How to succeed in Vector Marketing/Selling CutCo

The reason you are even reading this page in the first place...You, like many others, have probably received an email, phone call, or text message talking about this new job opportunity. You may have also caught it on a flier on your college campus or any other advertisement that vector marketing has out there, but now you want to know, is it legit or not? My answer is...Yes (with circumstances). Vector marketing is the company put in charge of finding sales representatives to market and sell CutCo Cutlery and CutCo Cookware. They, meaning the managers who run the offices placed all over North America, are mostly salesmen themselves who have worked their way up in the ranks in this business until they were offered the chance to start an office. If you haven't went to an "interview" yet then this is how it will go.

You will show up and the secretary will have you fill out a form with all of your information on it and a few open-ended questions to let the managers evaluate your personality. For me at least, the interview was not really anything to get worked up about. They talked to all of the applicants there for that days interview in one big room and sort of explained some things about the company and their goals. They don't really delve into the details about the position you will take in the company or how you will make money or what you will even be doing. After this is complete, they will pull each person in another room, one-by-one to let them know if they have been accepted or rejected. I'm not exactly sure if they accept everyone who has complete information or not, but it seemed that most (if not all) of my group was accepted into the program. After you have been accepted, they will have you sign saying that you accept the position and then they inform you of your upcoming training period (dates, times, and material you should bring).

Okay, so you got the job and you have your training session scheduled. It will last 3 days typically, most of the day so make sure not to make plans just in case. In this training session you will learn all about what product you will be marketing (CutCo cutlery). They will teach you all about sales and how to succeed. In my 3-day-session, they started out with what we, as salespeople, should expect of vector, our company. Then they went on to outline what they will expect of us and the reasons for the training sessions in the first place. After this, they stated the rules of my office which were understandable enough. (Be on time and properly dressed were the main points). Then they went on to sort of sell the position to us. Outlining the 3 types of people in this world, the Ultimate Skeptic, the Fence-Sitter, and the All-in. Later in the sessions they began introducing the product to us by showing a sample demonstration. We all received a booklet that was practically a script that they wanted us to memorize and follow in our own demonstrations. We split off into groups for a bit and practiced the pages in the booklet one at a time to try and familiarize ourselves with the way the demo would go. They said that we could never have enough enthusiasm and to always get excited about every single item that we offer so that the customer would too. They explained how they understood that some customers would be appalled at paying this much for knives but that if you understood the price/value association, it was the smartest choice to buy them. This basically just means that if you can convince your potential buyer that the value of this set is greater than the price, it's worth buying. It was all normal sales stuff that I expected in a training session for a position like this one.

After we had gone through the whole demonstration booklet and the sales part afterwards, they explained the incentive program that they run. It could just be office based, but our "Fast-Start" program was something designed to try and push new sales reps to try really hard right from the start. It was based on how much the new rep sold in the first 10 days after the training was over. The more products that you sold in your first 10 days, the more prizes you could receive. The prizes were fair and ranged from ice cream scoop for selling $500 to a trip to Cancun, Mexico for two people for selling $25,000 in the 10 days. The last day went a bit different, but no big surprises. They had us make a list of all the people that we could potentially get appointments with. (Friends and Family pretty much). With this sales position, you basically start with people you know and branch out. At the end of every appointment while you are cleaning up, you just simply ask nicely if they could write down a few names and numbers of some people that they thought wouldn't mind viewing your demo. This is where your future customers come from and is crucial. If you fail at this point, you will exhaust your initial appointments and will be out of a job.

At the very end of the training, they finally hit us with the big one. I was not surprised at all, mainly because I had read up on this job prior to the interviews and training, but they informed us of the cost of our demo equipment. This basically included the most popular set (the home-maker) minus 2 pieces. Even without the 2 pieces, it is about $600-$700 worth of product and the cost for the "demo kit" was only $147 so it seemed fair enough to me, but it was the deal-breaker for a lot of the potential new reps in the group. I must agree that they probably should have informed us of the cost before dragging us through 2 interviews and 3 days of training, but on the other hand, people should expect to have to put some sort of deposit for demonstration gear in a sales position.
I mean I wouldn't trust someone that I just hired with $700 worth of my product without some sort of collateral. After the people who hadn't jumped ship yet purchased their demo kits, they explained a few more things to us (mainly prices and what we could give away for free with certain purchase amounts). They then prompted that if we wanted to (they wanted us to...lol) we could call a few people off of the list that qualified as an appointment and see if they would be interested in scheduling to meet with you and view your demo.

