stop at a fixed depth level. This means that if distributors, who are too deep in the plan for you to get payment on normally, are inactive (do not qualify for a commission payment), then the remaining commission will flow up levels in the plan to the next qualified person and the complete $0.50 will be paid out.
Now the ViSalus compensation plan pays 5% down to eight (8) levels deep. You have the ability to earn on more depth in your organization as you advance through the ranks.
You must be an active distributor to earn income with the ViSalus Compensation Plan
ViSalus defines an active distributor as:
- Having a minimum autoship of $125 per month Personal Qualification Volume(PQV), or
- Having $200 in retail sales monthly (PQV).
The Good
- Upfront commissionable income on new product sales.
- Residual income opportunity on product reorders (autoship).
- A variety of different ways (at least eight) you can get paid.
- The BMW “Bimmer Club”. ViSalus rewards you with up to $600 as a monthly bonus toward the purchase of a black, silver, or green BMW. Once you have reached the rank of Regional Director ($12,500 GQV + leg percentage requirements),
- Bonuses. In addition to to the above compensation, ViSalus has multiple bonus pools that are available on a weekly basis to its distributors. These bonus pools are based on the company’s total volume the previous month. What does this mean for you? If you can qualify for those bonus pools, you’ll be pulling in some nice extra money on a WEEKLY basis.
The Not So Good
- Requires that you have $125 of monthly PQV (personal qualifying volume) or $200 in retail sales in order to even be considered an “active” distributor. Therefore if you want to actually get paid in the ViSalus compensation plan, you must be able to handle paying $125 monthly until you get more customers.
- BMW program. If, at any time, your rank drops below the qualification of Regional Director, you are responsible for making the car payment under the terms and conditions of the lease/purchase agreement you entered into with the finance company.
- Requires annual enrollment fee of $25.
For an overview see the ViSalus summary compensation plan or for a more detailed look the full ViSalus compensation plan.
As with any network marketing business opportunity you can make money with ViSalus.
How much money will be totally up to YOU!
The challenge with ViSalus and any other direct sales or network marketing company for that matter is that simply joining ViSalus will not automatically make you money or successful.
At the end of the day, your success will depend on your ability to generate an endless flow of high quality leads.
Another words the only way you make money as a distributor for any network marketing company is to move product.
You get paid on product sales. It’s that simple.
This means to make good money you will need to constantly get new leads (customers) on the product and/or keep distributors using the product themselves on a monthly autoship.
Note: ViSalus appears to have a hard time hanging onto distributors. The company doesn’t disclose its distributor failure or turnover rate, but it does acknowledge in its prospectus that its “marketing system depends upon the successful recruitment, retention and motivation of a large number of individual promoters to offset frequent turnover.” Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48764222
Is the ViSalus business opportunity for YOU?
There are three different options when you join ViSalus as a distributor:
- Basic Distributor – $49, plus the cost of a product kit. The most inexpensive option would be the $49 product kit. So the minimum you can pay to become a distributor is $98.
- Executive Success System (ESS) option – $499. You do not have to purchase an additional product kit since the products come with this option.
- ESS plus samples – $999. So basically you get everything in the ESS, plus additional samples to hand out.
You will also need to pay an annual enrollment fee of $25. (which is still something to think about, because nowadays there are many free opportunities). Once you’re registered as a independent distributor, you can start building your business.
REALITY CHECK
Unfortunately the sad truth is, if your looking at ViSalus solely for the purpose of the compensation plan and you are an inexperienced marketer without the drive and ambition to make a serious change in your life, ViSalus probably isn’t for you.
I’m assuming that we haven’t personally met yet and that I haven’t gotten to know you. So, I’m going to be pretty blunt here.
If you expect to sign up and instantly start to make money without a lead marketing system, let me be the first to tell you … YOU WILL FAIL!!!
The problem is that a lot of people join ViSalus and then don’t want to do ANYTHING to promote their business. Even though there are built-in advertising opportunities that can do 90% of the work for you, some people amazingly don’t get involved.
Your success as a distributor will ultimately be determined by how many people you can attract to you and your team.
Without understanding Attraction Marketing principles, you will always be at a serious disadvantage. If you want the best chance at success in your Visalus business, you also need to learn Attraction Marketing principles.
Click here for a free 7 video training series on attraction marketing.
By using attraction marketing, learning a few marketing skills, and leveraging the power of the internet, you can succeed where the other 95% fail.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, researching ViSalus reviews is a good idea.
Get to know as much about the company as you can before making a decision.
But also understand that if you are new to the direct sales and network marketing industry that your success will come from your ability to generate continuous leads in order to make sales.
In my opinion ViSalus is just like any other direct sales and network marketing company.
If you are interested in the health and wellness industry (losing weight, getting fit, etc) then ViSalus is certainly an business opportunity worth looking into.
Success in network marketing is not a huge mystery.
It is just a matter of correct education, proper skills and effective action.
To Your Success!
Your comments are welcomed below, if you are a ViSalus customer or independent distributor please share your experiences.
