Vector Marketing
 

I see flyers and booths all over my campus from this company. I know a girl in one of my student organizations who works for Vector, she likes it. According to what she told me, their jobs sound appealing. On the other hand, I've heard both bad and good things about Vector.

Has anyone worked for Vector or is currently working for them? Pros and cons working for them?

Step away from the Vector Marketing! Argh. I interviewed and got a job only to find out I would have to buy almost 200 bucks worth of merchandise, not to mention that in my area most people didn't make nearly what they were told they would. You'll sell (if I'm not mistaken) knives like how some people sell Pampered Chef or Avon. If that's your bag, then go for it.

cosign! please! step away from the vector...they show up at college fairs and put their flyers in campus papers theyre a scam. the nyc headquarters (which i got sucked into for an "interview") was this makeshift office with foldable chairs, tables, and everything. the "ceo's" office was a closet with a desk in it.

theres more to the story, but point is, dont let them fool u. $15 an hour my @$$. theyl try to get u to buy the knives for $200.

Vector = cutco

*also, stay away from prepaid legal services. same concept, except youre selling monthly legal services to people. first, youhave to buy the service ans "startup" kit, which is a crappy manual and CD-ROM.

I have to second what everyone is saying about Vector Marketing.

Yes, they are a complete marketing scam. Just like other scams, they have you come in for an interview and basically go through one of their sales to give you an idea of what you would be doing. They are pure commission sales, and pretty sleazy overall. They sponsor two days of unpaid traning and during that time ask for the names and numbers of people you could sell to and try to teach you the ways of selling "such a high quality product that we aren't allowed to advertise for it." Give me a freaking break.

You are forced to purchase $200 worth of Cutco knives just to get started, and it isn't even a full set. The more you sell, the more products you can get a hold of to demonstrate to your customers. It is a complete waste of your time and leaves you with a dirty feeling afterward.

Hope this helps...

- Colleen

ditto ditto double ditto on what everyone else has posted. my lil bro got caught up with them and finally after a month of me and my parents shoving reports in his face + him getting frustrated and hararassed by his manager at least 5 times a day(yes she would call 5 times a day), he quit. Not a good path to go down, trust me

A GREAT BIG CO-SIGN ON EVERY RESPONSE! VECTOR AND CUTCO ARE BOTH FULL OF CRAP. Don't even apply for their internship!

Imperial1

Ditto, ditto, ditto. I saw their ad in the paper and went for the interview. It looked shady right from the start -- they were in a VERY temporary office in a strip mall. Everything was folding and the entire office looked like it could be taken down within a few hours.
There was a group interview where they basically try to sell you on the idea of their products being all great. THEN they explain to you about how you have to buy the kit and are supposed to sell the knives and stuff to your family/friends/neighbors/whoever you can guilt trip into it. You have to find your own customers, they provide no help with that.
After the group interview they called each of us back for an individual interview. The interviewer was doing all this weird psychoanalyzing stuff; I remember he said something like: "I wish you would have spoken up a bit more during the group session, but I get the feeling that you're the type of person who wants to make sure your customers know everything about the product, is that right?" WTF? It was very strange but at that point I already knew things were shady. Then they invited me back for the second day, a day of "free job training" as they called it, acting like it was a huge privilege to be offered this opportunity. At that point I could tell everything was fishy and said, no thanks, I'm outta here.
I had meant to go back a few weeks later and see if the office was still there, but I got a REAL job and didn't have time.
STAY AWAY FROM VECTOR!!!

I had looked into this company, when I just graduated high school and was looking for a summer job. From what I remember from then, it was all about the consultations/appointments you set. Then you're paid based on that. You can correct me if my memory's a bit fuzzy.

I ended up working at a local camp that year. I felt like I would make more just based on my hourly pay, than pounding the pavement, setting up private "infomercials" trying to sell knives.

Plus, I'm just weird about being in random houses, centers, etc. especially since I'm in a big city.

Yes.

Desperate people who have beyond a high school education still have other alternatives.

