Door to door salespersons
A substantial share of tasks can be sped up or taken over by AI. The content of the job will noticeably change — learning is cheapest now.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
🤖 Written with AIThis text was written by artificial intelligence from the data points shown; it is built on verified figures but may contain mistakes.· 13/10/2026How is it made?
Exposure score 46/100: AI will streamline prospecting, order records and paperwork, while doorstep persuasion remains central. Despite modest group growth, this occupation ranks among the fastest-declining globally.
What changes
- Generate and prioritize prospective-client lists for efficient neighborhood targeting
- Automate order entry, supplier placement, invoicing and contract preparation
- Create tailored product descriptions, sales terms and demonstration scripts
What stays human
- Build trust quickly inside sensitive, face-to-face household interactions
- Read hesitation, answer spontaneous objections and adapt demonstrations
- Travel sales areas, transport samples and handle physical goods
What to learn
- Learn CRM prospecting, lead scoring and responsible customer-data handling
- Use mobile tools for orders, invoices, contracts and payments
- Strengthen consultative selling, objection handling and scam-aware trust building
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Compiling lists of prospective clients and calling on them to obtain new business62
- Recording orders and transactions and placing orders received with suppliers59
- Preparing invoices and sales contracts and accepting payment59
- Demonstrating or describing goods or services on offer55
- Giving details of various goods or services and of terms of sale by visiting clients and potential clients in private homes47
- Distributing letters, information sheets and other documents to clients25
- Travelling between sales areas and clients and transporting samples or goods for sale.15
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Compiling lists of prospective clients and calling on them to obtain new business(62)
- Recording orders and transactions and placing orders received with suppliers(59)
- Preparing invoices and sales contracts and accepting payment(59)
- Demonstrating or describing goods or services on offer(55)
- Giving details of various goods or services and of terms of sale by visiting clients and potential clients in private homes(47)
- Distributing letters, information sheets and other documents to clients(25)
- Travelling between sales areas and clients and transporting samples or goods for sale.(15)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 46.)
About 57% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Compiling lists of prospective clients and calling on them to obtain new business
- • Recording orders and transactions and placing orders received with suppliers
- • Travelling between sales areas and clients and transporting samples or goods for sale.
- • Distributing letters, information sheets and other documents to clients
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Sales workers group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Sales workers |
|---|---|
| Greece | 13.0% · 564 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 9.9% · 2,207 thousand · 2025 |
| Romania | 9.7% · 749 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 9.2% · 269 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 7.4% · 1,770 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 7.3% · 16 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 7.3% · 380 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 7.2% · 123 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 7.1% · 184 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 6.7% · 302 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 6.7% · 1,152 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 6.6% · 204 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 6.4% · 187 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 6.2% · 31 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 6.1% · 287 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 6.1% · 598 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 5.8% · 163 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 5.8% · 2,447 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 5.6% · 56 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 5.6% · 39 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 5.4% · 141 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 5.3% · 17 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 5.3% · 47 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 5.2% · 273 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 5.0% · 73 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 4.9% · 254 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 4.4% · 1,497 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 4.3% · 1,268 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 3.9% · 205 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 3.6% · 174 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 2.1% · 7 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Service and sales workers). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland3,559
- Ireland2,981
- Iceland2,762
- Norway2,734
- Luxembourg2,698
- Belgium2,689
- Denmark2,619
- Germany2,310
- Sweden2,292
- Finland2,182
- Netherlands2,147
- Austria2,135
- EU272,105
- France2,099
- Italy2,088
- Slovenia1,822
- Malta1,773
- Spain1,759
- Lithuania1,577
- Czechia1,467
- Poland1,464
- Croatia1,458
- Greece1,421
- Cyprus1,410
- Slovakia1,403
- Romania1,372
- Hungary1,299
- Estonia1,266
- Portugal1,202
- Latvia1,186
- Bulgaria917
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Sales workers group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
According to the WEF
Door-to-Door Sales, News and Street Vendors — among the FASTEST-DECLINING jobs (rank 10)
Future 2035 →Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?