A Deeper Look at the Direct Seller

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Click here to order the Direct Selling News issue in which this article appeared.

Direct selling is a unique channel of distribution where individual salespeople choose their own level of involvement, where some companies categorize their sellers and others do not, and where unique aspects of the business model continually offer compelling rewards not available in traditional work environments.

For those individuals willing to put in time and energy, direct selling truly has significant earning potential. Many people get their start in direct selling in order to make a car payment, pay school tuition or credit card debt, or for other specific reasons. At first, they may work a handful of hours per week to earn this extra money. But many quickly come to understand that direct selling is based upon a directly proportional equation: The more time and energy you put into building your business, the more money you make. But even then, the dollars are only a part of what should be measured.

When it comes to the many moving parts of opportunity within the direct selling industry, multiple aspects must be considered to truly cover the spectrum of success. Some of these aspects are not easily measureable in the traditional sense, such as levels of self-satisfaction or rewards such as recognition. This is why oversimplification of the industry can lead to misunderstanding, and even misrepresentation.

Multiple aspects must be considered to truly cover the spectrum of success and some of these aspects are not easily measureable in the traditional sense.

Motivation and Intent

To better understand the direct seller, it’s necessary to consider the individual motivations and intentions of some 15.6 million direct sellers in the United States and some 91.5 million worldwide. Among their ranks, the “why” stories of these direct sellers are as unique as their personalities and their varying needs. From earning small amounts of money to making big career changes, direct sellers get involved with their companies for a variety of reasons.

Additionally, small-business ownership and entrepreneurialism still hold out hope for many disillusioned people, as traditional corporate jobs become less reliable. When a previously unemployed or underemployed person finds success in running a small direct sales business, the relief, joy and aspirations that are all tied up in that act are hard to separate from the dollars one earns.

A signup fee with a direct selling company not only allows the direct seller to “open for business,” it also provides invaluable resources. On the back end, the company conducts all the development and branding necessary to ensure that its product or service is viable. Then, on the front end, it provides the mechanisms needed for the salesperson to build a business based on that product.

This support structure is a very appealing aspect of the industry, according to David Bach, New York Times best-selling author. He says, “The beauty of the direct selling business opportunity is that it’s all done for you. You don’t have to create a business plan. You don’t have to create a product. The only thing you need to do is find a reputable company—one that you can trust—that offers a product or service that you believe in and can get passionate about.”

Is it any wonder then that direct sellers measure their success differently than someone analyzing traditional industry data? Outside direct selling, success most often correlates directly to product sold and revenue earned. Inside the industry, effective results take on a broader definition. Direct sellers take into account personal development, obtaining or refreshing job skills at little or no cost, social interaction, ability to control one’s method of work or gaining wholesale pricing on top-notch products.

With direct seller intent in the equation, it is easy to see how simple division does not adequately or accurately depict success within the direct sales industry. Also, adding in all the complexity that Gen Y brings to the table makes measurements that much more difficult. According to the 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report, over half of the Gen Ys surveyed felt their work schedules should be flexible, and a whopping 70 percent believed that being in an office regularly was unnecessary. These are choices that can be satisfied through direct selling.

“The more you can love what you do, because it’s connected to an interest you have, the more successful you’re going to be. Passion is often the difference between drudgery and heaven.”
—Tory Johnson, Best-selling author and Founder/CEO, Women for Hire

Obviously, these things cannot be measured in the traditional sense of dividing what’s been sold by the number of sellers. Self-satisfaction and passion are often the motivators for those engaged in direct selling businesses. Tory Johnson, best-selling author and Founder/CEO of Women for Hire, a high-caliber diversity career expo company, says, “The more you can love what you do, because it’s connected to an interest you have, the more successful you’re going to be. Passion is often the difference between drudgery and heaven.” How is that measured?

Larry Chonko, the Thomas McMahon Professor of Business Ethics, University of Texas at Arlington, says, “Based on a simple review of the broader number, one could easily assume that a relatively small percentage of folks that enroll in a direct selling company actually make significant sums of money. My response: That’s because only a relatively small percentage have that intention to begin with. The vast majority is not getting into direct selling to start a full-time business and only those with that intent should be evaluated from the perspective of how much money they made.”

“The vast majority is not getting into direct selling to start a full-time business and only those with that intent should be evaluated from the perspective of how much money they made.”
—Larry Chonko, the Thomas McMahon Professor of Business Ethics, University of Texas at Arlington

Full-Timer, Part-Timer or Some-Timer

Defining a direct seller is no easy task, but the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations recently released language that sums up the motivating factors for millions who participate in the industry.

“Direct sellers are career-minded entrepreneurs building their own businesses… or part-time entrepreneurs earning extra income. Through direct selling, they learn new skills, make new friends/ contacts, gain greater self-esteem, and have the opportunity to give back to the community through the many social responsibility initiatives that direct selling companies undertake. Of this diverse group, many were customers of the products/services prior to becoming a company representative. As direct sellers, all enjoy significant discounts.”

According to Connie Tang, President and CEO of Princess House, “Not every company chooses to categorize direct sellers into different buckets—full-timer, part-timer or some-timer. But they are all inclusively correct because that person has a choice in how they want to engage with the company.”

Michael Norris, President of PartyLite, says, “People often join a particular company because they fall in love with the product—for their own use. If I have a belief in the product and what it offers me, I want to share it. That’s the genesis of anyone getting into direct sales. They love the product, they consume the product and they are advocates of the product.” But not every direct seller advocates for their favorite products in the same way.

Some simply consume and enjoy the discounts that come along with joining the direct selling company. Discounts on products actually then become a benefit.

Chonko explains, “I get rewards points if I shop Best Buy, for example, or some of the tire stores. I get cash back if I use a credit card. I get cash back if I use a Sam’s or Costco membership.” A variety of industries use rewards programs like these to draw loyalty and build relationships with customers, then consumers reap the rewards.

Chonko, a business ethics professor, views personal use as a natural bonus of the model in direct sales. “All it means,” he says, “is that I am signing on with something in some way and have the opportunity to personally use what I’m selling.”

That incentive could be access to wholesale pricing or loyalty program discounts, which could turn a dedicated customer into a distributor.

Brand Ambassadors

“Salespeople in any industry are more likely to be successful if they personally use and understand the products they sell. Direct selling is no different.”
—Sandy Spielmaker, Vice President of Sales, Amway North America

“Salespeople in any industry are more likely to be successful if they personally use and understand the products they sell. Direct selling is no different,” says Sandy Spielmaker, Vice President of Sales at Amway North America.

Personally using the products one sells speaks to product confidence. Ask the president of General Motors why GM offers discounts to employees and their families. It’s because they want them driving GM cars. The employees are brand ambassadors, spreading the word about the qualities of GM cars. In so doing, GM has plenty of advocates driving on American highways.

Companies have come to understand that from their maintenance staff on up through the mid-management ranks to the senior execs, if the people who work in the building become ardent users and promoters of the company’s products and services, this attitude will spill over to the customer service policies and actions, and then on over to the end customer. Here, building brand ambassadors all starts with the company employees. In direct selling, the same effort is at work with the independent consultant.

“You’ve got to think like a microbusiness owner,” Norris says. “I have a ‘store front’ and I have to treat it like a business. If I’m an independent business owner in any direct selling company, I’m not going to use similar products from another company. First and foremost, I have to believe in the product I am selling.”

Tang adds, “To genuinely and authentically represent company values, products and services, you have to be a consumer—your own best customer.”

Better Servicing Customers

With technology advancing at great speed, customer service options are also advancing for direct sellers. Far more productive methods for servicing customers exist today than even five years ago. From personal consultant websites, mobile tablets and apps for accessing product descriptions and demos, to smartphones that can both order and process payments, consultants have a variety of ways to better serve customers than ever before. Many companies are now supplying both their independent consultants and consumers with world-class service experiences.

For those more mature companies who have traditionally relied upon delivery of product to the consultant, who then sells to the customer, tech advancements are making it easy to transition to carrying less inventory. The opportunity is often even more attractive to people who can go into business immediately, without having to order products to have on hand.

“The customer today can go onto the consultant’s website when they get a promotional offer and get it shipped to their home,” Norris says. “We’re finding ways for consultants to carry less and less inventory and they can service customers without the need of pre-ordering product. Over 25 percent of our sales are online and we ship direct to the customer. Our customers are everywhere. Philosophically, we incentivize our consultants to have just enough inventory to conduct their business.”

“We’re finding ways for consultants to carry less and less inventory and they can service customers without the need of pre-ordering product.”
—Michael Norris, President, PartyLite

A Unique Channel of Distribution

Twenty-first century direct selling emphasizes a stronger business approach to recruiting team members, thanks in part to the Direct Selling Association’s Code of Ethics.

Today’s direct sales practice of recruiting people into a downline to sell products is more simply defined as “a distribution channel,” according to Professor Chonko. He takes no issue with the business ethics of a distribution channel that is structured differently than the traditional—manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer—version known best to the public.

“Direct selling regroups people primarily to promote and sell their products. The ethics issues with that seem to come from the notion that I make all of my money strictly on recruiting and not on the sale of the product,” Chonko says.

After 30 years studying the ethics of the direct selling industry and sifting through compensation plans, Chonko says he finds direct selling companies “stress products have to change hands from seller to buyer before any distributor can earn money as a result of recruiting or as a result of the efforts of other people in the downline. If you are the top dog in the downline, you still have to sell products to earn commissions that accrue up the downline.”

For those who may have questions regarding the recruiting aspects of direct selling, collective accountability comes by way of the DSA’s Code of Ethics. “The industry has a high level of integrity today,” says Norris, who notes the DSA’s ethics policy is built into many company codes of ethics, including PartyLite’s. “I know companies that aren’t members, but they still follow the DSA Code of Ethics.”

Perceptions

Direct selling has a unique way of employing word-of-mouth. The power it holds for marketing and selling products has been obvious for decades in a variety of industries. But Chonko says, “Word-of-mouth can be positive or negative, depending upon who is issuing out the directives as credible.” Social media plays a huge role in word-of-mouth today, and everyone—expert or not—can access the forum to praise or disparage. Often a few negative comments about a direct selling experience can get blown out of proportion, simply because anyone can be an expert today.

