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Building a Better You

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The real success stories in direct selling are as much about personal growth and self-improvement as they are about business. Take the story of Mary Kay Ash as a perfect example. Born in 1918 in Hot Wells, Texas, Ash went from housewife to door-to-door saleswoman to cosmetics mogul all in the span of about 25 years.

“I was really not all that good at the beginning,” Ash, who died in 2001, once said of her early days as a saleswoman for the venerable Stanley Home Products, “but in one year I went from a seven-dollar Stanley party average to the queen of sales. That is the thing that started me off on the road to success. I kept trying to improve and improve and improve so that I would be better.”
That drive to improve, to strive for better, can turn a wallflower into a leader and, on rare occasions, a leader into a legend like Ash. What lies between Point A and Point B for these people? Personal development—the practice of bettering oneself through greater self-awareness and self-knowledge—is the key.

In conversation after conversation, direct selling leaders—corporate executives and independent salesforce members alike—point to the importance that personal development has played in their work and in their broader lives. As they share their insights, they point to common themes like the changing perceptions of leadership, self-discovery realized through team-building, the power of mentoring and the emergence of nontraditional methods to unlock doors to personal growth. What’s clear is that the drive toward self-actualization remains as fundamental as ever to one’s ultimate success in the direct sales channel.

The explanation for this essential, yet basic, connection is at once both simple and profound: Personal development isn’t a perk of the job, nor is it a means to an end. Self-development is fundamental to one’s success because it’s simply another way to describe becoming the person you were meant to be. Personal development is not something we appreciate along the path of life; it is actually the path itself. Embracing this conclusion creates opportunities for executives to imbue their company cultures, both internally and toward the field, with empowering training and policies.

Scentsy Co-Founder and CEO Orville Thompson has told DSN, “At the end of the day, helping people become more of themselves, helping them identify who they really are inside and to reach their full potential is what direct selling is all about.”

Certainly there are benefits and perks to be enjoyed along this path. For example, the typical independent representative often comes to direct selling without any prior entrepreneurial experience. Stumbles are inevitable. Qualities like resilience, discipline, focus, time management, optimism and adaptability are all crucial to the ability to pick yourself up, brush off rejection and disappointment and keep going.

“At the end of the day, helping people become more of themselves, helping them identify who they really are inside and to reach their full potential is what direct selling is all about.”
— Orville Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO, Scentsy

Connie Tang, President and CEO of Princess House, the kitchenware and home décor company based in Taunton, Massachusetts, ties the ethereal ideas about developing as a person and a leader into the concrete reality of building a business when she says, “The whole aspect of working to build a business by way of building people… that, in and of itself, is about personal development.”

The Evolving Concept of ‘Leader’

A core tenet of personal development is the notion that anyone can—and everyone should—unleash the leader within. Emotional intelligence may not be measurable in hard numbers, but presence makes a profound difference in one’s ability to succeed.

And mentorship—whether formal or informal—is an extremely powerful tool for helping anyone regardless of position cast the vision, set ambitious goals and stretch beyond self-perceived boundaries. In fact, a true leader is always a mentor as well, whether intentional or not.

“Real leadership is about building other people and shining your light on them, not on yourself,” says John Addison, CEO of Addison Leadership Group, in his 2016 book Real Leadership: 9 Simple Practices for Leading and Living with Purpose. “It is the kind of leadership that not only works, but also has lasting impact.”

Leadership has a lot less to do with one’s title or position and a lot more to do with interpersonal skills. This is an awareness that appears to be growing in the wider world, although within the channel many have always known this to be true. The whole concept of being a field leader stresses leadership through accomplishment rather than by means of a title.

“Real leadership is about building other people and shining your light on them, not on yourself.”
— John Addison, CEO, Addison Leadership Group

In September 2017, AMA Enterprise, a division of the American Management Association, released the findings of its research into key trends influencing the current landscape of organizational training and development. Among those factors is the realization that the meaning of the descriptor “leader” is broadening.

“A majority of large organizations now consider individuals to be leaders based on their impact, not on their authority or position,” the AMA Enterprise report states. “Increasingly, a leader is viewed as ‘anyone, whether they manage others or not, who is a top-performer in their specific role.’ ”

Of course, this definition aptly describes many field salespeople, whether they manage teams of their own or are stellar individual performers. The report also indicates that soft skills also are moving up on the priority list, as organizations come to understand the value of emotional intelligence, including qualities like communication skills, self-awareness, empathy, self-regulation, social skills, conflict resolution and more.

It is unarguable that a company’s success or failure hinges on its ability to develop strong field leaders who make their impacts and leave their marks primarily with those same soft skills listed in the report. Inevitably, where you find that leader, you will also find a deep commitment to personal development. Mark Pentecost, co-founder and CEO of It Works! told DSN last year, “When we encourage personal development it just raises up new leaders.”

“No matter who you are, what you are, what your background is, what your socioeconomic level is, personal development can be obtained. It’s achievable for any individual who wants it.”
— Connie Tang, president and CEO, Princess House

This evolving concept of leadership seems to suggest a movement toward the need for greater focus on the whole person rather than simply equipping someone with this or that skill set. This certainly supports direct selling’s enticing prospect for any aspiring entrepreneur: There’s a leader living within you, and joining forces with us may be your best opportunity for unleashing your latent capabilities and creating the life you want.

Just as there are no boundaries to joining a business opportunity, Tang says the same is true of personal development: “No matter who you are, what you are, what your background is, what your socioeconomic level is, personal development can be obtained. It’s achievable for any individual who wants it.”

The Power of Mentorship

The most rigorous requirement of personal development is that it requires introspection—a challenging exercise for most people. Having access to someone willing to propose an alternative or inspire an honest look in the mirror may be all it takes to jump-start introspection, and therefore, growth. The practice of mentorship can provide just such opportunities, and it may come as no surprise that mentorship has grown substantially in popularity over the years throughout corporate America.

A study conducted by the American Society for Training and Development found that 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies identify their firms as having formal and informal mentorship opportunities; and 75 percent of executives credit their mentors with helping them reach their current positions. As employees navigate the political waters of the workplace, a mentor can be an invaluable resource.

In today’s workforce, millennial workers apparently seem to crave mentoring. According to the 2016 Deloitte Millennial Survey, 63 percent of millennials say their leadership skills are not being fully developed. It also found that those who say they plan to remain with their current workplace for more than five years are twice as likely to have a mentor.

When it comes to mentorship, the direct selling community is well ahead of the curve. Obviously, field leaders mentor and lead their teams, which can range from a handful to scores of individuals. In fact, mentorship is one of the richest personal development resources a direct selling business has to offer. A new representative has immediate access to a mentor (her recruiter) and often an entire community of peer support. Thanks to technology, it’s easier than ever to forge connections with mentors all over the country, or even the world.

Personal development isn’t a perk of the job, nor is it a means to an end. Self-development is fundamental to one’s success because it’s simply another way to describe becoming the person you were meant to be.

The mentee-mentor relationship is mutually beneficial and supports personal development on both sides. Mentees have a safe space for asking questions, seeking feedback and learning about their organization from a different perspective. They learn to set goals while they grow their network, strengthen and expand their skill sets and develop greater confidence. Mentors, meanwhile, experience the personal satisfaction that comes from “paying it forward”—coaching others while they sharpen their own leadership skills.

Special Section:

Personal Development Trends to Watch

“You see one person lifting up and providing information to another person, and then someone else comes along and adds on to that. I think it’s a very dynamic and new way to think about personal development,” says Jane Creed, president and CEO of Napa, California-based Wine Shop At Home, a direct seller of artisan wine brands. “It’s very peer-based. It’s not only leaders, but people who have just begun in the business, and they can enrich one another.”

Tang has always been a firm believer in sharing her knowledge with others, due in large part to the influence mentorship has had on her own life. “Growing up in the New York City public school system as an immigrant,” she says, “my parents weren’t fluent in English. They weren’t educated here, and my mom didn’t even graduate high school. I looked to aspirational teachings, learnings, role models as a way to validate how I was feeling as a transplant.”

“[With mentoring] you see one person lifting up and providing information to another person, and then someone else comes along and adds on to that. I think it’s a very dynamic and new way to think about personal development.”
— Jane Creed, President and CEO, Wine Shop At Home

When Tang was in third grade, her family moved from a tenement on the city’s Lower East Side to Brooklyn; they’d finally saved enough money to buy a home. At the same time, Tang’s third-grade teacher, Mrs. Wrynn, was opening her eyes to other possibilities.

