Here is the first book to examine direct selling--the distribution of consumer products and services through personal, face-to-face sales away from fixed business locations. Direct selling has long been a major marketing channel for companies around the world. In the U.S. alone, by the start of the present decade, direct selling accounted for $12 billion in sales volume produced by almost five million independent direct salespeople. In this fundamental resource, leading authorities who have spent years studying direct selling channels provide in-depth insights, analyses, and research findings on such key topics as customer response patterns, sales motivation, personal selling methods, minority participation, multinational direct selling, and directions for future research in direct selling.

This marketing channel continues to thrive and grow and Direct Selling Channels prepares readers for the challenges of the twenty-first century by providing the latest and most in-depth thought, analysis, and research on direct selling that is not available from any other source. The breadth and depth of coverage of direct selling found in this volume will help readers gain knowledge, insight, and practical wisdom about an area of marketing where superficial, stereotypical myths have so often been passed off as truth. The material presented is directly relevant to both long-range strategic planning and day-to-day management issues so it can be put to immediate use for managing direct selling channels more effectively.

Direct Selling Channels represents the state-of-the-art thought and research in this area. Reader’s understanding of direct selling channels will be enriched by chapters that explore:

• the salient issues facing direct selling today
• research findings on consumers’attitudes toward direct selling methods
• the reasons why people become direct salespeople
• innovative concepts such as trust-based relationship selling
• the relationship between sex-role self concept and sales performance
• how to identify international markets for new products sold through direct selling channels