Yesterday I got hired to work for the top-selling office of Vector Marketing!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

In the span of one day, I received information about the job opening, called the office, got an interview that evening, and was hired! Vector is a marketing company owned by Cutco, the cutlery company. Now I will be spending the summer arranging appointments with clients to demonstrate the product, and if the client is interested, put in an order for some. The pay system they provide does not rest heavily on commissions, so I make a good amount of money just pitching the product to people (no pressure to buy!) One of the coolest things about getting hired at this office is that it is the #1 selling reigon in the world for the company 3 years straight; also the Sales Manager who hired me (After a VERY short interview) is the #1 selling Sales Manager in the country for 2 consecutive years. I am extremely excited about this job. Lately I have been looking for a summer job, because while I currently am working as a Crossing Guard, school is out this friday for my district. I had to make a judgement call last month- Will I decide to work as a Crossing Guard for Summer school, which is only 6 weeks part-time, or find a full-time job for the whole summer? Well, I gambled on finding another job, risky, but it paid off. Now I will begin training immediately after summer starts; the transition between jobs is almost perfect. Because the hours are so flexible, I can also manage working this part-time in the fall, along with the crossing guard job (which is only 2 hours a day) and be a full time student. The job is great for college students; if I do well I can be awarded scholarships and college credits! And I’ll be able to pay my own way through school, instead of student loans!

So, I know this may be blatant self-promotion :stuck_out_tongue: but if there is anyone on SDMB who lives in the Bay Area who is interested in seeing me demonstrate the quality of cutco knives, be sure to let me know. Even if you don’t plan on buying them; maybe you need 35 minutes to kill and need some entertainment.

2

Um, you do know this is a tremendous scam, right?

Esprix

3

Yeah, I got a letter in the mail from them, but I don’t trust a job offer from a company that I’ve never heard of with no specifics and no website.

If it’s a scam then I’m glad I didn’t waste the phone call…

4

You know, when I was in college, I was hired by a sales office in the #1 selling region in the world for Vector Marketing 3 years straight, by the #1 selling Sales Manager in the country for 2 consecutive years. You’ve been taken in. What you are involved in is a sales organization that is very low-risk for the company and very high-risk for the salesperson. You can expect less than a 10% chance of success with Vector/Cutco. It’s not as bad as trying to sell magazine subscriptions door-to-door, but it’s pretty close.

Now, the knives are damned good - I still have my sample kit and use them every day in the kitchen. The problem is that you are expected to sell to your family and friends, and then to their family and friends, and so on. If your family and/or friends can’t afford a $500 set of kitchen knives, then your sales career is cut short pretty quickly, because they won’t feel right about “recommending” you to their relatives and friends knowing that you’re probably not going to make a sale. The sales model is severely flawed, but that’s ok since it’s just you that’ll really suffer, not the company. The reason they hired you immediately after a very short interview is that they hire just about anybody who applies for the job. This is no slight against you, it’s just that they aren’t really interested in your qualifications, they just want to put butts in seats and let the weeding out begin.

You’re going to be expected to set at least 40 sales appointments every week. When you think about this, and the fact that each appointment will take about an hour, plus the time you’ll spend on the phone setting these appointments up…well, you’re looking at at least a 60 hour work week just to get their minimal pay level. You’ll also be expected to attend sales seminars in other cities at your own expense (and the accomodations and experience won’t be worth half of what attending costs you).

My advice to you is to buy your salesman’s sample kit, spend a couple of weeks seeing if anybody wants a knife or two, then cut your losses and run away to a real job with real hours and real usefulness on a resume. Also, they’ll probably have pocket knives as a giveaway for a customer’s first order. Try to get one for yourself - they’re damned useful and sharp enough to shave with.

5

What’s so flawed about it? And how do I suffer if I motivate myself to strive to be successful? It’s not like I have anything to lose. Its more productive than doing nothing this summer, and it’s job experience.

6

My name is Umbriel, and I too worked for Vector Marketing in college…

HI UMBRIEL!

This was back in 1983. I don’t remember them making any claims for their office or region, though I guess they might have. I agree with everything Kilt-wearin’ Man said regarding the quality (and price) of the product, and the dynamics of the marketing program. I still have my sample set too, along with various pieces that my parents and grandmother bought and later gave me when I moved out on my own.

