Recently, while I was reading a supplement to The Wall Street Journal I encountered an interesting article titled, “The Ultimate Social Business Model”. It was based on the concept of the Direct Selling model.  It mainly talks about the advantages of such a model.

Direct Selling is the marketing and selling of products directly to customers, instead of selling it through intermediaries. Dell has been practicing this method since a long time. According to the article, a company require two things to successfully do direct selling : a social network and a good product to sell.

However, I feel the most important advantage of direct selling is the fact that the products are not sold alongside those of the competitors. Moreover, all the sales process is under the control of the company itself. Thus there is no need to share the profit margins and involve in price negotiations with the retailers or the distributors.

It is however extremely important for a company to keep few things in mind before deciding to get into direct selling. Companies should do a thorough market research and should have sufficient resources and expertise to sell direct. Otherwise, such a selling method may go for a hit…

References –

http://www.businessforhome.org/wp-content/uploads/DSN_WSJ_book.pdf

http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/distribution_direct.asp