What do they think of while driving? Whatever it is, they can't be sacked for it. You see, they've already signed on-invested their own moolah-and are now in charge of their own little direct-selling business. They are, if you haven't guessed, India's growing army of sales-entrepreneurs. Self-employed, they're masters of their own routines and rewards. And they're busy buzzing their way around urban India, selling suds, face vitalizers, eyeliners, books, lunchboxes, insurance, auto loans, you name it.

Ask any of the 12-odd companies that constitute the Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA), and they'll say it's all about emancipation and empowerment, especially of hitherto income-less housewives, who make up two-thirds of the 1.1-million-odd direct sellers in the IDSA-defined organised sector; Ponzi-schemers and sundry fraudsters abound too, and it's advisable to be extra discerning of the business model's real credentials.

Still, 1.1 million is quite an army. A network marketing force that even the mighty Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) preferred to join (since it couldn't beat 'em) some five years ago with its own direct-selling project for personal care products, Aviance.

And then there was Reliance Infocomm, so smitten by the concept that it decided to play for mega stakes on its Dhirubhai Ambani Entrepreneurs (DAE) scheme to sell mobile phone services.

It's another thing that those two ventures didn't live up to expectations, despite riding on the pioneering work done by Avon, Amway and others. An indication, perhaps, that this is a game best suited to marketers with an undivided passion for this mode of direct contact selling. A passion that includes, among other things, a fond disrespect for the classic retail distribution system that other marketers cannot do without.

Anyway, divided or undivided, passion or no passion, this sort of idle theorising has not deterred India's largest corporate majors from having a go at it. A couple of months ago, HLL relaunched its direct-selling project as Hindustan Lever Net, with the aim of signing on some 200,000 people this year. If that doesn't sound awfully ambitious for a marketer of its stature, try HLL's 2005 target: a million, no less. And what about Reliance Infocomm? To be fair, it managed to get some 60,000 DAEs (each putting in Rs 10,000) within weeks of its December 2002 launch, but this must have been a disappointment, for it has since decided to go the retail way to achieve its targets.

Market conditions are not to blame, in the experience of entrenched players. Take it from Modicare, which is among the few domestic startups to have cracked the direct-selling game. Says Samir Modi, the company's President and Managing Director, "Now even men are saying that they are not satisfied with the money or lifestyle in their jobs, and asking 'if women can succeed in direct-selling why can't we?'"

Insurance has always been a male-dominated direct-sales category with over 500,000 agents across the country. But now, with nearly 40,000 new agents having joined the private insurers, women are making an entry here too. Or take the growing army of sales associates selling anything from credit cards to auto, personal and home loans, who work for such banks as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Citibank and ABN Amro.

Gender, really, has little to do with it. Entrepreneurship is empowering, and that's the secret behind the phenomenon. "The security of a job is disappearing anyway," says Sugata Gupta, Chief of Marketing at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, "so entrepreneurship is encouraged. The entry barriers here, in becoming an independent salesperson, are very low." Today, over 70 per cent of the company's business comes from its 18,000-odd agents, and the insurer remains as bullish on the concept as ever.

Yet, to think of direct-selling as a category-neutral phenomenon might be a mistake. The idea tends to do better with selling products and services that cannot be mass-sold very effectively. In fact, speak to entrepreneurs selling products of Modicare's foreign rivals Avon and Amway, and you may be surprised by the emphasis they place on their R&D centres overseas. In their view, the success of the concept is not merely about empowerment, but also the story of specialised 'soft' products that are best sold through the empathy assured by face-to-face interaction. The scientific rationale often used is that even the most touching advertising cannot charm the part of the mind-the 'lateral occipital cortex' (gulp!)-that needs special charming to sell, say, a modern contraceptive.

The Indian market's potential, IDSA claims, is so vast that it's hard to believe. "It's just the tip of the iceberg," says Harmeet S. Pental, Managing Director of the Rs 100-crore Avon Beauty Products, and President of IDSA, "India can easily take on four direct-sellers for every 1,000 people."

By that yardstick, India's army of direct-sellers could easily quadruple without anyone complaining of market saturation.

Clearly, India's army of sales entrepreneurs is gaining momentum. The only worry is that, as they roll into smaller towns, fraudsters might already have hurt the concept's credibility. Perceptions count. So if that's indeed the case, India's gung-ho direct-sellers will have to proceed with a heightened sense of responsibility. Safe driving, as salesmanship gurus note, is also about empathy.

Name: Archana Batra
Occupation: Cosmetic Distributor
Age: 35 years
Background: Housewife
Marital status: Married; two children
Company: Avon
Sells: Cosmetics
Income (net per month): Rs 18,500

Archana Batra, the wife of a successful manufacturer of plastic luggage, did not need the cash. At least, not really. So why did she turn Avon Lady? "I was free," she explains, "as my kids had grown up. I took on Avon's products as a user, and within no time I was in the thick of it."

