There are so many different ways to look at how businesses operate. How do you choose? If you were to start up a company today, let’s say you’re selling high quality merchandise that costs thousands of dollars, how would you sell it? One rarely walks into a retail store like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, or Target and buys a $5,000 thingamajig. Usually you have to go through a dealer or distributor. Quite often high quality merchandise is sold through the direct sales model.
Direct sales has been around at least as long as the Fuller Brush Man, and maybe a few generations before that. Door-to-door salespeople are the classic image of direct sellers but that isn’t the only way direct sellers have worked. Some traveled with carnivals and circuses in centuries past. Some only traveled to fairs like county fairs, state fairs, and world fairs, setting up booths. Many direct sellers still operate on the fair and carnival circuits.
But some companies hire in-house sales teams that go out and find customers. One example of a company offering high end merchandise through a direct sales team is Penguin Windows. The company started out in 1984 and recent celebrated its 25th anniversary with a special sweepstakes. Penguin Windows prides itself on a high customer satisfaction rating and building its business to more than $25 million in annual sales.
Although other companies compete with Penguin Windows, some of them having been in business much longer, every business must find its own way to grow and develop. The model that Penguin Windows uses is not necessarily the only way to grow your company but it is clearly a model that has worked for many years.
