The Southwestern Company Difference Blog
There was a recent article on the site www.stltoday.com titled “Think twice before taking a job selling door-to-door” by Matthew Hathaway. Obviously, it caught my eye because of Southwestern Company’s direct link to door-to-door sales.
While the article had an overall negative tone towards direct selling in general, and door-to-door in particular, there are parts of the article that resonated with me. It’s about a particular local company that had a warning issued against it by the local Better Business Bureau. Nothing new content-wise on this blog, but I found how the term “direct selling” was used to be somewhat insulting because it generalized a negative. It painted an entire industry with a broad stroke, when, in fact, the good guys far outweigh the bad guys. I know for a fact we most often hear about the negative rather than the millions of positive interactions each day with direct sellers. It’s easy to make the media a scapegoat, but it’s everyone. Negative news IS news.
For 11 years now, I have fought to educate all kinds of audiences about the merits of direct selling and the benefits reaped from it – both on the consumer and individual seller fronts. Reputable companies – companies with staying power – do it the right way: with ethics, training and a moral conscience.
The reason I used the past tense of the word “fight” in the above paragraph is because there is an ever-present shortsightedness when it comes to a legitimate business model in which people often make stereotypical assumptions. This article starts out this way… but with prior cause.
You see, the direct selling industry takes its lumps because there ARE groups, organizations and individuals who take advantage of others. Always have, and unfortunately, always will. This particular article provides several examples. Mr. Hathaway recalls past articles he wrote about door-to-door scams including several things I have covered on this very blog including door-to-door security alarm sales and traveling sales crews pushing magazine subscriptions and other items. There are people out there that take advantage of others and choose to operate in an unscrupulous manner – in all industries. On the flip-side however, there are more that choose to do it the right way.
Several points were made which I think are worth repeating:
- Always do your homework – whether looking to sell products door-to-door or purchase them.
- The traveling sales crews themselves are a danger – to youth involved and possibly the consumer.
- From the article: “The business practices of these outfits vary widely, and there are direct sales outfits who deal fairly with both consumers and employees.”
While I cringe at the negative stereotypes being fed to mass audiences, I understand where that comes from. While the roots of evil start with a few, the vines can eventually hang us all.
