Today we’re taking a look at PM-International.
You probably came to this page because you wonder if PM-International is legit or a scam?
No need to worry you’re in the right place for the answers to these questions.
Over the last years, I’ve been busy creating reviews about all kinds of online products.
Some turned out to be fake others were legit ways to make money online but in the process, I learned how to spot scams.
In this post, I’ll show you absolutely everything you need to know about PM-International and after reading it you’ll know exactly if you should give it a chance.
PM International Review Overview
Name: PM-International
Website: https://www.pm-international.com/
Founder: Rolf Sorg
Product Type: Multi-level Marketing
Earning Potential: Low
Price: $99
Summary:
PM-International is an MLM company that manufactures and distributes dietary and cosmetic products. PM-International can’t be considered a pyramid scheme from a legal perspective but there are a lot of things about PM-International that worry me. Read further to find out why I think this way.
Similar to: Younique MLM program, Young Living essential oils MLM program, MaryKay MLM program, Amsoil MLM program, Zurvita, Senegence, Melaleuca
Recommended: NO
Interested in a proven way to earn money?
If yes, then maybe affiliate marketing might be an option. It's the method
I use to earn money.
What is PM-International?
PM-International is a manufacturer and distributor of dietary supplements and cosmetics. They distribute their products with the help of multi-level marketing.
PM-Internationals was founded by Rolf Sorg in 1993. PM-International is ranked 10th in the Top 100 direct sales compies worldwide.
Currently, PM-International is based in Schengen, Luxembourg and according to their website makes 1.72 Billion US$ in gross sales and is active in 40 companies.
Take a look at this video for some more information about PM-International
How does PM-International work?
In short, PM-International is a manufacturer and distributor of dietary supplements and cosmetics. Instead of directly selling it to consumers they have chosen to use the MLM model which gives you the choice to earn money by:
- Selling the products for a commission
- Recruiting people and earning residual commissions
- Earning recruiting bonuses.
What is MLM?
MLM (a.k.a network marketing or direct selling) stands for multi-level marketing.
According to Wikipedia, multi-level marketing is a marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue is derived from a non-salaried workforce.
As a part of this workforce, you sell the products from the company and/or you recruit people to do the same thing. This group of people you recruit will work under you and is referred to as your downline.
The bigger your downline is the more money you can earn passively (technically speaking) because you’re getting paid a percentage based on the performance of your downline.
This also means the person that recruited you which is called your upline is making money based on your performance.
The act of recruiting turns an MLM company into a pyramid-shaped organization where the first people to join make the most and are on the top of the pyramid and those last to join are at the bottom.
Source: Wikipedia
MLMs have been around for a long time. There are Multi-level marketing companies active today that was founded in the 1950s. MLM has a lot in common with pyramid schemes which is why scammers often use MLM to disguise their pyramid scheme.
Is it absolutely necessary to recruit people? No.
You can also stick to just selling products which you can order at wholesale price (25% discount) and re-sell to make a profit. This is easier said than done for multiple reasons which are why most members try to recruit others so they can earn more money.
Is PM-International a pyramid scheme?
To answer this question we need to know what a pyramid scheme is.
What is a pyramid scheme?
A pyramid scheme is a type of scam where people are promised money for joining the scheme and recruiting other people. No selling of a product or service is involved whatsoever.
So you might be wondering where the money comes from?
The people that join are expected to pay a one-time fee and in exchange for that, they get a percentage of the fee of everyone they recruit after that.
The problem is from a mathematical standpoint it’s impossible for everyone to make money after the 13th level because you simply run out of people.
Take a look at this picture below showing how it’s impossible for everyone to earn money.
Source: Wikipedia
As you can see, in this pyramid model it’s required to recruit 6 people. You’ll notice from the 12th level and further, it’s not possible anymore for everyone to earn money.
The 2.2 Billion people on the 12th level need 13.1 billion recruits in total for them all to make money which is more people than there are currently on Earth.
Looking at the description of what a pyramid scheme is, PM-International cant be classified as a pyramid scheme from a legal perspective. PM-International sells products and has given people a method to make money without recruiting people.
Who can benefit from PM-International?
