Avon Hints and Tips (Part 2)

MiniLaura

Some basic info about AVON. (tried to base on questions from newbies)

To join up - contact Avon and you will be allocated an area manager/sales leader who will come out and visit you, give you more information and sign you up - sales leaders are generally easier to contact and provide more help but all comes down to who you get!

You pay a £15 sign up fee when joining, you pay this over the first two campaigns and covers the admin costs and the brochures (which ASM/SL should supply to you)

NOTE: You MUST declare your earnings as you are classed as being self employed whether actually employed, self employed or on benefits already. You can be fined for not doing so and AVON does advise you to sign up as self employed.

Newly self-employed tax helpline: 0845 915 4515

What is Avon: A catalogue with toiletries/makeup/beauty items/some clothes/accessories. A rep orders for customers and earns commission on all items sold.

Reps buy the catalogues from avonand canvass friends and family,neghbours, workplaces and local streets/local businesss for orders.

(books come in packs of five - three packs are around £4.87 and each additional pack are about 48p each) Other costs would be bags for orders - paperbags are very cheap and can be ordered through Hello Tomorrow(HT).

Territory is usally an area (local streets) assigned by your ASM/SL where you can go out and canvass - drop brochures off/door knock to find new customers - its worth going round and seeing if anyone is interested. (check hints and tips for more info)

Warning re Territory - due to the way avon works its possible that an area may already have a rep who was signed up by a different SL - Avon dont actually have a record of who does what area, so worth trying but be prepared! (will add more if anyone has any other info)

Plastic bags are often used for delivering books, so that people can leave them outside to be collected - some use the bags that the sales brochures come in, others use sandwich freezer bags - good places to get these include pound shops, supermarkets, ebay

To get commission of 20% there is usually a minimum order value of around £74 and for 25% its around £144

A campaign is a brochure (18 over a year) that runs for three weeks - dates for various campaigns differ all over the country. You can backorder the last brochure, ie in Campaign 12 you order from current brochure and from brochure 11 if there are better deals! (see below for tips)

Reps also recieve a preview catalogue (Hello Tomorrow) (HT) that is usually two campaigns ahead and has information on the products that will be available at reduced prices, so that you can demonstrate to customers, also has lots of information about products, tips, and special offers/reduced section.

You order items every three weeks and its usually delivered around a week later to your prefered delivery address by a local courier company - will vary locally.

You have 10 days after order to pay for items - plenty of time to deliver and get money from customers. Variety of ways to do this. (you only need to pay upfront if on your first campaign you get orders over £200 - as you have this credit limit for first time)

Returns can be made and theres a process for going through them, easiest way is to claim a credit while completing your order online, and then print off the necessary forms and follow instructions for returning via courier (pack up items with forms inside and get it stamped by delivery driver)


Now for the Tips/Hints bit (will try and condense down a wee bit!)

• keep good records of customers and what they buy, and you can then concentrate your efforts where you'll get the most return
• most fruitful way of selling was through the workplace - try and get managers permission first to avoid any trouble in bigger workplaces? (offer a share of any profits - ie in my work we do this with another co - any funds are for staff xmas party)
  
  would put the brochures through the doors in a freezer bag, with a note saying if they didn't want to order then leave it on their doorstep on such and such a night.
  
  When ordering, because you are usually running two campaigns at the same time, some things will be cheaper in one brochure so by ordering smartly you can maximise any earnings.
  
  engaging in a bit of conversation with the customer. This means that when you give them the brochure with the delivery you can draw their attention to any special offers etc.
  
  have half your customers on the current brochure and half on the one behind, that way you are using your books twice.
  
  order everything online
  
  mention avon to everyone you know! Friends, family seem to be great for ordering
  
  fold down certain pages to highlight them in the brochure
• put a note in the top box to say a freebie for orders of £20 or over, and then buy an item for £1 or under (so you spend £1 to gain £4 or more commission)
  
  Save up bits and pieces from special offers and freebies
  
  Do a reccomend a friend offer.
  
  Offer mystery free item or a certain product free when friend spends x amount.
  
  Include your email addresss for queries and late orders
• 
  dedicated email address for avon orders
• 
  looking through the customer order and cross referencing it with the book to check that the customer has not missed out on an offer with a product they have bought, if its 1 and 1 free or they have ordered something which is cheaper in a set, order the extra and write them a note on delivery stating the reason for the extra items.

Any other things I've missed out on?

Larumbelle

Party plan tips coming to this post soon!

melvis

My first 30 books are delivered :j I have til Monday for this campaign (C14) then a proper campaign from next week.:D

katchambers

Ideas for the first post:
I think a list of things that people who are considering joining or people who have only just joined would like to know is things like: how many campaigns are there per year, and how are they spread out? How much commission do we get? Where is the cheapest place to buy the bags? How much are the brochures? How much is the sign up fee and how is it split? Is it better to join through an area manager or a sales leader? How best to brochure drop a road? What are the rules on territory, can I just drop any road? These are just some of the questions that people ask over and over again in the previous thread. Most of us know all the answers to these but newbies won't, this will save a lot of repetition in the new thread.

