the direct sales industry. lots of these people work for different sales firms but the set—up is really similar. if you want to get promoted, you not only have to do the sales but you have to recruit people underneath you who can hit those sales targets, too. once you reach a certain level, you start getting a cut of what they have sold as well. so, while it's not exactly a multi—level marketing scheme, there are some similarities. something i've discovered that links a lot of these companies? a business called credico. it's one of the biggest players in the direct sales industry. it's a company that essentially acts like a middleman. it contracts smaller sales companies who get their recruits to go out and sell on the streets on behalf of its clients, like talktalk or shell energy. it was originally set up in north america and it says its linked sales companies have a network of 15,000 agents.