2008 Woodie Awards
Knife sales: Not all they're cut out to be
Patrick Temple-West ’07
Issue date: 11/10/06 Section: Features
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It read, "Work over break, $18 an hour, part-time or full-time, flexible hours" and was accompanied by a phone number. The prospect of another long, boring and unproductive vacation loomed. I had three full weeks off, from Christmas to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with nothing important to do but wake up at 10:30 a.m. and wish I had made an effort to do something important.
Eighteen dollars an hour-even on a part-time schedule-would fatten my bank account nicely and the anonymous employer seemed to understand my desire to be industrious for a change. The more I calculated the more I felt my eyes morph into dollar signs. As class dismissed, the professor probably said something terribly important about the final exam, but I scribbled down the phone number instead. I was effectively teased.
I was not alone. The advertisement I answered was for Cutco Cutlery. Thousands of high school and college students across the country read the same ad placed on a windshield or kiosk and feel the same pang for studiousness over their winter or summer vacations. Cutco sells American made kitchen products-knives are its specialty-in a unique manner: rather than distribute its goods to retail stores, Cutco employs young people to go into peoples' homes and give a presentation that will so dazzle those who witness the quality of Cutco products that they will gladly open their checkbooks.
It's not the classic door-to-door sales of Willy Loman. The presenter starts with people he or she knows: family relatives, friends and neighbors. These people are so impressed with the product they give references of people they know who would also be interested. Ideally, the presenters' prospective buyers grow exponentially. It's a risky way to do business. People are leery of products not sold conventionally in stores and even more cautious of sales people invading the home with sharp objects. But Cutco counters on the psychological level. For 56 years, the company has been successful with this strategy because its sales people are young, energetic and auspiciously cute.
Cutco knows most people see kids as naive, just starting out in the world and incapable of pulling a quick one on them, which allows the potential buyers to focus on the product. The company also understands that the supply of young sales people is unending and that they are eager to do the work. So long as they are effectively teased.
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