Who could benefit (theoretically) from joining Savvi:
- Expert salesmen
- Expert recruiters
- People that want to use Savvi products for themselves.
Who shouldn’t join Savvi:
- People that hate sales jobs.
- People that hate recruiting
- People that expect to earn passive income
PM-International products
PM-International has 2 brands of products called fit line and beauty line that consists of cosmetics and dietary products. They don’t seem to promote the beauty line on their website anymore but the independent beauty line website is still online.
As a multi-level marketer, it’s important to pick a company that has products that are easy to sell and doesn’t force you to deal with a lot of competition.
PM-International strikes out on both, unfortunately. Product-wise they’re in a very competitive niche and the products are overpriced.
Here’s a list of their most popular products:
- Optimal Set
- Activize
- Antioxy
- Heart Duo
- Munogen
- Beauty
- ProShape All-in-1
- Basics
- Triple Lift
Every one of the products on this list has a similar cheaper alternative that you can find with a simple 1-minute Google search.
Has it been scientifically proven that the products work?
PM-International hasn’t had a third party such as the FDA look at their products so there’s no way to confirm if a decent study has been done to find out what the real effects of Fitline products are.
In 2017 on the Norwegian show the health check, PM-International was referred to as a pyramid company that sells vitamin powder that mostly consists of sugar.
PM-International tried to sue TV2 for these claims but eventually lost due to the fact that the specific PM-International powders contained up to 81% sugar.
These 3 powders don’t necessarily represent every product they sell but these 3 products can’t be considered healthy.
On Amazon, users seem to be divided over the results they had with Fitline products.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- PM-International has history
PM-International has been around for almost 30 years. In that time, they have dealt with controversy but they have managed to survive. There are definitely a lot of pros to joining MLM companies when they’re young but you never know if they’ll stick around. PM-International doesn’t seem to have that problem.
Cons
- Expensive products
The products PM-International sells are insanely expensive making them hard to sell to others. I can imagine team partners having a lot of trouble with getting rid of the stock they purchased with the goal of reselling. - You have to pay to play
You have to purchase a specific amount of PM-International products to stay eligible for earning commissions and bonuses. The same applies to getting commissions based on your downlines. The higher the rank, the more you have to purchase. - There is nothing unique about PM-International
PM-International has no reason to justify why their products are that expensive. To make things even worse you have tv channels such as TV2 from Norway making claims that some of your health drinks are nothing more than sugar water.
PM-International Compensation Plan
The PM-International compensation plan is pretty much a standard MLM compensation plan. You can earn money through selling the products, earning residual income through your downline, and earning recruiting bonuses.
Dependent on your performance you get designated a rank. Each rank comes with its own benefits which revolve around earning more money in some fashion. These are the names of the 15 ranks:
Team Partner
Manager
Sales Manager
Marketing Manager
International Marketing Manager
Vice President
Executive Vice President
President’s Tema
Silver President’s Team
Gold President’s Team
Platinum President’s Team
Champion’s League
How you make money with this compensation plan
Retail sales
The first option is to resell Fitline products to people. As a team partner, you can purchase products at wholesale prices and sell them for the normal retail price. The profit of selling it this way is yours to keep.
As a team partner, you get a 20% discount on your purchases which means you can earn a 20% profit on every product you sell.
Recruiting people
The second option is to focus on recruiting people to have them purchase products. The moment your recruits start purchasing packs at the lowest rank as a team partner you earn $60 and the more you rise the ranks, the more you earn for recruiting people that are “active”.
Rising the ranks
The third option is to do a combination of the first and second options because to climb the ranks you need to recruit people. resell items, and keep your downlines engaged. The more you rise the ranks, the bigger the bonuses become and you technically also earn more residual income.
Take a look at this video to learn more about the compensation plan.
How much does it cost to start
PM-International isn’t one of those businesses where you can get a free trial to see what it’s all about. You have to pay to play with PM-international. You start off by buying their Demo starters pack after signing up.
The demo starters pack consists of:
1 Activize Oxyplus
1 Ultimate young
1 Sport bottle
Fitline drinking glasses and spoons
Business and product marketing information
The Demo team starter pack costs $99 and according to PM-international has a retail value of $194.
