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In the face of consumer anxiety, foreclosures and global financial turmoil, we must turn away from fear and continue to inspire people to reach for their dreams. When the home-office staff may be reeling from a recent or anticipated downsizing, when those closest to our salesforce may fear for their jobs if quotas are not met, we must switch the channel from the doom and gloom and the daily deluge of bad news to help them create fresh ideas and new innovations that will propel us forward. We must lead our organizations—both our corporate teams and our independent sales teams—to help them adapt to new realities and, perhaps, more important, foster new dreams that will propel us forward to a brighter future.
We have the dreams of millions relying on our decisions. So, let’s switch from the fear channel to the good news and the fresh insight of direct selling executives who are fostering hopes and dreams and leading their organizations through one of the most difficult economic periods in history.
Doris Christopher, Founder and Chairman of The Pampered Chef, believes that uncertain times can foster innovation and creativity. In fact, during the ’80s, when Christopher founded her company, the economy was in a similar state of turmoil. Unemployment was high, and the industrial Midwest was referred to as the “rust belt,” due to foreign competition wiping out manufacturing jobs. Japanese automotive imports captured a substantial share of the U.S. market, Chrysler required a bailout, and many manufacturing companies went bankrupt. “The reason The Pampered Chef was born,” Christopher says, “was because I looked at the job market and knew I had better put my thinking cap on.” Yesterday’s “thinking cap” has turned into a gold crown among industry royalty because of Christopher’s perseverance through good times and bad, and her strong belief that transformation and innovation often occur at our most difficult point.
“When things are going well, we all have a tendency to go with the flow,” Christopher says. “In other words, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” On the other hand, creativity and innovation often flow when we are challenged and when leaders encourage fresh thinking. Today, that is our most important task. All of us, Christopher says, are working within changed business parameters. And they are, she says, tighter parameters. “We must be sure that we are encouraging and recognizing creative and innovative ideas from our people—within our home-office team and in the sales field.” We cannot, she says, continue to measure by the same measurements we used before.
Instead, Christopher suggests that we have a greater sensitivity to new and positive strategies in order to recognize those small, incremental changes that may point the way to opportunity. “Be supersensitive to looking at your business creatively to see what innovation will be the right response to this market,” she says. “There are great ideas that are worthy of taking a risk for.”
Christopher believes in presenting the opportunity for everyone in the organization to weigh in: “Create a forum for people to bring together their ideas.” This goes back to the old “no idea is a bad idea” philosophy. In good times, people may not want to rock the boat and bring their ideas forward, for fear of being ridiculed or making a mistake. Now, Christopher says, the mistake is silence. “It’s time to rock the boat!”
Under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Marla Gottschalk, The Pampered Chef has positioned itself well to meet the current economic storms head-on by serving what the customer needs today. The company has developed innovative new recipes that feed a family of six for around $2 per serving. Every recipe can be whipped up in 30 minutes or less using nine ingredients or less. “This is today’s reality,” Christopher says. “People are going back to their kitchens to cook. They are on a budget. They are pressed for time. We have the recipes, tools and inspiration. This goes directly to the heart of our mission, yet we are reframing it, restating it, to meet today’s market’s need.”
All of us, Christopher says, have our eyes on both the top line and the bottom line. But it’s not just about numbers right now, she says. “It’s all about inspiring one another to do our personal best. It’s all about encouraging ideas and solutions. We can do it. Our people can do it. Our job, as leaders, is to open the door to creativity and to allow the ideas to flow—to keep rocking the boat!”
“Everyone is looking at their numbers every single day and every single week,” says Jeff Stroud, President of Private Quarters. There is panic everywhere, he says, and we in this industry are not immune to that. On television and on the radio, there is so much bad news. Although Private Quarters experienced strong double-digit growth in 2008 and expects that growth to continue in 2009, Stroud and his team strongly believe that the company could and should play a part in helping to solve some of the serious problems in the communities they do business.
“We wanted to develop a program that would light a fire, that would help our consultants and their customers and, most important, that would help those who have fallen between the cracks in this economic downturn,” he says. With their ears to the ground of local communities throughout the country, the company found that homeless and battered women’s shelters were packed to capacity. “They are in a pinch,” Stroud says. “More and more people are coming into shelters. Homeless families of six are staying in single motel rooms across the country—even right next to Disneyland, a place of wonder where we have all done our incentive trips throughout the years.” Incidents of domestic abuse are also on the rise, fueled by the extreme economic pressure placed on some American families. “We wanted to share some comfort and provide much-needed warmth—blankets, sheets, throws—things
we all take for granted but that are in short supply in overcrowded shelters.”
Private Quarters’ “Share the Comfort” parties have helped not only those in need, but they have galvanized a salesforce to step out, take action and feel in control of a difficult social situation. At these special parties, when the host earns her percentage of free products, she also earns the same percentage in free products for the local shelter of their choice, which the company then sends on their behalf.
Recently, Private Quarters established a “Share the Comfort” national call between consultants and the shelters they serve. Consultants were able to hear words of thanks directly from those whom they had helped and to learn firsthand of new shelter needs, which they, in turn, could share with their hosts and customers, widening the circle of helpful hands.
“We are thankful to be in the direct selling business today rather than running retail stores,” Stroud says. “Retailers do not have our agility. They cannot turn on a dime and develop a program quickly. All they can do is run an ad and pray that people walk into their stores. We can take more risks. We can push more buttons and pull more levers that allow us to take control and help more people to help themselves.”
