Quixtar’s recent announcement about its new customer awareness ad campaign has begun to create buzz. Many IBOs are excited about it, some aren’t so sure. If the ads send new customers to the Quixtar site, what happens to the profits that would have gone to an IBO if the customer had used an IBO number? If a new customer contacts Quixtar, who will get the lead?
Here is what we know: “Guest shoppers” have been able to buy directly from Quixtar for years, at least since 1999, and Quixtar has used various methods to give the PV/BV and profit to IBOs. Sales this way have always been very low, however. Despite rumors to the contrary, Quixtar has never taken our customers away or replaced IBOs. Quixtar doesn’t have a way to handle new customers except to pass them on to IBOs. Up until now, Quixtar would hand them over to a pool of nearby Platinums, but now — following consultation with the IBOAI — they’ve widened the pool to nearby Gold Producers in the expanded Customer Leads Program.
Customer Leads
There are two kinds of customer leads:
- One is the new customer who doesn’t know anything about the business and doesn’t know an IBO. Quixtar gives that person’s contact information to a nearby Gold Producer and if that Gold Producer has given Quixtar permission, Quixtar gives the customer the Gold Producer’s contact information, improving the potential that contact will be made.
- The second kind of lead is the consumer who wants to order product but for whatever reason wants no contact with an IBO and chooses to purchase the products anonymously. Quixtar could have turned down the order, but everyone loses out that way. Instead, under the new arrangement, Quixtar will take the order and distribute the profits among IBOs.
Profit Distribution
The IBOAI Board has complete faith and confidence that the primary goal of the ads is to increase sales by IBOs and to encourage new IBOs to join a business that benefits from national advertising. Quixtar believes the new ad program will generate a lot of new interest and we are confident that Quixtar will pass on any and all profits to the pool of IBOs no matter how large or small. Their plan is to put the PV/BV and profit into a pot or fund and share it with all IBOs who meet the guest shopper criteria, paying it twice a year.
The buzz will continue but we hope the uncertainty won’t. From what we know and from Quixtar’s history, this new ad program is all about building awareness to build leads to build orders to build profits – for IBOs!
