Compliance Is Necessary

October 1, 2022 By admin Leave a Comment

Compliance is never a favored topic. However, in the direct selling industry, it is a necessary one.

When the public is provided with a product that is intended to be distributed and may attract high visibility, there needs to be company ownership.

In fact, regulation states and legal action sets precedent that the company does indeed have skin in the game. Therefore, direct selling compliance departments should be embraced as an essential cog in the company machine.

To build an effective compliance department, consider a mixture of lo-tech and hi-tech. For example, go the lo-tech route by building positive relationships with your distributors. Get to know them so when you call with a policy issue, they aren’t immediately concerned that a compliance person is on the line. To support this outreach, use the hi-tech option to find policy liabilities on social media. This will allow for more time to work with distributors and less time doing administrative work.

As a compliance professional, protecting your company is top priority. Start with listening to the distributors and providing them a stage to explain their story when discussing a social media case. Then, it is time to talk about removing or editing the post and discuss options to get the distributor’s message out there in a compliant manner. When using this process, distributors feel heard and are more likely to run marketing concepts by you in the future. This is where a low-tech approach is necessary.

In regard to hi-tech, software monitoring provides the best approach to learn how your brand is being used online. Reviewing policy issues will not only help eliminate regulatory concerns but may provide a pattern that shows what marketing materials need to be created for the field.

For more information about compliance, feel free to contact Erin McGinnis at mcginniscompliance@gmail.com.

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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