baglessball
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2011
- Messages
- 346
What machine did you dread coming up against?
For those of you have done D2D sales..
- Thread starter baglessball
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turbo500
Well-known member
I'm not speaking from experience, but I imagine the hardest sale for, say a Kirby salesman, would be coming up against a customer who already owns a Kirby. As there is not much difference in terms of performance between models, it would be hard to persued somebody to buy another machine - especially trying to sell G series models to Tradition, Heritage, Legend and Legend 2 ownwers as the G series are significantly heavier than these to lift.
As an ex Kirby dealer
Coming up against older Kirbys wasn't as hard as one might think. As any salesperson worth their salt would do, you had to familiarize yourself with the features and improvements of the new model as opposed to the older models and highlight those features and benefits to the customer, thus creating the desire to own it. Not to mention the fact that we always gave top trade in prices for the older Kirbys.
One of the biggest complaints people had with the older models was the lack of disposable bags, which was solved with the Tradition. It was surprisingly easy , with a good demo, to pull older Kirbys when the Tradition and newer models came out. One machine I really hated to come up against, believe it or not, was the Concept One. If the people actually used the machine, you usually didn't pull much dirt at all out of the carpets.
Coming up against older Kirbys wasn't as hard as one might think. As any salesperson worth their salt would do, you had to familiarize yourself with the features and improvements of the new model as opposed to the older models and highlight those features and benefits to the customer, thus creating the desire to own it. Not to mention the fact that we always gave top trade in prices for the older Kirbys.
One of the biggest complaints people had with the older models was the lack of disposable bags, which was solved with the Tradition. It was surprisingly easy , with a good demo, to pull older Kirbys when the Tradition and newer models came out. One machine I really hated to come up against, believe it or not, was the Concept One. If the people actually used the machine, you usually didn't pull much dirt at all out of the carpets.
rugsucker
Well-known member
D to D surprise
When I was with Electrolux we demonstrated suction by picking up 4 steel balls in a clear tube attached to hose.Very few other vacs would pick up more than 1 or 2.BUT a Sears Best would pick them up to our sometime surprise.The Elux had better quality and features such as gear belt and 4 ply bag but if you showed the steel balls on the wrong vac customer would think theirs was "as good".
When I was with Electrolux we demonstrated suction by picking up 4 steel balls in a clear tube attached to hose.Very few other vacs would pick up more than 1 or 2.BUT a Sears Best would pick them up to our sometime surprise.The Elux had better quality and features such as gear belt and 4 ply bag but if you showed the steel balls on the wrong vac customer would think theirs was "as good".
dysonman1
Well-known member
When I sold Rainbows door to door, I hated going against an old Rainbow. They made Chrome Dome model D's for almost 20 years, and when I started, we were selling the dark brown Chrome Domes. I never could trade one in, all they ever bought was the power nozzle, which we had to install by putting an outlet on their old machine. Easiest to go against was the Kirby. The dust that belched out of those cloth bags was sickening - I don't remember NOT selling a Rainbow to a Kirby customer. We would put the hoses of the Kirby and Rainbow together at the ends, start the machines, and the Rainbow would suck the Kirby's bag flat. One time I shut off the Rainbow before I did the Kirby, and the Kirby pulled all the water out of the Rainbow's pan. I still sold the Rainbow because I cleaned up the mess with it, the Kirby couldn't pick up water.
D2D vacs-Sold TriStar Breifly-its harder but sometimes-EASY when you go to a customer that has the same brand you are selling.One woman TriStar prospect-guess like me and Kirbys always bought TriStars-Just as I was taking the new machine out of the box-she was writing a check for it.
For used machines-a dealer I know of--goes to Rainbow for used Kirbys-then goes to Kirby for used Rainbows! He sold a lot of used machines by fixing up the trade ins he bought from Kirby and Rainbow.
For used machines-a dealer I know of--goes to Rainbow for used Kirbys-then goes to Kirby for used Rainbows! He sold a lot of used machines by fixing up the trade ins he bought from Kirby and Rainbow.
kirbymodel2c
Well-known member
Hi,
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">Hi, For me when I worked for Kirby there was no other vac you dreaded <a name="start_20798.232860">coming up against.</a></span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">We use to trade in previous model Kirby's by showing the improvements of the current model and gave a decent trade in allowance. My friend Ken (retired Kirby factory distributor) use to tell me stories of his 25 plus years in Kirby.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">He said he would often guess when they was holding back a Kirby when he was in a demo and the prospect tried to "catch you out"
</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">
</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">No problems either with other D2D machines (Rainbow,Filter Queen,Tristar,Vorwerk) not that they was commonly seen that often over here but when they did pop up they got traded in. I remember once a middle aged couple bought a Kirby off us but had only bought one of the other D2D brands brand new off their sale person 5/6 weeks previous.
