Usana Health Sciences has grown into a very large and well-known health and wellness network marketing company. They offer a variety of healthy household and personal care products, as well as an income opportunity if a person becomes a distributor and sells their products.
However, there are some very real concerns and issues about starting or participating in a Usana business. In this article, I’ll provide an unbiased review of the pros and cons of building a Usana business, and see if we can figure out if Usana is a great deal or a great scam.
Usana was founded by Dr. Myron Wentz, a microbiologist and immunologist. Dr. Wentz founded Gull Laboratories in 1974 and grew from a one man operation to a leading provider of viral diagnostic tools. In 1992, Wentz sold his interest in Gull Labs and started Usana in hopes of preventing disease, not just treating it. Today they offer a line of high-quality personal care items and supplements.
For distributors, Usana pays out with a binary compensation plan, where a rep builds a left side and a right side simultaneously. One of the nice things about their compensation plan is the fact that there are no monthly group volume requirements. Commissions are earned based on Group Sales Volume (GSV).
Another great advantage of starting a business in Usana is the need: Currently, the demand for products that could help in the prevention of diseases is enormous. With today’s marketing trends, you can sell just about anything that has “antioxidant” written on it.
Usana is a network marketing company, which simply means that a distributor can come together and build a downline and grow a distribution channel. The first sign we noticed was that Usana encourages its distributors to buy business opportunity leads (or bizop leads) to grow their organization. The problem with prospects looking for opportunities is that nine times out of ten, they’re not actually looking for an opportunity. In fact, the way many opportunities are collected is quite deceptive. The process works like this: You’re surfing the web, looking at different sites, and suddenly you see a pop-up ad to win a free toaster if you take a quick survey. If you take that survey, you’ll be asked to submit your name and phone number to get your free toaster. The moment you fill out that form, you actually become a lead looking for opportunities.
For people who have used opportunities before, this would explain why so many times when they contact the lead, they have no idea how they got them on an opportunity search list. Also, these types of lead lists are sold and resold multiple times, so by the time you contact the lead, they’ve already talked to eight different people with a “great business opportunity.”
The reason so many network marketing businesses get such a bad rap is due to many of the ineffective marketing techniques new distributors are taught to grow their downlines. The sad thing about growing a business in Usana is that if the distributor doesn’t want to take advantage of potential opportunities, they are encouraged to look to their “warm market” or their friends and family. They are told to hand out free product samples, business cards, brochures, and flyers, and if the distributor ever gets discouraged, they are simply told to “stay motivated.”
The fact is, someone could make tons of money marketing health and wellness products: Yes they know how to market effectively. Trying to build a six-figure income off of friends, family, and co-workers is more than a hard sell: In this age of skepticism and scams, most people have set out to make money with network marketing, and they don’t want their family members approaching them looking for income opportunities.
In closing, I would say that starting and growing a business in Usana is lucrative if someone knows how to market effectively. It’s not a scam, but like any business, success will be determined by the salesperson’s skill set. The potential to grow a great business is there, but not with outdated marketing techniques.
If someone doesn’t have the first clue on how to market effectively, I suggest they either learn how to be an effective marketer or just use the products and leave it at that.