After purchasing the demo starter pack, you’re going to have to purchase a minimum number of products every month to remain an active member that’s eligible to earn commissions and bonuses.
You’ll also be encouraged to buy 1 of 2 packs with the promise that it’ll help with rising in the ranks named the optimal combo pack($481) and the optimal set pack ($500)
For $100/month, you can also have auto shipping. This is advertised as a way to make sure that you don’t forget to order enough products every month in combination with a 10% bonus on your commissions.
This sounds nice but it’s already hard enough to sell overpriced products. In my opinion, this only guarantees that you’ll lose more money every month.
How much can you earn with PM-International?
A great way to get an idea of how much you can earn as a multi-level marketer is by looking at the income disclosure of a company. Sadly, PM-International hasn’t published their income disclosure.
That being said, when I look at the products and the business model the chances of succeeding with an MLM company like PM-International are slim to none because of a number of reasons.
1. MLM’s are often associated with pyramid schemes
MLM’s have a pyramid recruiting structure that you often have to join to be able to make decent money or at the very least not lose money. The problem is a lot of pyramid schemes disguise themselves as MLM programs making it difficult to differentiate the two.
This is the biggest problem why most distributors have a difficult time recruiting people. The moment people hear about how you can make money by recruiting people red flags appear in most people’s minds.
2. You have to consistently invest your money to earn commissions
You’re only eligible for bonuses and commissions if you buy their products. The bigger the bonuses the more product you have to buy. You do get discounts but if you can’t sell the products I can see you easily fall into a financial deficit (which happens to the majority of MLMs).
3. The price of the product often isn’t aligned with the market
It’s hard for a multi-level marketer to sell products because most MLM products tend to be a lot more expensive than similar products sold by non-MLM companies. This means even if you’re really good at recruiting your downline still needs to sell those same expensive products for you to make decent money.
You can see that translate in these statistics I found about Multi-level Marketing.
- Nearly half (47%) of MLM participants reported that they lost money.
- One in four (27%) MLM participants reported that they broke even (made no money).
- MLM participants are 7% more likely to declare bankruptcy during their lifetime.
- Direct sales have risen 79% in the last decade, but MLM participants continue to lose money.
- 90 – 99% of distributors in multilevel marketing only receive a couple of hundred dollars commission per year.
- Out of 33,000 interviewed, 90 people made enough money to cover costs in building their business.
- 50% of the people who start a network marketing enterprise abandoned it in the first year.
Sources:
FTC
AARP
Jobsinmarketing.io
My Personal Take
I couldn’t recommend anyone to join PM-International. Most people that join companies like these tend to lose money. It’s a shame they didn’t publish their income disclosure so you can see how many people are succeeding but I can’t imagine it to be many people.
You have to invest money in products that are going to be difficult to resell because they’re so expensive. If I knew I could get similar products in stores for more than half the price why would a potential customer buy it from a team partner?
Is PM-International a pyramid scheme? No, not from a legal perspective but it’d be insane to invest money into something where the chance of failing is higher than 70%
Verdict
Is PM-International a Pyramid Scheme? No, but it isn’t legit either.
The chances of succeeding are extremely low.
The products are overpriced and average.
Signing-up is expensive
PM-International Alternative
Let’s be honest unless you’re very skilled at selling and recruiting, MLMs seem like a bad deal.
What if I said to you there’s a method to make money online that doesn’t require you to recruit people or resell products?
Sound like a better option for most right?!
If you want to make money online from anywhere including your own home I recommend looking into affiliate marketing.
I think this method is a better option for most people because you can earn just as much as with multi-level marketing but you don’t have to bother people to join your downline.
There is no need to dig yourself into a financial hole without knowing if you can succeed and you aren’t required to sell a minimum of products to stay eligible for commissions.
I learned how to do affiliate marketing with the help of a step-by-step beginners course on an affiliate marketing training platform.
I created a free make money online course with all the lessons I learned on the platform and expanded on it with the help of mentors, courses, and my personal experiences.
If you have experience with MLM companies like PM-International leave a comment.
I’d love to hear what you think about it.
That’s all for today.
See you at my next post!
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