Crayton Webb is the owner and CEO of Sunwest Communications, a Dallas, Texas-based public relations and public affairs firm. He also serves as principal of LuncefordWEBB Government Relations. Previously, Crayton was the vice president of corporate communications and corporate social responsibility for Mary Kay Inc. and is a former television news reporter.
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Tell Your Story to Lawmakers (or Someone Else Will)
Do your state and congressional elected officials know who you are, and do they understand the value and importance of your work and direct selling to the local economy?
If companies and direct sellers aren’t telling their stories to lawmakers and regulators, someone else will. In an interview earlier this year, the sponsor of Delaware HB 162 stated that while her female legislative colleagues were familiar with direct selling – at some point they had almost all been invited to attend a party – her male counterparts mostly had never heard of our industry and needed a decent amount of “education.”
The Delaware example is just a preview of what can happen in the other 49 states.
In 2026, resolve to put in the time and work to build relationships with your elected officials before you need them. Ensure they are hearing accurate, first-hand stories from your field leaders. How? By scheduling introductory meetings, inviting lawmakers to your milestone announcements, ribbon-cuttings, and your annual convention.
Build relationships now. Be visible when times are good; don’t wait to make yourself known and heard only when potentially harmful regulations are proposed.
Your sales force members are your best storytellers. Create or seek out opportunities for elected officials to meet with their independent direct seller constituents. DSA’s annual Direct Selling Day on the Hill is an excellent opportunity to enlist your salesforce leadership to share their own stories with their representatives and congressional staffers in Washington, D.C.
2026 will be an essential year for monitoring potential independent contractor rules – help make the rules or they will be made for you.
Prioritize Industry Education for Your Employees, Company-Wide
We’re all familiar with the expression, never eat lunch alone. This applies to industry education events and opportunities more than ever. These programs are not just for the executive suite.
Do all your employees have an awareness of our channel? Are you sure? Or is the extent of what they hear limited to negative stories on social media? The more every employee knows about our channel, its opportunities, and its challenges, the better they can connect their work with the company’s strategy and success.
Encourage your teams to include industry involvement and training as part of their own professional development. Live events like Direct Selling University and theJuice (in Dallas and Salt Lake City) are excellent opportunities to learn about industry best practices across all functions of direct selling companies. Not to mention the myriad online events, such as Direct Talks, provided by DSA and others.
Your communications and social media teams can network with their peers at other companies through the DSA Communications Committee. DSA and DSEF’s full slate of webinars covers a wide range of topics.
DSEF research builds relevance and credibility to advance understanding of the direct selling channel. DSEF toolkits created for key research reports include assets companies can use in employee communications.
Make sure your employees see the bigger picture and understand the channel you are in. They too, like your field, are ambassadors.
Commit to Compliance Training Across Your Organization
Compliance is a team sport and critical to your brand reputation. In an increasingly litigious world, compliance awareness and training are essential across your organization.
Compliance training is not just for your compliance team. This year, maximize the number of employees across the organization who undergo DSCP-CP compliance certification. This helps every aspect of your business – the more people know, the more compliance-focused all will be.
Create or Update Your Crisis Communications Plan
The only uncertainty about a crisis is when it will happen, not if. In 2026, create a communications and response plan or update your existing plan.
Having a plan of action ready protects you and your company’s reputation from being caught flat-footed in a natural or public relations disaster. A solid plan includes multiple potential scenarios for crises, small and large, with an associated level of executive notification and communication, including key staff contact information, chain of command, and flow of communication. Scenario planning (a fire, a firing, or worse) combined with real and/or table-top exercises keeps the plan fresh.
As I like to say, hope for the best, plan for the worst. Bad things happen to the best of companies. Preparation is a reputational life jacket.
DSA Membership
DSA membership is part of your brand reputation. Consider joining or renewing your membership in 2026.
As they say, perception is everything. DSA member companies are sometimes perceived differently from non-member companies by elected officials and regulators.
Another interesting takeaway from the Delaware rulemaking effort: during a committee hearing on HB 162, the Senate sponsor of the bill made a telling comment. She stated that several direct selling companies belonged to the Direct Selling Association but the vast number are not members, “so they aren’t regulated.”
DSA member companies are required to adhere to the DSA Code of Ethics. The Senator explained that the new rules proposed in HB 162 were intended as guardrails on non-member companies perceived as unregulated and in need of additional government oversight. DSA membership is table stakes for the reputation of direct selling companies.
And as DSA increases its own brand awareness among key stakeholders, your sales force members – and their potential customers and team members – are increasingly likely to ask: is your company a member? And if not, why not?
Support and Join Newly Forming State Direct Selling Coalitions
As we saw this past year, new efforts to regulate and restrict direct sellers can pop up in any state. What happened in Delaware isn’t a one-and-done. We’ll see more of this in the coming years.
State coalitions are forming to amplify the voice of direct selling in their respective states, to ensure our industry’s continued success and positive impact. They work in conjunction with the national DSA as “boots on the ground” to engage with lawmakers, protect the channel, and promote awareness of the channel.
The Utah Direct Selling Coalition led the way; the Florida Direct Selling Coalition and Texas Direct Selling Coalition kicked off in 2025 and are forming inaugural boards. Plans are in the works for California and other states. Whether you are headquartered in or have operations in these states, joining and participating should be on your January to-do list.
Shine On: Continue to Build your Philanthropy into your Brand and Legacy
This channel is tremendously philanthropic through corporate giving, sponsorships and hands-on volunteerism by employees and the field. Is your philanthropy tied to your reputational goals? This year, continue to recognize, celebrate, and capitalize on the good you and your field do in communities across the country.
When your reputation is on the line, these are resolutions to make and then keep. Happy New Year!
Terrific article! Thank you for sharing the why in support of the list of actionable items.