Is Pampered Chef A Scam? Or A Great Opportunity!

A friend of ours is a Pampered Chef Consultant. Over the years my wife has purchased products from her. Mainly kitchen tools and a few serving dishes. I thought their designs looked cool. It didn’t occur to me that the company’s business model was based on MLM. Until recently, when I was researching MLM companies. I wanted to learn more about Pampered Chef to answer the following question. Is Pampered Chef a scam or a great money-making opportunity?

Company Details

• Pampered Chef is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hataway
• Founder & Chairman: Doris Christopher
• CEO: Andrew Treanor
• Headquarters: Addison Township, DuPage County, Illinois
• Countries Operational: US, Canada, Germany, Austria and most recently, France
• Business Model: Multilevel Marketing (MLM)
• Products: KItchen small appliances, cooking tools, cookware and bakeware

I can state confidently that Pampered Chef is not a scam. It was founded by Doris Christopher in 1980. She sold products through demonstrations at parties. Is it a great money-making opportunity? For some maybe. What about for you? Let’s find out, shall we?

It surprised me that the great Warren Buffet was sufficiently impressed with Pampered Chef that he bought the company in 2002. That’s how Pampered Chef became a subsidiary of Berkshire Hataway. This fact is another strong reason that Pampered Chef is not a scam.

Pampered Chef Unique Selling Proposition

Most families are too busy these days to dine together with home-cooked meals. This leads directly to the Unique Selling Proposition of Pampered Chef.

To provide tips and techniques to make everyday cooking easier and faster using its recipes made with Pampered Chef high-quality kitchen tools and small appliances.

These fall into the following categories:

• Cookware n& Bakeware
• Entertaining
• Kitchen Tools
• Pantry
• Small Appliances
• Inspiration – recipes and cooking instructions

I will show a selection of the tools and small appliances developed and marketed by Pampered Chef.

A Sample of Pampered Chef’s Products

Cookware & Bakeware

Small Appliances

Kitchen Tools

Prices

Dual Sided Kitchen Brush

The lowest price item I could find on the Pampered Chef website was the dual-sided cleaning brush for $7. Although pricy, I hadn’t come across something similar say at Walmart. When I have to do similar cleaning as shown in my kitchen, I have to use a knife-edge or something pointy. Having this kind of cleaning feature on the same kitchen cleaning brush can be very convenient and time-saving.

Deluxe Electric Grill and Griddle

The most expensive item was the electric countertop Grill and Griddle for $349. I would be hard-pressed to justify spending that much as similar products are available at half the price.

Many items are available in functional combinations that add to the overall cost of ownership. You can find details of all the Pampered Chef products and prices at their Shop Landing Page

My Favorite Pampered Chef Item – The Quick Cooker

I was able to find one item that stood out for me as being reasonably priced as well as being very functional in the kitchen. This item was the Quick Cooker shown below:

The Quick Cooker small appliance can be used as a pressure cooker as well as a slow cooker. It can cook foods under pressure saving up to 70% in time compared to conventional means. It can also cook frozen meats without thawing.

The Quick Cooker to me means convenience and time savings without sacrificing the ability to prepare delicious recipes.

The only downside was the glass lid and steaming basket had to be purchased separately if needed.

You can find out more about the products and prices at this Shop At Pampered Chef link.

How Do You Make Money With Pampered Chef?

Since Pampered Chef uses the MLM business model, they follow the standard process that all MLM companies use, with their details.

Your first method to make money is to promote and sell the Pampered Chef products to your family and friends. Any products sold will earn you between 20% to 27% commission depending on your rank.

There is no mystery how you can move up. Make a boatload of sales as a combination of personal sales and team sales. More about team sales later.

Pampered Chef Compensation Plan

Click this link to access a PDF file that details the intricacies of the Pampered Chef Compensation Plan

Pampered Chef is no different from other MLM companies for devising arcane, difficult-to-understand compensation plans. My nearest analogy is the IRS Tax Code! I strongly recommend if you decide to become a Pampered Chef Consultant, focus on the following three things.

1. Promote the products and make as many sales possible
2. Use the help of your Team Leader to build your own team of consultants
3. Teach your team members to duplicate what you do

If you can do these three things well, you will be able to earn a good income. When you find yourself with an active team of at least two consultants and earning, for example, $500 a month, then study the compensation plan to see what you need to do to optimize your business development. Until then, promise that you will not waste your time trying to figure out how the compensation plan works.

If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask your Team Leader.

Become A Pampered Chef Consultant

Your first step is to become a Pampered Chef Consultant. You can either register as a team member of a consultant you already know, or you can apply online and Pampered Chef will assign you as a team member under a Consultant near you.

Starter Kits and Hosting Pampered Chef Parties

When Pampered Chef was founded in 1980, the primary method the founder Doris Christopher used was to invite family and friends to cooking parties. Who doesn’t like parties? To this day, this is the main method used to sell products. A selection of kitchen products is used to demonstrate the benefits of their innovative design.

