By Dr. Robert A. Peterson

Direct selling is simultaneously a channel of distribution and a business model that offers entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals to market and sell products and services, typically outside of a fixed retail establishment, through one-to-one selling, in-home product demonstrations, and/or online. As a distribution channel, direct selling is ubiquitous and, in 2016, touched the lives of an estimated 20.5 million Americans. Individuals are drawn to direct selling for a multitude of reasons beyond a desire to earn a living as a full-time direct seller or to earn extra money or make a special purchase as a part-time direct seller.

The research reported in this Executive Summary documents the impact of a direct selling experience on 14 business and professional skills as well as on 13 personal life skills. A substantial majority of the current direct sellers surveyed, more than three-fourths, agreed that they benefitted from their direct selling experience in terms of improved business and professional skills, and that skills gleaned from a direct selling experience transferred to their personal lives. Moreover, there were significant and positive relationships between self-perceived skill levels and self-perceptions of direct selling success and performance in a non-direct selling job. Findings regarding the impact of a direct selling experience on personal life skills in particular suggest that a direct selling experience can have a powerful influence beyond direct selling per se and, as such, can indirectly contribute to the betterment of society.

Four hundred ninety-five current direct sellers and 465 former direct sellers were surveyed for the present research. Findings from this research have several practical implications for recruiting, training, and retaining direct sellers. These findings and implications are briefly summarized below.

Reasons for Joining Direct Selling Company

Twelve (12) possible reasons why the direct sellers surveyed joined their current direct selling company were investigated.^[1] The most frequently stated reason for joining a direct selling company was “I believed that the products are of such value that I wanted to share them with my friends, neighbors, and the public.” Eighty-one percent of the survey participants stated that this was a reason they joined their current direct selling company. The least frequently cited reason for joining a direct selling company was “I wanted a full-time working career;” 35 percent of the direct sellers surveyed gave this as a reason for joining their direct selling company. In general, the reasons for joining a direct selling company can be categorized as “people/social,” “financial” (income/job), and desire for a specific “product.”

The median number of reasons survey participants gave for joining their current direct selling company was seven (7). Thus, on average survey participants stated that seven of the 12 studied reasons were in fact reasons why they joined their current direct selling company. There were no substantive differences across the current direct seller segments studied regarding the number of reasons given for joining a direct selling company.

• However, of the current direct sellers surveyed regarding their reasons for joining a direct selling company:
• Males were more likely than females to want a full-time direct selling job (54% versus 31%).
• Eighty-one percent of the female direct sellers stated that they wanted to purchase their direct selling company’s product(s) at a discount for themselves and/or their family versus 61 percent of the male direct sellers.
• Fifty-seven percent of the male direct sellers were interested in the recognition that they would receive for their [sales] efforts compared to 39 percent of the female direct sellers.
• Seventy-two percent of the male direct sellers were interested in enhancing their personal development (i.e., becoming more confident, better business-minded) through direct selling, whereas 53 percent of the female direct sellers stated such an interest.
• No differences were observed regarding reasons for joining a direct selling company between urban and rural direct sellers, or among direct sellers who had been with their direct selling company for various time periods.
• Proportionally more millennial direct sellers (46%) than non-millennial direct sellers (28%) joined their current direct selling company because they wanted a full-time working career. Millennials also wanted to feel more at ease in front of other people relative to non-millennials (56% of the millennials so responded as compared to 32% of the non-millennial direct sellers).

In addition, current direct sellers differed markedly from former direct sellers with respect to the number of reasons and the specific reasons given for joining a direct selling company. Whereas 35 percent of the current direct sellers stated that they wanted a full-time direct selling job, only 16 percent of the former direct sellers stated that they wanted a full-time direct selling job. This suggests that direct selling may currently be perceived as more likely to be a career option than it was in the past. Moreover, given that the demographic profile of direct sellers may be approaching that of the United States adult population, the “pool” of potential direct sellers may be expanding.

Skill Improvements Due to Direct Selling Experience

The present research examined 14 business/professional and 13 personal life skills that might be improved or fostered by a direct selling experience.^[2] Survey participants were first asked whether they “strongly disagree,” “somewhat disagree,” “somewhat agree,” or “strongly agree” that their direct selling experience was beneficial in terms of improving or fostering each of the 14 business/professional skills. For example, they were asked whether they “strongly disagree,” “somewhat disagree,” “somewhat agree,” or “strongly agree” that “I improved my decision-making skills” (as a consequence of their direct selling experience).

