An Objective Nerium Review. How Good is This MLM Really?

 

Ok, I’m well aware of the controversy surrounding Nerium, especially criticizing it, but as a none promoter of it, I want to provide people who are thinking of joining it with a truly objective review of it.

Quick Report on Nerium:

Name: Nerium International.

Price: The thing about the price is that it varies whether you’re a customer or a seller of the products and then there is also the tie in to the recruitment aspect which we’ll go over.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 10 stars

While there is plenty of evidence for the products of Nerium working, there is still the debate of their quality, the question of the price, the recruitment aspect of the MLM and more stuff.

An extremely important note about this review of Nerium:

This review is going to provide answers to very common concerns above regarding Nerium, including the pyramid scheme question. Now my intention isn’t to:

• Promote it since I am not a member, distributor or recruiter for this MLM.

• Nor is my intention to tell you, an existing buyer of it’s products or promoter of this MLM to stop doing it. Frankly, if you love this program and it’s products, keep sticking with it and promoting it.

What I do want to do is:

• Shed some clarity on this company in general for people who are already in it or thinking about joining it.

• As a business owner who also sells stuff online and does it pretty well, I want to show people who are struggling with making sales through Nerium, in my opinion, better ways to do it and frankly another way I’d go about it personally.

Nerium explained in a nutshell:

Nerium is a company which mainly sells anti aging products (one of them is meant for brain health called EHT).

This program has been very popular as well as controversial over the years and has provided what many consider a great opportunity not just to improve your looks, but also to make money as a partner/seller in the business, which is very common to see in just about every MLM company. A big chunk of the work at home industry stems from MLM programs.

Let’s address the 3 parts of this program:

• The products. How good are they really?
• The selling part. Is the price of their products too high or not?
• Becoming a partner/recruiting others. That’s where we’ll get into the pyramid scheme question. If it’s not, how does one actually build their network and become successful in this company?

1) First, the products (what Nerium sells):

I don’t want to get too much into the product itself because that’s where a large chunk of endless controversy is.

On one hand, Nerium sellers and many reviewers say it’s products are amazing, but if you want to read opposing reviews, you’ll see them on Amazon and the biggest arguments I personally saw there AGAINST the product come down to the effect of the cream/s weakening after too much use (although working initially) and/or inflammation of the skin caused by the creams to possibly be the reason that it removes the wrinkles.

People who buy products (there are 4-5 different options) from this company typically can pay $60-$90 or more if they aren’t part of what they call their “Auto delivery order” and more if they are not. Package deals of their products are also available for prices ranging from about a $100 to over $300.

2) Second, we have the selling part:

Now if you are planning on SELLING Nerium products to customers, you will have to actually buy some stuff from there and they have 2 options available:

Starter Kit: About $250. That’s option 1.

There are also upgrades (that’s another option) added to the starter kit in the form of Bronze, Silver and Gold options. Their prices are $250, $750 and finally $1,500 for the gold. Keep in mind these prices are ADDED to the starter kit (around $250) should you choose to buy them and yes they are optional.

So it is worth selling these products?

To start a REGULAR business, these prices aren’t really high (see how much it costs to start an online business).

The question I pose is whether it’s worth it…

To answer that, I have to look at the quality of the product and then if it’s good and whether the price is “just”…

To be honest, both the positive and negative reviews pose their points on the good effects on one end or bad on the other and from my position, I have known many products within MLMs to be overly expensive and often charging inflated prices vs competing and cheaper products that are also of high quality.

Although I cannot judge the quality of the creams from Nerium International, what I do know from PERSONALLY doing websites on health, anti-aging and studying it is that in many cases, drinking more water, eating healthy as well as exfoliating is really one of the best ways to decrease the speed of aging. 

And in my opinion, that kind of approach is not only cheaper but can have better long term results especially if a person is unhealthy.

Now when we tie this into the price of Nerium products, I have personally found that many creams, gels, exfoliating products and most products dealing with anti aging typically sell for way less.

Is it better to sell Nerium products or something of cheaper but similar quality?

While I am in the grey area of the quality of the product, in my personal opinion, the price is pretty high for all of their products when comparing it to what I know about this topic as well as competitors who also sell high quality products. 

In any business I start with and do online (see one of my successful website examples), one of the key factors that creates success is TRUST from my clients/customers is when they know what I recommend is for a GOOD price and that they will get the results they like.

Unfortunately, for me personally, I do not see enough overwhelming evidence to promote Nerium products and what pushes me over to the no position is that price.

And another note:

If you REALLY believe in the products this company sells and personally take them and get GREAT results, well you’re totally entitled to that, but I still recommend you stick around and finish this review because I will show you how to improve your sales…

3) And third, the recruitment aspect (Referring people into Nerium):

In just about every MLM I review, one of their BIGGEST down sides in my opinion is their recruitment formula you find in their compensation plans.

The problem is that in many MLMs, the recruitment aspect has little to no value other than the “intrinsic” side. And many jump on board many MLMs not because of the product they like, but because they see that there’s so much potential money in recruiting others, which can often depreciate the actual importance and incentive to sell the product.

But there is NO value other than recruiting. What do the recruiters get for getting others? Well in most cases, nothing. That’s that hot air and this is why most MLMs are PYRAMID schemes.

And you also get other bad rumors from this…you know the ones where people cold call and get close and distant people to join? But anyway…

Does Nerium fit into this MLM stereotype (is it a pyramid scheme)? 

My answer is that it is not, but it’s also another grey area based on this MLM pyramid scheme test I’ve been using to determine if any MLM or program is a pyramid scheme (high price, no product) and with Nerium, we fortunately do have a product (The creams).