Hence, when applying as a consultant, you have the option of choosing one of three starter kits. They range in price from $79 to $279. The pictures below show what you get at each entry price level. Click the link, Pampered Chef Party, to find out more details.

Range Of Starter Kits

Note that your team leader will earn commissions on all products you purchase including your new member product kit.

These are modeled from the Tupperware parties that are still hosted. A friend of the consultant typically hosts the party and the consultant will lead the demonstration and sales process. As a reward, the host can get discounts depending on the value of products sold.

When you sell to customers directly, Pampered will ship the products to them. You will earn a commission ranging from

Pampered Chef Virtual Party

When the Pandemic began, Pampered Chef created the means for its Consultants to hold virtual parties to market the products and make sales. A complete step-by-step guide together with all the incentives for such a party is detailed in a PDF file that can be accessed through the following link.

Consultants Guide To A Virtual Party

A Consultant can earn a minimum of 20% on sales they make. These commissions go higher as you move up to higher levels within the company. When you arrange a Pampered Chef Party, you do not earn any commission on purchases made by the host. This is because they can purchase the products at a discount. Consider this as part of your cost of doing business.

Perks Of Becoming A Pampered Chef Consultant

The following video will show you the top 8 perks of being a Pampered Chef consultant as portrayed by one of the companies Regional Directors, Jen Haugen.

Build A Team

This is the part that most people in MLM in general have difficulty with. When you follow the traditional MLM model, you need to build a sales team to leverage your efforts to boost your earnings. The reason is you will earn a smaller override commission on every sale your recruit consultant makes. The more recruits you can attract who are successful in making sales, the more income you will earn.

Easier said than done. You will get formal training as well as on-the-job training from your team leader and other senior consultants. The hard truth is it will be your responsibility to attract customers and to recruit new consultants into your team.

Then you will need to train your recruits to do the same. This is where it can take a great deal of your time and focus. Recruiting is HARD. Why do I say that?

Typically, only 5% of the active consultants make any decent money at all.

Hierarchy Of Consultant Positions

As you achieve increased sales and recruiting benchmarks, you are promoted to higher levels within the company. Each of these levels qualifies you for higher commissions and bonuses. To stay qualified for these levels, specific requirements must be maintained.

Requirements For Qualifying As An Active Consultant

To be an active consultant, $150 of commissionable sales has to be submitted each month. All consultants must meet this requirement to qualify for commissions.

The best way to meet this requirement is to make sales of at least $150 each month. Or purchase $150 worth of products yourself, which is not recommended.

If you have built a team that generates a minimum of $150, you will qualify as an active consultant. The following sections identify and summarize these levels.

Senior Consultant

You need to recruit one consultant. You and your recruit must be responsible for $150 in commissionable sales each month. In addition to a 20% commission on personal sales, you will also earn 1% of overrides on your sales plus 1% of overrides on the sales of your recruits.

Team Leader

Requires 2 active lines. A line is defined as an active recruit as well as any consultants they and their line recruits. $750 in personal commissionable sales and $2,500 in team commissionable sales. The $2,500 includes your requirement. A line is considered active as long as $150 in commissionable sales is achieved by any consultant in that line.

To qualify for the position of Team Leader, you have to maintain this position every three months. For example, after one month if you are not able to maintain this requirement, you have two more months to do so to qualify.

During these three months, you will earn the commissions and any bonuses due to that position. A Team Leader can earn overrides of 2% on their sales as well as 2% of overrides on the sales of your direct recruit.

In addition, at this level and up, a whole array of privileges and awards are open to Consultants. For details click the Consultant Policy Guide PDF Document

Director, Advanced Director, Senior Director, Executive Diretor, Senior Executive Director and National Executive Director

Details on these levels can be found in the Consultant Policy Guide. The qualifying period for Director, Advanced Director, and Senior Director is the same as for Team Leader, namely, 3 months. The other levels are stated below:

• Executive Director: 6 months
• Senior Executive Director: 9 months
• National Executive Director: 12 months

The Consultant Policy Guide is an 84-page document. It made no sense to rehash its details in this blog post.

Leveraging The Efforts Of Others

You cannot achieve sufficient sales all by yourself to earn a decent income. MLM companies tell you that you’re in business for yourself, but not by yourself. In other words, you can leverage the efforts of others to create a decent income.,

The company will show you several individuals who have succeeded in creating substantial income. You will be told if you follow the company business plan and work hard, you too in time can enjoy that level of success. The hard facts are that less than 3% of MLM companies earn impressively large incomes.

But there is something else your upline doesn’t want you to know. I wrote an article about this that you can access by clicking this link, what your upline doesn’t want you to know!

Pros & Cons

I cannot deny that Pampered Chef is a very successful company. Let’s look at its Pros and Cons. After we do that I will share with you an alternate way to develop a successful business despite these hurdles.

