I was a training manager for Kirby for over 15 years, and I never encountered that problem.

To start with, the office staff booked our appointments, and found out what type of machine we were up against, be that tank, canister, or upright, we also knew the brand, and finally, most important, the age of the machine. Part of my job was training the sales reps on how to 'pull' a machine, by using the features the customers machine didn't have. And, yes, this also applied to older model Kirby's. A Classic 111 could easily pull a D-80, D-50, or older. (Wider nozzle, and so on).

The demo was set up with husband and wife watching, and it began with the Handi-Butler. There was a reason for this. To whet the husbands interest with power tools. We got him to drill a block of wood, then sand it, and showed how he could use the buffing pad on the flexible shaft to polish his car, before going into the sprayer, telling him it could be used to kill the bugs attacking his rose bushes.

By the time we got to using their vacuum cleaner, they were so dazzled that the Electrolux, Hoover, or late model Kirby didn't matter, they wanted, and needed that new Kirby.

As I said at the start of this, the key was training, and that began by watching a training demo,  learning the machine, and finally a section I called "knowing your competitor," where they were taught about other brands. This was followed with several practice demos, then I went out with each trainee and they got 'on the job training.' So another brand 'killing' the Kirby, didn't happen, at least not in the various branch offices I worked for.

I hope this sheds some light on how the demo was conducted, and the mind set of the sales staff.

Alex Taber.

Hi, I've never had a problem or worried about another vacuum out performing the Kirby when I did the demo. No matter if it was up against a Dyson, Filter Queen, Tristar, Sebo or another direct air machine like a Senior or Sanitaire. I'd just keep pulling the pads till there was nothing left to see. It was also the high quality and versatility as well as  the high performance that helped differentiate between the Kirby and the vacuum you was up against.

James

Some Kirby branch offices did 'bury' the customers old machine, none of the offices I worked for did it, but they did hold a 'smash a vacuum' day every few months. The sales staff and so on would meet in the parking lot, and take a sledge hammer to the Electrolux, Eureka, Hoover, or other machine on the 'execution block.' Being a man who loves ALL vacuum cleaners, I couldn't condone this, and because it was held on a Saturday afternoon, I never attended. I also made it clear to my manager that I didn't want to know the details at the Monday morning sales meetings, so it was never brought up.

As for the side by side test of their  Electrolux (or and other brand) and our Kirby, was to do 50 strokes (25 front, 25 back) then make 2 passes with the Kirby. The idea was to show that we could pull more dirt. What the customer didn't know was that it also works in reverse. That's right, if the Kirby did the 50 strokes first, that old Electrolux would pull more dirt. So that's one thing we didn't tell our trainees. Bottom line, if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with b.s.!

But by far, the best trick was the mattress test. That's too disgusting to go into here, but it worked, and I closed more sales right then and there, then with any other part of my demo.

Demoing Kirby's was a magic act, a bit of theater, with show and tell added for good measure. If you like your product, tell them the truth (okay we'd bend it a little) and offer them a great deal, you usually made a sale.

Hi, I Strongly disagree the the Kirby is "smoke and mirrors" It's more than capable of deep cleaning a carpet better and quicker than most vacs out there and with out damaging the carpets. If you look at the CRI (Carpet and Rug institute) to which Kirby got a Gold level approval.

To say a Kirby's no better than most of the crap out there is stupid.

Yes I accept the Kirby demo is biased towards the Kirby but so is every demo whether it's by a Rainbow,Filter queen,Tristar dealer or every TV ad/infomercial for regular off the shelf brand. (Dyson,Hoover, Bissell etc.)

When doing a demo there was no vac we worried about coming across. Whether or not the machine was high end or low ends made no real difference. What brand another vac was generally made little difference to what showed up on the pads.

We would also keep pulling the pads till nothing appeared which depending how dirty the carpet was in the first place would depend on how may pads this took.

Regular daily vacuuming keeps the carpet cleaner than running a vac once a week. Getting the dirt before it gets ingrained in the carpet. Which most vacs leave behind once it's worked it's way to the bottom of the pile. Saying that I've seen some other machine struggle with surface litter!

At least Kirby deep cleans. It's not a "miracle machine" it's just a well engineered machine the deep cleans quicker and better than most and doing this efficiently a possible. "Who goes last wins" is true but it doesn't mean a Kirby won't deep clean better than most.

James

Those conversions brought the air-flow and performance down so low, bags tended to burst from the Kirby's power!

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.   

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.

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.    

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.