All-in-All I wasn't disappointed with the training. It was a little mis-leading at points but I had done my research so I knew what to expect and was prepared.

Besides what you may think about the chosen marketing company (vector), the actual product is the best of the best. It's top of the line cutlery and of all the things to do with CutCo, they know how to make their product. The 2nd booklet you receive besides your demo script is one that contains most of the products that can be purchased from CutCo. I will outline all of the features below so that you can better familiarize yourself with this product whether you plan to sell it or purchase it.

-High-Carbon, Stain-Resistant Steel Blade (made from surgical steel)
-Double D edge (CutCo exclusive, appears serrated but is actually 3 angled razor blades with dull tips to protect the edges
(like this /\_/\_/\ )
-Ergonomic handle (made to fit perfectly in a human hand)
-Heat resistant handle material (Called Thermo-Resin, same material that's inside a dishwasher)
-Full Tang (just means that the blade extends all the way to the tip of the handle)
-Triple Rivet (3 rivets holding the handle halves to the blade and to each other, rivets made of anti-rust material)

****************************************FOREVER GUARANTEE****************************************
Along with the above features, all CutCo products also come with the forever guarantee. This simply means that if something breaks, you can get it replaced for free forever. Also, although the flat blades are easily sharpened with a knife sharpener, the Double D edges cannot be sharpened with conventional methods. They do stay sharp for many years because of their design, but when they eventually start to dull, they can be sent to the company for re-sharpening for free as well. If sent to the company, the only cost to the customer is return shipping and handling which can be between $6 and $9 depending on how many items are being sent. If you want to avoid the whole mail thing, you can actually just call the office that you purchased your set from (or just contact the sales rep that sold to you) and they can send someone trained to sharpen the special Double D edges for free. The best part about the guarantee is the money-back section. Some people can feel a bit of buyer's remorse after making a large purchase, but this won't happen with this product. No matter how small or large the order is, a customer can return it all for the full price they paid within a 15-day grace period, that way a customer only keeps something they really want. They even have a section on misuse and abuse. This just states that if it is apparent that you broke a piece of CutCo through non-conventional methods (Its chewed up by an animal, It's melted to a stove eye, etc.) then they will give you a 50% discount on replacing it, that way you won't have to pay full price to get back your stuff.

Okay, now you are familiarized with the product specifications, let's talk about the items themselves. CutCo offers a blade for every single job you could ever dream of having. Your basics are your butcher, bread, paring, carving, trimming, and table knives. They also offer specialty knives including a santoku, a cleaver, a bird's beak paring knife, among many others to satisfy even the pickiest. Other items are things like the spatula spreader (small spatula with blade on one edge), a turning fork (for things like sautéing and stir-fry), and the carving fork (holding things that are being carved). They even have a few other odd-ball sections including a few outdoors items (fisherman's solution is the coolest thing ever), gardening items (such as a trowel and clippers), and some gadgets (like a pizza cutter and garlic press).

A newer addition to the CutCo collection is the Cookware. I am sorry to say that I am not informed enough about this product to delve into detail but I will be researching it more thoroughly soon and will update this lens as soon as I can.

Now that you have gotten the position, had your training, purchased your demo kit, and familiarized yourself with your ticket to some extra dough, you have to convince someone to buy it from you, right? This is where it gets tricky and you begin to decide what kind of salesperson you are going to be. First I am going to outline the sales pitch and method that they teach in training and that they want you to rehearse and regurgitate to your customers.

