A door-to-door sales agent goes round the homes or workplaces in an area, selling goods and services. This is usually cold calling – visiting prospective customers without their prior knowledge.

They are also called door canvassers.

The Work

You could be:

• going on foot from door-to-door, either putting leaflets or catalogues of the things you are selling through the letterboxes or knocking on the door and speaking to people directly
• returning to collect the catalogues and taking orders for the goods
• delivering ordered goods and taking the money
• filling up order forms and balancing the accounts
• processing complaints if the customers are not pleased with the goods
• selling energy supplies, telephone and broadband services to new customers or winning back ex-customers for companies
• providing a lunchtime food service to shops and offices.

Pay

The figures below are only a guide. Actual pay rates may vary, depending on:

• where you work
• the size of company or organisation you work for
• the amount of commission you earn – this will vary from month to month.

Some employers offer a basic income before commission in the range of £11,000 to £16,000 a year. With commission salaries can rise to around £32,000 or more.

Conditions

• You will be outdoors in all weathers.
• You will be walking most of the time, and sometimes climbing stairs in tenements or blocks of flats.
• You will work long hours, including evenings and weekends.
• You might sometimes travel long distances and spend overnights away from home.
• Your earnings will be different from week to week because they will depend partly or completely on commission from what you sell.
• You may have sales targets to meet.
• Your contract might be on a self-employed basis which means that you don't get holiday or sick pay.

Getting In

• You do not need formal qualifications, but a good general education is useful.
• A driving licence is useful and often necessary.
• Some employers prefer you to have your own transport.
• Examples of what you might sell include household goods for a wholesale company, energy supplies for a gas or electricity company or telephone, TV and broadband services.

Job Outlook Scotland

Job Outlook Scotland and UK

  Scotland

2026

348

0.3 %

FALL

2031

347

  United Kingdom

2026

7341

1.8 %

RISE

2031

7470

LMI data powered by Lightcast

What Does it Take?

You should be:

• fit enough to walk and climb stairs
• smartly dressed
• polite and persuasive
• organised
• able to work alone
• good with numbers
• honest and trustworthy.

You should have:

• strong communication skills
• self-motivation
• confidence
• resilience, for dealing with situations where people don’t want cold calling.

Training

Training is on the job.

Getting On

• Door-to-door agents sell goods for a wide range of employers. However, because of the growth of mail order and internet selling, vacancies for door-to-door agents are decreasing.
• You have better promotion chances in a big company where you could become a supervisor in charge of a team of agents.
• You could learn to train new agents.
• You could also become self-employed.

Contacts

The following organisations may be able to provide further information.