Am I the only one who knows two different people who sold Cutco knives, liked it, and made a ton of money? lol

As with every "sell this for us, make tons of money" opportunity, there's more to the story than the people you know tell you.

They work for every bit of that money.

I know only one person who sold Cutco and she loved it. She was a marketing major, though, and the salesmanship involved was right up her alley. Also, she walked away from the job with a great set of knives.

I got a full Cutco set as a wedding gift and I absolutely love it. I've used them almost daily for years and have no complaints. I actually wish I knew someone who was currently selling so I could have a contact for extra pieces.

Sure they do - what's wrong with working for the money you earn? It's not like it's illegal.

My hometown is about 15 miles away from Olean NY where Cutco/Vector is headquartered. Actually, my aunt lives about 5 houses down from the CEO (or owner I don't remember whether they're publicly traded or not) of the company. My dad's next door neighbor is one of their engineers (he actually designs a lot of the knives).

Needless to say, everyone in my hometown has some sort of set of Cutco knives in their house, and they truly are very very nice. The fun thing about having a design engineer next door was that my mom was able to get any type of knife she wanted, even if there wasn't currently a design for that function. She got a "Christmas ham scoring knife." That one probably didn't go into production.

Anyway that's beside the point. The door to door sales is something I tried to do once and failed miserably at. I give people a lot of credit if they can love it and make money at it. The worst thing, I think, about the way they sell their knives is that if your contact no longer sells, you have to go through the trouble of calling to find out who to contact if you want a specific knife.

We're lucky - since most everyone in my area knows at least one person that works for the company it's much easier to get our knives from them than it is elsewhere in the country. It's also much easier to work for Cutco in my hometown area versus here in Chicago or elsewhere just because you're so close to their headquarters and most people are absolutely willing to buy something when their sales rep comes around just because they know and trust the company. The Cutco sales rep is pretty welcome at any door in my hometown.

ETA: I guess my point is that people who work for Vector Marketing go through similar trials and tribulations as those who work for any other company that uses direct marketing and door to door sales. Not everyone is cut out for it, in fact, most people aren't, but if you like it and work very very hard (and I mean very very hard) you can make a lot of money at it. If you hate it, you're not going to work hard (because you hate it) and you're not going to be an effective sales rep to make a lot of money.

The below post explains what the phrase "you work for every bit of that money" means. :)

Exactly.

This is only for people who have no earthly alternatives and who would be content at a job where there are no "safety nets."

Well - for some people who are very good at it they do have other alternatives but you're right about being comfortable with no safety nets.

It's really just like any other direct door to door marketing campaign. You've gotta be comfortable with it and you've got to bust your ass just to make any money, but if you are comfortable and do bust your ass (and like it, you really have to like it), once you start making money you make A LOT of money.

I've never heard of having to pay for the first knife set (for demonstrations).

People need to remember though that I come from a very atypical environment as far as Cutco specifically goes. My dad gave me Cutco for Christmas this year and I don't know ANYONE from home who does not have Cutco in their kitchen (even if they have other knives on top of them). It's given for holidays, weddings, graduations, housewarmings, the only time where it's really inappropriate is baby showers. Sales reps in my hometown area are treated very very well and most of the time they have customers calling THEM. I'm sure it's very different elsewhere and that those who don't live in Western New York have to work 20x harder than someone who does.

I hear ya, agzg, and your experience is definitely unique.

Here's mine:

10 years ago, in the summer between undergrad and grad school, I wanted to sell Vector. If it worked out, I'd consider selling Vector after that if my assistantship fell through.

I was the only person beyond a high school education in the presentation. While everyone else was completing the application, the presenter called me into his office. He told me that this isn't the job for me, it will be tedious and miserable for me. He urged me not to go through with it because, as he said, people with education and other experience are less likely to put in the HEAVY time and effort that it takes to make Vector worthwhile.

So, if it works for some people, great. But, people need to know what it takes going into it and carefully weigh their options. Personally, my time and effort are worth more than what Vector can offer monetarily and, besides, Vector isn't a resume` building experience for me.