You start with a small intro on the company itself, stating how long its been around, where it is based, and its recent sales records. After this, you attempt to dazzle your customer with the quality of your product. You use the "super shears" (heavy-duty scissors) to cut the edge of a penny off all the way around. This makes a corkscrew effect and really does look pretty neat (this is my favorite part actually...lol). There is a trick to do it correctly every time. For starters, you need to use older pennies because the material is a bit softer and can help people without a lot of finger strength. Also, the first cut should be directly towards the center of the penny to start it and then you just cut the very edge off all the way around. Check out the video below this section to see exactly what I'm talking about. Normally I cut mine a bit more than the guy in the video did so make my corkscrew a bit longer, but whatever works for you. ***DO NOT EVER ACTUALLY CUT THE PIECE OF PENNY OFF!!*** This will shoot away with great force (possibly at your customer) and is not good at all to start your demo so be careful. After the penny, you move on to describe all of the common knives that your customer probably has in his/her kitchen drawer. After the flaws in all of these cheap knives are exploited, you describe the features outlined in the previous paragraph. Now it's time for another test. To actually put their knives against yours, you tell them to go get a few of their favorite knives from their kitchen drawer. You do comparison tests letting them use their knives to cut rope and leather and then use yours to prove CutCo superiority. Below the "My Sales Pitch" section, I have provided the videos for both the leather and rope tests, just as they are performed in most CutCo demos. After these demonstrations, you then explain the Forever Guarantee and then go into each of the common knives/utensils that you offer and touch on a few specialty ones. Finally you summarize the information and then compare CutCo to a few competitors. You first surprise them with a huge price for a competitors cutlery set price (Henkals) and then relieve them when you let them know that Cutco doesn't cost that much. Before revealing CutCo prices, you highlight its features again in comparison to the high-priced competitor set. Finally, you start talking prices, hoping that your demo has raised enough value that the price will not seem like such a shocker.
Now comes the part that is a bit controversial in my eyes.

Once prices have been mentioned, the whole tone of the demo seems to change. You tell the customer that if they buy today (the very day of your demo) then they get special gifts or bonus merchandise. If they seem undecided, you are supposed to mention the payment plans (2,3, or 5 payments). If they still decline, you move on to the next set. This method is called "dropping down". You continue to drop down to each set a bit smaller, a bit less expensive, and a bit less free gifts than the one before. Each time you mention what it would be on each of the payment plans and pushing the free gifts that they would also receive. Before you can move to the next set, a sales rep is supposed to get a definite "NO" from the customer about the set in question. If you exhaust all of your sets, you ask them to pick 5 items that they liked and give them a small discount if they bought all of them, then you do a 3 piece set, and then you are supposed to go for just a single piece. No matter what the outcome, the sales rep keeps asking for the sale on smaller purchases. Also, no matter what the customer has already bought or not bought, the sales rep is then to move onto specialty knives, gift items, and accessories/gadgets. Finally, the sales rep is to touch on the gardening and outdoors section of CutCo products to try and add a little bit more to the customers order.

After all of these tactics have been used, the sales rep finally starts to clean up the demo, packing the products back into the red velvet wrapping and cleaning up the penny, rope, and leather demo scraps. During this process, the sales rep is to ask the customer if they could take a few minutes to write down some leads for people that they don't think would mind doing an appointment with you. This step is crucial as it is where your business comes from and without it, you will run cold after you have used up your family and friends and will be out of a job.

The previous section described exactly what a new sales rep at vector marketing is taught to do when conducting a demonstration for their Cutco products. These tactics may work for some people, but as a person who has been hassled, and sold to quite often, I could not conduct myself this way, especially in front of family and friends. I did not want to become the "black sheep" of my family or circle of friends, the one who is always trying to make a buck off of relationships with people. If you want to be successful and not burn bridges, then I urge you to listen up for this section especially and take notes.

I will have to admit that the beginning is golden. I hardly touched anything in the presentation up to the part when money was involved. I introduce the company, cut the penny (then sometimes I allow my customers to do it as well because they love it!), and then move on to the flaws with common kitchen cutlery. I make sure to stress all of the differences between normal knives and the cutco cutlery during the features section because you want your customer to know that these aren't normal knives. I do the rope/leather tests and normally just let my customers do both so that they can experience the difference first-hand. I detail the guarantee and make sure to stress the money back guarantee and mention that CutCo is a buyers-remorse free product. When explaining each of the common knives and some of the specialty ones, I make sure to give examples of the uses that would cater to my customer so that they can relate and think, "yea, I could use that". I also ask them about things like "do you eat a lot of bread?" to introduce the next item instead of just telling them about it. This way, they can feel the need for the knife instead of me just telling them they need it. What you also have to do is realize that not every item is for everyone and you have to be able to tell a customer that they don't need some of your products. If they don't eat much bread, I tell them that the bread knife would be a waste of money. Your customers will respect you for your honest advice, even though it is hurting your commissions, and will actually buy more from you because they know that if you make a suggestion, you are telling the truth. I do the Henkals comparison because it is a good strategy to let people know that CutCo is by-far not the most expensive knives they could be buying, this way they don't feel like CutCo is way out of their reach.