“She was the first person who for some reason told me she believed I could do anything. I’d never heard that. She was very free and liberal with her recognition, which is very anti-cultural for traditional Chinese families,” Tang says. “It was extremely scary, because it’s also so different from your own family and what you’re being told at home. But she helped instill a level of confidence in me as I learned to adapt and form my own sense of self. She changed my life; she really did. I’m still close to her today.”

Cindy Monroe, founder and CEO of Columbus, Ohio-based accessories company Thirty-One Gifts, points out that the mentoring experience can also be very informal, and in a sense “caught” by the consultant from other leaders in the field. She recently told DSN, “Personal development is really important so that she gains perspective, and as she sees other women being successful, she says ‘if they can do that, I can do that.’ ”

THE FUTURE: BEST PRACTICES

The road to self-actualization, according to the entrepreneurs we interviewed, may be best experienced by keeping in mind the following considerations:
Be open to change. The speed at which technology continues to evolve—which, in turn, affects salesforce preferences—requires alertness and a willingness to make changes to information delivery systems as needed.

“We have to meet people exactly where they are, and that has never changed,” says Traci Lynn Burton, founder and CEO of Traci Lynn Jewelry in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “The moment we forget that or we think that our own method is the only way, that’s when we lose.”

Respect cultural preferences. Knowing your audience is key. Almost 90 percent of Princess House consultants are Hispanic, Spanish speakers, and prefer face-to-face training. A team of customer-service employees recently traveled to Houston to provide local consultants with technology training, coaching and encouragement as the city continues to rally back from Hurricane Harvey.

“We have to meet people exactly where they are, and that has never changed. The moment we forget that or we think that our own method is the only way, that’s when we lose.”
— Traci Lynn Burton, Founder and CEO, Traci Lynn Jewelry

“What’s wonderful is that they eventually become ambassadors of personal development on their own,” Tang says. “There’s immense value in that—a whole lot more than us preaching at them.”
Don’t make it a requirement. Personal development is most effective when it’s purely voluntary. The natural leaders will seize the opportunity to grow, develop others and lead the way. Truly there is no substitute for a self-motivated leader.

Stay inspired yourself. As with any other aspect of leadership, employees and salesforce members alike have to model the behavior they expect from their teams and keep up their own personal journeys toward greater self-development.

“If I only give to the field, who’s giving to me so that I can continue to give something to them?” Burton asks. “You can’t give what you don’t have. I don’t give from emptiness; I give from overflowing. I have to have what I need to continue the journey.”

Direct selling is most often described as being all about relationships, and certainly growing in self-awareness and self-knowledge only enhances those relationships. Engagement on this personal level sustains our channel even more than the wide variety of products and services available within it. Indeed, combining a people-oriented opportunity with a personal development opportunity is only natural.

Click here to order the February 2018 issue in which this article appeared.

Personal Development Trends to Watch

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Special section of the February, 2018 Cover Story

Several trends, shaped by consumers’ evolving preferences about how they like to receive information, will continue to impact the way direct selling companies share personal development resources both to their employees and independent salesforce members in 2018:

Microlearning:

The term “microlearning” refers to learning in short bursts, or snippets, according to the way busy people learn today, and it’s most often served up on mobile devices that give us the flexibility to learn on our own schedules. Most of us don’t have time to sit down and listen to an hourlong webinar. The cumulative effect of bite-sized learning is more significant than we may realize.

Connie Tang, President and CEO of Princess House, the kitchenware and home décor company based in Taunton, Massachusetts, spends much of her life on the road commuting between her home in California and her apartment in Rhode Island near the Princess House headquarters. She uses her cross-country commute to master the art of microlearning.

“When I’m on the West Coast, I work East Coast hours. I don’t sleep a lot. But you find opportunities to learn, and it doesn’t have to be arduous or require an immense amount of time,” she says. “I read short articles or watch two-minute videos that interest me, and then it takes two seconds to share it. If it’s important to you, you allocate time.”

Multichannel:

Some people prefer learning through video, some like a phone call, others want to read from the comfort of a home office or via an app in between appointments. These days, do direct selling companies have to be everything to everyone? In a word, yes. They have to meet consultants exactly where they are.

“I think you really can be all things to all people as long as you focus on what your message is and that you keep it consistent,” says Jane Creed, president and CEO of Napa, California-based Wine Shop At Home, a direct seller of artisan wine brands. “We’ve got to give answers to a lot of people in a lot of different ways, but personally, I find that we all grow by learning how to do that.”
Tang describes her approach to personal development as “stocking the buffet. That’s my philosophy. It’s all here for the taking, you can have all of it, some of it or none of it. That’s how I believe I can model it as a leader, foster it and provide access.”

Gamification:

Some direct selling companies have incorporated gamification into personal development modules, enabling salesforce members to earn virtual badges or engage in some healthy competition on leaderboards. Gamification is a natural fit for direct selling, as the segment is based on a culture of recognition. Prizes are often secondary to that moment in the limelight and the praise that follows a job well done. When salesforce members can see in real time who’s pulling to the head of the pack, it’s a powerful motivator to pick up the pace of their own efforts. And gamification can also help rally sales force members around a common cause that ultimately benefits everyone.

Social learning:

Tools like Skype, Slack and other message boards, as well as in-house social networks, offer effective channels through which companies can push out personal development content and incite discussion and even inspire user-generated content among salesforce members. Salesforce members then become influencers.

Wine Shop At Home relies heavily on Facebook for social learning. An interesting outgrowth of serving up personal development on Facebook is the spontaneous exchange of ideas that naturally occurs among sales representatives, says Creed. “Our mantra is ‘wine is social,’ and so we do a lot of personal development right on Facebook,” she adds. “We don’t like to do a top-down approach. To me, that can sometimes be a mistake, because what you think they’re looking for they aren’t looking for—they’re looking for something different. We really listen and let them lead the way into the kinds of topics they need, and then we can step in and provide that for them.”

Personalization:

Inside and outside the direct selling channel, there seems a growing demand for personalization. One size fits all doesn’t work when it comes to personal development; after all, people start a direct selling business for various reasons and have various intentions. From a personal development standpoint, no two students are alike.

A single skill, like confidence-building, remains relevant throughout one’s entire direct selling journey, but may need to be taught multiple ways to serve a variety of audiences. More direct selling companies are developing specific learning tracks based on one’s respective level in the salesforce. Additionally, direct selling companies are investing more heavily in technology that serves up targeted content based on salesforce activity.

Virtual Reality:

Virtual reality could present opportunities to enrich personal development offerings within the direct selling segment. There are a couple of issues to be resolved first, however, including cost and accessibility, not to mention experience.

“At the end of the day, like all technology, it’s about access.” Tang says. “I think that’s going to be the challenge—the practical side of it, of how to bring it to market and bring it to the people you actually want to have it.”

Click here to order the February 2018 issue in which this article appeared.

Amway: On a Mission Greater Than One Company

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Managing an $8.8 billion global enterprise while being the face of a $183 billion international market is a lot of responsibility. But Amway, the world’s largest direct selling company, with headquarters in Ada, Michigan, seems comfortable with—and energized by—the challenge.

Amway
Founded: 1959
Headquarters: Ada, Michigan
Top Executives: Co-CEOs Steve Van Andel and Doug DeVos
2016 Revenue: $8.80 billion
Global 100 Ranking: 1
Products: Personal care, wellness, cosmetics, food and beverage, home care and kitchenware.

Co-CEOs Doug DeVos and Steve Van Andel

At this point in its evolution, Amway strives to be a very visible example of what Vice President of Communications Todd Woodward believes is direct selling’s underlying purpose: to bring value and empowerment to people’s lives. “When you’re the leader in the direct selling industry,” Woodward says, “it’s really important to position yourself and the industry at the same time.”

As a result of Amway executives’ belief in this purpose, company leaders pursue initiatives beyond the day-to-day operations of their direct selling business—initiatives that have far-reaching touch points and work to serve the channel as a whole. A few of these programs include a recurring in-depth report on entrepreneurship, extensive health-related research and a global effort to eliminate malnutrition. According to Woodward and other company executives, this work reflects the belief that success comes from more than just selling products and providing business opportunities.

