As leaders within direct selling, you may know our industry has come under attack in recent months. A billionaire hedge fund manager on Wall Street has made accusations against one direct selling company, and, by implication, against all direct selling companies. There have also been efforts to lobby members of Congress and federal regulatory agencies to investigate our industry.
Some of these attacks are motivated by greed, and others are motivated by fear or ignorance about how DSA members do business. Regardless, they cannot be left unanswered without serious risk to an industry that annually helps 15.9 million Americans provide a better life for their families.
To help lawmakers better understand the tremendous benefits of direct selling and the code of ethics we follow, Scentsy was part of a group of direct selling companies that sent consultants to Washington, D.C. last October to lobby Members of Congress.
While they were in Washington, our consultants met with staff from their state’s Congressional delegation and, in some cases, directly with their Member of Congress to tell the story of how direct selling has been a blessing in their lives. As part of that lobbying effort, they also signed a proclamation pledging to do what DSA has always done—to market the direct selling opportunity with the highest degree of business ethics and service to customers. DSA’s goal was to get 100,000 signatures.
Scentsy thought the proclamation was so important to send the right message to Congress that we appealed to our Consultants to go online and sign it. We did this in several ways:
- I personally asked our leadership to sign the proclamation in my weekly call and urged them to spread the word to their downlines.
- We sent an email to every one of our U.S. Consultants outlining why Congress needed to hear their success stories and support for direct selling. We let them know an effective way to do this was by signing the proclamation.
- We posted an article about the DSA proclamation to our online newsletter.
- Finally, and perhaps most effectively, we made an appeal on our social media networks and encouraged our Consultants to sign the proclamation and then share, share, share.
We got a good response. Over 4,500 Scentsy Consultants signed the DSA proclamation—almost a third of the total 15,000 people to sign the proclamation so far.
But we’re still far short of our 100,000 goal. We need to make sure the message Congress hears is not one of greed, fear, or ignorance—but a message of success, personal achievement and hope.
As Chairman of the DSA Board of Directors, I am asking all of us to stand together with those who have already signed the DSA proclamation to let members of Congress and the federal regulatory agencies know that direct selling has helped you—whether it’s making a car payment, helping with the grocery bill, or allowing greater flexibility to manage work and family.
Please challenge your teams and your companies to help us reach the goal of 100,000 signatures. Go to www.dsa.org/proclamation and add your name to the DSA proclamation today.
Help us send a message that direct selling is an industry that benefits millions of Americans—and you are proof of that.
Orville Thompson is the CEO of Scentsy Inc. and the Chairman of the DSA Board of Directors for 2013-2014.
