Industry’s failure to unite may weaken its collective power.
By Teresa Day Craighead
What does our channel have at its core that unites its participants? This may sound like a rhetorical question; however, the answer appears to be increasingly elusive.
“The stigma is exacerbated by the fact that we continue to lean on the same jargon.”
—Jim Turner, industry executive and consultant
Unable to even agree upon a shared name—MLM, network marketing, direct selling, social selling or something else—companies under the “direct selling industry” umbrella seem indecisive as a collective.
Even calling the group an industry has been debated since “industry” typically refers to a group of companies who at least have similar products in common. Some commentators, including this paper, prefer to use the word “channel,” indicating that what links us together is the manner in which products are distributed through an independent salesforce.
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