Entrepreneurial Spirit

People start their own businesses for a variety reasons. Some do it to have more control over their schedules. Others may want more control over their income. People also don’t start businesses for a variety of reasons—because they fear failure or they don’t have family support. In certain countries, potential entrepreneurs are ready to take the risk but the bureaucracy makes it too complicated.

“When you’re the leader in the direct selling industry, it’s really important to position yourself and the industry at the same time.” — Todd Woodward, Vice President of Communications, Amway

Amway has been gathering this kind of intelligence on attitudes about, and perceptions of, entrepreneurship around the world since 2011. It publishes its findings in the Amway Global Entrepreneurship Report (AGER).

This exhaustive study helps Amway in two ways: It provides insight into what motivates or intimidates entrepreneurs, allowing the company to better understand how to break down barriers to entrepreneurship. And it gives executives fuel for conversations about the business climate in its global markets. Amway also makes the reports—seven of them since 2013—available as a free download at www.amwayglobal.com/newsroom/#media-downloads, ensuring that the entire direct selling channel has access to the beneficial research.

The next AGER will be released in March, Woodward says. But the last report, from 2016, revealed that an overwhelming majority—nearly 80 percent—of the 50,861 men and women aged 14-99 surveyed across 45 countries have a positive attitude about entrepreneurship. Researchers found that millennials, in particular, believe that working in the gig economy is a viable way to make more income. As it deepens its understanding of how entrepreneurship begins (or doesn’t), Amway—and other companies who utilize the report—can leverage AGER findings to help potential entrepreneurs widen their perceptions of what it means to be a business owner. It doesn’t have to be about starting from scratch, Woodward says. “We believe that entrepreneurship is a group sport and people are more successful when surrounded with support. Whether they stay with Amway or not, it doesn’t matter. If they have a good experience with us and move on, that’s just fine.”

The AGER also “opens up conversations for us in our 100 markets about how to help shape the regulatory environment to be more favorable for people who want to start businesses,” Woodward says. For example, Amway executives recently began working with the Indian government as they consider regulations that would help people who want to earn extra income through direct selling.

“The most important thing about AGER,” Woodward says, “is that it highlights the widespread desire that people have for business ownership. Helping people accomplish that goal—in a low-cost, low-risk way—is the essence of who we are and what we do, not just as a company but as an industry.”

Kyle Bacon, a mentor coordinator for the U.S. Dream Academy, educates Amway IBOs on how to help children who have parents in prison break the incarceration cycle and develop life skills.

Learning Culture

Clearing barriers to entrepreneurship, whether psychological or regulatory, is the first step toward helping people build their own businesses. But Amway’s support of the journeys of independent business owners (IBOs) doesn’t stop there. It has an extensive curriculum for IBOs—its non-employee salesforce—at all stages of business ownership around the world, including a recently updated program in North America.

Amway Education has been available for IBOs since the company began. But three years ago, under the leadership of Suzie Fiore, Amway North America’s director of training and education, the company reinvented the course content and delivery to make it more relevant to Amway’s IBOs.

“The education we had was dated in our minds and in our IBOs’ minds,” Fiore says. “It was very long; it was based on PowerPoints; and it wasn’t concise or easy because it was not friendly on mobile devices or tablets.”

The courses are now accessible from any device, and the Amway Education team worked with IBOs to rewrite and segment the material into more concise, targeted modules. New business owners can select content that is focused on basic business operations or ways of learning more about Amway. Veteran IBOs can go right for more in-depth courses on leadership or other topics that will help them develop in the mature stages of their businesses.

In summer 2017, the company temporarily made Amway Education courses available to the general public, as a way to expand the public’s understanding of what Amway offers. “We wanted to show those who have the entrepreneurial spirit that Amway provides help all along the way; that you’re in business for yourself but not by yourself,” Fiore says, adding that the company does not have plans to make the courses available to the public again.

The experiment generated a lot of interest, says Beth Dornan, head of public relations and social media for Amway North America. During the open-course period, 26,600 people took Amway’s “What’s Your Learning Personality” assessment. It’s a quick quiz that categories people as a Juggler, a Seeker, a Cornerstone or an All-Star and recommends Amway courses that would best suit them.

“[With Amway Education courses], we wanted to show those who have the entrepreneurial spirit that Amway provides help all along the way; that you’re in business for yourself but not by yourself.” — Suzie Fiore, Director of Training and Education, Amway North America

Amway draws from outside resources, too, as it creates its learning paths. Through a partnership with the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), for example, it taps into what executives believe is a leadership and teamwork philosophy that is highly compatible with Amway’s approach. In a recently launched video series called “Amway Overtime,” some of the most recognizable names in college football coaching share their approaches to developing better players on the field. “From identity and direction to guiding your team through a crisis, business leaders can soak up advice and wisdom that reinforce their own endeavors,” the company says on its website.

Feedback from Amway Education users indicates that the new videos are an engaging experience and complement how they reach their downlines, Fiore says.
Amway Education exists to help IBOs become successful, she says. “We listened to what the IBOs said they need and want, and we’re helping supply them with tools to help with professional and personal growth.”

The company is being recognized for its training as well. In 2017, Amway Education won a Silver award in the Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Sales and Marketing Awards, for “Best Unique or Innovative Sales Training Program.”

Amway Botanical Research Center in Wuxi, China.

Research for Life

While Amway Education and the AGER teams are digging into what will help IBOs develop personally and professionally, Amway researchers are digging into the science of healthy living.
In the past five years, Amway has invested $335 million in research and development and manufacturing facilities to support the work of nearly 1,000 scientists in 75 labs around the world. The company’s R&D work focuses primarily on plant-based food products. Amway global researcher Keith Randolph, who has a Ph.D. in pathology, published an article in the August edition of the United Nation’s Standing Committee on Nutrition newsletter, which presents important developments in the field of international nutrition. The Amway R&D team’s research into the effects of plant-based dietary patterns on healthy longevity not only informs the products Amway creates for its customers, but also raises concerns for those who have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Recently, the company opened the Amway Botanical Research Center in Wuxi, China, which includes 118 acres of farmland. The work in Wuxi is focused almost exclusively on studying plants used in traditional Chinese medicine. Woodward says this work is not only in line with Amway’s commitment to understanding healthy living but is also good for its partnership with the Chinese government. “Through this research they see us as a very positive force,” he says.

Skin health research is another recent initiative at Amway. In collaboration with Microbiome Insights Inc., Amway presented results from two independent epidemiology studies at a recent conference about anti-aging science. Executives at both companies say they hope the research will help create even more effective skincare products. “Together, we are leveraging our deep experience in the microbiome to deliver solutions in skin and cosmetic science,” says Dr. Greg Hillebrand, senior principal scientist at Amway. “While much more work needs to be done, our hope is not only to contribute to the scientific community’s general understanding of the microbiome, but also to apply our findings to the development of future consumer products that benefit human health and wellness.”

Amway is also focused on keeping its manufacturing facilities healthy. Through a major recycling operation at its global headquarters, the company recycles more than 90 percent of the 20 million pounds of waste it generates at its packaging plant. “The amount of recycling at global headquarters is enormous,” says Environmental, Health and Safety Lead Eric Van Dellen. “We’re also focused on making it easier for our office staff to… tackle their heavy workloads without throwing items in the trash.”

#AmwayVolunteers support Kids Food Basket, an organization that works to combat childhood hunger.

Helping Hands

As Voltaire once said, with great power comes great responsibility. From its highly visible position in the channel and in the global marketplace in general, Amway takes the opportunity to make a positive difference in, literally, almost every corner of the world. These efforts have resulted in $280 million and 4.1 million hours’ worth of contributions to community causes that have helped 13.2 million people around the world since 2003, company executives say.

Starting in its own backyard, Amway has partnered with hundreds of local nonprofits—awarding grant funding to some—that focus on improving nutrition, raising academic achievement and ending homelessness, hunger and unemployment.

Amway’s efforts to make a positive difference in others’ lives has resulted in $280 million and 4.1 million hours’ worth of contributions to community causes that have helped 13.2 million people around the world since 2003.

