Wonder what motivates your Avon rep to push those face creams and foot scrubs? We asked Janet Black, executive director, sales programs, at the New York corporate headquarters about the role of incentives in the company's direct selling strategy.

Although the vast majority of Avon's 650,000 reps are content with free products and discounts as their rewards, once sellers reach the stratosphere of Avon's incentive structure, they're guaranteed a minimum of 40 percent commission on all orders and earn prize points that can be redeemed from a gift catalog. At the $10,000 level, reps qualify for the President's Recognition Program, which includes six sales levels. The top one is known as the Inner Circle, requiring $200,000 in sales. That's an awful lot of lipstick.

Members of the Inner Circle and the level below it, the President's Council, win what is known as a Celebration Trip, a group trip for five days in a sought-after destination. Recent trips have taken reps to Nashville and the Bahamas.