This paper uses a unique data set of over 13,000 individual direct selling distributors from dozens of companies at various stages in their direct selling experiences, to investigate the motivations to join, stay and leave a direct selling distributorship. The authors build on literature in salesforce management and compensation, economics, organizational behavior, psychology, and sociology to develop hypotheses about each of the key decisions a distributor makes, as well as the interlinkages among the join, stay, and leave junctures in the distributor’s life cycle.
The impact of a direct selling experience on 14 business and professional skills as well as on 13 personal life skills is explored in this ground-breaking study. A substantial majority of the direct sellers surveyed, more than three-fourths, agreed that they benefited from their direct selling experience in terms of improved business and professional skills, and that skills gleaned from a direct selling experience also transferred to their personal lives.
