This shows that, without question, the women and men who make up each company’s sales force produce the revenue that will continue to fuel this country’s economy. It should be noted that this is our final listing featuring pre-pandemic reporting, and it will be interesting to compare next year’s data once we have analyzed the pandemic’s impact. The 2020 Selling Power 500 includes the top 200 compa- nies in the manufacturing industry, the top 200 companies in the service industry, the top 50 insurance companies, the 30 largest direct-selling companies, and the top 20 automotive-dealer organizations (megadealers). Every year, new companies make the list while others drop off. The total number of salespeople employed by all 500 companies listed is 25,842,330, which represents a sizable increase of over 11 percent – or an increase of almost three million salespeople – over last year. This overall change is due almost entirely to the substantial increase in the reported number of salespeople working in the direct selling industry. The direct selling category, which posted a significant
decrease in 2019, more than reversed that decrease with a significant increase of about 12 percent this year – a possible adjustment in reporting from a few of the major direct selling companies. The number of salespeople in the manufacturing industry increased by over 16 percent, while the number of salespeople in the service industry remained relatively unchanged, posting a decrease of less than 1 percent. That insignificant change in the service industry halts, temporarily at least, a possible downward trend in the number of salespeople. The insurance industry managed to post a small increase in the number of sales- people over 2019 – by 2 percent. The automotive industry reported a significant 8 percent decline in the number of salespeople. Overall, without the direct-selling num- bers, the number of salespeople increased by 87,819 in 2020 – almost cancelling out last year’s decrease of 97,800 salespeople.
The states with the most Selling Power 500 companies are California (63), New York (49), and Illinois (41). The states in which the Selling Power 500 companies employ the largest number of salespeople are California (7,565,752), New York (6,627,826), and Texas (3,650,186). These states account for about 30 percent of the total companies and a whopping 69 percent of the total salespeople.
A NEW CHAMPION IN PRODUCTIVITY For the first time since we began the Selling Power 500, our research team found that salespeople employed by service industry firms contributed a higher amount of sales revenue than those in manufacturing. The top 200 manu- facturing firms employ 560,157 salespeople and produce almost $4.9 trillion in sales. That’s an average of $8.7 mil- lion in sales per salesperson. This represents a significant (14 percent) decrease in productivity compared to the pre- vious year and is the first major decline in four years. The number of manufacturing salespeople increased by more than 78,000 salespeople since last year. The total number of manufacturing industry employees remained relatively unchanged when compared with last year.
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The top 200 companies in the service sector reported an insignificant decrease of just under 3,000 salespeople, bringing the total down to 571,878 salespeople. While the number of salespeople remained relatively static, the total revenue came in at almost $5.2 trillion – a 2 percent increase since last year. This represents nearly $9.1 mil- lion in sales per salesperson and a moderate 2.6 percent increase in productivity – now showing six straight years of productivity gains, ultimately overtaking productivity in the manufacturing sector. The number of service-sector employees remained relatively unchanged, posting an anemic increase of less than 2 percent this year, making it two consecutive years with little growth. The top 20 automotive megadealers reported gener- ally positive numbers this year. The top 20 firms own 1,649 dealerships, employ an estimated 24,735 salespeople, and produce over $134 billion in sales (up by almost 5 percent). This brings the average annual sales per salesperson to over $5.4 million (up by almost 14 percent). The productivity reg- istered indicates a positive year for the automotive industry. The top 50 insurance companies employ sales forces totaling 626,917 across the industry, with an average sales volume per salesperson of $2,105,212. This represents a hefty increase in productivity of more than 27 percent. In fact, the number of salespeople increased slightly from last year (a 2.4 percent increase), while their productivity con- tinued to increase ahead of the sales-force pace of growth. The total number of employees posted a decrease of 7.3 percent from 2019. The top 30 direct-selling companies reported more than 24 million salespeople, but this year marked another significant swing in numbers, posting a sizable 12 percent increase in the number of salespeople, which continued a trend in volatile shifts in reporting over the past 19 years. It is interesting to note that, while the service sector was the only sector with significant increases in the number of employees, the manufacturing sector was the only sec- tor (aside from direct selling) that reported significant increases in the overall number of salespeople. Productiv- ity per salesperson was volatile, with the manufacturing industry posting a significant 14.5 percent decrease, while the insurance and automotive industries posted significant increases of 27 percent and 14 percent, respectively. The service industry remained relatively unchanged with a 2.5 percent increase in productivity per salesperson. Over- all, our 2020 listing (based on 2019 data) saw the service industry overtaking manufacturing in terms of productivity, and the baseline is now set for next year when we look at the data from the pandemic year of 2020.
SELLING POWER 500 SALESPEOPLE DRIVE THE ECONOMY
Each salesperson in the service or manufacturing industry supports, on average, 19.09 other jobs within the compa- ny; that figure marks a slight decrease from last year’s num- ber of 20.36 and breaks a trend of increases over the past few years. These companies employ a total sales force of more than one million salespeople, who produce over
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