Why Herbalife Doesn't Work - Universal Distributor Saturation

Introduction | Work from Home page 1 2 3 | Small Business | Trying Anything to Sell page 1 2 | Universal Distributor Saturation | Active Ingredient? | Summary

Historically, it has been very, very hard to recruit successful herbalife distributors to work beneath you. How do I know that? Well, it is easy, if you understand exponential growth.

Herbalife has been around for about 20 years, and while there are a lot of Herbalife distributors, not everyone is an Herbalife distributor. I don't know how many there are in the world right now, but I am certain that it is less than 200 million. Does that make sense? That would be one Herbalife distributor for every 30 people on the face of the earth. Surely there can't be more than that.

Now during the 20-year history of Herbalife, distributors have constantly attempted to recruit new people into the company. In fact, a whole lot of combined effort goes into recruiting new distributors. The Herbalife marketing material might make you think that it is possible to recruit 3 new distributors each month. But, what if everyone selling Herbalife was that successful? In one month there would be 3 new distributors, the next month 9, and the next month 27, then 81, 243, and 729. In eight months, there would be 6,561 new distributors down this line, and in 18 months, there would be 129 million new distributors! 129 million people walking around with "lose weight now" buttons! It is easy to calculate just get out a calculator and punch in "times 3" 18 times. or look at this chart.

Well, that obviously didn't happen, because Herbalife has been in business for 20 years! 

What if each distributor only recruited two new distributors each month? Well, that would take longer, but in two months, there would be 4 distributors, then in 3 months, there would be 8, then 16. In six months there would be 64 distributors, 12 months there would be 4,096, and in 22 months, there would be 4 million. In 36 months, there would be 68 billion Herbalife distributors! use a calculator, or look at this chart.

Now, that didn't happen either, because, again, herbalife has been in business for 20 years, and they seem to have about a million distributors. It must be very, very hard to recruit people.

It was probably easier in 1980 and 1981.  The herbalife name was unknown, and there was something of a natural-foods mania. People sold Herbalife distributorships to their friends and families across the United States.

Then a bit later, other people, bilingual or citizens of foreign lands brought herbalife to their home countries, where they found an open and eager market for green pills and the "work at home" business opportunity.

If you read through the success stories on the Herbalife corporate page, as I have, you see this story time and again: The first people into a new area make money.

Here are some examples: 

• Christine Lewis returned to England and was successful selling herbalife.
• Michiko Dejaeghere headed to Japan when Herbalife had just opened there, and was a big success.
• Chaim Kosman sold Herbalife in Israel, then went to Brazil when Herbalife had just opened there.
• Irina Dubnik brought Herbalife to her parents in Siberia, making both her and them successful.
• Hassan and Vahibe Daoud sponsored Manuel Aguilar who "took the business home to Spain". That was around 1989.
• Shirley Kim has a large organization in the US and distributors throughout Asia.
• Woon Hynug Kim learned about Herbalife in the US, and began distributing it in Korea in 1996.
• Beate and Andreas Chory got started in Germany some time before 1995.
• Tony Cibarra saw an opportunity in the newly opened Taiwanese market. He was in Taiwan three weeks later.

 The most famous example is John and Susan Peterson.  From what I have read, I believe they were the first to bring Herbalife into Mexico. Now that is an real opportunity.

Take a glance at the graphs on the first page of this Forbes article by Seth Lubove, written in 1997.  See how sales increase in a country, then decrease? Combine this information with the citizenship cross-section of those Herbalife success stories; there are only so many Herbalife success stories a country can support.

 If you are the first into an area, there are more people to sell to.  It is as simple as that. If you are in the Herbalife business, I suggest finding a new, virgin territory to introduce the Herbalife products. Avoid the following countries:

But don't bother bringing it into an area that is too poor, like Kenya or Somalia.

You see, Herbalife doesn't know or care if your area is already saturated. All of the investment has been made by YOU. They don't take any of the blame for totally overbooking your market with distributors. 

 They are churning them out as fast as they can sign them up.