Kirby salesperson worst nightmare

[vacuumssuck213]

something we can all agree on.

Okay so we can all agree Kirbys are impressive machines but what vacuum or vacuums can we agree are a no demo nessasary sell most brands have a clunker what vacuums were major fumble present or past I honestly think the bissel powerforce is a pretty good example

 

[caligula]

Hi Kirbysthebest

The demo you speak of sounds like the fault of the office staff that booked the appointment, and you should never have gone to that house/apartment.


 


Each branch office is different and each A. D. (area distributor) can make his own rules, but even so, he has to follow certain rules set in the 1920's by James B. Kirby, who was not only a great inventor, but a genius when it came to designing the demo of his products.  While the demo changed to accommodate each new model, and attachment, the basic demo is still the same as that of the Vac-U-ette.


 


To start with, the person booking the appointment asks if one or both people are working, and gets the basic income. Next it is made clear that both need to be present, and are sized up by the Kirby person booking that appointment. In the conversation, the age, brand and type of vacuum cleaner they own is discussed, and are finally told. "While you are under no obligation to buy, the Kirby representative is going to try to sell you the new Kirby model---." 


 


If you were on a demo with deadbeats, showing them the machine could easily have lead to future demo's (with sales) by 'word of mouth,' and leads. If however, those leads were people in the same financial situation, then the fault was clearly in the person booking the demo, who didn't size up the prospects correctly.   

 

[kirbysthebest]

there is no smoke and mirrors

Any demonstration of any machine be it Kirby, Filterqueen, Electrolux, Fairfax, Tristar, Rainbow. The machine being demonstrated is the machine that is going to be shown in the best light.

Kirby is a superior machine through Quality,Reliability and Performance. If you are happy with a Bissell Power force, then that is the machine for your. However, I will challenge you to come back after that Bissell has cleaned a 3,000 sq ft home, daily for 40 years and tell me about your experiences with it. There are many Kirby owners that can do that and usually with no or minimal repairs.

My Kirby Omega was purchased new on May 30, 1975, though it went into semi-retirement in December, 2003 the machine is still running with only changes in the belt, brush roll and one fan (my fault). It even still has the original light bulb that is working.

Someday if I want to have the machine refreshed, rebuilt and brought back to new condition under my original purchaser agreement to rebuild I can do so for $49.50 plus shipping cost. Now I would call that a Quality machine that is repairable, Reliable as it is always ready for action, and it is versatile and Performs the job it was designed for flawlessly.

Now there are some requirements for keeping that machine in peak condition, actually this applies to all appliances, but we are speaking about the Kirby now. You must take care of it, maintain it like a quality piece of equipment. Empty the bag, on this machine it is recommended after every use. Change the belt when you notice the brushroll is not turning like it should. Clean the brushroll and adjust it on a regular basis. Don't use the machine for other than it's intended use i.e. cleaning out the fireplace or the aquarium.

You wouldn't purchase a Rolls Royce and then go mudding in the woods anymore than you would drive your red neck Pick up to a formal ball. Why would you leave your Kirby on the front porch in the rain?

Caligula:
When you had a pre-qualified appointment they were the best, but there were times you worked crew in a neighborhood. You may do 10 demo's a day for whomever would let you in the house. Those were usually the ones that loved the machine but couldn't afford to buy a Dirt Devil.

Surprisingly, and I have heard this from other dealers as well over the years. You are more likely to make a sale to Irma and Bobby Joe at the trailer park than you are to Buffy and Roger at Willow Brook Estates. Irma and Bobby Joe may see it as a status symbol, or a good long term purchase. Roger and Buffy don't care.

 

[suckolux]

another nightmare?? How about the third party shoot down? I was that person last month.Sorry.

 

[ralph123]

killing a Kirby

Having the carpets professionally steam cleaned and vacuuming regularly can make the Kirby salesman's job considerably more difficult.

So did any customers just say no to the vacuuming a spot 50 times? If I had the misfortune of a demo, I think I would refuse. It's a waste of time and misleading at best.

Regarding the Kirby pads, it seems like a trick given that the performance of the vacuum with pads will likely be better than the performance with an air restricting bag. It doesn't actually demonstrate how the Kirby will perform under normal operating conditions, so it is not a valid test.

 

[kirbysthebest]

Actually--the pads have a smaller surface area and are more restrictive than the bag when it comes to airflow. This is why we had another item in our arsenal The Baird Meter that allowed us to use a 24" square cloth to capture the dirt pulled from the carpet. Like I said I have pulled dirt from a brand-new-laid-that-day-carpet. It was not manufactured in a clean room, it was not stored in a clean room, and it was probably hauled in the back of a pick up before it was delivered. Then it was walked on by the installers while being installed. You can pull dirt.

