Success Magazine - Article about USANA

You never can tell where an idea is going to come from. One day you're in a lab feeding cells in a petri dish, and a few years later you're using that knowledge to improve the nutrition of human beings. USANA, Inc. was founded six years ago in Salt Lake City by Dr. Myron Wentz. Wentz is a microbiologist and immunologist by training. His fledgling company grew up quickly and is flourishing in a competitive field. It's publicly traded on Nasdaq (USNA) and had approximately $85 million in wholesale revenue for 1997. The company distributes products through network marketing - a grassroots sales network with a multitiered compensation structure. USANA has 84,000 active distributors. We asked Wentz and Dallin Larsen, his vice-president in charge of sales, to fill us in on their strategy for attracting "distributors", or sales agents, to grow the company.

dallin.gif (32203 bytes)

What gave you the idea to start USANA?
DR. Wentz: I felt there must be a better way of applying nutrition to the human body. I was in cellular nutrition for 20 years. We sold kits to doctors and laboratories for diagnosing viruses. Each kit contained some human cells on microscope slides. In our lab we were always trying to find the best combination of nutrients to grow and reproduce cells and viral antigens for our kits. It was essential for us.
The interesting thing to me was that I'd never seen nutritional products for live human beings that had been designed with the exacting, scientific method we used in designing nutrients for the cells for our kits. Vitamins or nutrition products designed for people were generally based on the cheapest, simplest inorganic nutrients.

And what's wrong with cheap nutrients?
They have a very low absorption rate. Minerals especially need to be paired with organic compounds like proteins and amino acids to allow them access to the cells of the human body. [Without this coupling] they eventually pass on through.

success.gif (11736 bytes)

So you got an idea for a better vitamin and mineral. Why did you choose network marketing to sell it?
Dr. Wentz: I knew it was an effective way of getting products into people's hands. But I wasn't comfortable with it, initially. The first people who came into some of these companies seemed to make the most money. Those who came later were beating their heads against the wall.

Why was it so tough for them?
Dallin: As a distributor, under most plans you're trying to sponsor or recruit 50 or 100 people to be distributors. You give them leadership and training, and you hope a few will stick to the wall, so to speak. But statistics on the industry tell us that the average distributor manages to recruit only two or three dedicated people. So we developed a plan where the average person has a chance of success by working with two people and helping them better manage their "downline" - the recruits of their recruits. We designed the system to get newcomers a check early in the game, and we pay them weekly. If people love using our product and we can get them making $400 to $600 per month, part-time, we figure they'll stay with us. And that's turned out to be true. We lead with the product, knowing that the opportunity will follow if the product does what we say it will. And there are amazing stories of people who are using the product, seeing how their lives are changing.

wentz.gif (25684 bytes)

What are your plans for the company?
Dr. Wentz: I see USANA leading the research effort in capturing all the antioxidant nutrients and chemicals that nature has provided, getting them into the proper balance and concentration that are required for health today.

Dallin: We are in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean right now and just opened in Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Wentz also is building a center, called Sanoviv, in Baja California, Mexico, for alternative therapies. It's not connected with USANA, but the company will benefit from the research.

Dr. Wentz: For Sanoviv we're putting up a nine-story structure. People will go there to learn how to control stress and make lifestyle, dietary, and other changes to promote health. We're going to focus on the most serious degenerative diseases, which are cancer and heart disease. I'm firmly convinced that nutrition is the key.