I have a friend here in L.A. named Norm who is a retired Electrolux Man. In 1958, he began working part-time for Electrolux as a salesman. He turned this part-time position into a 17-year career with the company, working his way up to the position of Division Manager of the Pacific Northwest.
I had lunch with him today and enjoyed a nice long chat with him about his time at Electrolux and heard a lot of fascinating information and stories about his career there.
He told me about how he got into selling the Electrolux. He said, "I was a college student at the time. One day a man knocked on the door wanting to demonstrate the "All-New Electrolux to me. I was familiar with the Electrolux because my parents had had them." (I asked him which models, and he said a "Thirty" [as he called it] and a Model E.)
He said, "I was so impressed with the man's demonstration that I bought one. I had two dogs and always had a heck of a time keeping the dog hair cleaned up. I told the man, 'This is such a great machine! People all over the place should have them!' I asked him if there might be a possibility of selling them part-time and he said, 'Sure! Just go over to the branch office and talk to the manager.'"
He continued, "So the next day I stopped by and signed up. They sent me to the warehouse to get stocked up on machines and parts. I got a Model F and a Model E [when the F first came out, the Model E was still the lower-tier model], then I went out and sold them both that afternoon! I went back to the warehouse and said, 'I need some more machines.' The warehouse manager said, 'You're just one day on the job! I can't give you any more machines! What did you do with the two I gave you this morning?' I said, 'I sold them!' Just then, the manager happened to stop by and I told him about my sales and that I needed some more machines. The warehouse manager asked him how many to give me, and the manager said, 'Give him all he wants!'"
"And that's how it all started. Oh, I remember one day there was a big giant of a man in the branch office. He saw my name and asked about my family. When I told them who they were he said, 'Yep! I sold them a Model E about a year ago!' Your mother wanted the automatic model but your father said, "We'll take the standard model.'"
He talked about the various models that came along, including the refined Model F with the donut-style cord winder and the "AMAZING" power nozzle. He said, "When the power nozzle came out, we couldn't sell the machines fast enough! People were practically begging for them, and whenever I =was= obliged to do a demonstration I hardly ever left without making a sale!"
He also sold the Model R and then the Model G and Hospital Model G. He told me a lot about the Hospital Model. He said, "I sold nearly as many Hospital Gs as I did the regular model! People really did love that machine because it was so quiet, yet so powerful. There was an optional three-row brush for the power nozzle, and an optional extra-long hose if people wanted it, but I didn't sell a single one of those long hoses. However, whenever I'd take in a power nozzle in for repair I'd always install the three-row brush for them."
He declared, very emphatically, "I have to say, the Model G was the BEST Electrolux ever made!"
He also sold the commercial Model CB (but never sold any CAs -- "The company really wasn't pushing them," he said), the Model 1205, Golden Jubilee, the Super J, and a "ton of Model Ls and B8 shampooer-scrubbers." I asked him if he sold many turbo tools and he said, "A few, but they weren't really very popular and didn't really do a great job." The last model he sold just before he retired was the 1205. He recalls seeing promotional materials about the upcoming Golden Jubilee model but left the company before that model was released to the sales force.
I asked him if he had much competition with the Kirby salesmen. "Good Lord yes!" he exclaimed. "Every now and then, I'd stop at a home where the people said they had just seen the Kirby and were thinking about getting one. I'd tell them, 'I'll buy your Kirby for you if the man will come over and go head-to-head with my Electrolux.' That was usually enough to convince them to take the Electrolux!
"But then one day the Kirby sales manager heard about it and called me up all steaming mad. He hollered, 'I'll go up against that stovepipe putt-putter of yours any day of the week!' So we arranged to have a showdown at a prospective customer's house, and of course my Electrolux chewed that Kirby up and spit it out! The Kirby man got into a huff, saying he couldn't believe the Electrolux beat his Kirby. I told him, 'Take that manure spreader out of here.'"
Over the years he won many sales awards and commendations -- national sales leader tokens and pins, gold watches, diamond jewelry, radios, televisions, a car [an AMC Gremlin!], and trips to Florida and Bermuda and two trips to Hawaii. He also went to all the national sales conventions with the company usually paying for him and his wife to attend.
He mentioned the Air-Way. He had a brother who was a very successful Air-Way dealer in Oregon. He said it was a great machine but the design seemed "kinda odd to me," talking about the way you were supposed to stand it in the center of a room on its end. He said, "The hose was somewhat longer than an Electrolux hose, but it really wasn't long enough to let people use it that way in normal-sized rooms."
I asked him if he was ever hit on by lonely housewives. He said, "Oh Lord Yes! All the time! But I never fooled around with any of them. I was a married man and always remained faithful. One time, the funniest time I think, I was leading a new recruit around showing him the ropes. I knocked on the door of a house in a well-to-do neighborhood, and the 'Lady of the House' came to the door with nothing on but a see-through nightgown that was open in the front ... all the way down! That recruit's eyes nearly popped out of his head!"
He also talked a lot about his sales techniques. For instance: "Whenever I'd canvass a neighborhood in the daytime, I'd keep a checklist of the houses where no one was home, and then come back in the evening. Usually, it meant that both the husband and wife worked and thus had more income. I sold many Electroluxes that way."
He said he would also regularly call on former customers to see if they needed any parts or supplies. He would do repairs right there on the spot when he could. And, of course, he'd always offer to show the newest model or try to get them to upgrade to a new hose, a power nozzle or a B8 shampooer-scrubber.
While I've known Norm a long time and had been to his home several times, this is the most he's ever talked about his Electrolux career. I could tell from listening to his stories that he was a great salesman, coupled with a very engaging and congenial personality. It's no wonder he was such an incredible success with Electrolux.
It was a lovely visit with him, as it always is, although our more recent get-togethers over the past couple of years have been tinged with sadness over the death of his "dear wife" and then his having to put their beautiful home in Westwood up for sale. He's gone from a large, two-story, five bedroom house to renting a room with one of his neighbors. He said, "That was pretty humiliating, you know. But you gotta do what you gotta do." Then he said wistfully, "I sure do miss my Little Gal."
