Cutco: Expansion Challenges in a Bilingual Market

In the fall of 2018, Joe Cardillo, general manager of CUTCO and Vector Marketing Corporation Canada, hosted his first of many Costco Canada Roadshows. This model of direct selling showed major success in the first few months, and even greater potential if all Costco Canada locations could be visited. However, expanding to French-speaking regions of Canada was a challenge due to language barriers. Joe did not have enough French-speaking sales representatives on his team and was required to make a hiring decision. Joe wanted to ensure that all of his core business values were considered prior to making a decision whether he would hire French-speaking independent sales representatives, or utilize the services of a sales agency.