Sometimes taking control means turning the television or radio dial. “We had a consultant who was recruiting like crazy last month,” Stroud says. When Stroud gave her a call to see how she did it, she said, “I turned off the television, I didn’t read the paper, and I pretended that there wasn’t any bad news out there.” “You see,” Stroud says, “it’s all about how people think. It’s about stepping out and taking control.”
According to clinical psychologist Pat Pearson, dreams become reality when people are empowered, not when they are fearful. Pearson, who has more than 30 years’ experience as an author, teacher, speaker and coach, believes that managing strictly by the numbers right now is a mistake. When people are fearful for their jobs or disappointed in their numbers, you need to allow them to express any negative feelings and teach them how to pivot from the negative to the positive, she says. “People are simply not inspired by corporate, board or investor sales goals.” Instead, she says, in times of economic uncertainty, leaders need to reassure and instill hope. “You would think that fear would engender action,” Pearson says. “It does not. When people become fearful, they contract and are paralyzed. Quotas mean nothing to them in times of uncertainty.” According to Pearson, this is a time for a connective and inspirational leadership style. “Internal corporate leaders need to connect with their field leaders. Field leaders need to connect with their teams.”
Rather than strictly celebrating the king and queen of recruiting and sales, companies need to reward many kinds of activity, Pearson advises. Look for those who are doing heroic things, and celebrate them! It is times like these that call on the hero inside all of us, she says. And right there in the sales field are men and women doing everything possible to keep their lives and their families together: working their business, juggling multiple jobs, caring for children, helping their parents, encouraging a spouse through a layoff. Celebrate these everyday heroes, and everyone on the team will be inspired to find their own inner hero.
To do her part to ease fear and boost big dreams, Pearson recently presented a free teleseminar, “How to Be Successful in Challenging Times.” A thousand people from dozens of direct selling companies called in for inspiration and hope and to ease their uncertainty and worry. “I didn’t talk numbers and quotas,” Pearson says. “I told them they can all be heroes and that people need their help right now. I told them that the income opportunity they offer could literally save a family—could save thousands of families. I told them to go out there and help!”
At MonaVie, excellence is the name of the game. The company’s laserlike focus on the personal health and wealth of their independent distributors has fueled the dreams of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. This company, which puts philanthropy as high on the balance sheet as
profits, believes in the pursuit of both excellence and personal responsibility.
While the U.S. government was introducing its trillion-dollar stimulus package, MonaVie was busy creating a stimulus package of its own: A Program for Financial Freedom Through Personal Responsibility. “We have never waited—nor will we ever wait—on the government to solve our problems,” says Dallin Larsen, Founder and President of MonaVie, which reached cumulative sales of $1 billion in less than four years.
Larsen in no way downplays the incredible burden placed upon people around the world during these challenging economic times, nor does he consider himself an economist or attempt to espouse a particular political persuasion. “I don’t especially like politics,” Larsen says, “but I do enjoy leading a company that provides hope and helps create freedom for people. I enjoy being surrounded by people who are willing to finish what they start rather than playing politics with people’s livelihoods.”
Larsen believes in the value of hard work and the power of a dream to change lives. Raised in a small community in the farmlands of Idaho, Larsen was taught by his parents as a young child to earn something before he bought it and not to go into debt for anything other than a mortgage. “My parents showed me a verse of scripture as a teenager that said something along the line of: ‘By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou labor, all the days of thy life.’ ” Larsen says that our current economic situation illustrates that this was a lesson not followed very well by many of the world’s top banking and financial institutions.
Larsen believes that direct selling is the finest business model on earth. In the MonaVie model, he says, “you don’t get it before you earn it, but you can earn while you learn.”
As MonaVie rapidly expands, Larsen is committed to keeping the company exceptional. “I expect us to be exceptional in every way,” he says. From the warehousing and distribution departments to product development and quality, every department at MonaVie works to support distributors in extraordinary ways.
Extraordinary service is especially important in times of a global economic downturn, and Larsen is especially proud of how the company pays commissions. “We pay commissions every single Friday; we call it ‘Good Friday.’ In more than 180 weeks of paying commissions every Friday, each commission payment has cleared the bank, and we’ve never missed a payment. We do that for the distributor. We do everything for the distributor. We do it to be exceptional.”
By trying to follow the simple wisdom of his parents, the spirit and culture of MonaVie is thriving globally. “We’ve become a beacon of hope and light and an example of what can be accomplished through persistence, determination and commitment,” Larsen says. You can bet that MonaVie will never do less than its best, whatever the economic climate.
A dream is being born every moment of every day in every country of the world. Regardless of the economic storm—or, rather, despite or because of it—a fresh new idea is flowering, coming into focus. Right now, at this moment, a woman in New Orleans is starting a business of her own. A woman in Brazil is discovering a direct selling business opportunity. A young man in China is discovering that he can make ends meet by joining a direct selling company based in Canada.
Here’s to reaching for the stars rather than fastening our seat belt. Here’s to rocking the boat. Here’s to distinguishing our industry as never before. Here is to tuning out the fear and turning up the dream power. Here’s to leaders who help their people fulfill the promise and the dream that is called direct selling. Here’s to the hundreds of thousands of heroes in our sales organizations who are out there, on the front lines, offering others a hand. Let us seize this moment.
Jane Edwards Creed is President of Creed & Creed International, a prestigous branding, communications and public relations firm, serving direct sellers globally. Jane is also the Communications Chair of the Direct Selling Education Foundation and a noted speaker and writer. For more information, go to http://www.creedandcreed.com or send an e-mail to .
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