There are multiple layers of salesforce in multilevel marketing. The salesforce is known as distributors, who are independent non-salaried participants. There are two sources of income for a distributor. One is the commission of selling products to customers directly. The other one is through recruiting new distributors.

A distributor is not paid when a new (downline) participant is recruited. Yet, the sales from his downline distributors are also attributable to him. The distributor is compensated by a certain percentage of the sales from his downline team.

Many distributors with large-scale downline teams even do not sell products by themselves. They can receive sufficient commissions from their downline teams’ sales. The commission system effectively motivates existing distributors to build up or expand their downline teams. It allows the company to employ a bigger salesforce, and thus, access to a larger customer base.