Consumers purchase countless products every year. Some perform to their expectations and others do not. Chonko’s business ethics class at the University of Texas at Arlington recently bore out his theory that solitary bad product experiences tend to linger and outweigh countless good ones. “To some degree, we do the same thing with direct sales experiences. We remember the one bad sales experience, but we’ve dealt with lots of folks in various direct selling settings that have been very good,” he says.

Coming off a year when so much focus in the media related to jobs, direct selling companies led the way in providing opportunities for over 91 million individuals globally, generating nearly $154 billion in sales. The benefits of creating opportunity for this many people are often overlooked by those who do not take the time to understand the many benefits of direct selling. A newly developed skill is something a person has forever, and can utilize in other circumstances. Direct selling companies are some of the only businesses that offer significant, substantial training for little or no cost to the individual.

Glenn Williams, President of Primerica, a financial services company, says he believes direct selling is the ideal solution for anyone looking to earn an income and simultaneously develop priceless skills. “The training experience you receive when you join Primerica has value in and of itself—first, it benefits the individuals personally, and second, it can be applied to other careers in their future.”

What lies ahead for direct sellers and their companies? “We keep having the conversation about opportunity, standing on our ethics that we know are true,” says Adrienne Murphy, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Gigi Hill. “The fundamentals are solid. They will keep us going and keep us relevant. We can pull back the curtain and have nothing to hide. That’s what makes this industry so great.”

Direct selling is an “all-embracing, all-inclusive opportunity that you won’t find in any other industry,” Tang says. And that is precisely why she defends it. “It’s an incredible thing we do to help people have opportunities to do what they do in direct sales.”

Editor’s Note: To learn more about direct selling, visit the Direct Selling Education Foundation website at www.dsef.org. Go under Current Initiatives: Ethics Initiative—What is Direct Selling? to watch a compelling video.

Letter from John Fleming, January 2013

January 1, 2013 by John Fleming Leave a Comment

Happy New Year! It’s here!

As we start any new year there is always much to reflect on and many new goals and objectives to strive toward. Because of you, we know the stories we tell will continue to keep all informed of the realization that even in the most challenging of times our industry will continue to demonstrate, through the opportunities offered, that growth in its many forms is still the foundation upon which the direct selling channel is built.

As we thought through the previous year and debated the focus for our January Cover Story, we rapidly came to agreement that there would be no better way to start the year than to do a story on the most important asset of the direct selling channel of distribution, the independent contractors whom many of you refer to as your consultants, distributors, representatives, promoters, or brand partners. The voice of our magazine is typically one of sharing with you, our readers—executives within the industry—information that will be useful to your thought process and day-to-day decision making. In this issue, the voice of our Cover Story is not targeting you but those who often look for descriptions and definitions of direct selling and those who choose it in their quest for solutions.

It’s a story that looks into what the motivations of a direct seller might be. Our goal in writing this story was simply to put into a brief article what the industry knows, but what others still seek to understand. We think you might want to share this story and you can easily do so by going to the website, copying the link to the story and sending it to your audience, internal or external.

Our Company Spotlight took us on a visit with our friends in the U.K. who are motivated by much of what is happening here in the U.S.A. Kleeneze was founded on an idea first started here in the U.S., and now the company has its sights set on growing their business by 10 times and becoming billion dollar club members. They attribute their reset of strategy to some of the accomplishments of their U.S. role models.

In this month’s Financial Section, Doug Lane, former Wall Street analyst, gives us his perspective on the past year and specifically his view of the major publicly traded companies. We appreciate Doug’s contributions to this publication and look forward to more as we continue through the year.

In this issue, we also pay tribute to a legend we lost this fall who inspired millions to believe in themselves. Through easy to understand messages, great delivery and passion for what he believed in, Zig Ziglar was a giant of a man who got his start with a direct selling company. Over the years, Zig grew to become a strong advocate of the direct selling business model. I can remember vividly reading See You at the Top and wondering why this information was not provided in schools. I also remember so many driving trips when my companion, who spoke to me through the audio tapes I would listen to, was none other than Zig. Like so many of you, our lives are richer because of what Zig Ziglar gave through his life and his work. I know you will appreciate the tribute in this issue.

Save the date, April 3, 2013! We look forward to hosting the fourth DSN Global 100 banquet and recognizing the top 100 direct selling companies in the world. The event has grown each year with over 500 industry executives attending last year. A classy evening of dinner and programing will also include recognition of special achievements during 2012.

When we first decided to take on the project of identifying the top 100 direct selling companies in the world, we settled on a basic objective: Serve the industry by recognizing those companies that lead the way and pave the way, providing a global audience with the best information ever gathered, which identifies the top 100 direct selling companies in the world. Direct selling and network marketing companies, perhaps more than ever, serve those from all walks of life who pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Sometimes that opportunity may be to simply earn the needed dollars to be able to make it through the month but often it becomes a life-changing experience. We now live in a world where the conversation about jobs is being held in every mature market on the planet. The word “opportunity” should also have its place right alongside the word “job,” and the DSN Global 100 list serves to identify those companies that lead the way in providing opportunities.

Don’t forget April 3, 2013! We hope to see you there! On behalf of all of us affiliated with Direct Selling News, we wish for you a Happy New Year and… we hope you enjoy the issue!

John Fleming
Publisher and Editor in Chief

The Speed of Now: How to Harness the Acceleration of Everything

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Click here to order the Direct Selling News issue in which this article appeared.

Editor’s Note: We often write on the subject of technology here at DSN, though with changes and advancements coming more and more quickly, perhaps it is time to accelerate our coverage to keep pace. To that end, we are reprinting here an excellent article by Chris Brogan that appeared last July in SUCCESS magazine. Brogan speaks to what customers want, and why businesses should adapt to give it to them.

The average response time of a company’s public relations department to a public situation used to be 48 hours, then 24 hours. Now, with Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, responses that don’t come within a few hours of the incident are considered too late. A few hours. If you’re asleep, who cares? You run a small business with only a few employees? Who cares? Everything happens at “now” speed, and you’re along for the ride.

The Quick Launch

Eric Ries wrote a must-read book for business owners of all stripes called The Lean Startup. Even if you don’t run a startup, the information captured in Ries’ book is worth getting into; it points to some effective tools for managing rapid change. For instance, Ries talks about the rise of using “live” prototypes in business, which involves shipping the “minimum viable product” to customers, then learning quickly from their feedback about this bare-bones prototype.

The days of “Let’s see what people say for a year” are quite over. Businesses are coming and going at an alarming churn rate, and those that turn over fast are quite often those that don’t use a rapid deployment and feedback structure to learn.

A Hundred Phones Ringing

How do you get your message out? Social media, right? Ask a small business owner whether they have a Facebook page, and they’ll often nod with a mix of pride at being cutting-edge and a kind of eyebrow wrinkle at feeling they’re still not 100 percent sure why they’ve gone down that road. And yet, it’s necessary.

Already, Facebook has reached over a billion customers. Though that may sound great to a prospective marketer, there are issues with this. Most people don’t seek a business interaction on Facebook. And most businesses put out cruddy attempts at interaction.

Let’s take a minute to review what Facebook is to you, the business owner. It’s another phone to answer. Putting up a Facebook page is like saying, “Please contact me here, and I’ll get back to you just as soon as I notice you called.” What happens when you don’t answer a prospective customer’s phone call? Right. It’s rarely a good thing. And yet…

If you have a Facebook account and you’re willing to monitor it and interact with people there, you have some opportunities, including a free focus group to comment on your products and services, potential lead generation with every “like” of your Facebook page that spreads your information to your fan’s friend list and a chance for community-building that will keep you top-of-mind between sales.

These are just a few thoughts specific to the Facebook social network platform. But what about Twitter? What about Google+? What about Pinterest? Are you thinking, There are too many social networks. Where should I spend my time?

Welcome to the speed-of-change problems, my friends. First, you can’t pick. If your buyers love Pinterest and you’re not there, you’re choosing not to set up and answer a hundred phones there. If your customers are on Google+, it doesn’t matter that you spent your time setting up a Facebook page. You don’t get to pick the platform. You only get to acknowledge your buyers and prospects where they choose to be and decide whether you can manage up to their expectations.

I’ll give you a personal example. In 2010, I decided to buy a new Chevy Camaro. I went online to see what information existed on local dealership websites. It turned out their sites were terrible. Further, they all wanted me to come in and start a human, face-to-face experience instead of letting me do my work online and saving both of us time.

Because I’m a blogger and that’s often synonymous with “complainer,” I wrote a post titled, “Dear Car Dealerships: Your Websites Suck.” Fourteen minutes after that post was written, it was read on Facebook by one Aaron Manley Smith, proprietor of a virtual car dealership called Motorphilia and someone whom I’d met once at a party. Aaron did some quick looking around and sent me a private message on Facebook that said something to the tune of, “I’ve found the exact car you’re looking for, and if you send me $1,000, I can start the process of buying it for you.”

I did it. I bought a car off the Internet from a guy I didn’t know very well. And it was a great experience. Here’s why: I had done my homework. I knew exactly which car I wanted. Aaron was a professional car buyer, so he knew exactly how to get the car I wanted. He got me the best price without any haggling (none of that “I have to check with my manager” business) because he knew we both knew the value of the car.

But none of this would have happened three years ago. Aaron wouldn’t have been listening on Facebook for a post like mine. I wouldn’t have known exactly what car I wanted and what it would cost. I wouldn’t have been ready and willing to make this transaction happen. PayPal might not have seemed a trusted source for sending that initial $1,000.

So realize this: Your customers, right now, are getting faster than you. They are doing a lot of the research without you. They are coming into the buying situation with a lot more knowledge than they had before. And they have more options than ever before. Should this scare you? A little. However, if you’re happier with a more informed customer, you’re about to enter a golden age—if you get faster along with them.

Mobile Velocity

To stay ahead of the curve, you’ve got to keep up with the technology that people are using to buy your products or services. As more affordable tablets continue to enter the marketplace, predictions are that tablets will outsell laptops (forget desktops!) not only for the holiday season, but also for all of 2013. But what trends do the devices point toward? And more important, what can you do with this information?

In the home, tablets are being used to find snackable information while people are watching TV. For instance, IMDB (the Internet Movie Database) is a popular tablet application because people will frequently ask, “Who’s that actor and what was she in before this?”