</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">One of the best things was if they already had a expensive machine you knew they was willing to pay the money for a top end vacuum and more than likely buy the vacuum you was showing.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">Of course we use to trade in no end of common vacs you see in most peoples homes (Dyson,Miele,Sebo,Vax,Hoover... etc) as that was what most people had in their homes when you did the demo.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">One of the demos I did not like was the demo when there was no vacuum cleaner there what so ever. As you have nothing to demo against.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">Its also hard to demo against a vacuum cleaner that isn't there for example the prospect has one brand they don't like but their son/daughter/mother or great aunt Erma has a brand X that is the "bees knees in their mind..." but because it's not there you can't compare that machine with yours.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">James
)</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">Hi, For me when I worked for Kirby there was no other vac you dreaded <a name="start_20798.232860">coming up against.</a></span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">We use to trade in previous model Kirby's by showing the improvements of the current model and gave a decent trade in allowance. My friend Ken (retired Kirby factory distributor) use to tell me stories of his 25 plus years in Kirby.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">He said he would often guess when they was holding back a Kirby when he was in a demo and the prospect tried to "catch you out"
</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">
</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">No problems either with other D2D machines (Rainbow,Filter Queen,Tristar,Vorwerk) not that they was commonly seen that often over here but when they did pop up they got traded in. I remember once a middle aged couple bought a Kirby off us but had only bought one of the other D2D brands brand new off their sale person 5/6 weeks previous.
</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">One of the best things was if they already had a expensive machine you knew they was willing to pay the money for a top end vacuum and more than likely buy the vacuum you was showing.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">Of course we use to trade in no end of common vacs you see in most peoples homes (Dyson,Miele,Sebo,Vax,Hoover... etc) as that was what most people had in their homes when you did the demo.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">One of the demos I did not like was the demo when there was no vacuum cleaner there what so ever. As you have nothing to demo against.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">Its also hard to demo against a vacuum cleaner that isn't there for example the prospect has one brand they don't like but their son/daughter/mother or great aunt Erma has a brand X that is the "bees knees in their mind..." but because it's not there you can't compare that machine with yours.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium; font-family: times new roman,times;">James
)</span>I supposed the worst situation for a DTD salesman is that the customer REALLY wants the vacuum you are selling-----BUT------can't get the credit to buy it.This has happened.Both partys dread the "Pack-up" and leaving without a sale and the customer unhappy he couldn't get the vacuum.The phone calls to the creditors often yeilds the bad news and the sale is killed right away.
uksausage
Well-known member
many years ago
i sold kirbys for quite a long time and was very good at it, i used to love going into peoples houses and seeing what vacuum they had knowin that the kirby would pull dirt no matter what, same old thing every vacuum will pick up dirt if the filters are clean or the bag is new, going up against older kirbys there was always dirt the new machine pulled out, the biggest selling feature was tech drive this is what the sold the generation machines to older kirby customers, i sold one to a lady in bexhill who had a legend that had only been used once, she had her mother living with her and her mother used top do all the cleaning, when the guy did the legend demo he made it appear as if it was weightless in operation,so they bought it, when the mother came to use it the first time she lowered the head and went to push, she fell over breaking her legs off at the knees ( she had had both her legs removed below the knee so had plastic legs) the guy did the demo and got the mother to push it with head raised up so she could push it. that was my easiest sale when they saw the tech drive o n the g4 they bought it there and then and are still using it now i satayed in contact with them.
After the kirby our company chaqnged over to selling big power vacuums, these were a relativly new thing over here with water filtration the only water filtration vac that had been seen was the rainbow and there were not many people at all that knew about it, so the big power was a big seller. The problem was i had sold a lot of kirbys qand eneded up coming up against customers who had bought a kirby from me, i did sell a few big powers to those customers but the majority of customers thatbought were the new dyson owners, we didnt use demo cloths or anything we just let all the dirt go in the water and the grit that machine pulled up was unreal.
big power machines are not something that come up on ebay very often, i have stayed in touch with a few customers that love their big powers and would not trade for anything else, i have been told by some that they have had kirby dems and they havent been able to pull any dirt out the carpets and only minimal out the mattress, the thing is most of the people who sell kirby are told of these random vacuums but never told about the big power so they dont know what they are going up agaisnt
sorry i have waffled to long was kind of reliving an old memory as i sit here on a staurday morning being lazy because i cant be bothered to get out of bed
i sold kirbys for quite a long time and was very good at it, i used to love going into peoples houses and seeing what vacuum they had knowin that the kirby would pull dirt no matter what, same old thing every vacuum will pick up dirt if the filters are clean or the bag is new, going up against older kirbys there was always dirt the new machine pulled out, the biggest selling feature was tech drive this is what the sold the generation machines to older kirby customers, i sold one to a lady in bexhill who had a legend that had only been used once, she had her mother living with her and her mother used top do all the cleaning, when the guy did the legend demo he made it appear as if it was weightless in operation,so they bought it, when the mother came to use it the first time she lowered the head and went to push, she fell over breaking her legs off at the knees ( she had had both her legs removed below the knee so had plastic legs) the guy did the demo and got the mother to push it with head raised up so she could push it. that was my easiest sale when they saw the tech drive o n the g4 they bought it there and then and are still using it now i satayed in contact with them.
