Song of the Moment: Nickelback – “Gotta Be Somebody”

It’s funny to think that my first job out of highschool was selling knives, CUTCO knives to be exact. I’m sure most of you know exactly what I’m talking about. The summer after I graduated highschool, I was bumming around the house when I got a letter from Vector Marketing Company. At the time, I wanted to enter BU as a marketing major, so when I saw that letter, I was uber excited. Little did I know what I was getting myself into…the world of knives. When I walked in on our first training day, I couldn’t believe we were “knife salesmen”. I just remember how enthusiastic and lively our team leader was as he trained us and went through our manuals with us. The thing with this job, for those that don’t know, is that you set your own goals and schedule. This wasn’t a 9-5 type of job. You set up, what they call, “demos” with the clients and actually go to their houses and show them the knives and their abilities.

I remember starting off my demos with family first and my friends’ family. That gave me practice and established a sort of comfort level as I gave the demonstration and speech on the purpose of each knife. From there, I’d get five references after each demo, and it’d branch off from there. Our company usually expected us to do at least five demos a day, but there were days I scheduled eight to ten. I’d start as early as 8am and end around 9pm. Of course, I got people who weren’t home when they said they’d be home or the ones that asked me to leave after only a few minutes of describing my job and purpose.

I must say, though, it was a fun job. I became an expert on CUTCO knives and other accessories. Out of pity, my parents even bought an entire knife set from me, and it happily sits in our kitchen. I’ll never forget a couple of the demos I did for my clients. One involved me showing how well a tomato slicer could cut through a coarse piece of rope in one slice. I accidentally cut my finger in the process and the amount of blood that started gushing was obscene. It’s almost like the lady didn’t know what to do because a bandaid wasn’t exactly going to be of any service to me. The cut wasn’t even deep, but I’m a heavy bleeder. I remember she had me run my hand under some cold water in her sink and she grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around my thumb. The whole time I was so embarrassed I couldn’t even speak. With that said, she did not purchase any knives from me that day. Boo hoo. Another ridiculous instance? CUTCO has these pair of scissors calls Super Shears, and they’re heavy duty scissors that can separate into two pieces for easy cleaning. Anyways, these scissors are so strong they can cut through a penny. As part of our demo, we show the customer how they work. Now, as I was cutting through the edge of the penny, I must have underestimated my strength because, all of a sudden, the sliver of penny snapped off and flew into the air and hit my client right under her eye. It was one of those moments where everything froze in time, including me with the scissors in my hand. I looked at the penny, looked at my scissors, then looked at my client only to find her staring at me incredibly upset. She didn’t wish to see any more of the demonstration and asked me to leave. Go figure.

I even went to a CUTCO convention in Chicago with my team, and there, we attended an awards ceremony for the people who sold a crazy amount of knives within the two-week push period. This one girl managed to sell around 150k-200k worth of knives and sets within two weeks. With every demo, not only do you get paid $15, you also get a 10% commission for what you sell. This girl was 16 years old and made like 15k in two weeks. How crazy!

I just remember this job made me realize I’m not completely inept when it comes to dealing with people (minus those few not-so-wonderful demos). Because I knew the product and had faith in its performance, I was confident during every demonstration I did for my clients. That was a good feeling. It’s not everyday you have the luxury to feel 100% confident in what you do.

I still use my CUTCO knives to this day, and I wouldn’t use any other product. They’re amazing. Unfortunately, they’re not sold in stores, nor can you buy them online. You can go to the CUTCO website, but if you wish to purchase them, they have a representative (like me) come to your house and show you, in person, how incredible they are.

Yay CUTCO!