year’s list dropped below 20,000,000 to 18,448,372, which represents a concerning third consecutive annual decline of almost 14%, due largely to a continued shift in the direct selling industry. This is unsurprising given companies like Tupperware that saw huge decreases in the number of active sellers. However, the manufacturing, service, and insurance industries all experienced decline as industries continued to navigate through AI pilots and transitions. The aforementioned direct selling category, which had shown a brief surge immediately following the end of the pandemic in terms of sales force growth, has since been reporting consistent declines in the number of salespeople. In other categories: • The number of salespeople in the manufacturing industry, which was unchanged last year, dropped by almost 10% in 2026.
• The number of salespeople in the service industry declined by almost 3%, more than erasing the slight increase last year.
• The insurance industry remained stagnant, posting a decrease of less than 1%.
• In the automotive industry, which had been the only sector consistently gaining – and in double digits – the reported number of salespeople increased by only 2%. Overall, without the direct-selling numbers, the number of salespeople decreased by an alarming 58,000. Whether AI, tariffs, inflation, or a combination of all three, the drop is a troubling sign. The states with the most Selling Power 500 companies
are California (57), New York (51), and Texas (40). The states in which the Selling Power 500 companies employ the largest number of salespeople are New York (6,027,688), California (5,710,041), and Texas (2,571,634). These states account for about 30% of the total companies and a whop- ping 78% of the total salespeople. For the fourth year, we are also tracking the gender gap
in the leadership of these major companies. It is highly dis- appointing that, in 2026, a paltry 11% of the Selling Power 500 companies are led by women – and worse, there were no gains for the third consecutive year. In the compa- nies we are reporting on that lead the tech sector, all are helmed by men, with the notable exception of AMD’s CEO Dr. Lisa Su.
PRODUCTIVITY RIDES HIGHER ON ACCELERATING AI ADOPTION Continuing a trend in the numbers of the previous five years, our research team found that salespeople employed by manufacturing industry firms contributed a higher amount of sales revenue than those in any other industry. The top 200 manufacturing firms employ 399,261 sales- people and produce almost $6.7 trillion in sales. That’s an average of $16.8 million in sales per salesperson. This represents an extraordinary (15.7%) increase in productivity compared to the previous year and continues in tandem with a declining overall manufacturing sales force. What’s even more interesting is that the number of manufacturing salespeople dropped by more than 9% from last year.
24 | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026 SELLING POWER © 2026 SELLING POWER
The top 200 companies in the service sector reported a
small decrease of 16,559 salespeople, bringing the total to 552,866 salespeople. Even with the small decrease in sales- people, the total revenue for the sector topped $8 trillion – an increase of 7% since last year. This represents more than $14.6 million in sales per salesperson and a sizable 10% increase in productivity – now showing 12 straight years of productivity gains. The number of service-sector employ- ees remained flat, posting a decrease of 0.71% this year, marking the second consecutive year without reported employee growth. The top 20 automotive megadealers reported across-
the-board positive results this year. The top 20 firms own 2,496 dealerships, employ an estimated 37,440 sales- people, and produce over $227 billion in sales (up by more than 6%). This brings the average annual sales per sales- person to just over $6 million (up by 4.11%). The top 50 insurance companies employ sales forces
totaling 558,005 across the industry, with an average sales volume per salesperson of $3,579,029. This represents a 3.67% increase in productivity. The number of salespeople remained relatively unchanged from last year (a 0.43% de- crease), which factored into the productivity numbers. The number of employees increased by less than 1% over last year, a slight drop in the rate of employee growth. The top 30 direct-selling companies reported a large
decrease in total salespeople, coming in at just under 17 million for 2026. Here are some of the key takeaways for this year: • The total number of salespeople across the major industries declined measurably, despite increasing revenues. This is indicative of the continuing economic turmoil, mixed with the technological upheaval from the implementation of AI within sales organizations.
• Many of the major tech companies continue to shed employees, continuing a trend to transfer expenditures from people to technology investments.
• Overall, revenue increases are continuing, indi- cating continued inflationary pressures and an AI spending boom.
• Women-led Selling Power 500 companies still account for only 11% of the total companies on this year’s list- ing – a sign that nothing is changing at the top level of corporate America.
• The number of companies based in various states showed no exodus indicators as they did in 2025.
• Undoubtedly, beyond what the new Fed chair decides on interest rates, or what President Trump decides each day on tariffs, the largest unknown for sales forces of the Selling Power 500 companies heading into 2027 will be the impacts of AI develop- ment and implementation.
SELLING POWER 500 SALESPEOPLE DRIVE THE ECONOMY Each salesperson in the service or manufacturing industry supports, on average, 25.75 other jobs within their respec- tive companies. That figure reverses the first-ever decrease
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