<p>Putting this to rest: Vector marketing/Cutco doesn’t train students to go “door to door” for all the reasons we know well (safety) and the fact that it doesn’t result in sales. For same reason, they don’t want “cold calls” to strangers.</p>
<p>Instead, it is “direct sales marketing” (like Mary Kay cosmetics) in which each salesperson is an independent contractor. According to the training my son received and follows, he goes from a network of people he already KNOWS, phones them to make appointments.</p>
<p>The stuff is very good quality so for some people, once they see it and try it out in their homes against their own equipment, it’s a worthwhile investment.</p>
<p>If she begins with the parents of her school friends, and asks them to recommend people they know (referrals), that’s how this company works.</p>
<p>IT IS NOT door-to-door!! If someone rang your doorbell by surprise, they might be doing that because you are known to them as a neighbor. Even so they should have phoned you first and be known to you already.</p>
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<p>DadII, that made me laugh out loud. My S showed the equipment to an Asian dad (parent of a school friend) and went right to the Sodoku knives, which are the biggest ones I had ever seen. The almost-customer said, “You don’t know much about Asian cooking. Here’s what I need.” The man spread apart his hands by about 20 inches. I think my S found the equivalent of his own Dad, someone who was joking around with him. </p>
<p>Still, S is tearing it up with these sales, because of organization, personality, wearing two-piece suits and a tie on a summer’s day, and h.s.-friend contacts from an upscale suburban high school. The product, approach and training are all very good. If she likes it, she can bring it with her to college and continue there. </p>
<p>Of issue is that the students have to buy their own samples to demonstrate, but these can be returned at the end of the summer, or kept at the extreme discounts available to the salespeople as a lifelong investment for their own future kitchens (or anniversary gift to the loving parents who got them this far? we can dream.)</p>