Yes, even a new or newly cleaned carpet is not absolutely clean, there is still dirt that can be pulled.

As for them declining to vacuum, they do, so we would do it for them. And if they are savey they will say "no vacuum is 100% which is a fact, then we will show how much the Kirby continues to pull and do a series of 2 passes or a total of about seven new pads in the same area, each pad getting cleaner to demonstrate that yes the Kirby is not 100% but if you make the a week of just two passes you pulled all the dirt where their vacuum left Tada this much after 50 passes.

The Kirby is a direct air machine, it is designed to clean that carpet, and has been pointed out has a Gold seal from the CRI.

Cost???
Do some math.
You buy a $200 big box machine every year or two. In 10 years you have had spent $1,000 on these machines you threw away, the Kirby is still running, and can be sent in for a rebuild when needed.

The Kirby demo is not only about showing the performance of the machine but building the value of the machine.
How many things it can do, and the number of machines it can replace.
How much dirt it can pull, thus prolonging the life of your carpets and furniture,
How durable it is thus saving you the cost of replacing every few years.
How Reliable it is, solidly built, serviceable when needed/

 

[ultralux88]

I'm betting my NSS Pig would put the Kirby to shame!

 

[ralph123]

"I'm betting my NSS Pig would put the Kirby to shame!"

Not likely, because the test is rigged for the last vacuum to win.

"Actually--the pads have a smaller surface area and are more restrictive than the bag when it comes to airflow."

Regardless, it is not representative of normal operation. In addition, you keep changing pads, so it is not like using bags.

 

[sptyks]

Just to set things straight....

Ralph123:

It's obvious you have never used the Kirby Dirtmeter. Otherwise,you would know that the test pads are made of similar material as the bags and they most certainly do restrict the airflow! You can tell this by attaching the dirtmeter with NO pad installed. Then turn on the Kirby and place your hand underneath the dirtmeter and feel the powerful blast of air against your hand. Then turn off the machine and install a test pad into the dirtmeter and turn on the machine again and then feel the obvious reduction of airflow against your hand. So it is not so that the performance of the Kirby with a dirtmeter will be better than with a clean newly installed bag.[this post was last edited: 1/10/2014-12:41]

 

[blackheart]

EH....

When it comes to carpet cleaning i don't believe the NSS could beat the kirby because it lacks agitation as a straight suction machine. Now if it were paired with a good power nozzle i'd give it a maybe.

As for the dirt meter yes it definitely does cause restriction i have two types of pads ones which came with the meter that are lower filtration and some that came with my Riccar/Simplicity meters which are very similar to the material used in hepa bags. to give an idea of how restrictive they are i used my G6 with it's hose and the baird meter.
With a new (or close to) new bag it's pulling a 6.5
With the meter in place and the lower filtration pads it's pulling between 4.5 and 5
With the higher filtration pads it pulls about a 4.5

With the lower surface area the air cannot flow as easily and it also becomes clogged up much quicker so you do have lower performance with the demo tools in place.

 

[caligula]

Hi Kirbysthebest

I was one of the lucky people who rarely worked in the field. My area distributor was Will Hart of Oak Park Kirby. Oak Park was a suburb of Chicago, and my job was to assist in hiring the new recruits and training them on the demo process. After I took them on two weeks of demo's where I did one, and the trainee assigned to me for that day did the next, I fine tuned them, then turned them over to another Kirby trainer who did the 'field' training. However, while some of my trainees knocked doors, that was not the bulk of our demos. Ours were from home shows, grocery give away's, free carpet shampoos, and so on. In addition, I trained our phone crew to set-up demo's following the procedure I stated earlier.


 


In addition to working for Will Hart, I was also asked to go to San Diego, California in September 1979 to January 1980 to fill in for the trainer at Pacific Coast Kirby when the trainer suffered a slight stroke.  My last Kirby office was for distributor John Adams of Lombard, Illinois, my job there was to help him build his sales crew. However, in each case, I worked mostly in the office, or one on one with the new trainees.

 

[kirbysthebest]

We were in Illinois at the same time

Just different parts. I was working the the Macomb area. I loved fair season and homeshows. Tommy Baird in Springfield had a crew that had twin girls in a Corvette that sold more machines than anyone in our division that year.

I had one time that I sold the machine so well that the lady of the house was crying because of the dirt. I gave it to her for my cost, I felt so bad. She was such a sweet lady, they were friends of my step-father so I knew she wasn't putting on, and they were farmers so they were not rich people.

