How to measure trust, strengthen culture and build a more resilient field organization.
When Direct Selling News published my recent article, Winning the Post-Gig Economy, it opened conversations with executives, field leaders and thought leaders across the channel. In many of those conversations, one question rose above the rest:
“If relationships are the new competitive advantage, how do we effectively measure the value they create?”
That question stayed with me.
If the first article explored why relationship-centric business models are rising, this one focuses on how direct selling companies can build the infrastructure to scale trust, leadership and human connection in a moment defined by AI acceleration and personal entrepreneurship.
This is not a story about economic anxiety. It is a story about opportunity and the evolution of work. It is also a moment where direct selling is uniquely positioned to lead.
As Stuart Johnson recently told me, “In the new world of AI, owning your own business is the only form of income security.” Stuart points out that AI is not eliminating opportunity. It is reshaping it around individuals who want autonomy, flexibility and meaningful work.
Direct selling is built for that moment, but only if companies can see, measure and strengthen the relationship engines that make the model durable.
The Relationship Equity Scorecard (RES).
None of the individual ideas inside the Relationship Equity Scorecard (RES) are new to the channel. Leaders have understood the importance of culture, belonging, mentorship, community and continuity for decades. What has been missing is a way to see these relational drivers together—clearly and consistently—in a form that helps executives assess the health of their networks before momentum breaks.
The purpose of the RES framework is not to reinvent the fundamentals but to unify them into a composite view that makes the invisible visible. In a channel where our greatest competitive advantage is Return on Relationship, RES simply provides the clarity and structure to measure what has long been understood but rarely quantified.
The Shift: Why Relationship-Centric Models Are Rising
Across industries, workers are re-evaluating what matters.mThe modern workforce is choosing careers that offer:
- Autonomy
- Flexibility
- Personal Entrepreneurship
- Purpose
- Community
- Leadership They Trust
This shift is driven more by aspiration than fear.
Rob Sperry highlights a dynamic that is particularly important for direct selling. He argues that the industry does not have a recruiting problem. It has a retention problem. He warns that retention must be treated as the foundation of business stability, not a secondary outcome. If relationships are weak or leadership is inconsistent, attrition becomes structural.
Gordon Hester adds another strategic layer. He distinguishes between transactional leadership, which treats people like numbers, and experiential leadership, which builds belonging, trust and belief. Without personalization, care and real leadership presence, even well-intentioned companies begin to see erosion in confidence and community.
In my work with executive teams, I see the same pattern emerging:
The battleground is no longer attraction. The battleground is continuity. Retention is not simply a numbers problem. It is a relationship equity problem.
From ROR to Relationship Equity: The Next Strategic Frontier
In Winning the Post-Gig Economy, I introduced Return on Relationship (ROR) as a critical strategic lens to view our unique and deeply valuable differentiators as a channel. This article takes the next step by making the concept measurable.
Relationship equity is the quantifiable value of trust, engagement and continuity inside a direct selling organization. Brand equity is a marketing asset. Relationship equity is a field and culture asset.
It shows up in:
- Who Stays
- Who Activates
- Who Recommends
- Who Leads
- Who Attends
- Who Progresses
- Who Builds Year after Year
The challenge is that most companies cannot see relationship strength until it breaks.
Attrition rises. Engagement flattens. Momentum softens. Confidence fades. It happens gradually, then suddenly. Leadership needs a way to measure what has been invisible. This is where the Relationship Equity Scorecard becomes powerful.
The Relationship Equity Scorecard (RES)
RES = Connection × Contribution × Continuity
These three pillars represent the universal relationship drivers that determine whether people stay, grow and lead in a field-driven business model.
The RES framework is intentionally model agnostic. Universal relationship drivers make the RES model applicable to any product or service category and to all compensation plan variations other than pure affiliate models. What changes from company to company is the specific set of metrics used in each pillar and the benchmarks used for interpretation.
This keeps RES simple at the conceptual level while allowing each organization to adapt the metrics to its structure.
Pillar 1: Connection
Do people feel seen, supported and part of something meaningful?
Metrics may include:
- Activation Rate
- Event Attendance
- Training Engagement
- Leadership Communication Sentiment
- Community Participation
- Customer Reorder Patterns
Event engagement deserves particular emphasis. As Rob Sperry often notes, nothing accelerates belief, community and retention more predictably than live events. Attendance is not just an output of excitement. It is a leading indicator of connection and one of the most visible expressions of relational depth inside a field organization.
Connection is not a feeling. It is a measurable signal.
Pillar 2: Contribution
Is value flowing in both directions between corporate, field and customers?
Metrics may include:
- Mentorship Penetration
- Coaching Activity
- Participation in Team Spaces
- Recognition and Story Flow
- Testimonials and Referrals
- Feedback Responsiveness
Contribution reflects whether people are building or merely observing. Where contribution is high, belief strengthens and culture stabilizes.
Pillar 3: Continuity
Do people stay long enough to succeed?
Metrics may include:
- First 90-day Retention
- Annual Rep Retention
- Leadership Tenure
- Subscription or Contract Duration
- Cross-Product Adoption
- Reactivation Rates
Continuity is the scoreboard of trust. Without it, there is no compounding, duplication or long-term growth.
What a Composite RES Unlocks
When Connection, Contribution and Continuity are scored together, RES becomes a powerful health index for leadership. It enables companies to:
- Identify early warning signs
- Benchmark network health across markets
- See leadership gaps before they become retention issues
- Understand where cultural breakdowns occur
- Tie OKRs to relational strength
- Forecast resilience and variability
Relationship equity becomes to field culture what brand equity has long been to marketing: the underlying asset that determines long-term durability.
