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Ok, so there’s this story about this rep who worked for CUTCO about 10 years ago. Most people agree he worked in the Bay Area, but no one will tell his name, to keep the legend alive I guess. Anyway, he was a solid rep, around $70,000 in career sales, when one day he’s doing this demo for an old white woman in her fifties or whatever, and he goes through the whole presentation, kills it, but she’s a rich bitch, you know how they are, and she says: “You know what, I don’t really need that homemaker set. But it’s been years since my husband divorced me and I get pretty lonely, so let me tell you what. If you… you know… take care of me, I’ll buy that homemaker set.”

The rep figures, hey, it’s a sale, so he fucks her and she buys the fucking set – drops a grand on it right there, just to get laid. Here’s the good part though… she refers him to a friend of hers right, and you know, people who buy sets refer you to other people who buy sets. So he’s stoked for this demo. Anyway, he goes over, does the presentation, kills it, and at the end, this broad says: “Hey, to be honest, I don’t need these knives, but I heard what you did for my friend – and if you do the same thing for me, I’ll buy that homemaker set from you.”

So the rep fucks her, and boom, another sale. Dropped a grand, just like that. He keeps getting referred to friends of friends, and each one happens the same as the last – he sees some old chick, fucks her, and she drops a grand on a homemaker set. He does this nine times for nine women in a row – in a week he’s sold like $9,000 and as an FSM that means $4,500 in his pocket.

Anyway, he goes to see the next woman, number ten, expecting a good fuck and an easy sale. But he gets there, and she’s hideous – so fuckin ugly you wouldn’t believe, fat, disgusting, face like a manatee – anyway, he does the whole presentation hoping she’ll just buy some things and he can get out. But at the end, she says: “Hey, I know what you did for my friends and I want the same thing and then I’ll buy that homemaker from you.”

And this bitch is ugly as shit, so the rep says: “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

The woman says: “If you don’t do this, I’ll call all nine of my friends and tell them to return their homemakers.”

So the rep sits there, right? Ten grand in sales on the line, five grand sitting in his pocket about to disappear. He looks long and hard at her and thinks about all the cool shit he can buy with that five grand. But he just can’t do it. He says: “I’m sorry lady, I just can’t.”

And she called all her fuckin friends and they returned all nine of their homemakers, stealing five grand out this guy’s pocket. Can you fuckin believe that?

Background:

I heard this story from my manager Jaymison. He swears he knows who the rep is, but won’t tell me. I think this story’s great, it just goes to show some things are more important than money I guess haha. Pretty much everyone in the company knows it, it’s a pretty popular urban legend. One of the first things you learn when you become an FSM I guess.

Context:

I mean usually I tell this story if someone’s been around for awhile and I feel like they’re becoming part of the crew. Usually it comes up when they’ve been having a bad push contest or something, like saying “hey man, it could be worse,” you know what I mean?

My Thoughts:

In the CUTCO company there’s a culture of oversexualization, which this story reinforces. Most of the people in the company are very young, in their late teens or twenties, so sexual conquests are important to this group. It also reinforces basic sales concepts like how to find a specific closing skill and keep using it in all applicable situations. I think it’s interesting that the blame for losing the sales here is placed on the tenth woman for being ugly rather than the rep for being promiscuous, which speaks again to the youthful nature of our company.

I think it’s interesting that only reps who reach a certain level in career sales (an FSM is someone who’s sold $30k) get to know this story, meaning that it creates in-groups for those who are good at the job. This is especially true since my informant heard this story directly from our manager, since in most companies a manager would never tell this kind of story to someone below them as it would be considered highly inappropriate. It’s also interesting that my informant uses this story to motivate reps during sales contests by showing them there’s always worse situations to be in and motivating them to do more.