Zoom out to a national scale to see Amway’s work as a partner of the U.S. Dream Academy and Easter Seals. For the past eight years the company has invested time and resources to help the children in the U.S. Dream Academy, who have parents in prison, break the incarceration cycle and develop the skills and vision they need to make positive choices in their lives. For the past 34 years, Amway employees and IBOs have raised more than $32 million for Easter Seals, which serves more than 1.4 million children and adults with disabilities. Amway has partnered with Easter Seals for longer than it has worked with any other philanthropic partner.

Widen the lens further to see the results of the Nutrilite Power of 5 campaign, a major international effort to bring vital micronutrients to malnourished children around the world and help hundreds of thousands of children survive, thrive and grow to, and beyond, their fifth birthday, Dornan says.

More than 500,000 Amway IBOs have raised awareness and money to support the Power of 5 campaign, which distributes Nutrilite Little Bits to children in 15 countries—from China to South Africa to countries throughout the Americas—who are either undernourished or obese. Little Bits is a powder that can be mixed with food, adding 15 essential vitamins and minerals that make food more nutritious. The company says it intends to support at least 500,000 children with Nutrilite Little Bits by the end of 2019. This project is part of Amway’s commitment to the United Nations’ Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative and the SUN Business Network, which brings members of the private sector together to explore their role in solutions to malnutrition. Amway joined the network in 2014 and is one of 186 businesses committed to improving global nutrition. These companies represent a range of industries and include such global giants as General Mills, BASF, GlaxoSmithKline and KPMG.

Company Calling

Amway’s research, education and corporate responsibility initiatives are as broad and diverse as the company’s product lines, which range from water purifiers to skincare products and energy drinks. And these programs seem to occupy a significant place in the company’s priorities. As he makes his long commute to the office, Woodward talks easily and with great enthusiasm about what he believes is Amway’s true mission: “When we think about our ‘why,’ we think about helping people live better lives.”

Click here to order the February 2018 issue in which this article appeared.

Jamberry: Social Selling Drives Innovation and Fast Beauty

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Eight years ago three sisters began brainstorming, looking for a way to recreate the cute nail wraps only available at salons. All three cost-conscious moms, Lyndsey Ekstrom, Christy Hepworth and Keri Evans, enjoyed the creative self-expression found in manicure and pedicure colors and styles. But at $60 for hands and another $60 for toes, the women felt certain an alternative could be found.

Jamberry
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: lindon, utah
Top Executive: CEO Elizabeth Thibaudeau
Products: Nailwraps, Gel Enamel, Beauty and Skin Care

Elizabeth Thibaudeau

Colette Dahl

Stacy Sova

The sisters couldn’t let go of the idea that a do-it-yourself version could be a reality. After all, the nail wraps were basically stickers. Creative breakthroughs accompanied by serendipity often have the most sticking power, and in this case, Christy’s husband Adam supplied a crucial component.

As the co-founder and CEO of a snow ski manufacturing company, Adam Hepworth had experience adhering vinyl stickers to skis. The sisters researched vinyl until they found a type that lasted a long time and wore well. With the help of a local printer and some stock pattern images, the newfound entrepreneurs launched what would become a multimillion-dollar enterprise, Jamberry Nails.

Customers found the nail wraps through a combination of expos, Groupon and other daily deal sites, and a common theme began to develop. Those excited customers wanted to sell Jamberry products themselves to other customers. The families listened—a trait that is ingrained in the Jamberry culture—and a year after it all began, Jamberry launched in the direct selling channel.
From the beginning, the company’s great challenge has been every company’s dream: overwhelming demand. But the management team, led by Adam Hepworth, continued to grow and tackle the associated problems, such as acquiring the right equipment, outgrowing facilities, eliminating fulfillment and shipping errors, addressing customer issues, and getting the compensation plan exactly right.

Today the company operates across the U.S. and in five additional countries: Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico.

“We are confident our positioning to deliver on-trend beauty indulgences that celebrate self-expression will be a winning proposition for consultants and customers.” — Elizabeth Thibaudeau, CEO, Jamberry

Leadership Transitions

By 2014, the sisters were struggling to balance a quality home life with the rapidly expanding business, and took a step back from the day-to-day operations. Though still intimately involved in product development, they wanted to turn their focus back to raising their children. Adam continued to lead the company and executive team.

In 2016, another major leadership change occurred when Adam turned over the CEO role to Elizabeth Thibaudeau. Not a new face, Thibaudeau had previously served the company as vice president for global marketing. Prior to joining Jamberry, she had 20 years of experience with a skincare and nutrition company within the direct selling channel. Adam is continuing with the organization as a board member and major shareholder.

A Focus on New Products and Innovation

There’s a yin and a yang to high product demand as Jamberry’s founders quickly discovered. As the company told Direct Selling News in an early 2016 interview: “We had too many orders.” Not a bad place to be, but high demand did come with some weighty challenges.

To keep up with demand the company explored new manufacturing options, leading to initial bottlenecks and quality issues. The company has worked out those kinks, though, and today is focused on expanding its product line with attention on fast fashion, a term that retailers use to describe clothing designs made quickly and cheaply to capture current trends and meet customer expectations. Jamberry is applying the concept to the beauty industry, using the term “fast beauty.”

CEO Thibaudeau says: “It’s no secret direct sales thrives on fresh and new. In today’s world, consumers are demanding immediate access to products more than ever. Jamberry is perfectly poised to capitalize on these market trends to become the fast beauty leader in direct sales. We are confident our positioning to deliver on-trend beauty indulgences that celebrate self-expression will be a winning proposition for consultants and customers.”

Strengthening that positioning has involved a brand refresh, says Colette Dahl, Jamberry’s chief marketing officer. Dahl has been with the company about a year and says the brand refresh “focused on elevating us to more than just a nail company, to a true beauty company.” The refresh also shifted the company’s image from whimsical to now include sophistication, she says. While Jamberry didn’t change its company name, and stayed close to its legacy by not completely abandoning its legacy look and feel, the brand values and how they’re presented were rethought and included in the company’s manifesto. Colors, packaging and materials were also reimagined and gradually replaced. A new tagline—“Fresh. Daring. Now.”—was then introduced to support the new direction and an expansion beyond nails.

“I feel at Jamberry we were pioneers of social selling and we’ve seen dramatic shifts in purchases and selling patterns in a relatively short period of time.” — Colette Dahl, Chief Marketing Officer, Jamberry

How does the company stay ahead of the curve when it comes to fashion trends? Its strong social media presence, bolstered by the efforts of consultants and brand advocates provides a network of input and innovation that the company has learned to successfully mine. In fact, says Dahl, although company leaders attend many of the top cosmetic and beauty shows, they often find that they have already seen the trends on social media. Jamberry also partners with college and professional sports teams, along with companies like Disney, to create nail wrap collections based on recognizable characters and designs.

While the company initially made its mark with nail wraps, which still remain a core product offering, Jamberry has expanded to encompass other nail and beauty products such as gels and lacquers as well as nail, hand, and foot-care products with hair care on the horizon.

Jamberry consultants are recognized for their achievements at a recent event.

Social Selling: A Unique Virtual Direct Sales Model

Back in 2013, about 80 percent of its business occurred at in-person parties, generally held at consultants’ homes. But by 2015, more than 85 percent of sales were coming through virtual parties—fueled by social media sites, particularly Facebook. Today’s sales also occur primarily online, says Dahl. “The digital environment is just a rapidly changing space, particularly when the majority of your business comes from social media,” she says. “I feel at Jamberry we were pioneers of social selling and we’ve seen dramatic shifts in purchases and selling patterns in a relatively short period of time.”

Today, she notes, it’s not so much parties that lead to its sales, and new customers, but purchases from past customers. “While the initial virality of the product was done through online parties, we’re now seeing a lot of sales coming from repeat business through what our consultants have established as VIP groups.” These are independently run Facebook groups that stylists set up and run on their own to connect with their audiences.

Facebook has historically been the primary channel used by Jamberry to connect with consumers, and Dahl says that hasn’t changed because it’s where consultants spend a lot of their time and where they can establish private groups. But, she adds that in other markets, chat apps like WeChat or WhatsApp are becoming more prevalent. Jamberry also has a strong following on Instagram, due to the visual element of its products, she says. “We’ve seen a lot of emerging younger leaders building their business through Instagram as well.”

New opportunities to connect with audiences using live video also have proven to be both popular and effective, she says, as it allows for more in-depth communication between consultants, their teams and customers, and provides consultants with the opportunity to train and guide their downlines.

