The Direct Selling Association (DSA), hosted a Sales and Marketing Conference #Vision2020 in Lake Tahoe, CA, Dec 11-13. The Conference served as an educational experience for direct selling industry professionals to share new ideas, best practices and growth strategies for in 2020.
Keynote speakers featured at the Conference included Lisa Gudding, Executive Vice President at Ipsos, on how to make direct selling the best opportunity to be an entrepreneur; Rick Neuheisel, Jr., former UCLA head football coach with inspiring words on entrepreneurship; and Josh Miller, Director of Gen Z Studies, XYZ University, with a presentation on how to appeal to the Gen Z population.
Joseph N. Mariano, president and CEO, DSA said, “I’m pleased that we had such a dynamic program with industry sales & marketing leaders coming together to learn best practices and actionable insights that help grow their businesses. And, thanks to our new consumer research, we now have data-driven insights from Ipsos, the world-renowned, third-largest global market research firm, to help us better understand the increasing desire for entrepreneur opportunities in our rapidly evolving labor market and the unique benefits the direct selling provides to all involved.”
Consumer Attitudes & Entrepreneurship Study
A highlight of the conference was the presentation of new data from DSA’s Consumer Attitudes & Entrepreneurship Study conducted by Ipsos and sponsored by DSA. Lisa Gudding, EVP at Ipsos, shared data and insights from the study on what entrepreneurs for today and (based on extensive message testing) how DSA companies can position themselves as being the best choice for people interested in flexible, entrepreneurial opportunities. Lisa said, “This study provides robust new data and insights to the direct selling industry, providing better understanding of Americans’ attitudes, opinions, and implications for the channel moving forward.”
A few key findings from the study include:
- Americans show strong interest in flexible, entrepreneurial opportunities, and younger generations are particularly interested
- Direct selling is competitive against gig competition and has broad appeal
- Direct selling is well-positioned to appeal to future generations
The full DSA Consumer Attitudes Survey will be released to DSA member companies in January 2020.
Another highlight of the conference was Josh Miller’s presentation on how to appeal to Gen Z. Click here for a short recap of the insights from that presentation.