Kat x

MiniLaura

i was thinking the same thing, will tidy up list and add in more general information about doing avon, then main hints and tips

Louiseaustin69

First campaigne and got £500 worth of orders so all good, the only downfall is that I had to pay 1/2 of the money up front! :mad:

Anyway ideas for people what I have done myself and live in a small town in Wales;

I handed out books to;
Family
Family memebers friends
Own Friends
Work Colleagues
Ex work Colleagues
Maternity Ward
Hair dressers
Beauty Salon
:T

I advertised myself as being an Avon rep and giving FREE brochures on;
Workplace Intranet ads (employees can access only)
On here
Poster in workplace
Poster in maternity ward
:T

Next time to gain more customers I am going to;
Put poster up in local supermarket and anywhere else I can think of
Possibly putting posters through house doors (although my area is apparently covered by other reps)
Maybe going to local nurseries, parent and toddler groups and schools (however I do not have any children so dont want to look a wierdo)
:T

If anyone could give me any other ideas
Hope this helps everyone, Lou xxxxxxxxxx

princess_loki

:j hello all!!

lovely new thread! think it is a really good idea to have a list of tips as it took me forever to read through the old thread!

thank you to everyone for their advice!

loki x

MiniLaura

louise - Maybe going to local nurseries, parent and toddler groups and schools (however I do not have any children so dont want to look a wierdo)

if you want to do this, why not approach leaders of the group if known and ask if you could come into a session with books etc - give mums the chance to order etc and get yourself introduced?

Would work quite well if you are in a smallish place - " I cover this area for Avon and was wondering if you wanted me to bring my books to your group/parents"

Elliebee_2

More tips which may be useful for ‘newbies’

Save supermarket carrier bags to use when delivering your orders – put each paper bag into a carrier bag together with the new book. It makes it easier to handle (no more juggling lots of flimsy paper bags!) and keeps everything contained and dry. Use a waterproof marker to write the customer’s name, door no. and amount due on the outside of the bag.

When doing returns, check all available invoices for the item you are returning. There’s no point in returning the one that cost £3 if it cost £6 on another invoice!

Put a slip in with your books for the customer to keep if they are ordering. Something like ‘your order will be delivered Oct 1st – Oct 3rd. The amount due is £……………..’ That way, they have no excuse for not having the money ready :rolleyes: :rotfl:

It keeps being said, but can’t stress enough, check the prices in your previous brochure – it may be a lot cheaper or have a ‘freebie’ (which you can then keep for yourself or for ‘mystery gifts’ or prizes)

Put all your orders for the campaign into a presenter book. It makes it easier to flick through the orders when you come to pack them.

When packing orders, start with the smallest or most obvious and work through to the larger orders. That way, you have less to sort through when you get to the complicated ones!

I may think of more, but hope these help meantime.

Louiseaustin69

MiniLauraRocks wrote: »

louise - Maybe going to local nurseries, parent and toddler groups and schools (however I do not have any children so dont want to look a wierdo)

if you want to do this, why not approach leaders of the group if known and ask if you could come into a session with books etc - give mums the chance to order etc and get yourself introduced?

Would work quite well if you are in a smallish place - " I cover this area for Avon and was wondering if you wanted me to bring my books to your group/parents"

Thank you; I will try this! I am 5 months pregnant so not long before I will be visiting playgroups! I will think about going in with your idea in the mean time :T xx

katchambers

Elliebee wrote: »

More tips which may be useful for ‘newbies’

Save supermarket carrier bags to use when delivering your orders – put each paper bag into a carrier bag together with the new book. It makes it easier to handle (no more juggling lots of flimsy paper bags!) and keeps everything contained and dry. Use a waterproof marker to write the customer’s name, door no. and amount due on the outside of the bag.

When doing returns, check all available invoices for the item you are returning. There’s no point in returning the one that cost £3 if it cost £6 on another invoice!

Put a slip in with your books for the customer to keep if they are ordering. Something like ‘your order will be delivered Oct 1st – Oct 3rd. The amount due is £……………..’ That way, they have no excuse for not having the money ready :rolleyes: :rotfl:

It keeps being said, but can’t stress enough, check the prices in your previous brochure – it may be a lot cheaper or have a ‘freebie’ (which you can then keep for yourself or for ‘mystery gifts’ or prizes)

Put all your orders for the campaign into a presenter book. It makes it easier to flick through the orders when you come to pack them.

When packing orders, start with the smallest or most obvious and work through to the larger orders. That way, you have less to sort through when you get to the complicated ones!

I may think of more, but hope these help meantime.

Great tips thanks! Can I ask, what is a presenter book?

Can I also ask how do you drop the slip in about 'this is your order total £....' because I have taken orders from customers and have no reason to go back now until the order arrives, do I just put that slip through the door a few days before delivery, or when I have tried to deliver the order and no one is home? Just trying to work out the best method. Thanks

Good news is my SL gave me 38 spare brochures today as she is going on holiday, so that means I can cover my first campaign a bit quicker with the 15 I have left from the first batch.

Kat x