“Our ability to attract a variety of demographics, like millennials, has been a large part of our success.” — Stacy Sova, President of Global Sales, Jamberry

VIP groups, says Dahl, are groups that consultants set up online, which allows them to promote to this audience on a regular basis. “That’s probably one of the bigger shifts,” says Dahl. “A lot of our business is coming through repeat, even though parties are still a great way to attract and meet new people.”

Stacy Sova, president of global sales, adds, “Our ability to attract a variety of demographics, like millennials, has been a large part of our success.” A younger demographic also supports the use of social media and online communication channels to build awareness and boost sales, according to the company. In fact, notes Dahl, Jamberry’s social network includes influencers in the beauty and lifestyle space. “Some of our leaders would definitely be considered social media influencers, in general, but particularly influencers in the beauty and life areas—and when it comes to nails,” says Dahl.

Current and past customers also represent opportunities to introduce some of the new product offerings, says Dahl. “Since we’ve expanded our product line we’ll be reaching back out to those who maybe wanted to try the nail space, but it wasn’t their core interest and they had a little more interest on the beauty side. We’ll be making sure we’re effectively mining our existing customers and consultants and bringing them along as we expand our product portfolio.”

A new focus for the organization has been its “preferred customer program” which, says Sova, “has been met with amazing success.” The program, called Style VIP, is designed for those who wish to purchase the product at a discount but don’t, necessarily, want to build a business. For a $15 annual fee, Style VIPs can save 15 percent on every item purchased.

The company also wants to “become the leading subscription box provider of the direct selling space,” she says, capitalizing on the successes of models like Birchbox or Stitch Fix, which have become very popular with consumers.

Despite a focus on some unique social selling opportunities, Dahl says she sees the need to refocus on bringing new people into the business by using other social strategies to increase brand awareness.

Jamberry’s headquarters lobby in Lindon, Utah.

Keeping Communication Lines Open

Communication, particularly social media communication, is a mainstay for Jamberry to stay in touch with its customers; it’s also a big part of its communications with consultants and Style VIPs.
National sales managers facilitate coaching calls with the field and also manage specific Facebook groups for added support and encouragement, Sova says. Consultants also can find support at regional and national events as well as Jamberry University, an online training program that offers short courses, often limited to 5-7 minutes of information in slide or video format.

“As an executive body we are really close to our field. …I think it helps them feel a sense of loyalty and also that they’re being heard, that we care about their input.” — Colette Dahl, Chief Marketing Officer, Jamberry

“As an executive body we are really close to our field,” says Dahl. She notes that she, Sova and CEO Thibaudeau “speak and communicate every day with our field.” That serves, she says, not only to keep them up-to-date and connected, but also yields important insights through their suggestions. And, she adds: “I think it helps them feel a sense of loyalty and also that they’re being heard, that we care about their input.”

Customers also can get into the mix, spurring innovation through their own creativity. Jamberry’s Nail Art Studio encourages users to create and share their own designs, a form of crowdsourcing that is both engaging for consumers and educational for Jamberry.

Moving forward, says Dahl, the company will continue its focus on nails as well as its plan to expand into hair and beauty, leveraging the fast beauty approach to remain cutting edge and relevant. “I feel that helps us be more diverse, increasing the demographics we appeal to.”

Click here to order the February 2018 issue in which this article appeared.

Nothing to Prove: Scentsy Weighs Every Action for Cultural Authenticity

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In their first seven years, Heidi and Orville Thompson built home- and personal-fragrance company Scentsy into one of direct selling’s top-line players. What began in a 40-foot metal shipping container on a Meridian, Idaho, sheep farm in 2004 led to meteoric growth by 2011 when they hit $535 million in revenue. The next year Scentsy climbed to $560 million and ranked No. 23 on the DSN Global 100 list.

Scentsy
Founded: 2004
Headquarters: Meridian, Idaho
Top Executives: Co-Founders Orville and Heidi Thompson
2016 Revenue: $456 million
Global 100 Ranking: 42
Products: Personal fragrance, kitchen, bath and home decor

Orville Thompson & Heidi Thompson

Back then, the Thompsons recall, they really didn’t know the strength of the Scentsy brand or where it was headed. The company had moved to a new home office on an Idaho campus of 73 acres, and then a wave of competing retail pressure hit them broadside. A bold product move followed by a harsh re-evaluation of the business, and two years of struggle and hard work, brought Scentsy back to its core identity one employee, one product and one consultant at a time—and the company is now stronger for it.

But for 10 consecutive quarters, starting in summer 2012, Scentsy’s sales dropped while the behemoth Glade, owned by S.C. Johnson Company, and others introduced copycat retail products. Scentsy’s sales sank 13 percent annually over the next two years.

In response to this encroaching competition, within and outside the direct selling channel, Scentsy made a bold move to offer its consultants more options to help build their businesses. In 2012, the Scentsy Family umbrella expanded to include two new brands: Velata kitchen products and Grace Adele fashion accessories. Though profitable, both brands had created a distraction and contributed to a decline for the company as a whole. It took Heidi’s simple question directed at executives, about how Scentsy’s strategy tied back to its values, to flip the switch. Once recognized, Scentsy regained its brand and confidence by taking slow, steady and deliberate actions to return to its cultural authenticity. Revenue has now posted up for 10 consecutive quarters. Revenue for 2016 was $456 million and projections for 2017 are upward of $480 million.

While current revenue is not what it was in Scentsy’s early growth heyday, the Thompsons say they understand their business better today. They like the direction the company is headed and the stable pace at which they are growing. Revenue doesn’t have to skyrocket to make them happy. They say there’s great freedom in not having to answer to shareholders or bump up numbers to attract private equity. They can prioritize corporate authenticity over short-term profits, which the Thompsons believe is the best path to success over the long haul.

Attaining this kind of contentment hasn’t been easy, and it all started with Heidi’s question during a 2013 planning meeting. “Can you guys please explain to me how each of your projects speaks to simplicity, authenticity or generosity?” she asked. “Which one of them will warm the heart, enliven the senses or inspire the soul?” It proved to be the pivotal moment for Scentsy, CEO Orville Thompson says. “It hadn’t sunk in to executives that we were declining, that this wasn’t just a blip and that we were actually in a trend.”

Ideas were flowing, markers flying. Competitive advantage, winning, numbers, improvements, and ways to get their share—those topics crowded the whiteboard. But Scentsy President Heidi Thompson grew frustrated. “I kind of blew up—in my nice way,” she says.

“All the things we just wrote on the board were things the Consultants weren’t even going to care about or even know we had implemented,” Heidi says. It was as if the connective tissue that held the mechanics of Scentsy’s business together—the heart that made it successful in the first place—was lost. The management team just didn’t get it. Heidi fired off some difficult questions. Where is our culture suffering? Where are we missing connecting to our sales field? Why aren’t we listening to them? Where is the heart? “We needed to get back to the heart—us being active and listening to the field,” Heidi says.

The Thompsons now theorize Scentsy’s approach to business growth had slipped into a decidedly single-minded pattern. They had omitted the cultural markers that made Scentsy great in the first place—simplicity, authenticity, generosity, warmth and inspiration. They graded themselves poorly that day and erased the whiteboard.

“It hadn’t sunk in to executives that we were declining, that this wasn’t just a blip and that we were actually in a trend.” — Orville Thompson, Co-Founder and CEO, Scentsy

In so doing, they chose to look at decision-making differently. No longer are ROI, advantage, experience and positive outcomes with other companies the only deciding factors. They make room for intangibles like Heidi’s intuition and instinct.

Her common phrase, “I don’t know why, but here’s what we should do,” can still frustrate him, Orville says. He may disagree, think it’s unfair or arbitrary, but she’s pretty accurate, he adds. Now he makes an effort to understand and respect that intuition “implicitly.”

“You have to respect intuition, and you have to understand why letting that intuition surface is important,” Orville says.

Peeling Away Distraction

When a company is young, energetic and growing, massive change happens fast. This atmosphere attracts a certain type of executive interested in riding the wave. Once a downturn sets in, enthusiasm wanes and jobs can get harder.