I feel similarly about PrePaid Legal and Mary Kay, although I liken those to sales CULTS.

I guess I'm really ignorant, but what is Cutco?

http://www.cutco.com/home.jsp

Basically, it's knives and kitchen utensils. To be honest, the product is really high quality and (I don't know if this is just me because my family lives close to Olean NY) their customer service is great. But, they use direct marketing (door to door sales) to sell their products.

http://www.cutco.com/home.jsp

We live in areas where people buy their cuttery from the store and which cuttery they use is not a big deal. Selling Vector in our areas would probably be very difficult.

(I haven't seen a door-to-door salesperson in a while and I haven't seen anyone selling through Vector. I also don't know any door-to-door salespeople. I hadn't heard about Vector in a very long time, until this thread was brought back up.)

Thanks to both of you. Yeah, I don't see that going very far around here -- we'd go to a good kitchen store (or Target) for knives.

They do have competition even in my area especially now that you can buy Henckel knives in stores like Target or Wal Mart (in my hometown area there's really only a Wal Mart - that's why the direct marketing for Cutco is very effective in my hometown because otherwise you have to drive to Buffalo).

My dad has both Henckels and Cutco in his house. In fact, our neighbor likes Henckels (they get them and tear them apart in the Cutco factories to compare them with their own knives) but it wouldn't look good if his boss came over for dinner and their house was filled with Henckels. I've never been in a house with so many knives though - they're mostly all mounted to the wall but there's probably a hundred kitchen knives in their house. They had to move all the mounts up really high when they had a child.

http://usa.jahenckels.com/index.php?simple_view=97

You can get Henckels at Target or Wal Mart, although the really nice ones are in places like Williams Sonoma or Bed Bath and Beyond.

^^^ I guess it's a bit of a sidetrack, but this is really fascinating to me.

I couldn't tell you what kind of knives anybody I know has. The only way I can even imagine it coming up in discussion is in a discussion about cooking and what kind of supplies people like to use. But it wouldn't occur to me to pay attention to what kind of knives someone else is using, or to make a judgment about it. (And I'm not making any judgment about what you said, other than I find it really interesting.)

LOL - Probably for me it's just something I notice because Cutco is so prevalent in my hometown area and people are always comparing their knife sets ("Did you get the new butcher knives they came out with last year? It's so nice!!!"). People definitely get "knife envy" - it's like "Keeping up with the Joneses, Kitchen utensil edition."

Live-in's dad got a knife set from his family for Christmas and my dad was talking to him (it was a Henckel set) about it for like an hour. Live-in's dad was surprised that people care that much about knives, too, but he was glad to know that my dad knew that he (live-in's dad) got a really nice set and could answer questions about customer service that he might have (J.A. Henckel's customer service is really great too, and their knives come with similar guarantees and sharpening policies to Cutco).

ETA: I don't judge people for not using Cutco or other (really really nice) knife brands, btw. I just notice when they do. FWIW my kitchen knife set is not Cutco, it's Le Decoupeur and I don't know anything about the company. They're also about 50 years old (they were my grandmother's kitchen knives and I got them as a hand-me-down when I moved into my first apartment by myself). I'm guessing they're good quality because I've had them for 4 years and haven't had to sharpen them and they were very well used at my Grandmother's house for many many years. My Cutco knives are all steak knives.

LOL...that's some small talk for ya!

A door-to-door salesperson is like a Godsend around there then.

If you sat through a Cutco demonstration, you'd probably pay attention to what kinds of knives people have. Actually, the more accurate way of putting it might be that you would pay attention the the kinds of knives people don't have.

The girl who gave the Cutco demo I watched actually compared Cutco to Henckle (she even had Henckle's pricing guide with her). Until the demo, I had never heard of Henckle.

Off track a little bit... you should've seen the girl's face when, during the demonstration, she asked me to get out my favorite knife and I pulled out a Cutco! She didn't know what to do! :D She was so used to her knives beating the pants off of her (potential) customer's knives, that she wondered whether or not to even do the knife-comparisons. (You get to cut rope and leather and stuff like that... she even taught me how to use their scissors to make a corkscrew out of a penny.)