Pros

• Company has been successful for over 40 years
• Although over priced in my opinion, many of the designs are innovative and attractive
• You have your own website and business toolkit, free for the first 90 days, $10 a month every 12 months
• Products shipped directly from Pamoered Chef to your customers
• Pampered Chef handles returns and warranty’s

Cons

• Prices are high for most customers – simiar items cost less elsewhere
• High consultant drop out rate – indicates the challange of an MLM type business model
• Company strongly promotes recruiting as a means to increase sales – recruiting is tough
• Only a small percentage of consultants are able to earn a full time income
• The promise of residual income remains a dream for most consultants

The Alternate Way To Build Your Business

If you are a Pampered Chef Consultant right now, how are you doing? Are you achieving the sales target you set? Do you even have sales targets?

What do you think are the main hurdles you face in making sales and building a team to make even more sales? Write them down. I used to do MLM at one time and the following is a shortlist of my hurdles:

1. After I sold products to my family and friends I ran out of customers for more personal sales.
2. I managed to recruit several team members, but failed to help them to make consistent sales
3. In order to qualify for active status I often had to make extra purchases myself, that I didn’t need
4. When members of my team quit, it was tough to find new rectuits
5. It was costing me more than what I was earning

There were other issues but these were my main ones. We are all different. What are your main hurdles hindering your success?

I can confidently conclude that for the vast majority of consultants, Pampered Chef is NOT a great money-making opportunity. Would you like it to be? I got news for you. It can if you make some modifications to how you set up and run your business.

Is It Really Necessary To Recruit To Build Your Business?

Your overriding objective as a consultant is to make sales. What if there was a way to sell to people you didn’t know? Suppose you could even do this 24/7, even while you sleep? Wouldn’t that be cool?

No parties, meetings, recruiting buying marketing materials. Would you like that?

You really do have an alternate way to build your business. It is based on the principle of finding out what kitchen-related problems people have and providing them with solutions using Pampered Chef products. Instead of you personally going out trying to find people, you will use Internet strategies to find customers for you.

Let’s Start With Your Pampered Chef Personal Sales Website

For $10 a month in the US, Pampered Chef gives you your very own website where customers can visit and purchase products. The order goes directly to Pampered Chef and they take care of collecting the money and shipping the product. You get credit for the sale and earn a commission.

Pampered Chef is a cut above many other MLM companies who do not provide their distributors (think consultants) with their own website where their customers can make purchases. Even so, do you see the problem that I see?

Actually, there are several. The most obvious one is how to find customers to drive to your website? The other problem is Pampered Chef doesn’t provide technical assistance to set up your website. You will have to do that by yourself using the instructions they give you.

Essentially, your website is like a storefront. Like Amazon. Except it’s populated with the Pampered Chef products and a means to take the customer information and payment method.

What Do You Do?

You can create another website of your own to do the following:

1. Write helpdul articles about on this website on how each Pampered Chef KItchen tool, small appliance and cooking ingredients.
2. Use Keywords and Search Engine Optimization to reach ppotential customers
3. Direct these potential customers to your Pampered Chef Personal website

Here is the secret sauce. Devote one article to one product. In this way, you will be able to fill your website with a plethora of articles

Some articles can address how the different kitchen products can be used together to solve specific issues in the kitchen. You can even include Pampered Chef videos that demonstrate these items like the Quick Cooker I discussed above.

You Don’t Have To Do This By Yourself

This kind of strategy is similar to Affiliate Marketing. There is a company that has training, tools, a place to purchase your domain name, and most importantly, people who are there to help you solve problems. If you like I can tell you how to check this out for free.

The company has been helping millions of entrepreneurs like you create successful online businesses since 2005. There is no other company like this. I call it the one-stop-shop. Everything you need to build your website and rank it high in search engines like Google is available on this platform.

The name of the company is called Wealthy Affiliate.

Take Action NOW!

You can follow a model that does indeed work without creating the stress in building an MLM business the traditional way. This is about you harnessing technology once you have learned how to do this effectively. Does this make sense?

Once you have your own website with your own domain name, you can also market products from other companies including Amazon by becoming an Amazon Associate. It is free to join. But don’t worry about that right now. Keep this option in the back of your mind to consider later. Wealthy Affiliate has training on how to do that.

Since it is free to check out Wealthy Affiliate, why not click the graphic below and sign up? You will have access to training for starter members and will be taught how to build your first website that you can use to promote Pampered Chef.

If you so choose to sign up, make sure you follow the guidance to set up your profile, as well as to check out your messages on your profile page.

I will be there to welcome you, along with the joint owner’s Kyle and Carson. show you how to use the Wealthy Affiliate Platform to build a successful Pampered Chef online business.

I wish you much success in whatever entrepreneurial path you follow towards financial independence.

Cheers!

Edwin Bernard