My family/friends contact chain petered out pretty quickly, though I sold a number of spatula/spreaders, and made a nice buck on a loophole that they may well have sealed by now. The knives came with a 90-day, no-questions-asked return policy. My mechanic bought the then top-of-the-line $950 Homemaker set for his wife, who was probably appalled at the price and returned them some weeks later. I, meanwhile, kept the commission on the sale. I didn’t take the obvious next step of trying to pull any acquaintence with a credit card into a kickback scheme, but Incubus might want to keep it in mind if things don’t work out…

One of my sales pitches was to an elderly former neighbor who showed me a Cutco meat knife she had, purchased back in the '50s. Looked like new, except for the wooden “wedge lock” handle in place of the modern themal resin one. Contrary to the sales pitch, the “Double D” edge does indeed get a bit dull after 30 years or so.

I did manage to win a pocket knife (since lost, alas) and a fish fileting knife as sales incentives before I quit, though I had to fight for the latter. Resigning was a bit like I imagine trying to quit the Church of Scientology must be like, and I was informed that the fileting knife was “intended to encourage sales”. I insisted that I had earned it, and the Manager and Asst. Manager grudgingly produced a beat-up old sample for me.

About a year ago, my wife was cutting a breaded shrimp with one of the meat knives, when the thermal resin handle snapped about an inch back from the blade (not much of a tang on the meat knives). I found Cutco on the web and mailed it off to them and received a free replacement under their lifetime warranty. I think Cutco itself (http://www.cutco.com/main/) is a class outfit, with a good (though exhorbitantly priced) product, even if its subsidiary, Vector, is a kind of morally suspect little marketing cult (and regardless of what the “DSA” might think… http://www.cutco.com/main/vector1.html).

7

Incubus do they still make you buy the set of knives you show off?

8

Not at all. We’re given a sample set to use for demos. I think the key here is to maintain the reference list, to keep the number of appointments strong. I realize now that I was a bit too hasty in the revelry of getting the job; I am being trained at it now and you can nay-say all you like but I seriously think I can pull this off. Some people did. I don’t strive for mediocrity, I strive to be the best.

What’s this ‘kickback scheme’? I would imagine it is getting friends to buy the knives for you, then they just return them before the (now) 15 day period is up. What loopholes are there?

And yes, the bay area division of Vector WAS in fact the #1 seller for 1999,2000, and 2001. The job has great potential, and there is no doubt in my mind that I could make this work out.

9

::shudder::

Good luck, Incubus. I almost tried Vector last summer to make some cash, but I quit after the first day of “training.” I realized that my network consisted of about five people, and from then on I’d be stuck.

That, and watching the trainer almost slice her finger off handing the demo knife to another person. Yeah, this is who I want inspiring me to get that elusive pin.

10

I heard the all the scam stories. I checked it out on the internet and read all the bad press. I even posted a thread here asking about it before I started working.

I decided to give it a shot. Been with Vector for almost a month. Last week I did 11 appointments. That’s maybe 20-25 hours of work at the most, including phone time and such. I’ve gotten a few promotions, so I make a pretty good commission. I made $700 dollars last week. Not too shabby for a college kid working a part-time summer job.

Incubus, here’s the deal: most people fail. It’s because they don’t know enough people, or they don’t set up enough appointments with the people they do know. The most important thing I can tell you is this: DO NOT high-pressure your family or family friends. I know your manager told you about how great the fast start contest is, but the reason they do that is so that the people who are destined to fail will at least get a few sales from their family first. The fast start prizes rock, but if you even think for a second it might not work out with Vector, don’t mess with your family before it ends (badly).

Oh, and the whole kickback return policy thing doesn’t work. If someone sends their stuff back based on the 15-day guarantee, they take the comission back.

You should definitely E-mail me, we’ll talk about it. Maybe I can help you out: to see that you don’t fail, or that if you do, you do it well (if that makes any sense). Or maybe I’ll just try to sabotage your career, so Reno can kick your office’s ass at SC1. :smiley:

11

I understand that its a pretty challenging job, but at this point I’m not going to let it get me down. I’m a very outgoing individual, and I know quite a few people. Realistically, I only need to work this job until school starts in late August. If I can stretch it out until then, I’ll be happy.

12

I understand that its a pretty challenging job, but at this point I’m not going to let it get me down. I’m a very outgoing individual, and I know quite a few people. Realistically, I only need to work this job until school starts in late August. If I can stretch it out until then, I’ll be happy.