Roughly one-third of the people in that 2013 meeting are no longer with Scentsy, replaced in recent years by different voices—some from outside the direct selling channel and others representing the old guard of party plan. There were new ideas, experimentation and even a foray into remote team management. (It didn’t work.) New hires stayed and new hires left, but the Thompsons believe it’s been a worthy struggle and has convinced them of one thing—culture beats strategy every time. And it began showing in the company’s bottom line as well.

“We needed to get back to the heart—us being active and listening to the field.” — Heidi Thompson, Co-Founder and President, Scentsy

“It’s a fight when you hire a lot of new people who have their own ideas. Allowing those ideas to be implemented without sacrificing culture was a huge challenge,” Orville says.

Years, initiatives and proverbial feathers in executives’ hats had piled on much distraction for the management team. Changes had to be made. “We said we are going to live by our Scentsy brand and what we are about, or we will die by it,” Orville says.

The past four years have been spent peeling away distractions and setting their business clock back to 2010. Umbrella companies Grace Adele and Velata ceased operations in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Consultants sold product at deep discounts during six-month transition periods, and Scentsy offered a 100 percent return for products if consultants wished to cut ties. Not a single consultant took the offer. “Making things right was the most important thing to us,” Heidi says.

“If you violate the cultural contract in a trial, then the trial breaks you. If you validate the cultural contract during a trial, then it brings you together,” Orville adds.

Having no activity requirement had created an explosion in Scentsy’s consultant base, taking the numbers up to about 200,000. As a way to whittle away at the inactive consultants, the company instituted such a requirement in 2014. Nearly half of its consultants fell off, but revenue increased immediately. The management team succeeded in deepening the home office/consultant relationship by injecting energy into limited-time offers and creating excitement and engagement with new marketing tools, training and resources.

Today, the company holds steady at approximately 120,000 consultants, who are provided with realistic expectations of the job. These consultants stuck around, the Thompsons say. They worked hard, and they attracted others who wanted to do the same, including millennials, some of whom are second-generation Scentsy consultants, making good in the “YouEconomy.”

“Real opportunity is much better than believed opportunity that will never transpire,” Orville says.

The Real Work

The Thompsons say they aren’t chasing anything anymore. There’s nothing to prove, and they aren’t trying to impress. Hard-won stability has shown them that.

The real business improvements Scentsy is now looking for include asking questions such as: How do you create a training program that fundamentally helps someone increase their dollars per hour as they go about their business building a downline? How do you create a better product that has a better value proposition, so customers buy it with less effort from our consultants? How do you create a corporate culture that more easily attracts highly talented people, who get along and do good work?

Business growth is strategic now, and the executives can be happy with single digits, they say. Maintaining an overall growth rate of between 2 percent and 10 percent is their sweet spot. They have the resources to pursue interesting projects, can handle the growth and consultants who work hard do well. Get much above single-digit growth and the business heats up too much, Orville says.

Strategic Growth

There are four legs to Scentsy’s current growth strategy, and they focus on consultant needs.

First, they are upgrading and integrating home office-led training tools to equip consultants to train their own teams for business growth. Scentsy’s Sales Engagement Department works with leaders at the superstar directors level as well as with those who aspire to attain it to set goals and better engage teams using new train-the-trainer tools. “This is really where a lot of our growth, our excitement, is coming from,” Orville says.

Second, they are strengthening international markets. The company operates in 11 international markets with others in the pipeline ready to launch when the time is right. Last year, Scentsy moved Dan Orchard, general manager emerging markets, to Europe to oversee and direct international operations. The company is now seeing the benefits of having a team on the ground to focus on the unique needs of the European and Australian markets and to provide necessary resources. Markets like France are taking off, executives say.

They also are pleased with Scentsy’s ability to translate its culture to other English-speaking foreign markets. The Thompson’s authenticity, however, may never attract or appeal to some people or cultures, and that’s OK by them. “There’s no need to sacrifice who we are for international expansion,” Orville says.

Third, Scentsy is using predictive analytics to enable strong customer relationship management systems that will help identify customers and potential consultants who best align with its brand. “We can look and see what types of people like Scentsy best. Why do we do well in suburbia? Why do we do well with military wives? Why don’t we do well in big cities? Is it a product, a process, the people?” Orville says.

Over and over again, their segmentation research tells them that family is central to everything. They see this power of the family as one of the biggest factors attracting consultants and customers to Scentsy.

Last is the development of symbiotic, real-time marketing tools that at once help consultants market Scentsy products and the business opportunity, while also helping the home office use data analytics to appropriately market products on behalf of consultants.

“If you violate the cultural contract in a trial, then the trial breaks you. If you validate the cultural contract during a trial, then it brings you together.” — Orville Thompson

“We heard from consultants that the party landscape was changing. The demand for doing parties online, through video, mobile or a combination of an in-home event and an online party are just a few ways that creative consultants are introducing customers to Scentsy. Our goal was to make it easy for consultants to have whatever kind of ‘party’ a customer desires,” says Julie Cabinaw, vice president of marketing technology and innovation.

In 2016, Scentsy launched social selling tools that directly integrate a consultant’s Facebook and Pinterest accounts to their Scentsy account. Once personalized and shared, an image links to a corresponding product page and the customer is just one click away from ordering. The company also launched Party Page, a customizable and flexible social and mobile-friendly platform where consultants create content to share with hosts and guests through email or social media.

Results showed 95 percent of beta tester consultants would recommend the tools. Additional statistics also demonstrated that the tools were effective in generating results: There was a 5.6 percent conversion rate for Facebook shares communicated this way and a 29 percent better than average Consultant website conversion rate. The number of parties per month increased 10 percent. Thirty-nine percent utilized Party Page. Party value in terms of sales rose 12 percent above those who did not use Party Page. There was a conversion rate of 7 percent for Party Page shoppers, a 60 percent better than average Consultant website conversion rate. In fact, Scentsy’s efforts won them the 2017 Direct Selling Association’s Excellence in Salesforce Development Award.

Product Development/Manufacturing

Another past DSA award-winning Scentsy program, IdeaShare, connects the company’s home office to consultant wants and needs. Scentsy Bath Bombs and Scentsy Go, an on-the-go personal fragrance delivery system, were born of this tool and later developed by the company’s product team.

Scentsy manufactures 205,200 products daily at its Idaho facilities and has escalated hiring to meet customer and consultant desires. It recently added 100 employees to hand-package bath bombs, so the product would float in water rather than sink when used by customers. Machine-packaged products can be more densely packed and thus sink. The company worked through a nonprofit to give those jobs to a group of refugees.

There is a concept in Scentsy’s product development that respects the relationship customers have with fragrance and innovates the company’s method of delivery so customers can enjoy it multiple ways.

“When we come out with new products, we don’t need home runs because Scentsy wax and warmers are extremely powerful, effective, popular and growing in every market. What we need are other products to expand the customers’ ability to take fragrance into other parts of their life. So a 10 percent contribution to our revenue would be spectacular,” Orville says.

“We are not trying to impress shareholders,” he adds. “We are not trying to just make money. We are not trying to attract private equity. We are not trying to angle for a strategic partnership buyout. We are focused on being the best that we can be and helping our consultants be the best they can be. That is a very satisfying place to be, and what we are finding is that it is more successful as well.”

Click here to order the February 2018 issue in which this article appeared.

Get Out in Front of 2018 Communication Trends—Join In, Jump On

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As part of its evolution and adaptation to market trends, the direct selling business model continues to adopt features of online commerce. While incorporating the strengths of e-commerce is important, the channel still has its own unique strengths—strengths that need to be communicated as part of a strategic and well-implemented communications program.

Almost anyone can click and purchase a product online. However, consumers yearn for the personalized service and connection that is at the core of the segment’s business model. Direct selling offers “personalized selling” like no other business. This advantage is timely and important—personalization is at the forefront of pivotal communication trends in 2018.

In making the most of the personalized selling proposition at the heart of the channel, companies can take full advantage of the valuable customer and product usage information that lies with the distributors. Distributors are influencers and brand advocates or ambassadors. There is incredible value in better leveraging this resource for brand communication purposes.

The following three points are key emerging communications trends that direct selling companies can easily incorporate into their businesses to utilize distributor influence and to positively impact customer acquisition.

1. Disseminate Public-Centric Content That is Smart Content, Too

Direct selling companies have a distinct advantage in today’s online commerce world—customer acquisition has generally been the result of customers’ direct product use, which leads to product evangelism, which then results in the conversion of some customers to distributors.