Similarly, survey participants were asked whether they “strongly disagree,” “somewhat disagree,” “somewhat agree,” or “strongly agree” that they had been able to transfer each of 13 skills emanating from their direct selling experience to their personal lives. An example of these skills is “I enhanced my critical thinking ability.” Seven of the skills investigated were included in both the business/professional and personal skill sets studied.

On average, more than three-fourths of the current direct sellers surveyed somewhat or strongly agreed that both their business/professional skill levels improved and that their personal lives benefitted due to skills emanating from their direct selling experience. Consequently, in an absolute sense the current direct sellers surveyed believed that “lessons learned” through their direct selling experience were helpful in both their business/professional careers and their personal lives. Across the seven skills that were common to the business/professional and personal life skill sets, survey participants indicated that the skills they acquired from their direct selling experience were slightly more beneficial to their personal lives than to their business/professional careers.

Even so, despite the high absolute level of overall agreement that a direct selling experience improved or fostered skill levels, perceptual differences did occur between male and female direct sellers. With respect to business/professional skills that were believed to have been improved due to a direct selling experience, proportionally more male direct sellers than female direct sellers believed that their sales skills had improved (88% versus 77%) and that they undertook more [business-related] initiatives (87% versus 73%).

With respect to skills applicable to a direct seller’s personal life, self-perceptions of the eight skills listed below significantly differed between male and female direct sellers, with male direct sellers proportionally more likely than female direct sellers to believe that improvements in the eight skills studied occurred because of their direct selling experience:

• Enhanced critical thinking ability (88% versus 74%)
• Better at coping with and managing stress (85% versus 69%)
• Better at problem solving (90% versus 76%)
• Feel more at ease in front of an audience (84% versus 71%)
• Better at time management (87% versus 77%)
• Improved entrepreneurial skills (90% versus 78%)
• Improved decision-making (87% versus 78%)
• Better at managing finances (83% versus 73%)

Differences between male and female direct sellers with respect to their reasons for joining a direct selling company and the skill levels gained from a direct selling experience suggests a variety of managerial implications. Additional research is required to understand motivations underlying said differences as well as their implications. For example, direct selling companies might consider instituting, emphasizing, and/or communicating different recruiting, training, and retention programs for men and women.

There were no significant differences in self-perceived skills between urban and rural direct sellers or among survey participants with different lengths of time working with their current direct selling company. Similarly, there were generally no significant differences between millennials and non-millennials with respect to self-perceived business/professional skill levels resulting from their direct selling experience.

However, three self-perceived skills differed between millennials and non-millennials in the context of their personal lives. Proportionally more millennials than non-millennials agreed that their direct selling experience improved their decision-making skills (86% versus 78%), helped them improve their interpersonal relationships (87% versus 75%), and made them more able to cope with and manage stress in their personal lives (81% versus 70%). These differences suggest that consideration be given to creating different recruiting, training, and retention programs for millennials and non-millennials analogous to those for male and female direct sellers. Moreover, similar to the male and female direct seller differences observed, differences between millennials and non-millennials should be subjected to additional research.

In an absolute sense, a majority of all direct sellers studied, current as well as former, believed that both their business/professional and personal life skills were improved by their direct selling experience. From a relative perspective, though, current direct sellers believed that their direct selling experience improved all of the business/professional and personal life skills studied to a significantly greater degree than did former direct sellers. Moreover, self-perceived skill level differences between current direct sellers and former direct sellers were in general greater for personal life skills than for business/professional skills. For example, the largest difference between the two groups occurred for the self-perceived personal life skill “I am better at interpersonal relationships.” Seventy-nine percent of the current direct sellers somewhat or strongly agreed with this skill statement as compared with 52 percent of the former direct sellers who somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement. Such differences in perceptions may reflect better company training programs now than in the past, differences in the demographic makeup or motivations of the two groups, or a combination of differences in training programs and the demographic makeup or motivations of the two direct seller groups. Additional research is recommended.

