# Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers

> Sell goods or services door-to-door or on the street.

- **SOC code:** 41-9091.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-41-9091-00
- **Also known as:** Direct Sales Coach, Door-to-Door Sales Trainer, Independent Sales Associate, Independent Sales Representative, Independent Beauty Consultant, Independent Distributor, Sales Representative (Sales Rep), Street Vendor
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.
- Develop prospect lists.
- Deliver merchandise and collect payment.
- Write and record orders for merchandise or enter orders into computers.
- Arrange buying parties and solicit sponsorship of such parties to sell merchandise.
- Answer questions about product features and benefits.
- Distribute product samples or literature that details products or services.
- Circulate among potential customers or travel by foot, truck, automobile, or bicycle to deliver or sell merchandise or services.
- Persuade customers to purchase merchandise or services.
- Set up and display sample merchandise at parties or stands.
- Order or purchase supplies.
- Stock carts or stands.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Contact customers to ensure their satisfaction with products or services.
- Train new recruits or other employees.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Customer and Personal Service _(knowledge)_
- Sales and Marketing _(knowledge)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Persuasion _(transferable_skill)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(ability)_
- Speech Clarity _(ability)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- English Language _(knowledge)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_
- Negotiation _(Common Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Microsoft Excel _(Common Skill)_
- Information Ordering _(Specialized Skill)_
- Facebook _(Specialized Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Facebook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Route mapping software
- Web browser software

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 64th percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 79th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 35th percentile (Moderate) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 82nd percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 86th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** no — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** -10.0% growth (Declining); 2.7k annual openings; 25.3k → 22.8k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $34,530; 4,590 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 37% automation, 60% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** learning.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Answer questions about product features and benefits. _(9.3% of measured AI use; directive)_
- Explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products. _(5.9% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Develop prospect lists. _(0.7% of measured AI use; directive)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me answer questions about product features and benefits.
- Help me explain products or services and prices and demonstrate use of products.
- Help me develop prospect lists.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-41-9091-00_