Glossary of Direct Selling Terms

Starting with "S"

Whether you are a new social influencer, brand ambassador, or a successful business builder, we're sure you've had a time when you heard a direct selling term you didn't know the meaning of or weren't sure if you were using the word correctly.

Here is a comprehensive glossary of industry terms used in the direct selling, multi-level marking (MLM), influencer marketing, and networking marketing industries to help you sound like an expert from day one.

If you found we missed a term, please let us know here!

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Single Level Marketing

Unlike the MLM plan, single-level marketing has only one type of compensation plan. It consists of paying commissions to sales associates only on their sales. Direct sellers do not recruit or form downline teams in this type of plan.

Social Selling

Social selling in the MLM industry is a strategy that leverages social media channels to connect with prospects, build relationships and sell products.

Sponsor

In a direct selling MLM business, the definition of a sponsor is any distributor who enrolls new members or sales representatives to her downline. The sponsor then gets a commission on her and her recruits' sales, also known as the override commission.

Stacking

Stacking is the unauthorized manipulation of a compensation system and/or the marketing plan in order to trigger commissions or cause promotion of a downline member in an unearned manner.

An example of stacking is when a sponsor places participants under an inactive downline participant (who may not know or have any relationship with the clients) to trigger unearned qualifications for commissioning.