JANUARY ISSUE
SARAH SHADONIX, Founder and CEO of Scout & Cellar
Making Tough Business Decisions
For us, it doesn’t matter if it makes business sense on this minute, this day. We do the right thing for the standard of “for the good of the company and for the good of the people.” It might not be easy, but the right thing is always the right thing.
We will finish the year stronger than ever because we focused on two main factors: expanding into new markets and growing our product line. Expansion gave new financial opportunities to the millions of people forced to work from home. South Korea, one of Asili’s largest markets, recovered quickly from COVID-19, and conditions were improving as the virus hit our many Latin American, European, and other Asian markets. Diversifying our product line opened doors for Asili Ambassadors who are able to meet more customer needs. More nutrition solutions means better health for Ambassadors and their families, and a wider audience to market to.
— Gary Hasson, Vice President of Global Business Development, Asili Global
Founded: August 2017
Executive: Sarah Shadonix
Location: Farmers Branch, Texas
Consultants: 8,000
2019 Revenue: 100% growth over 2018
Website: www.scoutandcellar.com
The greatest challenge within this channel will be determining how we will effectively compete within increasingly competitive market conditions. Competition from novel direct-to-consumer brands has provided greater consumer access to products and services. This has not only stolen market share from direct selling companies, but has also made it more challenging and expensive for companies to compete for brand awareness. To survive these challenges, we must evolve to support distributors by leveraging new technology platforms, marketing channels and communication strategies in 2020 and beyond.
-—David Isserman, COO, Touchstone Essentials
To stay focused on the strategic imperatives in the midst of the potential distractions. One of our three imperatives is customer focus. We don’t want to be a good customer program for a direct selling company. We want to be a good customer program in general. People are used to buying online from Amazon Prime or Sephora or any other brand. We want our actual customer experience to be world-class in respect to the channel. The other two imperatives we’ll be focusing on market partner engagement/activity and product excellence.
—Stuart A. MacMillan, president, MONAT Global