When you consider the segment’s product adoption curve, the standard marketing strategy of most industries doesn’t completely apply to the direct selling channel; as it’s usually only customer-centric where the companies are trying to establish a relationship with the consumer. In direct selling, the customer-to-distributor conversion process is often due to the fact that the direct selling product user already has a strong relationship with the brand and its representatives.

To have the direct selling business model evolve to the next level and embrace the relatively new communications channels that technology now provides, direct selling companies need to also embrace a communications strategy beyond the individual customer and distributor and provide public-centric content—content that produces a positive relationship with the broader public.

This is basically the reverse of a traditional business model, which personalizes an impersonal brand. Direct selling brands are already personalized. The imperative is to take the already humanized and individualized brand and convey the organization, culture and credibility behind the brand and the distributor to the public.

Click here to order the February 2018 issue in which this article appeared.

Offer product testimonials, but be sure to add in the credibility and the science behind the product. For example (and with guidance from compliance, as appropriate), explain raw ingredient cultivation, the manufacturing process, specific ingredients that reinforce the company’s brand, mission and culture.

Be strategic in your product communications and target the product to a specific demographic, geographic area, season or age. Make that product more relevant by highlighting a key ingredient and discussing its effectiveness. Create several marketing versions, with the same message, and deliver the content via creative methods pegged to key audiences.

Look to the distributors that fit that target demographic and leverage their experiences and their distributorships. Allow this content to be used as a business tool for, and by, distributors (based on their business demographics) and as an endorsement for the company.

Much of direct selling companies’ content gems get lost amidst distributor sales and recruitment statistics. Frequently, the raw materials to deliver compelling content may not be documented or readily available for content-creation purposes. It’s very important to make this type of content accessible.

HubSpot, a marketing and sales software development company, defines smart content, as “content that is intelligently personalized (i.e., experiences that can be expanded to connect to the broader demographic) to your customer’s needs.” That is an incredibly valuable asset held by direct selling companies to be leveraged in today’s e-commerce environment.

The direct selling channel gets close to the people who use its products, who are attracted to the opportunity, and who seek out a specific cultural fit. Direct selling executives can use their company’s unique data to create compelling content for specific personas drawn to your brand proposition and use this content appropriately at the corporate level and within distributor ranks. It will take additional analysis, organization and distributor training, but it will be a valuable exercise. Smart content moves beyond content for awareness and targets potential customers, as well as potential distributors, and can have a measurable ROI.

2. Make Use of Messaging Apps and Micro-Influencers

Smart content derived from customer and distributor data also provides information that can be used for effective messaging campaigns—generated through technology as well as through communication by customers, distributors and others. From the technology side, messaging campaigns can include using sales and chat bots on Messenger that serve as more of a parallel track to email marketing.

These campaigns create an interactive and inclusive experience, such as a game around a major holiday or a secret password to a virtual product party. Such experiences serve the corporate brand and culture and relate back to the broader messaging of the company.

Micro-influencers are those people who are highly engaged on social media with a significant fan base. Many of these influencers started out as bloggers, and they now incorporate a full suite of social media channel outreach. Micro-influencers can be excellent sources for product reviews. The key is to target the correct type of influencer for your audience and product. Find these influencers via databases that provide these contacts.

Empower the micro-influencer to tell a story with your product—a weight-loss journey, achieving brighter skin, acquiring more energy and so on. Most influencers are open to discussing the message you want to send and the ways that you might want to send it. In addition, some direct selling company distributors are also micro-influencers, so there can be overlap. Many distributors who have actively built online businesses have also grown their online followers. Leverage these resources.

3. Create Integrated, Consistent, Cohesive Communications

In all walks of society and business, communication is more fragmented today than ever before. To create successful communications (and marketing) in support of a direct selling company, it is important to achieve consistency and integration. This coordinated approach should include creation, repurposing, amplification and syndication of content across a company’s digital channels.
Internally, this can translate into several teams collaborating and sharing ownership, and breaking down the walls between siloed departments. Externally, integration can be facilitated by identifying and prioritizing digital channels, learning which audiences favor which channels and understanding which messages audiences expect to hear on those channels.

For example, the language and visuals of a Twitter post differ from those used in Facebook which differs from those used in Instagram, and so forth. This process requires a coordinated effort at the corporate level to reach a broader audience that is more inclined to resonate with your message. This process also requires a training commitment to those distributors interested in growing their businesses.

The direct selling channel has a great opportunity to leverage these digital communication trends. The data already exists and does not require an initial investment in artificial intelligence. While technology allows a company to extend its reach to a broader, yet more targeted, audience, distributors also amplify that message digitally and can provide a staggering number of additional content channels.

Direct selling companies will maximize their ability to benefit from, and keep pace with, the digital landscape if they can identify the trends that offer better value propositions for their businesses and be prepared to take advantage of new technologies for greater ROI.

Bobbie Wasserman is managing director of Wave2 Alliances Inc., a corporate reputation and crisis management consultancy. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member for the Direct Selling World Alliance.

 

 

 

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BE ALL YOU CAN BE… BE PART OF THE GLOBAL 100

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Personal development and self-improvement have been linked with the direct selling segment for decades. The notion of improving your current situation is what draws so many people to direct selling in the first place. As you’ll learn from this month’s cover story, personal development remains fundamental to the best of what modern direct selling has to offer.

Author Courtney Roush talks to a number of direct selling executives who outline the importance of personal development in their lives, careers and businesses. The giant shifts in technology haven’t quelled the urge to achieve more and do better; rather, they provide brand-new avenues for learning.

Heather Martin also brings insight from her interviews with company executives at Amway in this issue. She shares how their belief in the underlying purpose of bringing value and empowerment to people’s lives drives the company’s initiatives. In another feature, Beth Douglass Silcox explores cultural authenticity with Heidi and Orville Thompson, co-founders of home fragrance company Scentsy. And finally, Lin Grensing-Pophal catches up with fast-growing Jamberry, the nail wrap company.

Of course, a big part of self-improvement is taking stock in what you’ve already been able to achieve. That brings us to the other subject that’s top of mind this month: the Direct Selling News Global 100.

Nine years ago, we embarked on an ambitious project to chart the world’s 100 largest direct selling companies. Plenty of people doubted that we could convince companies to publish their annual revenue, as well as to get them to provide the other information used to compile the list. But we succeeded and the Global 100 was launched.

Since then, we’ve put together this international listing every year. Being a member of the Global 100 provides valuable recognition for those appearing on the list.

But the Global 100 couldn’t be a success without the active and enthusiastic participation of countless companies around the world. We’d like to take a moment to thank every one of you for your impressive collective efforts throughout the years. And we’d also like to ask for your help once again so we can make this year’s Global 100 the best one yet.

To insure that, we are asking all active executives at direct selling companies to visit DSNGlobal100.com and fill out the nomination form and complete the company profile.

The words one past honoree used to describe the Global 100 bring back this month’s theme of being all that you can be.

“The DSN Global 100 is a way for the world to look at this industry as a whole,” this company executive told us. “It’s a privilege. It’s an honor. And it’s an inspiration to keep growing and to keep getting better at it.”

The Role of Our Association: Now and into the Future

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In Washington, D.C. and across the country, there is an association for everything. Each industry, product or interest group has its own agenda. And there is an association to advocate for each one of those agendas on all levels of government.

For Americans, it seems only natural to stand together and advocate for a point of view. And of course, associations were formed to affect the common good by advocating for their particular point of view and petition the government. This might sound familiar to members of the Direct Selling Association (DSA).

DSA has been part of this ingenious and uniquely American tradition for more than 100 years, all the while advocating on behalf of diverse, yet unified interests. Whether party-plan or door-to-door, big-ticket or value-priced, the companies selling products and services came together to create and sustain the Direct Selling Association. The DSA began with relatively humble roots in Winona, Minnesota, eventually moving the headquarters to Washington, D.C. to advocate more forcefully for the future of direct selling.

Our predecessors understood that it was not good enough for direct sellers to come together and advocate only for themselves. These visionaries knew that it was critical to work for a greater good, beyond the interests of one company or industry segment and, in fact, beyond the interests of the business model alone. It was in our interest to serve the public interest. This commitment to the public interest, while working to support our extraordinary business model, has guided DSA’s legislative and self-regulatory efforts since then. These were recently reaffirmed in DSA’s ongoing strategy, “Plan 2020.”

