Top Desk
July 2010
Creating a career path for life
Bob Parker is Country Manager of Forever Living, the world’s biggest supplier of aloe vera health and beauty products which recently became the first direct selling company to receive the new, ‘Investors in People’ Gold Award. Here Bob, who heads operations in the UK, Ireland and Iceland, puts the spotlight on the ongoing campaign to bring a more professional edge to the industry.
I am currently very excited by the recent progress of the UK DSA in its drive to bring a nationally recognised qualification to the industry, via the DSA Sales Academy. I truly believe that if we can demonstrate that we are self regulating and have high standards, it will hold us in good stead, whatever governments we have and whatever legislation we have in the future.
It is vital that we are seen to be professional in the way we do business and I think a nationally recognised qualification will enable us to educate Distributors and Agents in a professional manner right from the start.
When you look at other industries such as hairdressing or engineering there is an identifiable learning programme for them to go through so they can demonstrate to their customers that they take their profession seriously.
This is what I see as being the great benefit of the DSA Sales Academy.
In the future I think we will have people looking at our industry as a well run, regulated industry and, equally, people contemplating a career in our industry will be encouraged to see there is some nationally recognised qualification they can achieve during their apprenticeship and during the development of their business.
Forever Living has been quite closely involved in this project because it is something we were initially going to do within the company. However, we then felt it ought to be wider than just a Forever Living qualification, so we have been involved right from the start.
I think this qualification will also change people’s fear of the industry and will attract more people to look at direct selling as a career path and give them a longer term view. For example, if they are combining the development of their business with a career path in terms of a national qualification that is going to take them six months to achieve, then it will enable them to recognise that the core competences they have to prove are part of the process of building a business.
Even with a new national qualification, there is a lot more we need to do as an industry to change the views of the general public. The DSA have made some presentations in universities, for example, to promote the industry as a career choice. Sometimes I think our industry is the world’s best kept secret. Surely, every business school in the country should be talking about the opportunity to build a home-based business.
At the other end of the scale we have connections with people of 55 plus who have reached retirement age. Many have retired but perhaps haven’t got the income they need to enjoy retirement. Equally, there are many skilled communicators and managers in the 50 plus age group who have been made redundant and, because of their age, find it hard to get back into meaningful employment. There are at least four or five other areas that come under the banner of creating more positive awareness and a more positive perception of our channel.
One of the most significant changes that has taken place within the industry in recent years is that it has developed a sense of increased willingness to share experiences. There is a willingness now to share good practice and to talk about bad practice and recognise it as something we need to eliminate. By working together in this way I feel we can develop initiatives that raise the profile of the industry as a whole. Over the last few years I think it has become apparent that we haven’t even scratched the surface in terms of the potential for our industry.
“Sometimes I think our industry is the world’s best kept secret. Surely, every business school in the country should be talking about the opportunity to build a home-based business…” —Bob Parker, Forever Living
Let’s get people attracted to the industry first and then they can decide which company they want to work with. If you look at the development of the franchise industry that is what has happened. If you go to a franchise show today you will see there are thousands of ways people can invest in a franchise and when they go to a show they already know franchising works and want to get involved. It’s just a case of finding a franchise that suits them. That is the way I believe our industry needs to go.
From a company’s point of view, the most important aspect of direct selling is to recognise that we can only continue to be successful as individual companies if we are able to show thousands of other micro-businesses how to develop a business for themselves.
For the Distributors, the most important thing is for people to recognise that the success of their business is going to be driven, for the most part, by their attitude towards their business and by their enthusiasm for their business. People’s businesses grow because they are walking, enthusiastic adverts for whatever product or service they are selling and that can be a difficult aspect to get across to people who feel it is all about the technical details of the product they are selling, or the benefits of the product they are selling. Yes, these things are important, but they are not as important as the individual being a walking advert for whatever it is they are trying to communicate.
For those working in a multi-national company like ours, the biggest challenge today is the different regulations that exist from country to country in what is, allegedly, called the European Union. Even in Ireland there are some products you can sell in the north but not in the south. That makes business difficult for companies like ours that are in a specific product range and is a challenge for everybody doing business around Europe. We need to get some common policy on this.
I think our recipe for success is that we try to make our business as inclusive as possible, by making people from all backgrounds and all ambitions feel comfortable at Forever Living. We recognise our leading Distributors and work hard to make sure they are happy but, equally, we also want people engaged with us on a part-time basis to feel welcome and included when they come to our events.
I think the future holds amazing potential for the industry. I think as a result of changes in people’s thinking, in terms of how they create an income for themselves, we offer the equivalent of a people’s franchise. The only difference is that we are not asking people for big sums of money we are just asking them for the commitment of time and energy to build their businesses.
Our philosophy is based around the word TEAM – Together Everybody Achieves More. If we have a joined-up approach with everybody working together, sharing the ideas, sharing best practice and self-managing best practice then everybody stands a better chance of success.
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