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Structure or Culture?

June 26, 2021

When something goes wrong in direct sales, people tend to blame the business model. The compensation plan is unfair. The structure doesn't work. The system is broken.

But here's what I've learned after years in this industry: the structure is set. You can't change it, and you don't need to. What you can always change — and what actually determines your success — is the culture.

The structure is set. The culture is what you can always work on and develop.

Three categories of companies

Tim Sales introduced a useful framework for understanding different direct sales companies. He breaks them into three categories:

• Category 1: 80% focus on customers, 20% on recruiting. Product-driven.
• Category 2: 50% customers, 50% recruiting. Balanced approach.
• Category 3: 20% customers, 80% recruiting. Recruitment-heavy.

None of these categories are inherently good or bad. What matters is the culture that develops within each one. A Category 1 company can have a toxic culture, and a Category 3 company can have an ethical one. The structure is just a framework. People determine the outcome.

What actually separates the winners

The people who make money in direct sales don't have a secret strategy. They haven't cracked a code. The difference is simpler than that: they've attended more meetings. They've had more conversations. They've spent more hours practicing their craft.

Engagement and time are what matter — not the model itself. Two people in the exact same company, with the exact same compensation plan, can have wildly different results. The variable isn't the structure. It's the effort.

Leadership starts with mastery

One thing I appreciate about direct sales is that you can't skip levels. Nobody becomes a leader without first mastering the basics: presenting the product, acquiring customers, having real conversations.

In a traditional company, you can get promoted because of politics, tenure, or connections. In direct sales, leadership is earned through demonstrated competence. You have to do the work before you can teach others to do it.

That's a strength of the model. And it's a direct product of getting the culture right — creating an environment where effort is recognized and mastery is expected.

So the next time you're tempted to blame the structure, pause and look at the culture instead. That's where the real work is. And that's where the real opportunity lives.