Vector Marketing

[agzg]

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.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by agzg

...and work very very hard (and I mean very very hard) you can make a lot of money at it....

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."

[agzg]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

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.

[DrPhil]

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.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by agzg

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

[agzg]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

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.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

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

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.)

[MysticCat]

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.