As Wayne Moorehead rightly emphasizes on DSN’s Direct Approach podcast, the strongest companies in the next era will blend modern customer experience disciplines with the inherently relational strengths of this channel. The RES framework provides the connective tissue for that evolution. It helps leaders protect and deepen the relational advantage that makes direct selling unique, even as every other part of the business modernizes around it.
Leadership Infrastructure: The New KPIs
ROR becomes meaningful only when translated into leader behavior. This is where many companies stall. They understand the concept, but not how to operationalize it.
The New KPIs provide that system.
In fairness, I saw this “New KPI” terminology in a random LinkedIn meme, but it sparked something deeper in my thinking. Looking past the cliche of it, the real gem in this idea is that it shifts leadership focus from just managing performance to cultivating measurable culture, which is the core of strengthening Connection, Contribution and Continuity across the field.
The New KPIs:
- Keep People Interested
- Keep People Informed
- Keep People Involved
- Keep People Inspired
These behaviors reinforce the universal relationship drivers at the heart of the RES model.
- Keep People Interested
Interest is the earliest signal of connection. People stay engaged when leaders:
- Spark curiosity rather than overwhelm
- Make the first steps simple
- Highlight early wins
- Communicate with clarity and relevance
- Set expectations that feel achievable
- Reinforce positive pro-growth/pro-social behaviors.
Interest is not hype. It is the psychological doorway into longer-term belief. When interest fades, disconnection begins.
- Keep People Informed
Informed people trust their leaders. Transparency is a competitive advantage. Companies that win communicate:
- The “why” behind decisions
- What success looks like
- What changes mean for the field
- What leaders can rely on consistently
Uncertainty erodes continuity faster than compensation ever can. Information creates stability. Stability creates belief. Belief creates retention.
- Keep People Involved
Involvement is the bridge between contribution and ownership.
People commit deeply to what they help shape.
Leaders strengthen involvement by:
- Inviting input before decisions are finalized
- Giving people roles that matter
- Recognizing progress
- Creating community spaces
- Offering micro-leadership opportunities
Involvement transforms participants into builders.
- Keep People Inspired
Inspiration sustains long-term continuity. People stay when they see meaning in the work and possibility in themselves.
Inspiration grows when leaders:
- Model the values they teach
- Tell real stories
- Show ordinary people achieving progress
- Connect personal goals to mission-level purpose
- Normalize visible progress
Inspired people don’t just stay—they build, lead and lift others.
Why the New KPIs Matters
Each KPI maps directly to a pillar of the RES model.
| The New KPIs | Strengthened RES Pillar |
| Keep People Interested | Connection |
| Keep People Informed | Continuity |
| Keep People Involved | Contribution |
| Keep People Inspired | All three pillars |
This is how leadership behavior becomes infrastructure. This is how relationship equity becomes scalable. This is how direct selling modernizes without losing its human core.
The New KPI is not a slogan. It is a leadership operating system.
Why This Matters Now: A Convergence of Forces
Four forces are reshaping the future of direct selling.
- AI is accelerating personal entrepreneurship and reshaping traditional career paths.
- People want autonomy, flexibility, community and purpose—not just a paycheck.
- The rising generations are more open than ever to side businesses and hybrid income models.
- Trust is becoming the decisive factor in whether people stay, engage and lead.
Alongside these forces sits another reality we cannot overlook. The Gig Economy—for all its flaws—permanently reset expectations for how independent earners want to engage with work. It taught the world that opportunity must be:
- Ruthlessly simple
- Low in cognitive load
- Low in administrative burden
- Fast to start
- Clear in expectations
- Flexible in execution
These are now baseline table stakes, not differentiators.
Direct selling competes not only with other companies but with every platform that seeks the field’s attention, energy and discretionary effort. In an AI-accelerated world, complexity is a tax that people simply will not pay.
The companies demonstrating the greatest resilience today are those with strong field cultures, high leadership trust, deep community engagement and friction-reduced systems that support—not overwhelm—the field.
This is not a debate between customer acquisition and relationship strength.
The future belongs to companies that can compete in acquisition while building deep, enduring relationship equity with their field and customers.
In that environment, the ability to measure and strengthen relationship equity is no longer optional. It is a strategic requirement.
A Field-Forward Action Plan for Executives
- Define your RES metrics.
- Build a Relationship Equity dashboard.
- Tie OKRs to relational strength, not only transactional output.
- Equip leaders with the New KPI.
- Treat RES declines as early warning signs.
- Make network health a standing agenda item in leadership conversations.
The Next Era Belongs to Relationship-Driven Companies
As AI reshapes work and workers prioritize autonomy, flexibility and purpose, the rarest commodity in business will be trust. Relationship equity becomes the foundation for sustainable growth in a field-driven model.
Connection creates belonging.
Contribution creates meaning.
Continuity creates legacy.
MICHAEL CODY is the Chief Operating Officer of Genistar Limited, the UK’s fastest-growing financial education and services brand, serving 145,000+ families with nearly £13 billion worth of policies in force. He began his career in the field at 19 and has since held senior leadership roles, including COO of AquaSource. He is passionate about helping people step off the gig treadmill and into businesses that create lasting value through community, leverage and financial education.
The post The Relational Equity Scorecard: A New Operating Lens for Direct Selling first appeared on Direct Selling News.