Tablets are being handed out to sales staff and other light computer users because the majority of their activities involve responding to content: check email, review a calendar, watch a quick video, answer a quick back-and-forth on a social network.

One of the biggest buying demographics for tablets is people aged 35 to 75, and one reason cited is eyesight. It’s harder to look at a 3-inch smartphone display than a 9-inch tablet display, and thus more and more people are picking up Nooks, Kindles, Playbooks and iPads.

Across the board, website visits are happening more and more frequently from a mobile browser (either tablet or smartphone).

As a result of the above activities, these four conclusions must be considered as integral parts to any business strategy:

People want information now.
People want snack-sized information.
People want your site to be mobile-friendly.
People want simple interaction instead of longer-form interaction. (It’s harder to type on a tablet or smartphone than a laptop, and if that’s what they’re using, then you have to presume they don’t want to type as much.)

Getting up to Speed

Business owners of any size and shape have more opportunity than ever before to create advantages in this age of immediacy. Here are some next steps:

Set up a listening station. This can be as simple as typing a handful of keywords into Google Alerts that would indicate potential buyers. For instance, if you sell pet supplies, you might set up searches on Twitter and Facebook or elsewhere for “new puppy” or something similar. Listening online is the least-used tool that will help you set up the new digital sales channel. Most people are worrying about how they’re going to “speak” into these new places, but listening is the big game.

Create useful and engaging content for those tablets. If people are consuming more bite-sized information than ever before, what are you giving them to snack on? If more people are using YouTube as the No. 2 search engine in the world and if most small business sales start with searches (over 68 percent of your web traffic starts out as a search), can you create brief, useful videos for your audience?

Join the mobile world. Check your company’s website right now on your smartphone. Is it easy to use? Are people guided where you most want them to click? Simplify your site for mobile use. This is an inexpensive (around $500 for a professional’s services in most cases) piece of work that will pay you back fairly quickly, given that most traffic reaching your site is now coming from mobile or tablet browsers (over two-thirds, and you can check your server reports if that number is hard to believe).

Create helpful information in an email format. This is my personal favorite. Try this: Transform your email newsletter into something that’s not very HTML-formatted (meaning fewer graphics and other web elements) and less than 350 words long. Try sticking to one call to action per email, one next step people can take.

To me, the speed of change is something we can’t ignore. Unless you’re seeking to close down your business in a few years and not hand it over to another generation, these are the stakes in the current game. This isn’t something to think about over the next few years. This is something to adapt to now and on an ongoing basis. But you don’t have to listen to me. Embrace this, and you’ll see a great next few years for your business.

Chris Brogan is CEO & President of Human Business Works, a business design company using publishing and media to provide tools and smarts to help professionals work better, do the work they want, and to be brave. He is the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Impact Equation and Trust Agents (both cowritten with Julien Smith), as well as Google+ for Business and Social Media 101. Visit him at chrisbrogan.com.

January 2013

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Blyth Inc.

Robert B. Goergen Jr.

Blyth Inc., a designer and marketer of candles, accessories for the home, and health and wellness products, announced that Robert B. Goergen Jr. will assume the newly created role of President and Chief Operating Officer. He will retain his responsibilities as President, PartyLite Worldwide.

Goergen Jr. joined Blyth in 2000, initially overseeing Blyth’s web-oriented initiatives and strategic technology investments and, later, its acquisition strategy and implementation. He championed the initiative to expand Blyth’s direct-to-consumer presence, leading Blyth’s entry into the Catalog & Internet channel and later supported the expansion of direct selling while overseeing the divestitures that completed Blyth’s strategic transformation to a direct-to-consumer business.

Earlier this year, Goergen Jr. was appointed President, PartyLite Worldwide, having played an active role in overseeing new Blyth investments in PartyLite in addition to his other responsibilities.

Blyth Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., is a direct-to-consumer business focused on direct selling and direct marketing channels, selling its products primarily through PartyLite and ViSalus.

Neways

Kevin Lindholm

David Sokolowski

Kelly Rich

Colette Dahl

Neways, a direct seller of nutritional and personal-care products, has announced recent organizational changes. Kevin Lindholm was named as Director of Application Development. In his new role, Lindholm is leading the development of a new best-of-breed order-entry system to support Neways’ global distributor force.

David Sokolowski is now the Director of Enterprise Infrastructure. In this role, Sokolowski continues to develop global standards around security, telephony and business continuity. He will also complete Neways’ disaster-recovery initiative.

Kelly Rich has been appointed as Director of Global Market Support. She continues to lead the company’s business analytics and market-research activities, which provide data to support Neways’ Australian, New Zealand, European and North American markets.

Colette Dahl has assumed the responsibilities of Brand Manager. She manages Neways’ FitChoice weight-management system and continues to lead corporate public-relations activities for Neways.

Established in Utah in 1987, Neways manufactures and distributes approximately 300 personal-care items, including cosmetics and hair-care products, aromatherapy items and nutritional supplements. About 300,000 active Neways distributors share the products in 37 markets.

Avon Products Inc.

Patricia Perez-Ayala

Avon Products Inc. announced the appointment of Patricia Perez-Ayala as Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, and Global Brand & Category President. Perez-Ayala will report to Sheri McCoy, Avon’s CEO, and will join the company’s Executive Committee.

Perez-Ayala will be responsible for global management of Avon’s brand and marketing, including consumer insights, commercial marketing, digital marketing, and product category strategy and execution. She will also have oversight of Avon research and development, new product development and packaging, and the Liz Earle business.

Perez-Ayala joins Avon following more than 20 years with the Procter & Gamble Co., most recently as Vice President and General Manager, Eastern Europe.

Avon, the company for women, is a leading global beauty company, with over $11 billion in annual revenue. As the world’s largest direct seller, Avon markets to women in more than 100 countries through over 6 million active independent Avon Sales Representatives.

Computer Vision Systems Laboratories Corp.

Computer Vision Systems Laboratories Corp. (CVSL) announced the appointment of six new members to its board of directors.

CVSL is a development-stage company and is engaged in the development of products intended for medical uses. Plans are under way to make CVSL the platform for a broad strategy of acquiring multiple privately held direct selling companies.

Tami Longaberger

Tami Longaberger is Chairman and CEO of The Longaberger Co., a 40-year-old direct selling company that offers hand crafted baskets and other home furnishings. In 2006, President George W. Bush, appointed her chair of the National Women’s Business Council.

Michael Bishop is President of Actiprime, a personal-care and healthy lifestyle product development and marketing company and President of ActiTech, a full-service, third-party manufacturer of personal- and hair-care products, as well as health and wellness products. He founded Active Organics, a natural ingredient supplier to the personal-care industry.

Kelly L. Kittrell, CFA, has more than 25 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance, advising clients on sell-side mandates, buy-side engagements, valuations and capital raising. He is Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Richmont Holdings.

Russell R. Mack is a former member of President Ronald Reagan’s White House staff with 40 years of experience in the field of communication and marketing. He is Executive Vice President for Communication and Marketing at Richmont Holdings.

William H. Randall is a 35-year veteran of the direct selling industry who has served in sales, marketing and other senior executive positions in such companies. He is a past board member of the Direct Selling Association and is Founder and Chairman of HatchHoldings LLC.

John Rochon Jr. is Vice Chairman and CEO of Richmont Holdings. He has expertise in capital markets and is experienced in financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, technology and the review, structuring and management of new business opportunities. He now oversees Richmont Holdings’ financial analysis of potential business transactions and plays a leading role in guiding strategic planning for Richmont.

Please submit news of executive promotions and hires at your company to be included in the Executive Announcements section of Direct Selling News. Email pr@directsellingnews.com

Chloe + Isabel: Building a Brand through Social Media

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Click here to order the Direct Selling News issue in which this article appeared.

Company Profile

Founded: 2011
Headquarters: New York City
Executive: Founder and CEO Chantel Waterbury
Products: Boutique fashion jewelry

Chantel Waterbury

Budding Entrepreneurs, Fashionistas, Socialistas and Tastemakers. These are the women who inspired Chantel Waterbury to exit the corporate world and start her own direct sales jewelry company, Chloe + Isabel. Her vision is to empower a new generation of female entrepreneurs, providing valuable training on fashion merchandising, social media marketing, and building and running a business. Waterbury wants to see all women use their creativity to make an income that reflects what they are worth, whether they see themselves as a future Martha Stewart, or just know what styles work together. To facilitate this vision, the Chloe + Isabel merchandiser opportunity has been developed around a model of selling that focuses on social networks and online influence.

The Chloe + Isabel merchandiser opportunity has been developed around a model of selling that focuses on social networks and online influence.

Appealing to Younger Women

Waterbury developed C + I for the modern woman. Of course, there is no age limit on who can join, but she created her company with younger women, age 18–29, in mind. This age group appealed most to Waterbury because direct sales was her own ticket to college. Waterbury spent the summer before her freshman year selling high-quality kitchen knives. She sold nearly $30,000 in just three months, becoming one of the company’s top sales reps.

The desire to help young women—who in the wake of the 2008 recession were facing the highest unemployment rate since World War II—factored into her decision to start her own direct sales company.

“I didn’t set out to be one more option for women who already do this. I set out to be an option for a merchandiser who would have never even considered this industry—the people who were not being served at all,” Waterbury says.

A model showcases the latest Chloe + Isabel jewelry.

One of Chloe + Isabel’s jewelry collections.

The company logo represented in a necklace.

Built on Experience

When buyers came in to guest lecture in her college retail management class, Waterbury discovered her career path. Buying appealed to Waterbury because it united her love of numbers and her creativity. After graduation, Waterbury went straight into corporate buying, working for Target’s parent company, Target Corp. She quickly became the youngest buyer for their Mervyn’s jewelry division.

Soon she was winning awards such as the Merchandising Hero of the Year. Waterbury attributes her success to her entrepreneurial style. She treated her jewelry division like a business of its own operating within a huge corporation.

She went on to work for several other companies including Macy’s West, GAP, and LMVH’s DFS Galleria, where she gained further experience in jewelry development, merchandising and design. She continued to win awards such as Buyer of the Year. Her final corporate job was at Miriam Haskell, where she gained product development and sourcing experience.

