Vector Marketing

[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.

[agzg]

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.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by agzg

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.)

[agzg]

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.

[DrPhil]

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

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

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

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.)

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! 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.)

[DrPhil]

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.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by agzg

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."

Too funny!

[agzg]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

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! 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.)

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.

[agzg]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

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.

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.