Now comes the money talk. Now I know everyone has a different opinion about things like sales techniques, but I am going to tell you what works for me. I am almost 19 years old and I have already had enough sales people try and shove their products down my throat to last a lifetime. It doesn't make me want to buy anything and actually deters me from ever buying so much as a pack of gum from that company ever again. This sale is called a "hard-sale" and although abrasive and rude, is used my hundreds of thousands of successful salespeople. It's hard to admit but being pushy works a lot more than you would think it could, but I have moral dilemmas with its use so I cannot and will not condone its practice. I approach my sales a different way and am very happy with the results.

First off, if someone didn't want the set that was $900, they most likely won't be over ecstatic about the $880 set either. As a salesperson, you have to detect your customer's price range by the way they react to the price of that first big set that you introduce to them. It's your job to understand their financial situation and narrow their needs down to something they feel comfortable spending. Ask them what items they like most or think would be most likely to use often and try and find a set that includes them all or most of them and offer that set to them. This way they know you have their interests and their spending in mind and are not just trying for the most money that you can squeeze out of them. If they seem interested in particular set I will elaborate on the payment plans we offer if they do not wish to pay all at once, but I notify them of the charges that will be implied (only a few dollars but still dishonest if you don't mention them). If they do not seem interested in a set at all, it is important not to patronize them with payments options for something they don't want. If they don't want a set, I do use the 3 piece plan because normally people can find a few pieces that they really like or would use and this is really popular for someone who wants to start building a set piece by piece to spread out their purchases if they don't have the finances to make a large purchase. As I am cleaning up, I give them my booklet and turn to the gadgets, utensils, and other products that CutCo offers and just tell them to glance through it to see if anything catches their eye. Normally I can get a sale here just by mentioning that a lot of the small gift packages or gadgets are great gift ideas for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, etc. Of all the people in someone's life (both family and friends) there is normally always an occasion approaching that they haven't bought a gift for yet and this is one of the easiest sales you will ever get.

You have to know when to call it quits. After I show them the pages to look through, I do not mention anything more about purchasing. I ask them if my demo was good and any improvements that I can make. I ask them what they thought of the products and normally mention my favorites or just talk to them if I know them better. I then let them know how my business works in regards to future appointments. Normally, If you have done your demo like I have outlined, leads from your appointments should be the easiest part of your demo. You will be surprised at how many referrals you will receive if you are nice, courteous, and non-pushy during your demo. The truth is, if your demo was pleasant, relaxed, and didn't make the customer feel uncomfortable, they will have no problem referring you to every one of their friends and family members. I've actually had customers excited to pull out their phones and find people that they want to see the products because my sales pitch was pleasant and enjoyable.

To be honest, I didn't know how my sales approach was going to work out. I believe it was the day that I strolled in to the office from one of my best appointments. I had only sold barely $100 on it, which was not anything to boast about, but the customer was so pleased with my approach and my non-pushy whatever you need attitude, that she gave me over 50 leads to people she wanted me to do the demo for. Most of the reps in my office were scrounging for leads, calling the same people multiple times, desperately trying to book their next appointment, while I was overflowed with possible customers. With my approach, I guarantee that you will probably sell less on each appointment, but you will never run out of people to meet and make appointments with. In the long run, you will keep your relationships with your friends and family in tact while keeping your sales business running strong, while others will run dry.

I believe one of the main things we haven't covered yet is the pay. I didn't want you to see the numbers and form your opinion before you knew all of the facts but now that you a bit more informed, here they are. In my area (I've heard varying prices from other areas), the base payment was $14. This is per appointment, whether someone buys something or not. They advertise as $14 per hour and then train you to finish an appointment in one hour but me being the talkative type and being someone who doesn't like to rush around, I normally scheduled my appointments 2 hours apart from each other. This is best because is keeps you from having to rush through someone's appointment and from having to rush them to make a decision at the end. Plus, it takes awhile to write down over 50 referrals! hahaha ok..had to boast a little
This basically meant that I was making about $7 per hour without factoring in fuel for my vehicle. This was do-able, but I didn't sign up for this job to make minimum wage, I wanted more. This is where the commission comes into play, and what separates the boys from the men (or girls from woman...lol).

