The total number of salespeople reported by all 500 companies on this year’s list is 25,738,863, which represents a robust increase of more than 6%, due largely to a shift in the direct selling industry. This is unsurprising given the nation’s appetite for spending coming out of the pandemic, coupled with a massive government infusion of money to both corpo- rate America and individuals as part of the recovery efforts. The aforementioned direct selling category, which had been stagnant during the pandemic in terms of sales force growth, reported a large overall increase in the number of salespeople from 2022 to 2023. In other categories: • The number of salespeople in the manufacturing in- dustry decreased by almost 3% – the third consecutive year with a significant decline.
• The number of salespeople in the service industry re- mained relatively stagnant, with an increase of about 1%.
• The insurance industry posted a second consecutive decrease in the number of salespeople – declining by more than 11%.
• Even in a hot automotive industry, the reported num- ber of salespeople only increased by 3.26%. Overall, without the direct-selling numbers, the number of salespeople decreased by more than 75,000. One could question whether the proliferation of generative AI is beginning to impact sales organization staffing. The states with the most Selling Power 500 companies are
California (56), New York (49), and Texas (38). The states in which the Selling Power 500 companies employ the largest number of salespeople are also California (6,763,764), New York (6,600,674), and Texas (3,685,369). These states account for about 28% of the total companies and a whopping 66% of the total salespeople. It is interesting to note that Cali- fornia and New York continue to decline in companies with major sales forces while states like Texas are gaining and have made it into the top three for the first time in both the number of companies on the Selling Power 500 list and for the total number of estimated salespeople employed. Beginning with this year, we are also tracking the gender gap in the leadership of these major companies. While there was the slightest improvement from 2022, when only 8% of these companies were led by women, it is still disap- pointing that, in 2023, a paltry 10% of the Selling Power 500 companies are led by women. In the companies we are re- porting on that lead the tech sector, all are helmed by men with the notable exception of Oracle’s CEO, Safra A. Catz.
PRODUCTIVITY ON THE REBOUND Continuing a trend in the numbers of the previous two years, our research team found that salespeople employed by manufacturing industry firms contributed a higher amount of sales revenue than those in service. The top 200 manufacturing firms employ 491,200 salespeople and produce just over $6.1 trillion in sales. That’s an average of $12.5 million in sales per salesperson. This represents a significant (16%) increase in productivity compared to the previous year and is an indicator of continuing inflation- ary pressures along with a declining overall manufacturing
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sales force. While the number of manufacturing sales- people dropped slightly from last year, the number of manufacturing employees increased by almost 5% when compared with last year. The top 200 companies in the service sector reported a minuscule increase of just over 6,000 salespeople, bringing the total up to 600,894 salespeople. While the increases have remained relatively small, the total revenue for the sector topped $6.5 trillion – an increase of almost 9% since last year. This represents more than $10.9 million in sales per salesperson and a sizable 7.44% increase in produc- tivity – now showing nine straight years of productivity gains. The number of service-sector employees posted an increase of nearly 5% this year, making it five consecutive years of reported employee growth. The top 20 automotive megadealers reported uniformly
positive results this year. The top 20 firms own 2,122 dealerships, employ an estimated 31,830 salespeople, and produce over $184 billion in sales (up by almost 15%). This brings the average annual sales per salesperson to over $5.8 million (up by 11%).
The top 50 insurance companies employ sales forces
totaling 557,509 across the industry, with an average sales volume per salesperson of $2,932,374. This represents a 39% increase in productivity. The number of salespeople declined from last year (an 11.07% decrease), which factored into the productivity numbers. In a bright spot for the insurance industry, the number of employees in- creased by more than 34% over last year. The top 30 direct-selling companies reported a sizable gain in total salespeople, coming in at just over 24 million for 2023. Here are some of the key takeaways for this year: • The total number of salespeople across the major in- dustries declined, overall, despite increasing revenues, so we’ll be looking for signs of a developing trend in 2024, and any measurable impact from AI.
• Companies like Amazon that flourished during the pandemic have started shedding employees. It’s too early to know if this is a trend or simply an adjustment to the current economic conditions.
• Overall, revenue increased significantly across all industries.
• Women-led Selling Power 500 companies account for only 10% of the total companies on this year’s listing.
• The number of companies based in California and New York reported on in the Selling Power 500 contin- ued to decline in 2023.
• As the health crisis from the pandemic fades into the rearview mirror, the economic ramifications for the Selling Power 500 companies will continue to evolve.
SELLING POWER 500 SALESPEOPLE DRIVE THE ECONOMY Each salesperson in the service or manufacturing industry supports, on average, 22.26 other jobs within their respec- tive companies. That figure marks a slight increase from last year’s number of 21.08 and indicates the importance of the sales force, even when it has declined in numbers. These
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