Come in, please
For ten years, Carmela Ferraro has been a welcome guest in many kitchens in Calabria. Whenever she shows up, she sees to it that everyone is in a good mood, that there is delicious food and plenty of aha moments at exciting kitchen parties. She knows her way around the Bimby® – as the Thermomix® is called in Italy – like few others: She is one of the best advisors in her country. A home visit.
Carmela Ferraro takes a look in the trunk: The Bimby® TM6 is well stowed. Next to it are boxes of fresh lemons, tomatoes and zucchini – all products from the region. The only thing that’s missing are the oranges, and then all the preparations for the cooking experience with the Bimby® are complete.
“In Calabria, we are proud of our homeland and often use food that we grow ourselves for our meals. It’s important to me to show at the demonstration what great dishes you can make with the Bimby® using regional ingredients,” Carmela Ferraro explains.
In Italy, prospective customers can purchase the smart kitchen helper via personalized direct sales. And for good reason: “We create an emotional connection through direct customer contact. We can demonstrate the benefits of the product quite authentically in the familiar surroundings of their home. That creates trust.” As a consultant, Carmela Ferraro always takes the lead and calmly explains all the benefits of the device.
“In Calabria, we are proud of our homeland and often use the food we grow ourselves for our meals.”
Carmela Ferraro knows the preferences of her countrymen.
A job with a lot of freedom
There are 83,200 Bimby® consultants worldwide. In the Calabria region alone, there are more than 600. In fact, 30 of them work for Carmela Ferraro. The 46-year-old team leader chose the job primarily because of the flexible work schedule. “My family is the most important thing in my life. That’s why I was immediately enthusiastic about working for Vorwerk. Right from the start, I had the opportunity to adapt the processes to my needs,” the mother of four reports.
She takes advantage of the freedom she has gained to enjoy all that southern Italy has to offer with her family: “The sea and the sky are the two most beautiful things in the world for me.” The fact that she can still live in her home country is not a matter of course. Well-paying jobs are rare in the south of Italy. Many job seekers move to the north or even abroad out of necessity.
The oranges are packed. Carmela Ferraro drives through the green, hilly landscape of Calabria. She has long known the winding routes by heart. Not only because she grew up here, but also because she has been traveling them to various places in the region for close to ten years as a Bimby® consultant. Her mission is always the same: to give customers magical moments with a wow effect through experiential cooking.
This passion is contagious
Carmela Ferraro is still a few kilometers away from her destination today: Gioia Tauro. She informs her host via WhatsApp that she will arrive in a few minutes. She is already prepared for her arrival: “I have already set the table and prepared everything. I'm looking forward to spending an exciting afternoon together with my girlfriends.” Quite often, many of the guests already know each other before the appointment, but that is not always the case. “The experience cooking is not a boring sales pitch, it’s an event that connects people,” says Ferraro extatically. In the meantime, she has made friends among former customers who continue to host cooking parties, even though they have long since owned a Bimby®.
Carmela Ferraro and Sonia Boeti will see each other for the first time in just a few moments. “Customers first convince themselves of you as a person and then of the product,” says the advisor. “Empathy and a friendly demeanor right at the front door are the basis for a great demonstration.” She parks the car and rings the bell. The greeting turns out to be warm: a kiss on each cheek, a warm smile, followed by friendly words of greeting. For Carmela Ferraro, it is always a magical moment when the front door opens, she finally faces the prospective customers in person and is invited into their lives.
“Experience cooking hardly means making a boring sales pitch, it’s an event that connects people.”
It’s informative and sociable – Carmela Ferraro enjoys direct sales.
3, 2, 1, open the front door!
Getting to know a stranger is extremely exciting: The senses are running at full speed and the brain is in a frenzy. Why is that so? Because we humans are social beings and the brain is a social organ. Insights into our upper brain.
Carmela Ferraro has been working in direct sales for the Bimby® for close to ten years and has a head full of useful information – learned via a brain region called the hippocampus in the temporal lobe and stored in the cortex at night during sleep. It’s a good thing that she’s now standing at the front door of a prospective customer’s house, well rested. This way, she can retrieve anything important at any time. She rings the doorbell.
The ringing of the front doorbell reaches Sonia Boeti’s brain via the auditory pathway. The place cells, also located in the hippocampus, show her the way to the door. Motor areas in the basal ganglia control the hand movement in a complex interplay of excitation – the hand to the handle – and inhibition: now slow down and grab it!
The front door opens. Both look into the face of the other person for the first time. There, the current emotional state is revealed. If Carmela Ferraro had a pack of marauding hyenas on her heels, her eyes would be wide open – and a lot of white in the other person’s eye always means danger. So, Sonia Boeti’s enthusiasm for the upcoming cooking party would probably be gone. Fortunately, however, Carmela Ferraro is in the best of moods and seems as friendly as she is trustworthy.
Meanwhile, a few scent molecules fly into Sonia Boeti’s nose via the air she breathes and reach the olfactory epithelium. This sends the olfactory information to the brain. Many of these scents are not perceived consciously, but are “only” registered unconsciously. They are often very closely linked to emotions, and in this case the matter is clear: Sonia Boeti likes how Carmela Ferraro smells – which further strengthens trust.
cortex
Nothing stands in the way of the typical Italian greeting kiss. Sonia Boeti senses that Carmela Ferraro’s cheek feels soft and pleasant and her handshake firm and self-confident via what is by far the largest sensory organ in our body: the skin. With its receptors, it analyzes physical stimuli such as pressure, temperature and much more. As electrical signals, these stimuli reach the brain via the spinal cord and are processed here by the somatosensory cortex. The cooking party can begin.
