A Direct Sell

We’ve all heard of direct sales companies, whether its that gal from college who sells $25 lipsticks, or your friend’s mom who sells sells “fancy” makeup, or your neighbor who always has a “31” box on her doorstep or even your coworker who always invites you to online parties for her cooking tools business the list goes on.

Unfortunately, these are mostly women’s brands so maybe I hear about them more than my male counterparts. These brands are so distinct that they’re almost doing their marketing perfectly, but at the same time their connotation must hurt them, They’re known for being a bit of a bother because you can’t shop the products on your own and you know the “small business owner” who sells them makes a large chunk off each product you buy. 

In fact, I think these brands are a huge part of why sales left such a sour taste in my mouth for a while. You see back in college I had a friend, he was in many of my classes, but then a month before graduation he asked me to come to a “business meeting”, I thought, sure why not? Well I went and turns out it was for what I believe to be the worst direct sales company of them all and I hadn’t heard of it yet (I’m surprised too) so I kind of went along with it, well before I could get to actually involving myself with this brand, I said no, and gave away sample products I had been given to my friends. They weren’t even that great, unfortunately. I felt misled afterwards.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I love Tupperware but I have made a habit of only buying it on sale at expos and fairs, and garage sales. It has always seemed like the original and best to me if that’s possible. Most of the other ones are just people copying the “Tupperware lady” or the “multi level marketing” method. I also have a 31 lunch box but again it’s from a garage sale. I’ll also admit that I’ve considered joining these companies at other times because it’s tempting I’ll admit. It was when I was without a job,  and some products are okay, but the pressure that gets put on people is often frustrating.

That being said if you want to support someone’s direct sales business, to help them succeed go ahead, but personally I would consider encouraging them to start their own completely independentbusiness instead. 

So if you sell for a “direct sales” brands please consider how you come across to others with the brand, and for your own sake be smart about the business, and how you approach others about it. If you’re considering joining consider this: just because the person you know who sells the product gets free vacations, and maybe a pink Cadillac, doesn’t mean they have a great business that they should be proud of, or that you should join. You can probably be way more creative than selling jewelry from a catalog, its kind of boring anyway. 

My last question is for the business behind these companies: Why don’t you just sell your products at Target, and on Amazon?