Sales representatives
Kirby uses a rank structure where newly recruited sales representatives perform sales and demonstrations.
Sales representatives are encouraged to be motivated while working at Kirby, sing motivational songs, listen to motivational speeches, and are rewarded with prizes and sales medals.
Dealers are located in several countries throughout the world.
While mostly legal, Kirby's door-to-door tactics are considered by many to be unethical and intrusive. There are several documented cases ([7])of consumers being mislead into thinking they are getting a free room of cleaning, when in fact they are being set up for a "20-45 minute" in-home demostration that often takes several hours. The sales people are trained to target the elderly and women, will not leave the home when asked, and will often use intimidation tactics to coerce people into buying their products.
[edit] Details
Sales procedures vary with each dealer, but the basics include:
* "Canvassing," in which a prospective neighborhood is solicited. The target demographic is normally a middle or upper middle class home with owners who are employed and have satisfactory credit. Salesmen often pitch that they are "demonstrating" or "promoting" a free vacuuming or carpet shampoo cleaning rather than soliciting a product.
* The salesman visits the customer's home and vacuums the customer's home with his/her current cleaner and the Kirby, using various techniques that purport to show the superiority of the Kirby. (The Kirby's suction is often demonstrated while its bag is removed and replaced with demonstrations pads as per to show the performance of the machine and the dirt pulled... As the suction is established prior to entering the bag, this does not affect the suction in any way what so ever.[8])
* An initial price is offered to the customer. The Kirby is presented as a long term investment or a home care system, superior to other vacuums. Either a manager is brought in to the demonstration, or the salesperson may call their manager to offer higher discounts until the customer is able to pay by cash or use a payment plan. During this procedure the price may drop to a third of its original level.[3] The price a Kirby is initially offered at may be up £2000 in the UK [9] and the majority of Kirby's are sold on credit with interest rates of 18% to 25% [10]
* A three day return and deal cancellation period is promised to US customers, but often seems hard to use. There are repeated reports of Kirby salesmen using high pressure techniques and staying, sometimes in large numbers, in homes until a sale is made [4]
* In the UK, sales representatives or 'dealers' as they like to be called are under extreme pressure to make sales, and under even more pressure to obtain refferals or leads. The salary offered is £1500/month (2008) but only if they can satisfy certain criteria which is, perform 50 demonstrations per month. They normally perform 2 demonstrations per day during the week, one at 6pm and another at 8pm, however it is quite common for a demonstration to 'run over' thus affecting the time they arrive at the second demonstration. On weekends the dealers are expected to fit in between 6 and 8 demonstrations however it is unlikely that they are lucky enough to manage even 6 demonstrations.
* Because it is unlikely that they can manage to perform 50 demonstrations in a month, and obtain 50 leads per day, some managers will not allow their dealers to demonstrate if they do not fullfill their quota of refferals. It is rare that the dealer receives his £1500 salary despite working from 9am till quite often 10 or 11pm, (from 9am to 6pm the dealers are going door to door offering 'free' raffle tickets in which one of the prizes is a complimentary carpet shampoo), they aim to obtain at least 50 leads from this excercise per day but it is extremely difficult and tiring to do so.
* Kirby dealers are employed by local distributors on a 'self employed basis', this is mainly to avoid the maximum working hours regulations and it isn't long before the dealer burns himself out after working 12-14 hour days 7 days a week.
* Staff turnover is huge, sometime up to 70 trainees per month, 90% of trainees leave within the first month of employment
* "Purchasing Plans" offered are actually loans that can adversely affect credit. Kirby is known to work the financing so the customer ends up paying up to 300% more than the price they are told.