After the kirby our company chaqnged over to selling big power vacuums, these were a relativly new thing over here with water filtration the only water filtration vac that had been seen was the rainbow and there were not many people at all that knew about it, so the big power was a big seller. The problem was i had sold a lot of kirbys qand eneded up coming up against customers who had bought a kirby from me, i did sell a few big powers to those customers but the majority of customers thatbought were the new dyson owners, we didnt use demo cloths or anything we just let all the dirt go in the water and the grit that machine pulled up was unreal.
big power machines are not something that come up on ebay very often, i have stayed in touch with a few customers that love their big powers and would not trade for anything else, i have been told by some that they have had kirby dems and they havent been able to pull any dirt out the carpets and only minimal out the mattress, the thing is most of the people who sell kirby are told of these random vacuums but never told about the big power so they dont know what they are going up agaisnt
sorry i have waffled to long was kind of reliving an old memory as i sit here on a staurday morning being lazy because i cant be bothered to get out of bed
baglessball
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2011
- Messages
- 346
Thank you for your responses guys!
Uksausage, what is a big power vacuum? I have never heard of them, and now I am intrigued!
Uksausage, what is a big power vacuum? I have never heard of them, and now I am intrigued!
I beleive the Big Power is a watertrap vacuum like a Rainbow.Never seen or used one in person.
uksausage
Well-known member
the big power
is a water filtration vacuum it was made by italian company Ghibli i will have to find some pictures of one and post them i also have a video somewhere.
they were used as air washers,vacuum cleaners and carpet shampooers, they also had a powerhead very similiar to a lot of twin motor commercial uprights the ones that swivel, the biggest problem with the big powers was the plastic was quite brittle and used to snap
i dont know who own this picture but thank you to the owner
this is the model i used to sell
is a water filtration vacuum it was made by italian company Ghibli i will have to find some pictures of one and post them i also have a video somewhere.
they were used as air washers,vacuum cleaners and carpet shampooers, they also had a powerhead very similiar to a lot of twin motor commercial uprights the ones that swivel, the biggest problem with the big powers was the plastic was quite brittle and used to snap
i dont know who own this picture but thank you to the owner
this is the model i used to sell
dysonman1
Well-known member
The Big Power is among a group of vacuums that use water as filtration but do NOT have a separator. The Thermax, Robert Thomas Twin TT (rotho), H2O vac, and Oasis are examples of such machines. The Rainbow was the first to have a centrifugal separator, and now there are many copies on the U.S. as well as on the world markets. Rainbow, Delphin, Ocean Blue, Pro Aqua, Hyla, the current Big Power, etc.
Water vacs without separators use baffles to stop the sloshing, churning water from reaching the motor's intake. The problem is wet pet hair clings to these baffles, and is a real mess to clean. All these machines use a pleated filter of some kind to filter the air after the baffles and before the motor. These filters became damp at best, and soaked at worst (especially when the machine is pulled like a standard canister vac so the water sloshes inside).
Vacuums with separators work far better, are easier to empty (especially if the emptying hole is small, like the Delphin and Rainbow, and not a big open pan like the Hyla and Pro Aqua, and tend to last longer.
Water vacs without separators use baffles to stop the sloshing, churning water from reaching the motor's intake. The problem is wet pet hair clings to these baffles, and is a real mess to clean. All these machines use a pleated filter of some kind to filter the air after the baffles and before the motor. These filters became damp at best, and soaked at worst (especially when the machine is pulled like a standard canister vac so the water sloshes inside).
Vacuums with separators work far better, are easier to empty (especially if the emptying hole is small, like the Delphin and Rainbow, and not a big open pan like the Hyla and Pro Aqua, and tend to last longer.
floor-a-matic
Well-known member
@dysonman did U install two prong PN receptacle or 3 prong?
@uksausage did your mum eat too much sugar over the yrs? Sugary foods (Pop Tarts, Oreos etc) can weaken bones over time
@uksausage did your mum eat too much sugar over the yrs? Sugary foods (Pop Tarts, Oreos etc) can weaken bones over time
dysonman1
Well-known member
In 1979, it would have been a three wire receptacle. And a three wire Eureka-built Power Nozzle.
mchmike
Well-known member
In 1987 a Kirby salesman came to the door and my mom let him in. The kid was nice but when my mom pulled out the diamond jubilee you could see his heart sink.
Clay Floyd told me
He didn't dread many vacs when he sold Rainbows, but he said when the prospect had a Hoover upright or a Filter Queen, and used it often, you would have trouble pulling dirt, he said Kirbys were easy to get dirt behind as usually they would leave a lot of sand.
He didn't dread many vacs when he sold Rainbows, but he said when the prospect had a Hoover upright or a Filter Queen, and used it often, you would have trouble pulling dirt, he said Kirbys were easy to get dirt behind as usually they would leave a lot of sand.
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