Vector Marketing Success Story:
Eric Zimmerman

As a financial planner for American Express, a world leader in financial services, Eric Zimmerman talks with people about one of the more intimate matters in life – personal finances. So it’s easy to understand why the strong people skills he learned working for Vector Marketing are a must for him.

Eric believes it’s crucial for him to make people feel comfortable, educate them about a product and help them reach important decisions about their finances. It’s a job that sounds a lot like the work he did for Vector for eight years.

“I have to establish trust with a client as a financial advisor because we’re talking about personal things,” he said. “I credit Vector with giving me sales skills and the ability to read people. I can understand what they want and provide them with a service.”

Selling CUTCO was something that started off as a summer job for him but he ended up staying for eight years. In that time, the job carried him from Michigan to Australia.

Eric started with Vector as a sales rep in 1989 when he was an engineering major at Michigan State. He worked his way up to district manager in the Ann Arbor office and by 1996 he was packing his bags and heading overseas to help run the Parramatta office in Sydney, Australia.

He moved on to American Express after leaving Vector in 1998. Today he is a district manager with the company. Some of his responsibilities include training new reps and, again, he relies heavily on the skills he learned at Vector, like recruiting, and people and office management. And, as far as recruiting goes, he’s on the lookout for potential reps with Vector experience.

“I think the ability to interact and be pretty comfortable with people has translated well to what I’m doing now,” he said. “I’ve got to believe that the reason I’m doing what I’m doing today is because of CUTCO.”