By the time she was ready to create her own company, Waterbury had spent 15 years learning the jewelry business inside and out. “I was very patient,” she says. “I knew that this was the last thing I was going to do in my life, and I wanted to do it right.”

Creating the Right Platform

“I wanted our technology to be our greatest differentiator. If everyone has the same tools, it just comes down to what products do you like the most.”
—Chantel Waterbury, Founder and CEO

To reach her demographic of young female direct sellers, Waterbury knew she must target technological channels used to sell. She needed software that would provide digitally savvy young women with a virtual storefront and the opportunity to harness their social influence to earn income.

After looking at several software options, Waterbury was uninspired. She says, “I wanted our technology to be our greatest differentiator. If everyone has the same tools, it just comes down to what products do you like the most.”

So she began raising investment capital to create her own software platform. In August 2011 she received $3.25 million in a seed round led by First Round Capital and Floodgate Fund. Later that year she raised another $8.5 million.

She’s used investment capital to hire engineers and create selling approaches that appeal to Generation Y. A lot of selling occurs online, facilitated by the tools C + I provides. For example, each merchandiser receives her own online boutique and can fully personalize it using her social media images from Instagram. They can share individual products as well as post photographs of themselves wearing C + I jewelry next to the product shot to display their own personal styling.

“Our online sales are happening through her personal boutique, not on our website,” Waterbury says. “In the e-boutiques, you get to see her curating. You see her favorite pieces and how she styles. Is she a Chloe—a trendsetter known for her fashion—or an Isabel, classic and timeless who loves the quality of a piece of jewelry?

“We’re creating a social media hemisphere for her to operate in,” Waterbury says. For example, a merchandiser can personalize the naming of her collections, and also choose which products appear in them. The e-boutiques have the ability to link to merchandisers’ personal Facebook pages and Pinterest boards, in addition to linking to the company’s corporate pages. Conversely, if a friend sees something she likes on Pinterest, for example, clicking through the image takes her to the e-boutique, where she can purchase the product she admired.

The tools also provide merchandisers with useful information, says C + I Chief of Product Shan-Lyn Ma. “She can see how many people clicked on each picture. Ultimately, how much sales did she drive for herself with each thing that she shared on each social network? She can start to really understand how to create an income stream.”

Focus on Branding

Waterbury’s love of jewelry comes through in C + I products. Her unusual designs and intricate details give C + I jewelry a unique look and appeal.

“We design every single piece of jewelry,” Waterbury says. “We produce everything ourselves. First and foremost we’re a brand. My whole life has been dedicated to building, supporting or executing a brand.”

Waterbury makes sure her merchandisers understand the importance of branding. She believes careful control of the brand will give C + I long-term viability. When creating a pop-up shop, the C + I brand must be integrated. Merchandisers learn how to display the jewelry, how to incorporate the tree fixtures and the blue and yellow birds that represent the company—in short, how to include the brand elements that need to be visible in every display of C + I jewelry.

Each merchandiser has the creativity to incorporate these brand elements in her own way—they design their pop-up shops themselves. While one may use placemats to incorporate the colors, another may use picture frames. Waterbury is constantly amazed by the merchandisers’ creativity. “When I look at pictures of their pop-up shops I couldn’t be more proud,” she says. “They do a better job than we do.”

So far C + I has received more than 20,000 applications from women wanting to become merchandisers. In the beta phase, they’ve interviewed each applicant. Waterbury sees the merchandisers as an extension of the brand. As C + I transitions out of the beta phase, the number of merchandisers is rapidly increasing.

In the beta phase, the company carefully controlled the number of merchandisers. Executives worked closely with each merchandiser to make sure C + I was building technology in the right order. “What we’re doing has never been done before,” Waterbury says. “So I have no one to look to for best practices. There’s nothing out there that looks like us.”

Waterbury plans to keep an application process in place even as the company grows. She wants to keep the merchandiser turnover rate at C + I as low as possible. “When you connect the experience to the right person and everything’s a fit, that’s when you have something really special,” she says.

Developing Merchandisers

A Chloe + Isabel merchandise display at the offices in New York.

With prices ranging from under $30 to around $200, C + I jewelry is affordable. And for the merchandisers making the sales, the way the company works is easy to understand. Merchandisers make a straight 30 percent of all retail sales. Merchandisers can also earn income by building a team. C + I’s merchandisers who choose to develop teams earn a percentage of the sales of their immediate downlines.

Each C + I merchandiser fits into one of four types: Fashionista, Socialista, Entrepreneur or Tastemaker. And because these types think differently, C + I doesn’t train them the same way.

“They want to run their businesses differently, so we’re curating their training experience,” Waterbury says. C + I gathers information up front to discover exactly what each merchandiser wants from the company. Developing clear expectations on both sides, says Waterbury, keeps the frustration levels low.

In its beta stage, C + I utilized in-person training of merchandisers. Training evolved into webinars and finally to the videos the company currently uses. But personal contact with each merchandiser is still present. It’s made easier by the fact that their preferred method of communication is online.

“I have direct dialogue with all of my merchandisers because it takes me two seconds to ‘like’ their comments or say ‘Wow! That was an amazing pop-up shop that you had!’ We’re connected through our social networks,” Waterbury says. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram make sharing encouragement and photos easy from her New York office, no matter how far away the merchandisers actually live.

A Mission to Educate

Before selling knives to put herself through college, Waterbury earned a private-school education by winning scholarships for her grades. She sees C + I as a way to give others the same opportunity she was afforded by the people she considers “angels along the way.” They kept her on the right path and pushed her to pursue her dreams.

“I absolutely love working with people that are at the stage of life where the world is their oyster,” she says. “They can truly do whatever they want.”

The Chloe + Isabel corporate team gathers together for some outdoor fun.

“They’re learning how to run a business. They’re learning to be social media mavens.”
—Chantel Waterbury

And that’s part of what Waterbury hopes to accomplish with C + I. The company’s motto is “Be creative, be confident, be you.”

“At C + I, the mission of building résumés is just as important as building bank accounts,” Waterbury says. “That’s why they’re merchandisers—they’re so much more than stylists or sales persons. They’re learning how to run a business. They’re learning to be social media mavens.”

While some may continue to sell C + I for years, for others it’s a step on their career path. Waterbury is fine—even happy—about that. She was thrilled when one of her merchandisers recently capitalized on her experience as a C + I merchandiser to land a job at the corporate buying offices of a leading retailer.

C + I’s vision of creating a meaningful opportunity for young women is part of what drew Chief of Product Shan-Lyn Ma to the company. She likes the fact that C + I goes beyond teaching sales. It creates mini-entrepreneurs. “We talk a lot about our mission of making sure women can support themselves, educate themselves, and learn things that will set them up in the future for careers. Focusing on how we can provide even more to our merchandisers underlies everything that we do,” she says.

“We talk a lot about our mission of making sure women can support themselves, educate themselves, and learn things that will set them up in the future for careers.”
—Shan-Lyn Ma, Chief of Product

Building the Future

In November 2012, C + I celebrated their 2.0 launch. A redesigned website better showcases the merchandisers’ boutiques and the jewelry itself. New and improved software creates a more highly curated boutique for each merchandiser, as well as integrates the boutique more fully with her social networks. Waterbury says, “Our new platform creates a better experience that will undoubtedly improve their potential sales and income.”

Waterbury expects C + I to continually evolve. When a company is based primarily online, it’s essential to keep up with rapid growth in technology. “I built a company and a brand and a platform for the woman of the future,” she says. “That’s what is so great about building it yourself. You have complete flexibility to change at a moment’s notice.”

Features of the Chloe + Isabel Merchandiser Platform

Highly personalized online boutique:
Each merchandiser has her own virtual storefront with a unique URL where she can create custom collections of Chloe + Isabel jewelry.

Instagram integration:
Merchandisers can market and editorialize their curated jewelry collections by pulling in imagery from their personal Instagram accounts.

Comprehensive analytics dashboard:
Merchandisers can access data comparing the performance of her personal business with that of the overall company, giving her insights on how to increase sales based on performance of the larger community, and incentivizing her toward important business goals with bonuses and promotions.

Streamlined shopping platform:
The new platform streamlines the order and purchase process for the merchandiser, allowing average Millennials—who make up the majority of Chloe + Isabel’s merchandisers—the ability to shop for their customers as easily as they would shop for themselves, as well as provide better customer service.

Social insights:
Merchandisers gain insight into the effectiveness of sharing with their social networks.

Financial News: January 2013

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

LifeVantage Corp.

LifeVantage Corp. (LFVN—NASDAQ), a science-based nutraceutical company and maker of Protandim®, the Nrf2 Synergizer® patented dietary supplement, reported financial results for the first quarter ended Sept. 30, 2012.

For the first quarter, the company reported record net revenue of $52.9 million, compared to $20.1 million for the same period in fiscal 2012, an increase of 163 percent. On a sequential quarter basis, net revenue increased 19 percent from the $44.6 million reported for the company’s 2012 fourth fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2012.

Gross profit for the first fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, 2012 increased to $45.1 million, compared to $17.1 million for the same period last year, delivering a gross margin of 85.2 percent, compared to 85.3 percent in the prior-year period.

Operating expenses for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 increased to $38.1 million, or 72.2 percent of revenue, from $13.7 million, or 68.2 percent of revenue, for the prior-year period. On a sequential quarter basis, operating expenses as a percentage of revenue increased slightly from 69.1 percent in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2012.

Operating income improved to $6.9 million for the first fiscal quarter, compared to $3.4 million in the same period last year. On a sequential basis, operating income declined slightly from $7.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2012. This was the company’s ninth consecutive quarter of achieving operating income.

Net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2013 was $4.2 million, or 3 cents per diluted share, compared to net income in the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 of $3.7 million, or 2 cents per diluted share.

On Sept. 12, 2012, the company’s common stock began trading on the NASDAQ Capital Market. Previously, the company’s common stock traded on the OTC BB.

LifeVantage is a leader in Nrf2 science and sells wellness and anti-aging products to reduce oxidative stress at the cellular level. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City.

Mannatech Inc.

Mannatech Inc. (MTEX—NASDAQ), a developer and provider of nutritional supplements and skincare products based on Real Food Technology® solutions, reported net income of $2.2 million, or 83 cents per diluted share, for the third quarter ending Sept. 30, 2012, compared to a net loss of $3.7 million, or $1.38 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2011.

