Before I started my first company, I signed on with CutCo (Vector Marketing).

I sold knives.

In people’s homes.

It did rock.

( I still have and wear the t-shirt on which this post’s title is written and based. )

Here’s how CutCo worked for me and how I’d recommend the  CutCo experience (or something like it):

1.  Organization.

• It is a well-oiled machine (at least it was where and when I was involved).
• It was my first real, sustained, formal sales experience. While I took to it comfortably, there were many people and resources there to answer questions, offer guidance, and offer cushion for any falls.
• CutCo gave marketing materials, price books, samples for demonstration, scheduling assistance, and tiered training to gradually teach new reps the literal and figurative  tools of the trade.
• As a representative, I could stand behind the fact that the pricing was set in advance; that there were no real gimmicks; that we were given guidelines for discounting; and that the products were indeed high quality and generally useful.

2. Variety of Generally Useful Stuff.

• It takes a special kind of person to enjoy selling people things they neither want nor need. CutCo never asked me to do this.
• With CutCo, I sold something most people could easily see themselves using. I sold something that most people found interesting and relevant to their daily lives.
• I sold something that most people saw as an improvement to the “closest comparables” they had.
• These things matter(ed) to me.

3. Education.

• I learned about knives.
• I learned about marketing.
• I learned about CutCo’s proprietary technologies.
• I learned about how to cut.
• I learned about how to represent CutCo.
• In learning within a company that wasn’t afraid to blur the line between employment and company ownership, I learned about business.
• ( I’m not being paid to post this entry. yet. )

4. Direct Sales!

• No Cold Calling
• No bitter aftersale-aftertaste.
• No missed opportunity to recommend a better fit or a better deal.
• Our appointments were invite-only. No door-to-door messiness. During my appointment presentations, I presented to people who invited me there.
• This matter(ed) to me.

5. I Learned ( How Bad I was in Sales ).

• Sales was not for me.
• Marketing maybe was for me.
• I sought sooner to offer the “best” fit than to maximize revenues. I forwent opportunities to make sales and opted to listen and recommend based on dialog and sense.
• I had a few warnings about eschewing my own profit for the sake of offering a “good deal” and thanks; my local “higher ups”saw fit to send me to a National convention in Atlanta even while my deflated margins  didn’t technically qualify.
• CutCo’s model made room for people. This matters to me.
• From production and the support offered to production employees; to the lifetime warranties on its Double-D Edge products; to the “earn $13 per appointment flyers” posted on university campuses across the country, CutCo and its direct-sales focused, people-focused structure was not for me but great act to follow, if only in part.

In short, CutCo made my day by allowing for this:

People over money.