In just under two years, she has a "downline" (troops she has enlisted and plays mentor to) of an impressive 400 distributors, and growing. And it's so exciting that she can't get enough of Avon in her life.

"There is no entry barrier to becoming a distributor with Avon," comes the inevitable evangelism. And more. "I believe I'm not 'selling', but helping people save money, as Avon is of great value compared to even a mass brand like Lakme." She's convinced of it, and the conviction is infectious. Spend some time with her, and you'll know.

Recruitment, of course, is the real game, the real pitch Batra makes, even though the dropout rate is quite high. No matter. She sets a target of 50 new distributors every month. "We keep moving to new catchment areas all the time," she says, speaking on behalf of all Avon Ladies, "looking for potential converts to Avon."

Name: Sachin Sharma
Occupation: FMCG Associate
Age: 29 years
Background: Hardware Engineer
Marital status: Married
Company: Amway
Sells: Personal and household products
Income (net per month): Rs 1 lakh-plus

Sharma started nearly five years ago, selling Amway products while still working as a hardware repair engineer. Just one year into the game, he realised that he was on to something big. So he quit his hardware job to dedicate himself to the selling liquid cleansers, toothpaste and other consumer softs. "It was like leveraging time. I wanted to set my own work timing, and not be led by others."

It was to become a joint obsession. After Sharma got married in 1999, his wife joined him, and business boomed. The idea spread far and wide, and his 'downline' grew and grew to give the Sharmas six-figure earnings every month. These days, he focuses on corporate selling, while managing some seven-to-eight distributor groups under his mentorship, with sellers as far as Rajasthan and Punjab. What about hardware? "Well, I still run a small hardware repair and maintenance business." The best of both worlds, eh?

Name: Rajesh K. Singh
Occupation: Book-seller
Age: 29 years
Background: Management Graduate
Marital status: Bachelor
Company: Grolier International
Sells: Books for kids' upto age six
Income (net per month): Rs 50,000

I hated the word 'boss'," says this management graduate from Symbiosis, Pune. He worked for four years with Methodex and Magna Industrial before turning Educational Consultant with Grolier International, in February 2000. Now he's his own boss, never mind having to work weekends, chasing family crowds at Delhi's snazzy new shopping malls to sell 'I Wonder Why' kind of ask-me book series for two-to-six-year-olds. "I am enjoying the freedom," he says, "And I can earn directly in proportion to the effort I put in." It's his own business, with Grolier providing the support. "I am not interested in being an employee anymore." So does he regret his four years as an employee? "No, it gave me the direct sales experience, and taught me that as an employee I will be toiling just to save my job and its current earnings." What he missed was "growth".

Name: Vineet Mittal
Occupation: Director Selling Associate
Age: 25 years
Background: MBA; Erstwhile bank employee
Marital Status: Bachelor
Company: HDFC Bank
Sells: Personal loans and loans against property
Income (net per month): Rs 25,000

Within four months of starting as a direct selling Associate (DSA) for HDFC Bank, Mittal takes home almost double of what he was getting at Standard Chartered Bank as an employee (Team Manager). And it helps that he is young, energetic and raring to be his own man. But, with an MBA, he could've hoped for corporate ascent, couldn't he? "I always wanted to start on my own," he replies, "but wasn't clear on exactly what to do. Four years of handling DSAs in Standard Chartered gave me the answer." A mix of referrals, old contacts and cold calls has catapulted Mittal to Rs 1 crore business per month, of which he gets a decent sliver. And he's looking to include home loans in his basket to even out the seasonality of personal loans. All this, with just about Rs 1 lakh invested in a home-office. His own business, never mind that the brand is HDFC.

Name: Sanjay Alimchandani
Occupation: Insurance Agent
Age: 33 years
Background: Small stationery shop owner
Marital Status: Married with two kids
Company: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
Sells: Life insurance policies
Income (net per month): Rs 30,000

Sanjay Alimchandani, once a small-time stationery retailer in Mumbai, is happy the way things have turned out. Three years ago, a friend sounded him out on the opportunity to become an insurance agent for one of the new insurers in town. He grabbed it, and now does good business without having to make any cold calls. For him, it's all referrals-which keep pouring in from his 200-odd high networth clients.

Selling insurance isn't easy, says this commerce graduate, grateful for the rigorous training that ICICI Prudential put him through. He doubles up as Marketing Manager at Refco-Sify Securities, a share brokerage firm, but his priorities are clear. "Building my own business is top-most priority." He has also started selling Reserve Bank Bonds and mutual funds distributed by ICICI. The shop? It's in Juhu, run by his wife, who doubles as a fashion designer. As parents of two, they'd rather be in control of their earnings.