Direct Sales Marketing

What is Direct Sales Marketing?

Direct Sales is a business model where products are marketed and sold directly to customers, away from a retail storefront location. It's essentially the act of selling products from your home, door-to-door, online, or selling at a customer's home.

There are three methods of Direct Sales used by the majority of representatives in the industry that's dominated by companies such as Avon, Tupperware, and Mary Kay.

Person-to-Person: This method involves interacting directly with a customer, pitching the product or service and selling. The sale can be initiated or made via door-to-door, telemarketing, or catalogue distribution. Most independent sales consultants will start by selling products/services to family and friends, and then expand to the neighborhood and beyond.

Party-Selling: This method allows for the sales representative to present their product to groups of people rather than individually, which is typically more fun and faster to reap the rewards. When you hear "Tupperware parties," you'll know that this is the method being used. Majority of sellers that use this method are women, as the products can range from "jewelry parties," "purse parties," etc where seeing and trying on the product in a group setting is enjoyable for the potential customers.

Online-Selling: With the Internet, direct selling can be deployed online, making it even more convenient to reach a larger customer base. Even though this method is less personal than face-to-face and party-selling, it allows both the rep and customer to save time and effort.

Modes of Compensation

Multi-Level: A large number of companies prefer this method due to the profit potential for the representatives. With this mode of compensation, the representatives are paid from their personal sales in addition to their recruits' or team members' commission-able sales. Learn more about Network Marketing here.

Single-Level: With this method, representatives are only paid via their personal sales. Some commission rates range from 20% - 50% depending on the company's plan.