Direct Selling Success

Survey participants were asked, “How successful do you consider yourself compared to other independent contractors in your direct selling company?” Based on a 7-category rating scale anchored by “much less successful” and “much more successful,” 45 percent of the survey participants who were current direct sellers rated themselves as successful (i.e., they responded “5,” “6,” or “7” on the scale). Using the same approach, only 25 percent of the former direct sellers considered themselves successful direct sellers. As before, this perceptual difference may be due to better company training programs now than in the past, differences between the two groups—including actual success—or both company training and direct seller characteristics. Indeed, to the extent that perceptions reflect reality, the self-perceived performance of former direct sellers may be a reason they left direct selling.

Responses to each of the 27 business/professional and personal life skill statements were significantly and positively related to responses to the self-perceived success scale (p<.001) for the current direct seller sample. Similarly, summary indices of business/professional and personal life skill responses respectively correlated significantly (p<.001) with self-perceived direct selling success. This means that survey participants who believed their direct selling experience improved their business/professional and personal life skills also believed they were more successful direct sellers than other direct sellers in their company. Again, if perceptions reflect reality, this implies that a direct selling company should target skill improvements during recruiting and training since doing so should benefit the company financially and its direct sellers both financially and personally.

Performance in Non-Direct Selling Jobs

Eighty percent of the survey participants who were current direct sellers stated that they also had a job other than direct selling. (This reinforces the conclusion that direct selling tends to be a part-time pursuit.) These survey participants (and former direct sellers surveyed) were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “Because of my direct selling experience, I perform better in other, non-direct selling jobs,” using a 4-category rating scale ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.” A substantial percentage of the survey participants who were current direct sellers and who held a non-direct selling job—84 percent—noted improved performance due to lessons learned through their direct selling experience. As might be expected, given differences in reasons for joining a direct selling company and self-perceived skill levels between current and former direct sellers, the percentage of current sellers (84%) believing their direct selling experience helped them perform better in a non-direct selling job was significantly larger than the corresponding percentage (66%) observed for former direct sellers. Likewise, proportionally more male direct sellers (90%) than female direct sellers (80%) believed their direct selling experience helped them perform better in a non-direct selling job.

Self-perceived performance in a non-direct selling job was significantly and positively correlated with self-perceptions of direct selling success. In addition, survey participants holding a non-direct selling job also believed that skills emanating from their direct selling experience improved their performance in their non-direct selling job. Moreover, survey participants who stated that one reason for joining a direct selling company was to improve their personal development (i.e., become more confident, better business-minded) also believed that skills emanating from their direct selling experience enhanced their performance in a non-direct selling job.

Finally, each of the 27 business/professional and personal life skills studied was significantly and positively correlated with perceived performance in a non-direct selling job. This finding corroborates the suggestion that a direct selling company target the improvement of skills of its direct sellers since doing so is beneficial to both the company and its direct sellers. When recruiting direct sellers, a company can communicate that even if a direct seller does not remain in direct selling, he or she can obtain skills that will improve performance in a non-direct selling job. Simultaneously, individuals considering a direct selling job may use that job to gain valuable skills that can be applied in a non-direct selling job as well as in their personal lives.

In brief, a substantial majority of the current direct sellers surveyed in this research—more than three-fourths of the individuals surveyed—agreed that their direct selling experience improved their skill levels for 14 business/professional skills and 13 personal life skills. Self-perceived skill levels were in turn related to perceptions of direct selling success. To the extent that current direct sellers believed that their direct selling experience improved their skill levels, they also believed that they were more successful than other direct sellers in their company.

Additionally, those direct sellers surveyed who also held a non-direct selling job believed that their direct selling experience improved their performance in this non-direct selling job. And, analogous to self-perceived direct selling success, the more direct sellers believed that their direct selling experience improved their business/professional and personal life skills, the better they perceived their non-direct selling job performance to be.

While these direct selling experience-related benefits existed across all direct sellers surveyed, certain groups of direct sellers (i.e. male direct sellers or millennial direct sellers), appeared to differ in the benefits gleaned from their direct selling experiences. As such, based on the present research, a direct selling experience can lead to personal as well as societal benefits that go beyond the economic value of direct selling per se. At a minimum, the present results suggest that an individual’s perceived self-efficacy can be enhanced due to a direct selling experience. Read full paper →

^[1] See the DSEF report “Professional and Personal Benefits of a Direct Selling Experience” for a list of all reasons studied.

^[2] See the DSEF report “Professional and Personal Benefits of a Direct Selling Experience” for a list of all skills studied.