Today’s consumers do not want to be sold to: they want to be engaged, educated and even entertained.

In a workshop on how third-party voices can enhance trust and transparency among consumers, Dr. Greg Marshall joined Todd Eliason, Publisher and Editor in Chief, Direct Selling News; John Kloosterman, Manager, Amway Brand, Amway; and Mark Stastny, Chief Marketing Officer, Scentsy; to discuss how companies can maximize the range of third-party voices to demonstrate that they are credible, respected, popular and worthy of consumers’ business.

“The panel session at the DSA Annual Meeting on ‘How to Engage with Third Parties’ afforded a very unique opportunity for attendees to hear different approaches to making the most of external-to-industry endorsers,” Greg says. “For my part, I shared specific strategies on how direct sellers can benefit from the credibility of members of the academic community who are doing research on the field, and especially from those of us who are DSEF Fellows. The DSEF Fellows program boasts over 200 academics from across business fields such as entrepreneurship, ethics, management, marketing, sales and others and aims to foster productive partnerships between the academic community and DSA member firms.”