In achieving net income of $2.2 million for the third quarter of 2012, non-cash items impacting profitability included a reduction in a previously recognized deferred tax asset valuation allowance of approximately $1.0 million, a release of reserves related to transaction taxes of $800,000 due to the expiration of statutes of limitations, and income from foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations of $500,000.

Net sales for the third quarter of 2012 were $43.0 million, a decrease of 14.8 percent, compared to $50.5 million in the third quarter of 2011. Net sales for the United States and Canada declined 16.3 percent to $20.5 million, compared to $24.5 million in the third quarter of 2011.

International net sales of $22.5 million decreased 13.5 percent, compared to $26.0 million in the third quarter of 2011.

Mannatech Inc. develops high-quality health, weight and fitness, and skincare products that are based on the solid foundation of nutritional science and development standards. Mannatech’s proprietary products are available through independent sales associates around the globe in 22 countries.

Natural Health Trends Corp.

Natural Health Trends Corp. (NHTC—OTC.BB), a direct selling company that markets premium-quality personal-care and wellness products under the NHT Global brand, announced financial results for the third quarter period ended Sept. 30, 2012.

Total revenues for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2012 were $9.3 million, compared to $10.6 million for the same period in 2011, a decrease of 11.6 percent. The decrease in revenues for the third quarter reflects the impact of a significant, nonrecurring promotional event during 2011 related to the company’s 10-year anniversary celebration in Hong Kong. This promotion resulted in revenue increases, and did not recur in 2012.

Gross profit was $6.9 million, or 74.5 percent of net sales, compared to $8.0 million, or 76.0 percent, in the same period last year. Total expenses for the three months ended Sept. 30, 2012 were $6.2 million, down 9.4 percent, compared to $6.8 million in the comparable period of 2011. The decrease in operating expenses relates to costs associated with the 10-year anniversary event in 2011, which did not recur in 2012.

Operating income for the quarter was $789,000 compared to operating income of $1.2 million in the third quarter of 2011. Net income attributable to common stockholders of Natural Health Trends was $743,000, or 7 cents per basic and diluted share, compared to net income of $1.6 million, or 15 cents per basic and diluted share, in the same period of 2011.

Cash and cash equivalents increased to $3.7 million as of Sept. 30, 2012, from $1.6 million as of Dec. 31, 2011.

Natural Health Trends Corp. is an international direct selling and e-commerce company operating through its subsidiaries throughout Asia, North America and Europe.

Nu Skin Enterprises Inc.

Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. (NUS—NYSE) announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire NOX Technologies Inc., a biotechnology and biodiagnostic company based in Malvern, Penn., for $12.5 million. The agreement includes the acquisition of technology and patents, including previously licensed technology already utilized in connection with Nu Skin’s anti-aging research efforts.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval of the transaction by the stockholders of NOX Technologies Inc.

NOX Technologies provides Nu Skin scientists with a deeper understanding of the aging process and supports the company’s ability to understand important sources of aging. arNOX, an age-related protein identified by NOX Technologies, is found on the cell surface and is capable of superoxide generation, a relevant aspect of the aging process.

NOX Technologies’ discovery of specific inhibitors of arNOX that potentially ameliorate skin damage and the signs of aging led to Nu Skin’s development of specific skincare products that are useful for improving the youthful appearance of the skin.

Established in 2003, NOX Technologies Inc. is a biotechnology and biodiagnostic company focused on the identification, characterization and detection of cell surface proteins relating to aging.

Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. has a comprehensive anti-aging product portfolio, and as a global direct selling company, operates in 53 markets worldwide and has more than 900,000 active distributors and preferred customers.

Blyth Inc.

Blyth Inc. (BTH—NYSE), a direct-to-consumer company and designer and marketer of candles, accessories for the home, and health and wellness products sold through the direct selling and direct marketing channels, announced that ViSalus, its direct seller of health and wellness products, is paying a $22 million dividend to its shareholders. As majority shareholder, Blyth receives 72.7 percent of the dividend.

Founded in 2005 with headquarters in Los Angeles and Troy, Mich., ViSalus is the company behind the Body by Vi™ Challenge, a 90-day personal health and lifestyle transformation platform.

Blyth Inc., headquartered in Greenwich, Conn., is a company focused on direct selling and direct marketing channels, selling its products primarily through PartyLite and ViSalus.

Primerica Inc.

The board of directors of Primerica Inc. (PRI—NYSE), the largest independent financial services marketing company in North America, approved payment of a quarterly dividend of 9 cents per share for the third quarter of 2012. The dividend was payable on Dec. 10, 2012, to stockholders of record as of Nov. 23, 2012.

Primerica Inc., headquartered in Duluth, Ga., is a distributor of financial products to middle-income families in North America. In addition, Primerica provides an entrepreneurial full- or part-time business opportunity for individuals seeking to earn income by distributing the company’s financial products.

Relìv International Inc.

Relìv International Inc. (RELV—NASDAQ), a nutrition and direct selling company, announced that the board of directors declared a dividend of 1 cent per share to all shareholders of record as of Nov. 19, 2012, which was payable on or about Nov. 29, 2012.

Relìv currently pays dividends twice a year, and this represents the company’s second dividend in 2012.

Relìv International Inc., based in Chesterfield, Mo., produces nutritional supplements that promote optimal nutrition along with premium skincare products. The company sells its products through an international network marketing system of independent distributors in 15 countries.

Tupperware Brands Corp.

Tupperware Brands Corp. (TUP—NYSE) announced that its board of directors declared the company’s regular quarterly dividend of 36 cents per share, payable on Dec. 31, 2012, to shareholders of record as of Dec. 19, 2012.

Tupperware Brands Corp. is a portfolio of global direct selling companies, selling innovative, premium products across multiple brands and categories through an independent salesforce of 2.7 million.

Direct Selling News has accumulated this information from public sources, including press releases and SEC filings. The information is presumed accurate and reliable. However, it is not an endorsement of any investment opportunity. Proper and considerable due diligence should be completed before making any investment.

See You at the Top: Remembering Zig

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Click here to order the Direct Selling News issue in which this article appeared.

“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
—Zig Ziglar

The fact that this central tenet of Zig Ziglar’s philosophy seems like a truism today speaks to the impact Ziglar has had on the field of direct sales. When Zig Ziglar passed away in Plano, Texas, this past November, he’d spent the better part of his 86 years inspiring others.

Ziglar’s passion for helping others launched his second career as a motivational speaker 40 years ago. Before that, he’d been a top salesman at two cookware companies and had a handful of successes selling other products ranging from insurance to cosmetics. But it was on the stage that Ziglar had his greatest impact. His brand of homespun humor combined with inspirational stories from his own life and the lives of others helped drive home the principles he taught—often encapsulated in the memorable catchphrases that were his signature.

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

Over his lifetime, he spoke to millions, hammering home simple steps to success that somehow seemed attainable when wrapped up in his enthusiasm and sincere belief in what he was saying. His most quotable nuggets boiled down to core principles that, if embraced, changed lives for the better. Be generous. Be honest. Put others first. Set goals. Create good habits. Have a positive attitude. Be grateful.

And people did embrace them—and the man who made it his life’s mission to share the secrets to his success. Countless times in his life, Ziglar had the pleasure of hearing people tell him what he meant to them and how his message had changed their lives.

Stan Fredrick, Chairman of Mannatech and long-time friend of Ziglar’s, recalled getting to know Ziglar when he was a franchise dealer at his second cookware company and Fredrick was the CEO of the holding company. “It was in listening to him teach our dealers how to sell cookware that his ability to change lives and empower people was so apparent,” says Fredrick.

Fredrick also gives credit to Ziglar for positively influencing the public perception of the direct selling business model, and helping to bring it into the mainstream of business dealings. He says that when Ziglar was first training and beginning his speaking career in the 1960s and ’70s these “were tough times as direct selling fought for acceptance and credibility with the public and protection from government regulators.” Through Ziglar’s personal faith and ethics, his motivational skills and his popularity, Fredrick says he was able to “raise the level of professionalism of salespeople, which has resulted in great credibility to our industry.”

In the wake of Ziglar’s passing, the Internet was abuzz with tributes and memories of Zig. Shortly after his death, Melody Campbell shared what Ziglar had meant to her on her website The Small Business Guru. In a blog entry, Campbell credits Ziglar’s books and cassette tapes with transforming her from a painfully shy 19-year-old girl failing at her first sales position into a successful saleswoman. “The sound of his voice became that of an endearing mentor. He caused me to believe that with a little practice I could be exceptional,” says Campbell. Because of Ziglar’s influence, sales became her lifelong career of choice.

“It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you use that makes a difference.”

Ziglar’s own struggles lent credibility to his message. Born on Nov. 6, 1926, Hilary Hinton Ziglar grew up one of 12 children during the Depression in Yazoo City, Miss. Days before his sixth birthday, Ziglar’s father died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

After his death, to make ends meet, all the Ziglar children had to work. By nine, Ziglar had his first part-time job in a grocery store. Along with steady employment in the grocery store and later a meat market, he picked up odd jobs whenever possible to contribute a little extra to the family’s finances.

Ziglar credited much of his success to his mother and the lessons she taught him during his early years. He referred to her as his “first and greatest role model.” Despite her difficult circumstances, she managed to give her children a happy, secure childhood.

After high school graduation, Ziglar started college as part of a military program. He wanted to be a naval aviator in World War II. While at college he met the love of his life, Jean Abernathy, whom he affectionately called “The Redhead.” The two married when Ziglar was 20. Soon after, he dropped out of college and began his first full-time job selling cookware.

Over the next 20 years, Ziglar had a great deal of success selling. After a slow start with WearEver cookware, a mentor at the company took an interest in Ziglar. He told Ziglar, “You have the ability to be a great one.” These motivating words helped turn him into a top salesman for the company.

But Ziglar’s success led to a string of failures. He began skipping from opportunity to opportunity, becoming what he called a “wandering generality.” This, combined with unwise spending and a rapidly growing family, led to financial distress. Though he had periods of great success, he could never really get ahead under his own power.