The problem is that, again, the price of it’s products is pretty high in my opinion..

And second, Nerium’s compensation plan was very confusing to understand:

From I have read on their compensation plan, if you are to become to a recruiter/seller, not only may you have to sell/recruit an X number of people every month, but the recruits or you may have to keep purchasing the creams as well to maintain a membership there (please clarify and correct me if I am wrong Nerium people).

Back to the compensation model…

Apart from it’s many different abbreviations,  it’s very tough to understand the entire 16 page compensation plan because it gets into many what if’s including what type of memberships, business levels and commissions you become eligible for as you make more sales, recruit more people and get prizes including a car, but in all honesty, in my experience the more complicated the compensation plan is for me to understand, the more difficult it is for me to personally work with it.

To me things need to simple in that you get a product to promote, promote it and that’s it. If you make so and so sales, get so and so prizes, that’s it. But the way it looks there right now is really, really tough for me to understand.

The bigger problem (why I dodge MLM programs):

A large number of people don’t make a good profit from this MLM (And there’s ways to fix this):

Being that I have said I do not believe it is a pyramid scheme, the thing I am worried about then is what the chances are of making good sales with this product are and frankly, I see many people (as based on the income disclosure form Nerium provides) not make much money selling their products.

And in fact, every MLM I have seen has had this problem too, and in my opinion it is because the level of training they offer is very traditional (which isn’t wrong) but if you’re going to make the elite levels and experience the fullest financial benefits of this program, you need to know how to do it through the internet because that’s where you’ll get a much bigger audience/clientele list and I’ll show you how to do that right below.

But first:

Final Rating: Nerium International.

Yellow Flag

3 out of 10 stars. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the products in this program being excellent, but they are too expensive and that recruitment model is very difficult to fully comprehend for me.

In short, if you do not believe in the products, but just the recruitment potential, then I would not personally not go ahead with it, but if you are truly passionate about Nerium and without a doubt believe in it (You need to be objective before you make that decision), then become a seller.

My final thoughts: 

Let me quickly reiterate where I stand on this MLM:

• I do not fully believe in it’s products based on the mixed feedback I have seen. 
• I do not think they should be that expensive.
• I do believe that their compensation model can be a little bounding and confusing if you become a seller or recruiter.
• I personally like to do business through affiliate marketing, not MLM because I feel it has more freedom. 
• There are big differences between affiliate marketing and MLM and I side with the former for starting a business.
• That said, I do believe there is good potential to make money with or without Nerium provided that you know how to build successful businesses. 

Ok, so now we’ll get into the part I promised about helping you increase sales if you’re an existing seller of this program and if you’re not what alternatives are available…

First: How to sell Nerium to people if you believe in it.

If you are a recruiter or seller of the products here, you need to know how to get people to approach you, not you approaching them. Most sellers FAIL to sell to people because they are the first ones to approach and it completely throws of the sales process.

In my experience, people NEED to come to you. When they do, they are seeking solutions to specific problems (in this case skin problems) and you are MORE likely to make sales.

But how do you do this?

Well I would do this through the internet like I said before (via an online business). You’ll need to make a NICHE site targeting the anti aging and/or skin improvement niche. There is a VERY big audience there that would be perfectly fit for the type of products Nerium provides.

You will need to set up a blog website (not the one Nerium gives you) and write information on anti aging, targeting topics that people are interested in, anything from normal behavior to improve the skin to reviewing other specific products.

From your blog, you will THEN link back to the landing page Nerium gives you to make the sales. This is a long process, but this is what will ultimately be successful for you and it is the formula I have used over and over to make successful websites.

But in the long run, what will happen is that people will come to your site and that’s the end goal you want since that will increase sales.

Now that idea applies ONLY to the selling of the products, not the recruiting. In my opinion the kind of model they have up right now, while having an opportunity, is tough for me to promote so I wouldn’t personally do it. You’d have to keep your downline happy and teach them to resell the creams and have them recruit successfully. It’s the kind of thing where I believe it’s a lot of tedious work to maintain success.

If I were doing this, I’d just stick to buying the creams from their Bronze-Gold kits and then reselling them. As long as you have a site bringing in visitors, this can be enough to make a great income.

Second: How I would go about it which in my opinion can make more:

Since I think the products are too expensive from Nerium itself, what I would do is set up the same kind of niche site as above that I recommended but not promote that MLM and instead promote through affiliate marketing various anti aging products and creams.

There is no problem in being an affiliate marketer in that you are not bound to promote any one thing and you are also not forced to maintain a sales quota. Whether you make no sales or many, you can still remain an affiliate.

You can also make your own information ebooks on anti aging and sell it on the same site. The point being is that whether you use the proven idea of making successful websites and sales on promoting Nerium or not, the formula is still the same, the only difference is what you end up promoting in the last part of it.

How can this idea make more than the previous one?

Typically many anti aging products will sell for less which begs the question of how this idea will make more money than the original and the answer is that the high price of Nerium creams may make it tough for many people to buy them or stick to continuing buying them. Promoting something that is less expensive and that can possibly work better will increase the number of sales you get and overtime make you more potential money.

To finish up on this review, again, like I said before, I do believe that people can be successful in promoting Nerium. But this success in my opinion rests upon the true passion you have for the products in this MLM. I have rarely seen someone become a successful business person when they didn’t love what they sold or did. 

But I also believe in other ways people can make money outside this opportunity and I do recommend that you look at both options. I have seen great success through affiliate marketing and believe in it far more than in MLM companies, even the most legitimate ones.