 

[caligula]

Hi Kirbysthebest

I was born on September 2, 1950, in Wallingford, Connecticut, about 40 miles away from the Electrolux factory which was in Old Greenwich. In September of 1972, when I was 22, I got a job offer to work for the Indiana Dunes National Park in Chesterton, Indiana, which was only 50 miles from Chicago. Fate stepped in and I wound up in Dubuque, Iowa, where I started as a salesman for Kirby. In 1977, I ended up in Oak Park, Illinois as a training manager for Kirby, and stayed in that area living in nearby Naperville, turning my home into the headquarters for the V.C.C.C. producing the newsletters till May of 95 when I relocated to San Diego, California, and got out of the vacuum cleaner business and into nursing, dealing with hospice care. In January of 2011, I ended up here in Northern Pennsylvania. I'm now retired, and starting to get back into vacuum cleaner history and restoration.    

 

[tolivac]

When selling the Tristars with a freind-we did the "door Knocking" thing-was just before prospects could schedule a demo of ANY DTD premium vac over their websites.When door knocking you run into prospects rich or poor.The rich ones most likely have a cleaning or janitorial service clean their homes-so right away they are not good prospects.So you try the "middle" neighborhoods.
I feel the Kirby can do better than ANY straight suction machine-agitation by its roller brush is the diffrence maker-same light as comparing any straight suction machine against any roller brush upright or even canister.I do like my Kirby and Pig TOGETHER!!The Pigs huge bag will take along time to fill.When vacuuming new carpeting you do get SOME dirt-but mostly fluff.I vacuumed afreinds newly installed carpet with one of my Royals and the cloth dump bag-Was just as well-I had to dump it several times!And the cloth dump bag is GREAT while picking up Host,Capture,or other dry carpet cleaners.Bet the Kirby and NSS lashup would be GREAT for doing fresh,new carpet or picking up Host type cleaners.Esp if you use the dump bag on the NSS-that will hold something like TWO BUSHELS of fluff!
Yes,we can say just about ANY DTD Premium vac will be still going long after that TTI Hoover,Dirt Devil,Eureka or whatever plastivac has bit the dust literally and sent to its final internment at the landfill-its FINAL emptying!And getting reduced in size in the back of the trash truck!

 

[caligula]

Two things I hate about selling vacuum cleaners.

While I have always loved the demo process, I'm not fond of door knocking, and hate closing a sale.


 


The door knocking problem goes back to 1968 when I was working for Electrolux, and promoting the new 1205. I'd just been trained, and loved the demo. I was also a seventeen year old kid obsessed with vacuum cleaners, so I was eager to hit the street and tell people of the 1205. The first door I knocked on was that of an older woman, and as I started to go into my pitch, she closed the door in my face! I was crushed, that killed it for me, like popping a balloon. That feeling of rejection never left me, and while I've had a lot of good sales with both Electrolux and later Kirby, the fear was always there. Fortunately, I became a trainer for Kirby. As my manager knew this phobia, I never knocked doors, and only went on preset appointments.


 


As for closing, people who know me say that I'm too kind to be a salesman. I loved to demo, and did in a way that mixed showmanship, theater, and excitement of showing a great product to people. Then, after setting up a great display, with test cloths everywhere, I went for the close. I was gripped with fear as I wrote down "549.00 complete," and handed it to the husband. Reaction was mixed. I wanted to hug the guy who reached for his checkbook, and secretly cursed the guy who said "we can't afford that!" This meant fighting to get the sale, which I did, and usually got the sale. But the worst, the very worst was when I had a trainee with me, and had to swallow my fear. I've used every sales technic in the book, and worked my butt off landing sales, while not letting my trainee know how scared I was.

 

[tolivac]

But then--is the sale where the customer is writing you a check--even asks without question "how much" BEFORE you even set up to demo and take the vacuum out of the box-in that case you switch gears and show the prospect the differences between the new vac and their old one and how to use it.It was in New Bern,NC where we ran into two prospects that bought before the machine was pulled out of the box-avid TriStar owners-same manner as avid Kirby,'Lux,Filter Queen,or Rainbow owners.The prospect even serves you soda or coffee and a snack!!

 

[ralph123]

I would think a vacuum collector / vacuum expert would be the Kirby salesman's biggest nightmare. Imagine the look on the Kirby salesman's face when he finds out that he will have to do the cleaning test against all 100 of his vacuums. Or the vacuum expert who knows that the last vac loses and insists that his vacuum gets to go after the Kirby for a rematch.

 

[floor-a-matic]

Straight suction Compact outperforming a Kirby? I was vacing carpet with a Compact C8 (using metal rug tool) & got a nearly full bag of dirt