Articles

If you are a student in college chances are you have heard about summer sales. In fact, you have probably been approached by a student who has done summer sales before inviting you to participate in a summer of sales. You may have seen flyers promoting the fact that students just like you are earning big money during the summer selling pest control or home security systems. So is there any truth to these claims?

FACT: Thousands of students make well over 20,000 dollars each summer going door to door selling products and services. They will sell pest control, security systems, satellite and cable television and a variety of other products and services. These students are above average sales representatives who work 8-10 hours each day.

FACT: It is estimated that each summer over 100,000 students participate in selling products door to door during the summer, not all of these students will walk away from the summer with
big money.

Brigham Young University's 100 board is a place where anyone can submit any question and receive an answer in 100 hours. A search of the 100 board's archives using the search term "summer sales" yielded the follow relevant results:

QUESTION

Dear 100 Hour Board,

Last Summer I worked in California selling pest control and I plan on doing something similiar this summer as well. I was wondering if you knew which companies pay the best, are most honest, have the best incentives, etc.? - Point me in the right direction...

ANSWER

Dear Pointer,

By Clint Merrick

October 18, 2007|--It is 9 a.m. on a Saturday in an outskirt town of Minneapolis, and it is uncomfortably quiet. It is quiet because people are still in bed. Clark Lind steps out of a car filled with four other summer salesmen from Utah, all dressed in khaki shorts and matching polo shirts. The first door is knocked, opened and shut with few words exchanged. This routine will continue for close to 12 hours on a typical day working for American Alarm.

"The only thing that keeps you going is a positive mindset, which is harder than you would think to keep," Lind said.

By Alicia Greenleigh
Daily Utah Chronicle (U. Utah)
03/27/2006

(U-WIRE) SALT LAKE CITY — Door-to-door sales companies recruit
university students with promises of big money; while huge paychecks are possible, there are things students should know before signing up.

Companies selling home security alarms or pest control contracts focus recruitment on college campuses.

Job advertisements state "Thousands of dollars in only three months" and "$500 just for signing up!!!" Information meetings often offer free pizza and movie tickets.

Jeff Burton of Utah State University shares his research into the summer sales industry. He describes the potential earnings of summer sales representatives, while urging interested students to proceed with caution.

They promise you the world. As students walk down the main hallway in the Taggart Student Center on the campus of Utah State University they are promised amazing amounts of money in just three months time.

These promises come from representatives of summer sales programs, who claim to have made amounts of money with the company. They range anywhere from pest control to security systems, but no matter what the product, they promise to make you filthy rich. So, is there any truth in their promises?