Direct Selling: Are You A Bad Actor?

June 16, 2017 By admin Leave a Comment

I bet you haven’t been asked this question before.

At the Direct Selling Association Annual Meeting in Orlando this month, President Joe Mariano talked quite a bit about bad actors. A bad actor is a direct selling company that is operating illegally or unethically or both.

How do you know if your business is a “get rich quick” pyramid scheme or a legal and ethical direct selling income opportunity? One way to find out is to thoughtfully evaluate your company using our “Don’t Do” list.

Don’t Do List

Pay commissions on mandatory enrollment fees.
Pay commissions on starter kits that contain products, while not offering at least one starter kit option that contains no products upon which no commissions are paid.
Describe your income opportunity as an investment or permit your independent representatives to do this.
Have no products or services available for purchase.
Sell products or services that without a compensation plan would have very little or no value.
Before one can buy your products or services, one must first be a representative.
Encourage customers to enroll as representatives to receive product discounts.
Ignore cooling-off laws.
Have a non-existent or unfriendly refund policy or a refund policy that violates laws.
Require a personal purchase to be active or for eligibility for any portions of your compensation plan.
Have a mandatory autoship policy to get paid through any part of your compensation plan.
Require large inventory purchases.
Make illegal income claims or permit your independent reps to do so.
Make illegal product claims or allow your independent reps to make them.

How Do You Score?

Give yourself one penalty point for every activity on this list that your company currently does. Scores greater than zero are not good.

Note your penalty point items as targets for immediate action, and for now, consider yourself a bad actor until you’re not one anymore.

Beyond Legal and Ethical

Reducing pyramid scheme risks is imperative, but for a longer life, having a compensation plan that motivates and rewards the 12 behaviors is equally important.

What Do Good Actors Do?

Good actors refrain from the activities on my Don’t Do List. Instead, they do other things.

Our special report, 20 Secrets of Successful Direct Selling Companies, provides an excellent list of good strategies to follow if you wish to learn from those who have come before you.

Jay Leisner, the President of Sylvina Consulting, is a top compensation plan and direct selling expert, a trusted adviser to new and established network marketing and party plan companies. For more than 30 years, Jay has enjoyed assessing and improving network marketing, party plan and referral marketing companies across the globe.

Jay Leisner and Victoria Dohr authored the top-rated book for new and young network marketing, referral marketing, and party plan companies, "Start Here: The Guide to Building and Growing Your Direct Selling Company".

Available in English and Spanish. This startup guide contains 250 pages of wisdom that will guide you through the right steps to start and continue on your journey to build a successful direct selling company.

You will save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of your time using the information you will read in our book.

In 1986, Jay began his career in direct selling by working for a major direct selling software provider. First as a software developer and later as a project leader and a business analyst, Jay worked closely with new and established network marketing and party direct selling companies to provide them with software solutions to meet their unique requirements.

Jay contributed in many ways to the success of large implementation projects for many companies. Jay also worked with dozens of smaller companies to assist each of them in various capacities to provide them with the systems they needed to help their businesses to grow faster.

Along the way while working with them, he learned the secrets of successful direct selling companies and the challenges faced by them. In true entrepreneurial spirit, Jay’s decision in 1999 to start Sylvina Consulting as a direct selling consulting company was driven by what he saw was a need for answers, advice, and solutions.

In 2004, 2006, 2009, 2014, and 2018, Jay gave presentations on compensation plans, recognition, and field leadership development at conferences held by the US Direct Selling Association.

He traveled to South Africa in 2015, 2016, and 2017 to conduct workshops on compensation plan design and recognition programs for member companies of the South African Direct Selling Association.

In 2017, Jay spoke at the Canadian Direct Sellers Association Meeting on the importance of recognition.

More than just a compensation plan expert, Jay is exceptionally skilled at advising new and established companies on business strategies. Before offering advice or solutions, he asks important questions to understand each client’s specific concerns and goals.

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