Individual direct sellers’ earnings have always created a controversy. Some people strongly argue that it is not possible to make even a part-time income in direct sales, let alone a yearly six-figure income. On the other end of the spectrum, there are others who claim it is so easy to get rich.
Truth obviously lies somewhere, but where exactly? To shed light on this whole issue and help educate the novice, I think we should just take a look at the real picture. Below are some facts from eight of the major direct selling companies’ income disclosures for 2020:
AMWAY
A typical Amway IBO’s (Independent Business Owner) average income in the U.S. was $628 in 2020.
Amway made a payment to 56% of IBOs in at least one month. Of those who received a payment from Amway, the top 1% earned $83,032, the top 10% $13,734 and the top 50% earned $3,149 on the average.
Amway IBOs at the “Founder Platinum” level made $43,337 and those at the “Platinum” level $18,991 in 2020.
Click for Amway’s compensation report.
ARBONNE
A typical Arbonne participant at the “Independent Consultant” rank in the United States averaged $206 in 2020 in earnings and commissions. This group was 56% of Arbonne’s total sales force.
Arbonne District Managers’ average was $2,279, Area Managers’ $13,785, Regional Vice Presidents’ $62,711, and finally, National Vice Presidents earned $253,607 in 2020. National Vice Presidents made up 1% of the field force.
Click for Arbonne’s compensation report.
JUICE PLUS+
Juice Plus+ Qualifying Sales Coordinators made up 20% of the field force and earned $828 on the average. The next level is Sales Coordinators who were 11% of the members, making $3,180.
0.4% of the sales force were at National Marketing Director level and earned $44,988 on the average. Company’s highest level of achivement is “Presidential Marketing
Director+. They were 0.1% of the total members and their average income in 2020 was $343,860.
Click for Juice Plus’s compensation report.
MANNATECH
94% of Mannatech’s field force averaged $2.30 / year. Those at the Gold Associate level were 2% and made $39.64 in 2020. 0.5% were at the Silver Executive Director level and earned $1,254.
Silver Presidential Directors made $15,568. 3-Star Platinum Presidential Director is the highest level of achievement and five people were at this level making $83,441 last year.
Click for Mannatech’s compensation report.
NU SKIN
In 2020, Nu Skin paid approximately $161,333,653 to its Brand Affiliates residing in the U.S.
“Brand Affiliates” who make up 11% of Active Brand Affiliates earned $384 / year on the average. Brand Representatives (3.3%) made $7,392 and Diamond Directors (0.12%) $112,932. Blue Diamond Directors are at the highest level (0.2.%) who averaged $449,688 in 2020.
In the United States, Nu Skin had an average of 84,003 Active Brand Affiliates during 2020. They represented an average of 43.56% of total Brand Affiliates.
Click for Nu Skin’s compensation report.
OPTAVIA
24% of Optavia’s Independent Coaches in the U.S. made no earnings last year and 8% made between $0.1-100.
Yearly average incomes of approximately 13% of coaches were between $1,000-2,500 whereas about 2% of the field force made $7,500-10,000.
Those who earned more than $200,000 made up 0.19% of Optavia’s coaches.
Click for Optavia’s compensation report.
RODAN + FIELDS
90% of those who ordered R + F products in 2020 in the U.S. were strictly customers.
7% were “Product Ambassadors” and were paid between $20 and $41,311.
“Business Builders” constituted the remaining group of 3%. Among this group, “Developing Business Consultants” made between $20-78,442, “Evolving Leaders” $1,932-576,544 and “Advance Leaders” $12,455-2,756,100.
Click for Rodan + Fields’s compensation report.
SCENTSY
Scenty divides its Consultants into two groups in its earnings disclosure: Group 1 consists of Consultants who were with the company for all 12 months of 2020 and Group 2 with less than 12 months.
There were 51,237 consultants in Group 1 whose yearly average earning was $2,901 (minimum $121, maximum $1,282,079).
Group 2 composed of 135,629 consultants. They were paid between $0 and $34,933 (average $452)
Click for Scenty’s compensation report.
There are several significant takeaways from these figures. To me, these statistics once again show three important things:
1) It is actually possible to achieve really high income through direct selling.
2) Not everybody reaches those high levels.
3) In fact, “1” and “2” above are public information that everyone has access to.
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Hakki Ozmorali is the Founder of WDS Consultancy, a management consulting and online publishing firm in Canada, specialized in providing services to direct selling firms. WDS Consultancy is a Supplier Member of the Canada DSA. It is the publisher of The World of Direct Selling, global industry’s leading weekly online publication since 2010. Hakki is an experienced professional with a strong background in direct sales. His work experiences in direct selling include Country and Regional Manager roles at various multinationals. You can contact Hakki here.
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