In 1968, Ziglar moved to Dallas to work for Automotive Performance. Ziglar had pursued a career as a speaker since the 1950s, but he wasn’t ready to go full-time. When the company folded, his speaking career had begun to take off, so he didn’t look for another job. Though he was able to make a living, it wasn’t until he gave his life to God in 1972 that he became truly successful.

“I believe He allowed me to struggle for so many years in my business, and in my finances, so that I would know without a doubt that He is the one who is responsible for any and all of the successes I have had or ever will have,” Ziglar wrote in his autobiography.

“The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you will have to be grateful for.”

Zig Ziglar was blessed with success beyond what he ever could have imagined during his hard-scrabble childhood in Yazoo City. He authored more than 29 books, 10 of them bestsellers with sales numbering in the millions. Ziglar was featured in numerous publications and on television shows such as 20/20, the TODAY Show, and 60 Minutes. He shared the stage with six former U.S. presidents as well as many well-known speakers, politicians, celebrities and sports figures. He won numerous awards for his expertise and influence as a speaker, including the coveted Master of Influence Award and the Cavett Award.

But awards and recognition were never what it was about for Ziglar. Back in 1999, when Skip Hollandsworth visited Ziglar in his corporate office for an article in Texas Monthly, Ziglar didn’t show Hollandsworth his awards or brag about his accomplishments. He gave him a hug and a handshake, took the time to introduce Hollandsworth to his staff, then spent 20 minutes showing the reporter his Wall of Gratitude—black and white photographs of the people who had encouraged him throughout his life. Ziglar always remembered that he didn’t make it to the top without help, and his life’s mission was to extend that same encouragement to as many others as he could through his speaking and writing.

And people responded to his message of encouragement. In 1999 Peter Lowe told Texas Monthly, “Of all the great people who speak at our seminars… Zig still gets the best response. It’s like he knows how to reach people in a way that no one else can.”

Publisher and Founding Editor of SUCCESS magazine Darren Hardy told DSN why he believes people felt such a connection to Ziglar. Ziglar’s message was countercultural in the 1970s and ‘80s when he really broke into public speaking. “I think he was many people’s first indoctrination into the idea that you can self-direct your life,” says Hardy. “And everybody remembers the first, that defining moment when an idea strikes that has an indelible impact and changes you forever.”

Beyond that, Ziglar was relatable. “He had a down-home style and nature and character that people could connect with on an emotional level,” Hardy says. “And he had a grounded wisdom that he delivered in an enthusiastic and theatrical way, which made him memorable. His quips and sayings were useful little mental nuggets. I think that’s why he was so enduring over so many decades that he worked his craft.”

But what Hardy admired most about Ziglar was the fact that he was a great human being both on and off the stage. “Zig walked his walk and lived his preach,” he says. “He really did love his wife. He really did respect his spirituality and adhere to it. He really did treat his employees as he would teach and instruct other leaders to treat the people around them. If you met him backstage, no matter who you were or what level of status you had, he was kind, generous and warm. He really made you feel like you were important,” he says.

And perhaps that’s Ziglar’s most important legacy: Whether people met him in person or as part of his audience, they felt like he was in their corner. He wanted to help them succeed. His death is a great loss to the industry, but it feels like something more. It feels like the loss of a friend.

Ziglar considered his family his most significant accomplishment. He began each day of his married life by kissing his wife and telling her he loved her. He delighted in spending time with his children, and he was never happier than when he had his family together. His unique brand of inspiration will live on in his Ziglar Corporation, led by his son, his two surviving daughters and a granddaughter.

“If you go out looking for friends, you’ll find out they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”

Direct Sellers Make Holiday Special for Less Fortunate

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

The Direct Selling Association helped kick off the 19th Annual TODAY Show Holiday Toy and Gift Drive recently by presenting the direct selling industry’s donation live in Rockefeller Plaza.

Twenty-one direct selling companies donated a total of nearly $17 million in products and cash to the toy drive. In its nine years of participation, DSA member companies have donated more than $100 million in products, services and cash to the project.

Participating companies donated items from books, stuffed animals and fashion accessories to clothing and toiletries for children and families across the country.

“The TODAY Show Holiday Gift Drive is just one example each year of how direct selling serves as a force for good in our communities, across the country and throughout the world,” said Amy Robinson, DSA’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Every day, direct sellers help others achieve their goals through the products and opportunities they offer, but their involvement in charitable and philanthropic activities reinforces the positive impact direct selling has on millions of lives each year.”

The TODAY Show Toy Drive is a project of the Today Show Charitable Foundation Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

Another way the direct selling industry gives back to those less fortunate during the holidays is through the Pack a Present Toy Drive hosted by the Direct Selling Education Foundation. Attendees for the DSA’s Communications & Marketing Conference in December were encouraged to participate in the drive by bringing gifts to the conference to help brighten the holiday for children who are part of the South Bay chapter of the Boys & Girls Clubs.

“Now in its third year, DSEF’s Pack a Present event is becoming a December tradition for direct selling company and supplier executives,” said Charlie Orr, DSEF’s Executive Director.

After gifts were collected Boys & Girls Club representatives brought a group of children to the conference hotel for cocoa and cookies with Santa and to receive their presents.

“The holidays can be a tough time for kids in need,” said Tamara Ingram, DSEF’s Community Program Manager. “DSEF’s Pack a Present not only provides a memorable experience for the kids who join us for the event, but it also ensures hundreds of area children will feel the joy of the season.”

Kleeneze: Growth Times 10

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Click here to order the Direct Selling News issue in which this article appeared.

Company Profile

Founded: 1923
Headquarters: Accrington, Lancashire, England
Executive: Managing Director Jamie Stewart
Products: Household, healthcare and beauty products

What would it take to grow your company to 10 times its size? That’s the challenge British direct seller Kleeneze has given itself. And it aims to do it in the next 10 years.

Inspired by the Direct Selling News Global 100, executives set an aggressive 2023 sales target. They call it the Billion Dollar Vision.

Jamie Stewart

Kleeneze (pronounced Clean Easy) is no new kid on the block. In one form or another, it has been around for 90 years and is widely known in England. Even Winston Churchill was a regular Kleeneze customer. And like most mature companies, it has had its ups and downs. Managing Director Jamie Stewart believes that growing to 10 times its size is possible for Kleeneze, and he emphasizes that both technological and cultural changes are must-haves to fuel the growth.

In the U.K., the Republic of Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands, Kleeneze is known for its home maintenance, cookware and health and beauty products. It offers 1,500 products ranging from cookware to car wax. The diverse product line grew gradually from a collection of high-quality wire brushes.

Kleeneze founder Harry Crook went to America to find his fortune by working for the Fuller Brush Co. Crook paid close attention, learning how to make wire brushes that could be sold door to door. He brought what he learned back to England and in 1923 established the Kleeneze Brush Co. In just five years his high-quality brushes were so in demand that he had opened more than 200 branches worldwide. It just made sense to offer a line of polishes, too. And so the expansion began.

Modify the Model

Kleeneze founder Harry Crook went to America to find his fortune by working for the Fuller Brush Co.

The products were successfully sold door to door until the 1960s. By then sales had begun to lag, and the company hired a management consultant to boost results. The consultant, Richard Berry—who went on to become Managing Director and then later Director General of the DSA—had spent some time with Amway and saw the potential in Kleeneze. He convinced circa 800 employee-salespeople to become self-employed, though most continued to sell products without recruiting a network. But the culture change had begun, and a new business model was born. Kleeneze became the first U.K. direct selling company to use a multi-level compensation plan. In the 1980s the company introduced product catalogs. Instead of knocking on the customer’s door, the salespeople simply left the catalog and returned a few days later to collect orders. That method took a while to gain momentum, but it caught on. Business-minded salespersons found that the new method made it easy to recruit others. Their message: no product knowledge or sales skills needed.

That catalog sales method still continues, but with a few twists. One of the biggest: Kleeneze customers can now order online as well as through their printed catalog, and distributors get a commission on every sale—the company won’t deal directly with customers; all are passed to a distributor, which is something unusual in England.

The change sounds easy, but it wasn’t clean. Ten years ago with revenues declining, Kleeneze management changed its compensation plan, effectively reducing distributors’ income. The new plan wasn’t well received. Many top distributors had built their lifestyles on the income they had built over many years, and they lost confidence in the company. The turnaround the company hoped for didn’t happen.

In 2006 Kleeneze was acquired by retailer/distributor Findel PLC. Eventually, it became Findel’s most successful acquisition. Kleeneze’s new Deputy Managing Director was Jamie Stewart, a man who thrives on change. It was exactly what the struggling company needed. After he helped Kleeneze move to its new location so that it could take advantage of the parent company’s distribution and physical facilities, he was named Managing Director.

In 2006 Kleeneze was acquired by retailer/distributor Findel PLC. Eventually it became Findel’s most successful acquisition.

Although Stewart’s background was in more traditional business models, during college he briefly was a distributor for a network marketing company that sold home and auto security systems. It was a short introduction to the direct sales industry, but it provided a platform for when he began to lead Kleeneze, and he immediately liked the business model.

“I found it quite easy to get into,” he recalls. “I was already learning from people such as Stephen Covey and Anthony Robbins, so I was very comfortable with the personal-development element of it. Recognition was easy, too. The mail order and product side was what I had to learn.”

Making Improvements

He launched himself into the company, even “walking the beat” with some of the company’s distributors to learn the business from the ground up. With those insights, he started making improvements.

“We fixed a lot of things,” he recalls. “We improved the quality of the products, cleaned up the messy distribution system, and put sales incentives back the way they used to be.”

He also became active in England’s Direct Selling Association, which Kleeneze had helped to found years before.

“I was initially reluctant,” he says. “I had too much to do turning the company around, so it took three or four requests before I got involved. Being from outside the industry, I looked at every other company as the competition. But when I joined DSA, I learned that we’re more like sister companies. I wish I had gotten involved sooner. The openness that exists in the U.K. between general managers of DSA member companies surprised me.” He became the group’s chairman in June 2010.

Along with learning from fellow DSA members, Stewart has studied direct sellers in the United States to gain knowledge from their business practices. He says that a big difference in direct sellers in the two countries is that U.S. companies are much more tech savvy. But he aims to make up the difference.

He also aims to offer another model that he learned from fellow direct sellers: the party plan.

