Actionable insights and opportunities from the first-ever direct selling generational engagement study.
Direct selling has become an increasingly popular avenue for individuals to start their own businesses and earn income. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the perceptions surrounding direct selling, the Direct Sales Generational Engagement Study was conducted by Bridgehead Collective and carried out by The Center for Generational Kinetics, led by President Jason Dorsey.
In this first-of-its-kind study, Bridgehead Collective chose to partner with the Center for Generational Kinetics, which has led more than 100 research studies in all major industries. Their seminal annual study, The State of Gen Z, formed the basis for the best-selling book, ZConomy and has been consistently featured in national and global media including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, CNN and many more.
I set out to discover America’s perceptions of entrepreneurship, the gig economy and—more pointedly—direct selling. Statistical significance was of ultimate importance in this analysis, so the study represents a wide-sweeping sample that is reflective of America, with an equitable mix of genders, demographics, employment status, education levels and location that allows for a 97 percent confidence level. This study aimed to explore the attitudes, motivations, limitations and beliefs about starting a business in America, as well as uncover perceptions of direct selling, recruiting strategies, onboarding methods, distributor retention and preferred payment structures.
We designed the study to provide actionable insights across 10 key categories:
- Perception of Industry and Channel
- Recruiting and Prospecting
- Motivations and Decision Criteria
- Onboarding and Getting Started
- Training
- Compensation and Value Proposition
- Recognition
- Incentive Trips and Events
- Retention
- Leadership and Role of Team Building
In this series, we are digging deeper into each of these categories, focusing this month on all things related to Leadership and Role of Team Building.
As we shared consistently throughout this series, the news surrounding all generations is that EACH generation is radically different in how they want to be prospected, talked to and approached about direct selling opportunities. We have highlighted that a “One Size Fits All” approach simply doesn’t work anymore, and this was never more evident than in all responses related to our final topic—leadership and the role of team building.
Not Everyone Wants to be a Team Player
Last month we focused on retention and highlighted how interconnected retention is to recognition. One of the many reasons that we have historically valued retention is that we have long held this belief that the longer a consultant stays with our organizations, the longer we (and our field leaders) have to “drip on them.”
You know this approach, right? Take someone who has joined the business and only wants to invest a little bit of time—yet we keep dangling all these benefits in front of them about how much better their lives would be if they just…recruited more; earned that trip; moved up in leadership—fill in the blank. The underlying premise to this approach is a belief that this study absolutely and completely debunked.
This idea that everyone would want to build a team if only we rewarded it properly, marketed it well and encouraged them enough is simply not true for Gen Z and Younger Millennials. And, in fact, this constant marketing of rank advancement and recognition based primarily on team building activities actually serves as a significant discouragement and is effectively a turn off from brand affiliation.
In fact, this reluctance to want to build a team; share the business opportunity with others; and a general dissatisfaction with the idea of leading others was the one dim spot in an otherwise fundamentally encouraging study. Not only was this one of the areas that Gen Z and Younger Millennials were aligned on, their alignment and negativity on the topic indicates the biggest challenge that we will all face in the years to come.
A Different Way to Measure Success
But first, let’s understand how this reluctance to building teams is showing up in the data. This is a topic that was embedded in many of the questions on other subjects and, as with much of the study, the themes became quite clear and consistent.
When asked about rewarding behavior and activity that they would find fulfilling, only 18 percent said that helping at least three other people get started in the business would matter to them. That means that 82 percent of those in the study would NOT find this fulfilling. This can be very instructive when we think about our Fast Start programs; the emphasis we have in the early days about “sharing the opportunity” with others; and how we talk to and motivate this next generation of leaders.
We also must start to embrace the idea that leadership may not be what everyone is looking for and, increasingly, that many are actively NOT looking for it.
But what are the implications for this? Widespread, indeed. Not the least of which is potentially rethinking the allocation of dollars within your compensation plan to better reward the activity that the next generations want to engage in. How can you start to shift dollars from what we have historically thought of as the “back end” of the plan to the “front end”?
I know, I know…heretical, right? And certainly not without complication—but also so necessary for the future. Better to start making shifts now so you can avoid massive change when it becomes an inevitability.
But this goes far beyond just compensation plans. It is fundamental to how we think about our business as a whole; how we execute omni-channel strategies; how we reward and recognize current leaders; and every other facet of the business. Additionally, we encourage a fresh round of thinking on how we talk about leadership. Gone are the Boss Babes…and taking their place are a calmer, anti-hustle culture, much more socially aware and conscious group of sellers.
People who want to share not sell. People who want to encourage not lead. People who are happy to have a mentor but feel incapable of being one themselves.
So when we posed the question last month, are Leadership and Team Building really relevant anymore, the answer is….sort of. But it looks a lot different for the next generations. Embracing this challenge, opening our minds to change may very well be the most important learning of all from this round of generational research.
WANT TO KNOW HOW ATTRACTIVE YOUR COMPANY IS TO EACH GENERATION? Schedule your Generational Attraction Assessment today, complimentary for DSN Gold and Platinum Supporters.
With 20+ years of cross-functional experience in direct selling, Heather Chastain brings a solid understanding of sales, marketing, technology, manufacturing, operations and C-Suite challenges as well as a strong collaborative and relational style of leadership to the table. Heather has held executive roles at Shaklee, Arbonne International, Celebrating Home and BeautiControl. Heather also serves as the Strategic Advisor at DSN and is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Bridgehead Collective.
From the May 2024 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
