Wherever we look in our society there are plenty of laws and rules to follow. Traffic rules work well as an analogy for what this is about. We know what the road signs mean, we know what's okay and what's wrong, and still we act differently. Without being a stickler for the letter of the law or a moralising aunt, I thought I'd start by looking at the health industry, where the winds are blowing hard right now.
The cases we've seen lately go after a certain type of unapproved health claim. Directly health threatening consequences of consuming certain products is nothing I accept, but I don't think anyone should throw stones in glass houses. There are people out there who systematically talk down a brand so they can step up and take the space themselves, and I'm allergic to that. This has nothing to do with direct selling either, even if the media sometimes tries to spin it that way. If you work with health as a nutrition adviser, a therapist or behind the counter in a health food shop, it's just as important to know the rules so you don't end up in the storm (click here).
Forever Living took a lot of negative criticism in the evening papers a while back because of their product C9. Personally I have no experience of it, but I buy a few other Forever products because I think they're good, just as I'm happy to buy from people I know who work with Amway, LR, ACN, Young Living and a couple of other companies that let you buy products as a customer without being part of the distribution chain.
There are people who have got a new life thanks to certain products and lifestyle changes. Ingredient lists aren't my area of expertise, but I get the feeling that we sometimes look in the wrong place. If I've found a shake or a bar that works really well for me instead of stopping at Pressbyrån, Max or McDonald's every other day, then I think it's my business to skip a tired French hotdog, since boiled broccoli can be hard to find when you're on your way somewhere.
Often it's about people criticising a colleague in the industry in order to lift themselves up, but in the long run you're sawing off the branch you're sitting on. Point at someone and you have three fingers pointing back at yourself. It will never be an advantage, and it really isn't good business practice to push others down to lift yourself and your own brand.
The rules
If you go out and talk about what different substances do in the body with no other intention than to inform, then that's valuable information. But if you go out to market a product, it suddenly becomes selling, which can lead to problems. You want to contribute to a better world, you have a positive intention with what you do, but the moment you go out and market a product it's far more sensitive, because in the marketing you become biased.
According to the authorities you're a salesperson as soon as you represent a product or a company that sells products, in a shop, in customer meetings or at information evenings, even if you see yourself as someone who informs. The challenge is understanding the difference. If your ambition is to bring in more money to the company or more money into your own pocket, then it isn't information, it's selling. What you say needs to be objective, and the same thing applies in the grocery store.
Sveriges Radio looked, in their series Matens pris, at an example with lycopene in tomatoes, which under EU rules may not be marketed as better than others (click here). This audio clip is very interesting if you want to understand what the rules look like today. SR writes on their website: ”For a company to be allowed to use the health effects of a food in its marketing, those effects must be proven in clinical tests that often cost millions of kronor to carry out. These tests are also poorly suited to fresh vegetables, where the content depends not only on the variety used but also on weather and other growing conditions.”.. They go on: ”But this initiative has now been shut down because the tomatoes couldn't be sold. The lycopene rich tomatoes gave smaller harvests and were therefore more expensive.”
That's why serious direct selling companies refer to research and approved health claims from EFSA (European Food Safety Authority). They approve health claims for different substances. It has nothing to do with direct selling. Nutrition advisers work with the same thing if they're serious. If you only talk about what EFSA has approved and stick to that information about approved health claims, your back is covered when you go out and contribute to a better world.
Market potential
Some people wonder why there are health products containing lactose, gluten, fructose, E numbers and other things opinions are divided about. There are always companies that want to sell products at any price. They look at the competitors' ingredient lists and then think about how they can save money on manufacturing costs by putting in one substance instead of another. We consumers are becoming more and more aware of what we want, which creates a positive competition in the market where we force companies to work towards better quality, so my conviction is that whoever behaves best wins in the long run.
Then there are companies that think things through. Getting a new product out on the market obviously requires a strategy. If we were fanatical and developed a product that only 5% of the population could imagine buying because they live a very pure lifestyle, it isn't certain that it would be financially defensible every time, depending on what the target group looks like. That's exactly why some serious direct selling companies sometimes choose to first develop a product that 80% of the market could mentally imagine buying, before they develop a product that's completely clean for the incredibly aware. Before you write someone or something off, take a look at how many percent lingonberries there are in your lingonberry jam, or how many E numbers there are in your bread, or how much sugar there is in your orange juice.
For my own part I needed to go step by step from white bread and milk to a smoothie or shake in the morning, because I didn't wake up one morning suddenly liking vegetables more. Most people would probably agree that it's better to develop a product people want that's much better than what they're getting today than not to do it. And then it depends which school you went to whether you're against gluten, lactose or fructose. Personally I'm pretty good at avoiding all three today. Whatever company you work with has new things coming and is constantly working on product development, so sit tight.
Health claims and product experiences
I sat in a training a while ago where one of the points was that you may not use your own or anyone else's product experiences as a sales argument in the health industry. So if you got rid of your migraines, got your stomach going or got rid of your allergies when you took that product, changed your diet or changed your lifestyle, you're really not allowed to talk about it. If the minerals you take make you sleep better because you were deficient in them, it isn't certain that the neighbour who sleeps badly has the same deficiency of the same substances.
Your headache can have other causes than your colleague's, and the problem with ”I know I shouldn't say this, but I actually don't have headaches any more and I thought of you, it's not certain it helps but it's worth trying” is that you're sowing seeds, we can create false hope in people, which we absolutely must not do.
There are people out there who feel so much better if they stop eating gluten. There are people who would feel so much better if they started taking a walk every day. There are people who would feel so much better if they started reading a book about positive thinking, eating more broccoli, the list can be made as long as you like.
There are secret groups on Facebook where product results are discussed. It can work if only existing customers get in there, but I don't use it. I have zero tolerance for it, because sooner or later someone gets in who shouldn't be there. At best it's someone who isn't a customer yet who gets angry about miracle claims, and at worst it's a reporter from some evening paper who found their way in, and then the articles start. The question isn't if but when one person out of thousands decides to smear the brand, and I don't intend to be a contributing cause of that.
If you're planning to build this big over many years, do it right from the start. Common sense. Stick to the company's material. Stay inside the frames of the authorities' rules. The body can handle a great deal if it gets the right conditions, but let people experience that for themselves.
If, against all expectations, you talk about product experiences or refer to books or external articles (which you're also not allowed to do, since there's a difference between information and marketing), then nobody can cover your back. If you drive too fast in traffic and get stopped, you have to take responsibility for your own actions. If you as an independent partner break the authorities' rules, the company can't protect you.
You have to be professional when it comes to your personal brand. Think about who you want to be and how you want to profile yourself as an entrepreneur in direct selling.
