Leavines’ artcile on Vector Marketing misleading
I could tell by reading the headline to Linnie Leavines’ article Tuesday on Vector Marketing that I was about to read some mistaken information that Vector employees see occasionally. These common misconceptions have garnered Vector the title of “scam” from some “misled” individuals who wouldn’t have been if they just read the advertisement. The most common of these is the “per hour” pay rate. Keep in mind that no Vector advertisement says “per hour” anywhere, simply that we offer a $15 starting pay or base rate of pay. Some advertisements even say $15 Base/APPT. The last time I checked, APPT is not an acronym for per hour. The per hour pay rate is just an assumption by college students because that is what they’re used to.Aside from that, allow me to clear a few other things up. Vector sales representatives do not work on a door-to-door basis – we work on a professional appointment system. For those confused by people not coming into a store to buy something, that means we work on a referral system. This is direct selling and is a very common type of sales. As far as working with friends and relatives initially, that’s networking. It’s a simple skill Vector representatives learn early, the same skill which is a huge reason nine out of 10 businesses fail: they can’t network. Relatives don’t have to buy, though they usually do. Probably because we represent the top-selling brand of cutlery in the U.S. and one of the best products a consumer could purchase (ask one of our 15 million+ customers). Finally, the reason you were called for an interview was because your friend wrote your name and phone number down  during training to be called for an interview. It’s called personal recruiting and the way we get the majority of our best representatives. If you have any friends who work out at Definitions, you’ve probably been called from there to come in for a tour. It’s just business.The sales positions Vector Marketing has to offer are very different from the typical student job. That’s obvious. But don’t knock something because you don’t understand it. Just because we have hard-working young people who go out of their way to make their business successful doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with our company. If you don’t understand a base rate of pay or a commission scale, or how direct sales works, or even personal recruiting, wait until you get out of college and you come in contact with people doing these very things on a daily basis. That’s how real business works, and something our representatives learn earlier than most. And as far as the money goes, I recruited and trained an 18-year-old fresh out of high school this summer who had to open a bank account because he made $17,306.50 in about two months, while personally saving over $11,000 and getting the experience of building an office from the ground up, again, as a 21-year-old. How was your summer job?Matthew Smithcriminology senior
 
 
 
– – – -Contact The Daily Reveille’s opinion staff at [email protected]