OpportunityThe direct sales industry in North America is big business. The latest available figures from the Direct Selling Association (DSA) show retail sales of more than $28 billion for the direct-selling industry in 2002. In 2000, 55 percent of American adults reported having, at some time, purchased goods or services via direct sales (DSA figures).
This type of effective one-on-one selling continues to grow rapidly as a component of the overall sales of consumer goods. Today, direct selling is usually characterized by an independent consultant with a portable kit of wares but within this large and growing industry the most successful component namely trade show demonstration sales is often overlooked
Trade show demonstration sales is the winning combination of the very best sales people providing a live demonstration of an affordable and useful consumer product. It has proven to be unbeatable in introducing products to the marketplace. Trade show demonstration sales are often used to quickly test market response to the product , build product awareness and create a sales spike to help build word of mouth advertising. Due to the nature of the business, few companies in the sector have had the vision to manufacture their own products and then orchestrate sales of these products through the full range of sales channels.