Serious question:

Do you all find knives, and cuttery in general, exciting?

I've seen demonstrations and I always only pay attention out of courtesy.

Too funny!

I know we're still hijacking this but I think the original question has been answered and the follow up about whether or not it's the same to work there has been answered as well. Plus I'm really good at hijacking threads. SO here's my question:

Did she compare your older knife with some of their newer stuff or offer to sharpen the older one for you?

I know you're *supposed* to pay a small fee for sharpening with both Henckel and Cutco knives, but I don't think my parents ever have. They both stay so sharp for so long, and then the neighbor takes them into work and does it for them! I have heard, though, that when the sales reps come through sometimes they sharpen them with the hand sharpener for you if the knife needs it.

In my family and their circle of friends cooking is a big deal. People are always looking for new recipes and kitchen gadgets because they really enjoy cooking and feeding tons and tons of people. For example, my mom and I catered my brother's graduation parties (the larger one for high school with about 100 people coming in and out and the smaller one for college with about 20) and my graduation parties (same specs really, maybe a few more for me because I invited a lot of teachers). Anything that people feel can help them in the kitchen is important to them. So they'll watch the demonstration and ask questions and get excited about things.

Plus, hunting is a big thing, and people always want the latest and greatest in hunting knives.

I bought my dad a counter-top wine cooler for Christmas one year and people are constantly asking him where he got it and how much it was because people are THAT INTO other people's kitchens. If someone adds a new kitchen or remodels their kitchen in their house they have dinner parties to show it off, it's really that serious.

There's not a lot of entertainment in our little town. New cars and kitchens draw crowds.

Oh my lord! You're making a most unwarranted assumption there -- that I would be paying attention. The only circumstance under which I'd be sitting through a demonstration to begin with would be if the person doing the demonstration was a friend and I felt like I couldn't decline without being rude. After that, all of my energy would go into keeping my eyes from glazing over. :D

No. I want good knives, but exciting? Not even close.

I agree with all of this. LOL.

I think this speaks to the OT. Good luck trying to get people to care and pay attention, Vector folk. It will work better in some areas than in others.

Yes, she compared my older Cutco knife to her brand new Cutco knives. She did offer to have my set sharpened, but I didn't want to be without them while they were all the way in NY. Plus, I hadn't had them too long, so they weren't in need of sharpening anyway.

Vector Marketing sent my daughter a recruitment letter. She's only 15 though :) She's on all kinds of lists these days and I don't know how/why!

Maybe it's like china patterns and silver for some people.

Do you know any who works for Vector? I was under the impression (and I could be wrong) that a lot of their recruiting comes from recommendations from employees. I think I received 4 letters from them throughout high school...

No, I don't. She's getting military recruitment and college recruitment mail already too.. oh, and credit card applications! At 15. Now that I think about it, I was looking into scholarships/writing contests and signed her up on a scholarship information website. I bet it's all coming from that because most wouldn't sign up for that until late in their junior year or in their senior year.

IMO, cold call selling of anything door to door is like dirty talking during sex. Either you're really good at it, or you're excrutiatingly horrible at it. There is no in between.

Honestly, I do. But I LOVE to cook, and anything that would make chopping all those veggies easier is a good thing in my book! I literally spent 15 minutes looking at knives and knife blocks today at Bed Bath and Beyond. If only I had the money to buy myself a really nice set...

My family has Cutco knives- they're nice. My favorite knife to use though, is one that my parents got in Switzerland a few years back. It's lightweight, but cuts so well!

Off the tangent now- I've received letters twice from Vector. I was even called by them a year ago (a friend took them up on the job). Honestly, I'm not interested in door to door selling. I could be good at it, I guess, but I'd rather have a brick and mortar place of employment.

I also LOVE to cook, but I don't care about the namebrand of the best cuttery, etc. :p