For Las Vegas-based dietary supplement maker, salespeople are the future

DrVita founder Wayne Gorsek poses for a picture in front of the DrVita.com logo at their distribution center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013.

When DrVita.com CEO Wayne Gorsek talks about transitioning his company to an “ethical direct sales” model, it’s easy to think of people going door-to-door peddling suitcases of vitamins.

The Las Vegas-based manufacturer of vitamins, minerals and dietary supplements is making a significant change in its business model by switching from driving sales through DrVita.com to instead hiring a new legion of vitamin salespeople.

DrVita

DrVita distribution center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013. Launch slideshow »

But they probably won’t be knocking on your door anytime soon. Gorsek says his new “wellness advocates” will make heavy use of the Internet to spread the word about and sell DrVita products — by setting up the advocates with their own websites, for example. Eventually, they’ll be able to sell vitamins through a smartphone application.

“The way we were selling it before was we were putting a fortune into marketing — paying Google for clicks, making Google wealthier. We were spending a lot of money to bring more people to our website,” Gorsek said. “With this model, you basically take that money that you would spend on Google, and you provide it to the folks who believe in your products and want to educate others about your products.”

Gorsek said he was inspired to change his business model after reading an article discussing how switching to direct sales can help people save money for retirement. The company began the change more than a week ago and held an official launch event at Mandalay Bay on Thursday.

Gorsek never graduated from high school, though he did earn a GED, and he taught himself the dietary supplement business. He opened his DrVita facilities about two years ago after the Nevada Economic Development Commission granted his company more than $350,000 in tax abatements and deferrals.

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