Click here to order the February 2018 issue in which this article appeared.

Now DSA is embarking upon bold next steps to serve the joint interests of the public and its members through a renewed and vigorous self-regulatory program. We will build upon the long, effective history of our existing Code of Ethics to create an even more robust and credible self-regulatory system. This new program, to be implemented later this year and into 2019, will look to incorporate the fundamental principles of effective self-regulation as described by the Federal Trade Commission: full transparency of process, independent and credible third-party adjudication, sufficient resourcing, and possible application to non-members.

This ambitious and bold initiative will be complemented by an equally bold legislative initiative in Washington, D.C. and state capitals promoting consumer protection and individual entrepreneurship. We will fight for the independence of our salesforce and their flexibility to build businesses and to assist their families with a bit of extra income. Similarly, we will continue to support laws that clearly prohibit marketing scams, while allowing direct selling to provide quality products to customers, including our own salespeople.

There will no doubt be some differing opinions along the way. We are not immune to the various aspects of our culture and politics that seem to work to push people apart rather than together.
Yet the solidarity of DSA membership and volunteer leadership in working toward a better marketplace, effective consumer protection law, and the betterment of our communities has never been more clear. The common interests of our members, the wisdom of our founders, and the commitment to protect our customers and salespeople will undoubtedly propel the association and the business model in the coming months and years.

Direct sellers have united and our actions will serve as an example and a power that will be heard for the betterment of millions of people. I have no doubt.

Joseph N. Mariano is President of the U.S. Direct Selling Association and the Direct Selling Education Foundation.

Herbalife Nutrition Names Rich Libby As CIO

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Rich Libby has joined Herbalife Nutrition as chief information officer. Libby, who will be based at the company’s headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, will have global responsibility for the design, execution and support of Herbalife’s technology strategy.

Rich Libby

Rich Libby

“We are excited to have Rich, a talented and respected leader in the industry, join our team,” said Dave Pezzullo, chief operating officer at Herbalife. “Rich is joining a group of noteworthy individuals who collectively strengthen the company’s capabilities, especially in the digital arena, and open more doors to innovation.”

Libby was most recently chief information officer at another direct selling company, where he led its digital transformation and was responsible for all aspects of global technology and infrastructure in the company’s markets, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. Prior to that, he spent seven years as vice president of technology at Gap Inc., where he ran a multi-year digital transformational program supporting omni-channel marketing, CRM and enterprise data services; as well as 11 years with JPMorgan Chase managing customer service platform technologies.

“Having been in the direct selling and nutrition industry for more than seven years, I have developed a great understanding for the impact technology has on distributors,” said Libby. “I am eager to expand on the technological groundwork already in place.”

Plexus Worldwide Names Susie Rockway Chief Science Officer

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Plexus Worldwide, a Scottsdale, Arizona–based health and wellness company, has named Susie Rockway, Ph.D., as Chief Science Officer. Rockway will be responsible for research and development, product innovation, claims substantiation and medical affairs.

Susie Rockway, Ph.D.

“Dr. Rockway is a well-known and respected nutritional scientist who remains active in academic research, contributing to numerous journals and publications,” said Chief Marketing Officer Cindy Latham. “We’re thrilled to have her join Plexus and confident adding an expert of Dr. Rockway’s stature will help our company facilitate the success of scientifically validated product launches. She also will build our first Scientific Advisory Board, working with renowned collaborators to support our marketing initiatives and demonstrate the efficacy of Plexus products.”

Rockway has more than 25 years of experience in nutrition science, leading product development and regulatory affairs. Most recently, she generated $30 million in first-year sales for Capital Brands as the vice president of research and development, nutritional foods division. Before that, Rockway was recruited from Rush University, where she was a professor in clinical nutrition, to be the director of research and science for another direct selling company.

“I was immediately attracted to joining Plexus’ impressive leadership team and its well-respected research and development staff who share my commitment to developing the highest quality products for customers and Ambassadors,” said Rockway. “As Plexus continues its phenomenal growth, I’m excited to contribute my scientific, process-driven expertise as we develop innovative new products and research to grow and bolster the organization’s success.”

Rockway received her fellowship training from the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine after earning her Ph.D. in nutritional science and M.S. in agricultural-biochemistry and nutrition from the University of Arizona. She is a member of the American Society for Nutrition, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, Institute of Food Technology and a Certified Nutrition Specialist.

Ken Brailsford Resumes Role as Zija International CEO

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Zija International founder Ken Brailsford will be resuming his position as CEO of the Lehi, Utah-based company. After pursuing other business interests, he is eager to work alongside Zija president Ryan Palmer to achieve goals set in place by the executive team.

“I’m looking forward to being in a more hands-on role for a company that I feel so passionately about,” Brailsford said. “Because of Ryan’s guidance, Zija has been able to maintain consistent and sustainable growth, and I’m excited to see where we can take the company working alongside one another.”

Before Zija became a household name, Brailsford had already started and run two multimillion-dollar health and nutrition network marketing companies. After learning of Moringa oleifera in 2005, he came out of retirement and founded Zija International, one of the first companies to bring Moringa to market.

“There isn’t anyone more qualified than Ken Brailsford to materialize our vision of becoming a true legacy company,” said Palmer. “We have laid out an aggressive growth strategy; we have validated, world-class products; and we have prepared the proper infrastructure to support our Zija Members in sharing their businesses across the globe. Zija’s future is brighter and clearer than ever before.”

In just over a decade, Zija has grown to operate in countries worldwide, has been recognized on fastest-growing and top-revenue lists by Inc. Magazine, and has recently aligned with prior direct selling companies XANGO, Qivana and EmzaGold.

“After nearly 50 years of experience in the industry, I recognize that Zija is entering an enormous growth phase that I want to be a part of,” Brailsford said. “We’ve cast a clear vision that will lead Zija to succeed for decades to come.”

Nu Skin Releases New Dual-Action Skin Care Device ageLOC LumiSpa

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Nu Skin Enterprises, a Provo, Utah-based skincare and nutritional company, has launched ageLOC LumiSpa. The dual-action skincare device treats and cleanses the skin, delivering a skin treatment and cleansing benefits to reveal smoother, softer skin.

“The convenience and immediate results of ageLOC LumiSpa make it ideal for today’s busy consumer,” said CEO Ritch Wood. “With its unique ability to treat and cleanse the skin, LumiSpa is a great addition to our family of innovative skin care devices. We have seen great enthusiasm from our sales leaders during our limited launch, and we are anxious to begin making this product fully available for purchase around the world.”

Comparable to a facial massage, the ageLOC LumiSpa device uses a patent-pending, counter-rotating action to purify pores by removing dirt, oil, makeup, pollutants and toxins while delivering seven skin benefits that intensify with continued use: softness, purified skin, reduced pore appearance, smoothness, radiance, refreshed skin and improved appearance of volume and density.

ageLOC LumiSpa was invented by Nu Skin scientists with contributions from a board-certified dermatologist and inspired by gene expression studies of skin protein production. In the development of ageLOC LumiSpa, Nu Skin conducted several clinical studies, including a 12-week study that revealed individuals who used the product experienced improvements in their skin’s smoothness, softness, texture, clarity and radiance.

Research that influenced the development of ageLOC LumiSpa was named as a “Top 10 Poster” by the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists (IFSCC). It was selected from among more than 300 posters exhibited at the most recent IFSCC conference in Seoul, South Korea. The poster highlighted a study where digital image analysis was used to measure the efficacy of a test regimen using a novel treatment cleansing technology. The study revealed the device was able to improve skin softness and smoothness immediately after just one use with an average of 51 percent improvement in skin smoothness.

“When it comes to skin care, today’s busy consumer is looking for multi-functional products that are simple to use, yet produce results they can see and feel,” said Dr. Joseph Chang, chief scientific officer. “ageLOC LumiSpa combines patent-pending technology with scientifically researched treatment cleansers to cleanse, exfoliate and renew the skin in a single treatment. As a result, customers can instantly experience softer, smoother skin that becomes more radiant.”

Following successful market previews, ageLOC LumiSpa is now available in the Americas and EMEA regions with launches to follow in North Asia, Greater China and Southeast Asia over the next three months.