Network Marketing Opportunity Review: The Pampered Chef
Pampered Chef is a direct sales company headquartered in Addison, IL. Its goal is to preserve the joy of the shared family meal for even the busiest modern families through time-saving tips, tools and recipes. In addition, the company strives to provide an avenue through which consultants can provide for their families with greater freedom using their unique talents.
The company was founded in 1980 by Doris Christopher, an educator, a home economist and a mother. She saw the need for regular cooks in everyday kitchens to have professional-quality tools. Putting to use her expertise in the kitchen and her aptitude for teaching, she began distributing kitchen tools and tips through the mlm sales model.
Today, The Pampered Chef includes 60,000 independent sales representatives worldwide. It has grossed over $700 million in sales and has served 12 million customers.
The Pampered Chef is a Better Business Bureau accredited business and a proud member of the DSA (Direct Selling Association). DSA membership is a promise to uphold the most ethical standards in business. It is a mandate for the company to be honest and forthright in all dealings, whether with consultants or customers.
The Pampered Chef maintains its founder’s heart for generosity. It sponsors “Round-up from the Heart” in which customers are encouraged to round up their product orders to the nearest dollar or more to benefit America’s Second Harvest. “Help Whip Cancer” donates proceeds from special pink products to cancer research.
The Pampered Chef product line includes as many as 300 items at a time, with 80-90% of those being exclusive to the company. Many of the products have become iconic. Who doesn’t have the round baking stone? I won?t bake on anything else!
The staff at The Pampered Chef Kitchens work to continually improve product lines and recipes. They are dedicated to designing products that do not just save time, but can also be used for several different purposes, so that kitchens do not become cluttered with rarely used products.
The primary method of distribution is home demonstrations, or “Cooking Shows”. One million of these shows are held every year in the U.S. Customers can also purchase products through an online catalogue on The Pampered Chef website, or through catalogue parties.
At the Cooking Shows, the consultant prepares a recipe selected by the host in order to demonstrate both the tools and the recipe before the guests. Then, as guests are nibbling away at the food, the consultant answers questions, takes orders and books parties. If you’re going to distribute Pampered Chef, you had better like toting your wares around, cooking and chatting!
Host bonuses include free, discounted and half-price products, a 10% discount for a year, and free shipping. There are also monthly host specials, like 60% off of selected items.
It costs $155 to become a Pampered Chef Consultant. That is slightly higher than startup costs for most direct selling opportunities. The fee covers a demonstration kit of 25 of the most popular products, a tote bag designed to carry them in, and business materials to help get consultants started.
Consultants can earn product commissions, dream vacations, jewelry and free products. There are eight consultant career levels progressing from Pampered Chef Consultant to National Executive Director, so the set up of Pampered Chef is relatively simple compared with other mlm companies.
Unlike most network marketing opportunities, with Pampered Chef you actually make less commission on the sales of your organization as you advance in rank. The best way to make money with Pampered Chef is to sell a lot of product, rather than to focus on recruiting.
Pampered Chef is suitable for those who like direct selling, talking to a group, meeting new people and cooking. However, this type of direct sales opportunity may not suit someone looking to build a business beneath them and make residual income from their downline or from leveraging the internet.