Early in 2012 Kleeneze launched a pilot of ezeparty in the U.K. Distributors can use that option, as well as their usual catalog business, or they can combine the two. Ezeparty gatherings initially focused on the ezecook cookware product line but expanded to a collection of spa products that include a wide assortment of premium skincare products and cosmetics. They let guests skip expensive spas and be pampered at home. Ezeparty helped a small group of Kleeneze distributors in the U.K. and then Ireland both sell products and recruit about 1,000 new distributors during 2012, but it represents a cultural revolution for distributorships who previously relied on leaving catalogs at customer doors. Stewart says that Kleeneze will refine the concept before it expands further into Europe.

Culture Change

Stewart doesn’t understate the work involved with starting the new effort.

He notes that a party plan business requires a depth of product knowledge not required of distributors who drop off catalogs. “Everyone knows Kleeneze in the U.K., and it’s a branding challenge for existing distributors,” Stewart says. “But for new people, the products are fantastic. They’re starting to pull people through. Spa and cooking products have always been a strong category, and they’re capturing people’s interest.”

Among the key new products is the company’s anti-aging line. Stewart provides personal testimonials on Facebook and at events on how they’ve helped his crow’s feet.

“I show before and after pictures,” he says candidly. “It’s easy to do. It’s been interesting to get male distributors using it and talking about it.”

“About 80 percent of the way people come across our business is online—either because they’re searching for us or someone has recommended Kleeneze.”
—Jamie Stewart, Managing Director

He says that ezeparty and the products it presents will fuel the company’s growth goals, but the big growth gorilla will be technology. Kleeneze already has implemented several groundbreaking initiatives. It was the first direct seller in England to move to 100 percent online registration for new signups; the first to introduce personal websites; the first to introduce free personal websites to every distributor; and one of the first to offer e-commerce websites to all distributors at no extra charge. Already some 99 percent of sales are online, entered either by distributors or directly by consumers. And people searching for income opportunities often find Kleeneze online. In fact, the Kleeneze website has a heavy focus on its business opportunity.

“About 80 percent of the way people come across our business is online—either because they’re searching for us or someone has recommended Kleeneze,” Stewart says. “That’s why we’re on social media a lot and encourage distributors to be involved in social media to develop relationships.”

New Kleeneze recruits have often responded to an advertisement placed by one of the company’s 11,000 distributorships—a common way business builders grow their teams. Stewart says that the income opportunity is attractive. People can generate an income and make a profit in their first week on the job. Go-getters can earn a full-time income on their own, with no team. The downside, of course, is that without a team, the distributorship’s personal sales can’t translate into recurring residual income.

“We have people who sell over £100,000 of product a year with no team. It’s not sustainable if you break a leg,” Stewart says, “but people can earn £1,000 their first month. It’s such a simple thing to do that it’s very duplicable. It’s easy to get involved and to get others involved, but keeping the momentum going is work. It’s like joining the gym in January. People join with the best intentions, but aren’t prepared for the consistent efforts required in order to gain the results they desire.”

No Fear of Failure

But Kleeneze keeps tweaking its business to attract new distributorships and increase sales, and it isn’t afraid to take risks and learn from failures. For example, a couple of years ago it tested letting people join for free. That experiment created a 30 percent growth in distributors in just three months, but many joined and then did nothing. However, this starter option is now a key recruiting tool for distributors.

“Typically 80 percent of new distributors place an order, but that number is much less when people join for free,” Stewart reports. “It was a learning curve.”

The most recent and much more successful program lets new distributors split their enrollment fee into three payments. “This year what has made a difference is that the first payment is £49.99, with three more payments of £45 each over the next three months,” he explains. “It has had a massive impact. We give distributors a £750 credit facility to order products from us before they receive payment from their customers. As they collect payments, they pay us back. It’s a business model that works. The barrier was the cost of joining.”

Technological leaps are also making a difference, just as Stewart predicted. Kleeneze recently gave distributors the ability to take credit card payments with their smartphones, using mobile web developed in-house, and it is currently testing a third-party card reader for smartphones. It’s only the most recent innovation that will help Kleeneze reach its big Billion Dollar Vision.

“We’re developing a digital strategy to grow the business and make it easy, slick and sexy,” Stewart says. “We want it to be easy to generate sales. That will be the key. Direct selling in England has been slow to take advantage of technology. The innovation is happening in the States, so we’re learning through Success University, the DSA conference and Direct Selling News online.”

“If you start thinking about making the company 10 times bigger, you have to start thinking about doing things differently, not just working harder.”
—Jamie Stewart

Its Billion Dollar Vision requires Kleeneze to tackle innovation in an unprecedented way. It’s already paying off. Since the company introduced e-commerce, for example, they’ve seen a huge rise in Gen Y distributorships.

“If you start thinking about making the company 10 times bigger, you have to start thinking about doing things differently, not just working harder,” Stewart notes. “In 2023 I will be 50 and Kleeneze will be 100 years old. Our top distributors have always told me we’re going to make this a billion-pound company. I can see the potential, and we’re starting to see now that it’s achievable.”

Cleaning Up the Ravages of Cancer

Distributors gathered in Miami in 2012 for a Kleeneze convention that included training, awards and support of charitable causes.

One in three people gets cancer, and Kleeneze wants to do what it can to help. That’s why its official charity is Macmillan Cancer Support.

The organization provides the expert care and emotional support that makes a difference to patients who battle cancer, as well as to caregivers and family members.

Kleeneze has contributed tens of thousands of pounds to the charity through multiple fundraisers. “Coffee mornings” are Macmillan’s biggest fundraisers, helping it raise more than £10 million in 2012 alone. Kleeneze gets in on the party in its offices and in distributor homes, where a cuppa joe and a pastry inspire monetary donations that add up.

The corporate headquarters contributes “sample products” to a sample sale, and all proceeds go to Macmillan. And distributors hold sponsored bike rides, loose-change donations, and other events. But most donations come from sales of a selected product. Kleeneze donates part of the sale to Macmillan.

In 2011 the company donated approximately £32,000 to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Direct Sellers Play Vital Role in U.S. Economy

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Click here to order the Direct Selling News issue in which this article appeared.

From the presidential election to the now famous “fiscal cliff,” the last quarter of 2012 brought with it plenty of political positioning and fancy rhetoric. Amidst all of it, though, one thing remained certain: Small businesses, often seen as the “backbone” of the U.S. economy, would play an important role in a post-recession America.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there are approximately 28 million small businesses in the U.S., which translates to 1,162 small businesses for every one corporation in the country. Additionally, the SBA estimates that small businesses account for 44 percent of the U.S. payroll—and 70 percent of those businesses are owned and operated by a single person.

So where do direct sellers fit into the economic recovery equation? Bearing in mind that the U.S. direct sales channel accounted for nearly $30 billion in retail sales in 2011 generated by 15.6 million direct sellers across the country, one would expect direct selling to be hailed as an economic safe haven—after all, the industry embodies the very spirit of free enterprise and empowerment that so many consider key to our nation’s long-term prosperity.

But despite all of the success stories created through direct selling, it is evident that direct sellers are mostly left out of key labor statistics and national-level discussions on unemployment.

One such example took place earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Labor released a report stating that approximately 8 million Americans moonlight—meaning they work a second job. While the report did not reveal how the Department of Labor determined the figure, the latest Direct Selling Association Growth & Outlook Survey concluded there are 9 million direct sellers alone who have full- or part-time employment in addition to their direct selling activities. As such, the Department of Labor findings clearly fail in large part to incorporate direct sellers into their moonlighting statistics. Plain and simple—the scope and impact of direct selling is often underrepresented in discussions about the health, strength and future of the U.S. economy.

As leaders of this phenomenal industry, every direct selling executive must be a steward of the message about the power of direct selling to change lives. If our industry is overlooked in national statistics on moonlighting—a demographic into which many direct sellers clearly fit—then direct sellers are likely also underrepresented in other key findings related to the workforce, holiday sales figures or business ownership rates.

As a result, DSA works relentlessly to ensure the wider world recognizes the impact our industry has made in the lives of countless men and women who enjoy the financial, social and entrepreneurial benefits direct selling has to offer. Through our continued outreach to legislators, regulators, consumer advocates, reporters and the general public, we strive to share stories not only about the strength of the business model, but, more importantly, about the stay-at-home mom who spends time with her kids while operating a successful business on her own schedule. We inform others about the schoolteacher who wants to gain business experience during the summer months outside the classroom. We proudly speak of recent college graduates—tomorrow’s budding entrepreneurs—who were direct sellers during their years in school and went on to found their own successful businesses.

As an industry, it is critical to our success in the year ahead that we continue to educate business and financial leaders as well as the general public about direct selling in order to ensure that our role in the U.S. economy is fully recognized. The sooner we are able to do so, the sooner we will find direct sellers being sought out as trusted sources for business insights, labor statistics and hope for the future of the U.S. economy.

Amy M. Robinson is Chief Marketing Officer of the U.S. Direct Selling Association, and Alyssa A. Wolice is Marketing Communications Specialist.

Direct Selling Business Model Holding Up Well

January 1, 2013 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Click here to order the Direct Selling News issue in which this article appeared.

On balance, it appears that the direct selling business model continues to hold up well despite the continued difficult global macroeconomic conditions. In a period where nominal GDP growth is stuck in the low- to mid-single digits in the U.S. and in the mid- to high-single digits globally, many of the larger, publicly traded direct sellers are continuing to post strong organic sales growth.

In looking at seven of the largest public direct sellers, Avon (AVP), Herbalife (HLF), Natura, Nu Skin (NUS), Oriflame (OFLMY), Tupperware (TUP) and USANA (USNA), we see that organic sales growth so far in 2012 is up double digits for four of the seven names, with each of those four names showing sales growth acceleration from already above average rates in 2011. (See Exhibit 1) We calculate that in aggregate these seven companies account for nearly one-fourth of all global direct selling sales representatives worldwide, so we think it should be a pretty good approximation for the business as a whole.

Exhibit 1: ORGANIC SALES GROWTH
Source: company reports and the author’s estimates.
Click here to view larger image.