Every sales rep starts out at 10%. This just means that your commission is calculated at 10% of the CPO for the sale. CPO is based on the order and is basically the price of the order before shipping and tax minus any special gifts that you gave away. (yes, if you give away free stuff, it decreases your commissions slightly but it is better to give away free stuff to get a sale than to be greedy and lose the sale). YOU DO NOT RECEIVE BASE PAY PLUS COMMISSION. Instead you receive base pay OR commission. This is like most sales jobs, where the base pay ($14 for me) will keep you alive but the sales is where the big bucks are. The base pay is just there to ensure that you are rewarded for your efforts even if you had a bad appointment or just a customer that was completely uninterested. At 10%, you sale will have to be above $140 for you to achieve a value higher than base pay. At the end of every week, your base pays are calculated and your commissions are summed and which ever is higher is the one that you will receive a check for (direct deposit is easiest for me). So a good week will be commission based and a stale week will be all base pays for your appointments. The good thing about the commission section as that with hard work and success, it gets better. There are different tiers of sales and each is related to a better percentage of pay. After your first $1000 of sales you will begin to receive 15% instead of 10%. The rest of the tiers (for my office at least) are listed below:

$3,000+ is 20%
$6,000+ is 25%
$10,000+ is 30%
$20,000+ is 40%
$25,000+ is 45%
$30,000+ is 50%

As you can see, as you move up in the ranks of sales, the minimum you must sell on an appointment (or more importantly your minimum average sales per appointment for the week) can be lower and yet you will still receive more than base pay for that week.

Lets take the same situation, at 10% you need to sell at least $140 on every appointment to achieve pay higher than base pay.
If you achieve 20%, you only need to sell half that much on average per appointment (only $70) to achieve higher than base pay.
At 30% you only need roughly $50 average appointment sales.
And finally, if you achieve 50%, a measly $28 per appointment will score you higher than base pay (although if you have achieved this tier of percentage, I would hope that your average sale per appointment is higher than $28..lol)

If you work hard at this position, it can be quite lucrative

So you have read through (most of it at least I hope!) and it's time to make a decision. Vector yes or Vector no? In my opinion, it's split like this.
Yes, they do have a lot of salespeople managing which has its pros and cons
-It will most likely be successful because the people running it have already shown great success to be in the position to start an office in the first place
-The major con here is that sometimes the managers do not know when to stop selling and when to start acting like your co-worker. In my opinion, they could try a little harder to treat their reps like associates and not like customers that they are trying to sell this position to.

POSSIBLE SHADINESS
A lot of people bash vector and they might bring some of this to themselves by their potentially shady practices which upsets me a little
-they do act like the "position" you are interviewing for is a single position, not an opportunity that will be acted on by a lot of people
-they try and hide the fact that it is a sales position a little too hard
-they notify potential sales reps of the cost of the demo set a bit late in the process for my taste but people should do their homework as well before trying a new job they have never heard of before, also they should have a little common sense and realize that even demo sets cost money and a company can't afford to let 20 demo sets go off with no promises or guarantee that they are coming back.
-they try to make you think that you MUST follow the script exactly and that every team meeting is an absolute requirement to work there
-they try and force you to work on their schedule even though it is technically a work-when-you-want job.

HOW TO OVERCOME THESE TRAITS
Like all sales positions, this one has the above traits and sometimes they drive people away. You just can't give up. You have to take everything taught to you with a grain of salt and then think "would I want a salesperson to do this to me?" Yea it is a small investment to get the demo set but you couldn't very well do the demo without it so if you are serious about this position, it is a small price to pay. (I earned the cost of the set in my first few sales so it's really not that bad). You also have to know how to stand up for yourself. The managers and workers at vector marketing, just like any other sales based business, are just that, they are salespeople. They have been training for years in the art of getting people to do what they want so you have to be able to stand up for yourself and make them understand that they will honor their word. If they said it was work-when-you-want, then gosh-darnit you are going to do just that. I never went to the meetings, and pretty much only stopped by the office when I needed more rope/leather for my demos or needed to drop off my order forms. I'm not sure if not participating can withhold your base pay so please check into this before you decide to follow my example. If you are struggling and are relying on the base pay as you only pay, then you might want to attend the meetings until you are all on commissions, then you can do more of your own things because they can't deny you your commissions.

OVERALL this job is a good avenue for someone who is hard working and a quick learner. You must be compassionate in your demos and you must put the feelings and needs of the customer over your own if you wish to succeed. You must stand up for yourself against the other salespeople and you must know how to shrug things off that you know aren't right and do your own thing. As an independent salesperson, you must be just that....INDEPENDENT and if you can master that, there's no reason why you can't succeed with Vector Marketing.