“We all fell in love with the Bimby® as soon as the words ‘Hello, what would you like to cook today?’ appeared on the large display.”
Bimby® prospect Sonia Boeti likes the direct approach.
The voltage rises when it is switched on
“But the most magical moment is usually when I show the Bimby® for the first time,” the expert reports. That's how it is today, too. After a brief introduction with all the other guests, she unpacks the Bimby® and places it on the kitchen shelf. All eyes are on her when she presses the power button. “We all fell in love with the Bimby® as soon as the words ‘Hello, what would you like to cook today?’ appeared on the large display,” Sonia Boeti recalls.
First, Carmela Ferraro prepares fresh juice from the regional oranges – a basic and very popular starter. Next, she takes yeast, flour, eggs and olive oil for the pasta dough and puts the ingredients into the Bimby®. The best thing is that the kneading mode eliminates the muscle work. Between dishes, they joke, ask questions, explain and laugh.
A lot of flavor with little effort
The guests were particularly impressed by two aspects of the kitchen helper during the demonstration: the time saved in cooking and the taste of the dishes. “The food was prepared in just a few minutes and tasted fantastic,” says Sonia Boeti. She was particularly excited in advance about the Cookidoo® recipe platform, which is integrated into the Bimby®. Via Cookidoo®, for example, she can simply enter a food item and receive appropriate recipe suggestions directly on the device. The platform also displays personalized recommendations, cooking inspiration that changes daily, and a regularly updated recipe book.
“The Bimby® improves our lives. In my opinion, no family should be without it,” Carmela Ferraro is convinced. Today, the Italian is once again transferring her passionate conviction for the kitchen helper to her customers. Shortly before the end, she has an ace up her sleeve. She prepares her famous “involtini di carne.” When guests taste the meat rolls, they have a gleam in their eyes. “This dish is always well received,” Carmela Ferraro reports.
A gift for the whole family
Although Sonia Boeti is convinced by the Bimby®, she needs some time to think about it. Carmela Ferraro sums up the advantages again, such as the energy efficiency of the appliance or the variety of possible dishes. What’s more, Sonia Boeti can make many of the products she would normally buy herself very easily and without spending a lot of time. That helps people to save money, improves the taste and, thanks to the fresh ingredients, also protects their health. Sonia Boeti is convinced by this. She signs the contract and makes a follow-up appointment. At this appointment, the advisor will help her set up the Bimby® that will be delivered by then and answer any further questions she has.
“The Bimby® improves people’s lives. In my opinion, no family should be without it.”
Carmela Ferraro
Trademark and secret of success: direct sales
“Passion for 140 years”: Anyone who takes a look at the history of the Vorwerk Group will repeatedly come across values such as courage, innovation and passion for products and customers. Direct sales in particular play an important role in this. It is the business model, identity and trademark of the company. But one after the other:
Carl Vorwerk and his brother Adolf founded the small carpet weaving company “Barmer Teppichfabrik Vorwerk & Co” in 1883. A courageous decision, as high-quality carpets were previously only known from England. August Mittelsten Scheid took over the company in 1907 and courageously expanded the product range to include gramophone motors, for example. However, when this market collapsed with the triumph of the radio, the company quickly reoriented itself and started using the gramophone motors to manufacture vacuum cleaners. However, no matter how powerful and handy the first Kobold model was, the advantages of the device could not be conveyed in the retail trade.
August’s son Werner brings the idea that saves the day with him from the United States: direct sales, i.e. a form of sales that is closely oriented to people, introduced in 1930. This is probably the most important decision in Vorwerk’s 140-year history. This form of distribution focuses on people and their needs. From now on, Kobold vacuum cleaners are presented in the form of personal product demonstrations, during which customers can discover their enthusiasm for the appliances in a very unique way.
This also applies to the Thermomix®, which was introduced in 1971. During the cooking experience, people can laugh, taste and marvel together. More and more people around the world are part of the Vorwerk Community, as advisers, customers or members of the Vorwerk workforce.
Today, Vorwerk is the number one direct sales company in Europe – and the world leader in direct sales of high-quality household appliances. And the company definitely has direct sales and the resulting worldwide Vorwerk Community to thank for this.
Vorwerk has been selling kitchen appliances directly to customers in Italy for more than forty years and has grown continuously – not only in terms of sales figures but also with regard to the number of advisers. In the meantime, the Bimby® has long become established in Italy and is a popular gift at weddings. “We have managed to appeal to the hearts of families thanks to the cooking parties. That’s the secret of our success,” confirms Carmela Ferraro, who was honored by Vorwerk Italy as Team Leader of the Year for the second time in a row.
She is enjoying her evening off today in Scilla, a picturesque village on the Strait of Messina. The six-headed sea monster Scylla is said to be up to mischief in the cave beneath the castle. According to Homer’s poetry, the legendary Odysseus had the dubious pleasure of meeting the enchanted nymph on his return from Troy. Six of his men lost their lives in the process, according to the legend. Today, however, the sea is calm and monster-free. “My job as a consultant gives me a lot of freedom – both financially and personally,” says Carmela Ferraro thoughtfully. “Thanks to my work, I have been able to fulfill many dreams for myself and my family.”
“My job as an advisor gives me a lot of freedom – both financially and personally.”
Carmela Ferraro
How does the Thermomix® world cook?
Whether it’s German breads, Italian pasta or American burgers – many dishes are closely linked to certain countries.
But sometimes there can be some real surprises. We have put together a quiz from the preferences of the international Thermomix® Community. Have fun!
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