Policies and procedures are important, as they are the rules and processes that a direct selling company uses to manage the relationships with the sales force.
While the rights of independent representatives are included, the policies and procedures exist primarily to protect the company. For party plan and network marketing companies, the independent representative agreement should be governed by the company’s policies and procedures.
Unfortunately, policies and procedures aren’t merely the terms that fit on the back side of an agreement form. Most require as few as 15 or as many as 45 pages of text.
Why so many pages? Through the years, companies learned from firsthand experience the areas of the business that require specific rules and procedures; there are many of them.
Did you know that there are 50-60 different topics that should be included in your policies and procedures? Each one is important and each one should be set based on your business model, your products, your ethics, and business judgment.
Just like you wouldn’t adopt the lifestyle of a stranger, it is not recommended to adopt the policies and procedures of another company as your own. It’s best when each one of your policies and procedures reflects your preferences.
Ideally, a full set of policies and procedures exists when the company launches, but sometimes this doesn’t happen. Policies and procedures can be reviewed and amended at any time, provided that you have included the ability to amend them in your current policies and procedures.
If you’re working with an MLM attorney, as a starting point he may provide you with a policies and procedures template.
This template should be amended to include concepts unique to your business model, to remove those in conflict with others, and to reflect your business priorities and personal preferences.
At Sylvina Consulting, we work with companies (and their MLM attorney, if present) to set or amend their policies and procedures. In making recommendations, we consider your business model and your products or services.
While helping you with your policies and procedures, we explain the approaches others have taken in each area and why these approaches may have been used. With this information, your company will receive unbiased information so that you can make the necessary business decisions to create a custom set of policies and procedures that will fit your business.
For help with your policies and procedures, contact Sylvina Consulting at 503.244.8787 or submit our information request form here.