So what can we learn from the numbers so far in 2012? While there are, of course, company-specific factors impacting performance, such as the new product cycle at Nu Skin and a new route to market strategy for Herbalife, here are a few observations regarding some commonalities:

Emerging markets, particularly in Asia and Latin America, are providing a substantial tailwind for our direct sellers. It’s no coincidence that Nu Skin (57% of sales in Asia ex-Japan), Herbalife (35% in Asia), USANA (62% in Asia) and Natura (100% in Latin America) are the performance leaders among the group of seven names we are looking at.

Developed markets, particularly Europe, are providing substantial drags. It is no coincidence that Oriflame (81% of sales in Europe, Middle East & Africa), Tupperware (30%) and Avon (26%) are among the slower ones given their exposure to the region. By contrast, three of the four leaders, Nu Skin, Natura and USANA, have minimal if any exposure to Europe.

Geographic diversity helps reduce risk. Notably, year to date organic sales for many exposed to Europe, while slowing, are still not negative. For example, while developed markets for Tupperware declined -4% so far this year, that was more than offset by double-digit growth in developing markets, which now account for 62% of Tupperware’s consolidated sales. Avon was able to maintain flat organic growth so far this year, despite EMEA being down -2% and North America being down -6%, because of its large presence in Latin America, which grew +4% and accounts for nearly 50% of sales.

Yet despite largely favorable fundamentals, some stocks of the top publicly traded companies are not doing as well. Why is that? (See Exhibit 2)

Exhibit 2: 2012 Year to date stock price performance
Source: Bloomberg. All data in US$ except NATURA in BRZ (through 11/29/12).
Click here to view larger image.

For Oriflame and Avon, the fundamental performance has lagged. Oriflame, with its outsized exposure to Europe, is fighting severe macroeconomic headwinds. Avon continues to suffer from company specific issues, which hopefully will be corrected by the recent change in its senior management.

But unfortunately, the share prices for the other stocks have not been driven by fundamentals recently. How else can you explain the decline in value for both of the companies showing the strongest organic top line growth rates among the seven names we are looking at? In the past, companies like Nu Skin and Herbalife that are experiencing 20%+ organic sales growth would be trading on 12-month forward P/E ratios of 20x-30x, or even better. But today, they are trading at 12x and 10x respectively.

When Wall Street banks drove the process of publishing research on stocks, the analysts had to balance two key constituencies: sales & trading and investment banking. One would keep the other in check. Now, as outside research firms proliferate and the influence of Wall Street research wanes, those checks are gone. Anyone can say almost anything, and with the recent volatile market conditions people react first to negative commentary and ask questions later, regardless of its merits.

So how skittish are investors about direct selling stocks? It appears to be so pronounced that when a respected fund manager who actually does have credibility for his fundamental research and insights, particularly with regards to selling stocks short, simply asks a few relatively pedestrian questions on an Herbalife earnings conference call back in May, the stocks of Herbalife and Nu Skin subsequently drop nearly -40% and -25% respectively in a mere two weeks. Herbalife has been around since 1980 and Nu Skin since 1984. Did the combined 60 years of operating experience really vaporize with those questions? Hard to believe. Seems to me patient investors looking for a return to more normal P/E ratios for those stocks could have at least a double or triple on their hands if their strong fundamental performances persist.

Douglas Lane, former Managing Director of Equity Research for Jefferies & Company, has been named as The Wall Street Journal’s “Best on the Street” five times and is a four-time Starmine Analyst Award winner. Lane is currently a board member of 3000BC, a direct selling beauty company.

DSA of Canada Holds Gala Event

December 8, 2012 by DSN Staff Leave a Comment

Oct. 19, 2012 marked a milestone for the Direct Sellers Association of Canada (DSA of Canada) as it held its’ inaugural “Celebrating Excellence in Direct Selling” Gala. Hosted by Kevin Frankish of City TV’s Breakfast Television Toronto, this evening of celebration was attended by Executives and Independent Direct Sellers of Canadian DSA member companies. Special guests in attendance for the event were Ed Holder, MP, London-West, Her Worship Hazel McCallion, Mayor of the City of Mississauga and Joe Mariano, President of the U.S. Direct Selling Association.

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Recipients

During the evening, 35 individuals within the direct sellers association were recognized with Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals. These commemorative medals were created to mark the 2012 celebration of the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the Throne as Queen of Canada. The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medals are awarded to Canadians who have made significant contributions and achievements and are presented in honour of Her Majesty’s service to our country.

To see the entire press release, click here.

2012 DSA Awards

The gala event also celebrated the DSA Canada honorees of awards in four categories, two of which honor the independent direct seller. The Mark of Distinction Award, celebrating leadership, trust and integrity, went to independent direct sellers from Amway and Mary Kay Cosmetics. The Community Spirit Award, celebrating community service, went to an independent direct seller from Arbonne.

The two categories honoring companies were the Industry Innovation Award, granted to Mary Kay Cosmetics for their Virtual Makeover Tool App, launched in 2012, and the Making a Difference Award, given to The Pampered Chef for their charitable efforts on behalf of food banks in Canada.

To see the entire press release, click here.

2012 DSA Scholarships

Also during the event, five scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each were granted to either deserving children of active representatives of DSA Member Companies, or active representatives who themselves are students.

The DSA is devoted to preserving the integrity of the direct selling industry in Canada, whether working on behalf of member firms to address issues of importance, providing member companies and their ISCs with support through the DSA Rewards Program, educating the public on the benefits of direct selling as a viable channel, or ensuring consumer protection by enforcing the high standards set out in the Association’s Code of Ethics.

To see the entire press release, click here.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Multiple aspects must be considered to truly cover the spectrum of success and some of these aspects are not easily measureable in the traditional sense.

Motivation and Intent

“The more you can love what you do, because it’s connected to an interest you have, the more successful you’re going to be. Passion is often the difference between drudgery and heaven.” —Tory Johnson, Best-selling author and Founder/CEO, Women for Hire

“The vast majority is not getting into direct selling to start a full-time business and only those with that intent should be evaluated from the perspective of how much money they made.” —Larry Chonko, the Thomas McMahon Professor of Business Ethics, University of Texas at Arlington

Full-Timer, Part-Timer or Some-Timer

Brand Ambassadors

“Salespeople in any industry are more likely to be successful if they personally use and understand the products they sell. Direct selling is no different.” —Sandy Spielmaker, Vice President of Sales, Amway North America

Better Servicing Customers

“We’re finding ways for consultants to carry less and less inventory and they can service customers without the need of pre-ordering product.” —Michael Norris, President, PartyLite

A Unique Channel of Distribution

Perceptions

Happy New Year! It’s here!

The Quick Launch

A Hundred Phones Ringing

Mobile Velocity

Getting up to Speed

Blyth Inc.

Neways

Avon Products Inc.

Computer Vision Systems Laboratories Corp.

Company Profile

The Chloe + Isabel merchandiser opportunity has been developed around a model of selling that focuses on social networks and online influence.

Appealing to Younger Women

Built on Experience

Creating the Right Platform

“I wanted our technology to be our greatest differentiator. If everyone has the same tools, it just comes down to what products do you like the most.” —Chantel Waterbury, Founder and CEO

Focus on Branding

Developing Merchandisers

A Mission to Educate

“They’re learning how to run a business. They’re learning to be social media mavens.” —Chantel Waterbury

“We talk a lot about our mission of making sure women can support themselves, educate themselves, and learn things that will set them up in the future for careers.” —Shan-Lyn Ma, Chief of Product

Building the Future

Features of the Chloe + Isabel Merchandiser Platform

LifeVantage Corp.

Mannatech Inc.

Natural Health Trends Corp.

Nu Skin Enterprises Inc.

Blyth Inc.

Primerica Inc.

Relìv International Inc.

Tupperware Brands Corp.

“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” —Zig Ziglar

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

“It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you use that makes a difference.”

“The more you are grateful for what you have, the more you will have to be grateful for.”

“If you go out looking for friends, you’ll find out they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.”

The Direct Selling Association helped kick off the 19th Annual TODAY Show Holiday Toy and Gift Drive recently by presenting the direct selling industry’s donation live in Rockefeller Plaza.

Company Profile

What would it take to grow your company to 10 times its size? That’s the challenge British direct seller Kleeneze has given itself. And it aims to do it in the next 10 years.

Modify the Model

Kleeneze founder Harry Crook went to America to find his fortune by working for the Fuller Brush Co.

In 2006 Kleeneze was acquired by retailer/distributor Findel PLC. Eventually it became Findel’s most successful acquisition.

Making Improvements

Culture Change

“About 80 percent of the way people come across our business is online—either because they’re searching for us or someone has recommended Kleeneze.” —Jamie Stewart, Managing Director

No Fear of Failure

“If you start thinking about making the company 10 times bigger, you have to start thinking about doing things differently, not just working harder.” —Jamie Stewart

Cleaning Up the Ravages of Cancer

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal Recipients

2012 DSA Awards

2012 DSA Scholarships

“The more you can love what you do, because it’s connected to an interest you have, the more successful you’re going to be. Passion is often the difference between drudgery and heaven.”
—Tory Johnson, Best-selling author and Founder/CEO, Women for Hire

“The vast majority is not getting into direct selling to start a full-time business and only those with that intent should be evaluated from the perspective of how much money they made.”
—Larry Chonko, the Thomas McMahon Professor of Business Ethics, University of Texas at Arlington

“Salespeople in any industry are more likely to be successful if they personally use and understand the products they sell. Direct selling is no different.”
—Sandy Spielmaker, Vice President of Sales, Amway North America

“We’re finding ways for consultants to carry less and less inventory and they can service customers without the need of pre-ordering product.”
—Michael Norris, President, PartyLite

“I wanted our technology to be our greatest differentiator. If everyone has the same tools, it just comes down to what products do you like the most.”
—Chantel Waterbury, Founder and CEO

“They’re learning how to run a business. They’re learning to be social media mavens.”
—Chantel Waterbury

“We talk a lot about our mission of making sure women can support themselves, educate themselves, and learn things that will set them up in the future for careers.”
—Shan-Lyn Ma, Chief of Product

“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
—Zig Ziglar

“About 80 percent of the way people come across our business is online—either because they’re searching for us or someone has recommended Kleeneze.”
—Jamie Stewart, Managing Director

“If you start thinking about making the company 10 times bigger, you have to start thinking about doing things differently, not just working harder.”
—Jamie Stewart