Visalus Versus Vemma: Uni-Level Versus Binary Comp Plan
I am posting this two great NetWork Marketing Industry Leaders opinion why their compensation plan is the best one. Both gentleman have an excellent proven track record in the Industry.
It is an old discussion, however always very interesting as 90% of the Direct Selling Industry has either a Binary or an Uni-Level compensation plan. Straight Level – Party Plan and (Forced) Matrix are other possibilities.
Both Blake Mallen – ViSalus as BK Boryeko – Vemma have excellent presentation skills and are integrating Social Media as Facebook and Twitter in their Marketing strategy.
This is not a pitch for ViSalus or Vemma, I am posting this for educational purposes. The Uni-Level versus the Binary Compensation plan. The pro's and con's.
I love to have YOUR opinion, which pay plan is your favorite? WHO WON? Please comment below.
A Must See For Newbies and Professionals!
Blake Mallen's Chief Marketing Officer and Co-Founder ViSalus, Top Ten Reasons Networking Leaders Love ViSalus Uni-Level Compensation Plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzkvZsqRxNg
BK Boreyko CEO and Co-Founder Vemma, Top Ten Reasons Networking Leaders Love Vemma's Binary Compensation Plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp_qS61E7Jg
Kyle Pacetti, Visalus Top Earner Opinion:
Let me start by saying that I don’t think Vemma is a bad company, bad product or bad people. Compared to a lot of MLM Company’s they would stand out. The following is just my opinions on the comparison with Visalus. I have been a Visalus distributor for 19 months and very familiar with the Visalus compensation plan considering I do 8 million per month in sales and I am the top earner in the 6 year old company. Please understand you should judge the tree by the fruit it produces. Documentation will beat conversation any day of the week.
After a quick review here is my opinion on the comparisons. Vemma requires a distributor autoship of 60 or 120 RP to qualify to be paid. Visalus allows preferred CUSTOMERS to count for your autoship requirement of $125. Furthermore Visalus gives you your autoship free if you have 3 times your autoship volume in preferred customer volume. This creates retention because someone getting product free don’t quit.
Vemma is a old school 1/3 – 2/3 binary pay plan. The problem with this and all binaries is that you will be unbalanced and that means banked volume that you will never get paid on. Furthermore you are primarily paid on 1/3 of what you do (your lesser leg) that’s why they call it the profit leg. Vemma is also a FLUSHING binary with some year end flushing calculation of 15x your profit leg or 150,000 rp. With Visalus having a unilevel with progressive placement you can potentially be paid on every dollar generated in your organization. No balance required for commissions and the only balance required (60/40) is for rank advancement. This is a major plus for Visalus considering most people who stay in any company will end up with a run away leg.
No activity for 24 months causes a brand partner to be terminated? I never agree with terminating a position for inactivity. Why do we build MLM’s? We build a company so that at some point it will grow without our involvement. That’s called building a walk away income.
10% matching bonus is another way of saying check match. The problem with check match is your getting a percentage of a percentage paid to someone else. A typical check match would look like this: Bob generates $1,000 in sales and earns around $100 for his efforts. You get a 10% check match $10 or 1% of the total sale with a maximum allowed to earn on this. Visalus decided to use a depth bonus and not to use a check match. The depth bonus pays 2% and up to 4% of total sales with no maximum.
Meet Kyle Pacetti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7Zu81wiPyU
I love global bonus pools because it causes crossline to work together. I was shocked to find Vemma has tied this earning to cycles as well. The problem with this is that it keeps you focused on cycles instead of pushing total volume and pushing people through the ranks. Visalus Global bonus pool is totally earned through helping people increase in rank and is paid on total volume.
I’m glad to see Vemma with some onetime bonuses. Vemma’s $414,100 onetime bonuses are good compared to most in the industry however compared to Visalus’s 1 million it doesn’t look so good.
With just a quick glance it looks like a 20% skimming off the top for the company before payout. 999.99 = 800 reward points. Visalus is paid out on a dollar for dollar program. In most companies you will have BV or business volume. This will be the amount of a sale in dollars. Then you will have a PV (point value) RP (reward points), this will be the amount that the company is willing to pay commissions on. If the BV and the PV are not equal then the company is skimming off the top. Visalus BV and PV are equal with no skimming.
Tom Alkazin, Vemma Top Earner Opinion:
Just a few points just to defend Vemma’s bonus plan. It’s funny that from the tone of Blake’s video to the comments of the ViSalus distributors in this thread, they all start off by degrading either the binary plan or Vemma’s plan in particular. Responding to this is not the way I like to invest my time, but I do think a few things needed to be added. First off, I tip my hat for the execution ViSalus has pulled off with their 90 day challenge and car program, but to suggest that they are the innovators of these promotions would really be a stretch.
Those of you that can remember the Body for Life challenge program Bill Phillips created and the first Caddi Mary Kay gave away would take exception to this claim. Nothing against not inventing something, Steve Jobs didn’t invent the computer, mp3 player, smart phone or the online music store, he just executed the ideas better.
To say that Vemma’s 1/3 -2/3 plan is ‘old school’ is a bit far off since unilevel plans are actually older school and to say no balance is required is very misleading. If you don’t have more than one leg generating volume in any plan, you’re not going to be paid on it. So if you want to call it balancing one more leg or qualifying two more legs, just let people know the truth and they’ll go to work. There’s nothing shocking about rank advancing, we measure it in helping people cycle more, that is generating more business, nothing shocking about moving to the next level.
Finally, the comment of ’20% skimming off the top for the company before payout’ is extremely offensive. Just the term ‘skimming’ exudes illegal activity. This coming from an industry top income earner is even more disappointing. Just to clarify, Vemma in 32 oz bottles is this company’s number 1 selling product. $63 cost, 60 CV. Other products like the million can a month selling Verve energy drink are $5 more, why? Because it’s a heavier product and costs more to ship. Rather than confusing things with different shipping rates, Vemma ships a single orders for $9.
The Vemma 2 oz bottles are $10 more, why? because there are 30 small bottles instead of 2 big bottles, those actual costs are simply passed on to those wanting the convenience of sample sizes. If full volume was given, the price would have to double since we have a true 50% payout, the leadership felt that would hurt the end consumer, thus creating less volume. Finally, if greater discounts are offered from the wholesale prices, not fluffed up retail prices, CV is adjusted. It’s very fair and I agree with these decisions.
Meet Tom Alkazin
One last comment, I never get into these types of discussions, you never see me make postings, I don’t have the time to argue or defend. ViSalus is a good company and Vemma is a good company. We have different ways to compensate people. Different isn’t bad, it’s a good thing. BK’s video was a response to a binary bonus plan criticism that Blake made. Some of his leaders asked him to help them explain why binary plans are nothing to laugh at. I’ve been in this industry for 36 years and I’ve never been more successful in my career than in my time with Vemma.
This Vemma plan has paid me $10,800,000 — pretty good for an “old school” plan — so I know it works and is balanced and most importantly, fair. BK made his point by never once criticizing the other comp plan options out there. Something the ViSalus distributors may want to take note of.
One last thought, if my team did $8 million a month I’d be earning around $550,000 a month on Vemma’s pay plan. I don’t think a ViSalus check is even close to that and what I do like better is when we qualify for a rank advancement bonus, we get paid the next month, not over the next 24 to 36 months like ViSalus does. If you took that big check to the bank, they’d tell you to come back in 3 years!