Avon Hints and Tips (Part 2)

b4be

hi , i used to sell avon yrs ago , was 8th and 5th best seller in my region. i had to give up due to illness....although i might start up again now

best tip is always to look good , wear the products , especially if selling door to door rathar than to family and friends

kill more birds with the same stone , sell at business ,offices , factories where ther are collective groups of females

dont always target females , my brothers loved the aftershaves , they didnt order often but it still helps

i noticed that big fancy houses didnt spend much , housing estates were better , must have less disposable income because of morgage etc or maybe because they have more the prefer top end brands who knows just something i observed , no offence ment as i live on an estate

i alway get comments on one perfume and thats good old rare gold , everybody always asked me what i was wearing , i always spayed it in my hair so the scent lingered

my favorites which are now long gone were , calming effect foundation , total coverage concealer , translucent brilliant lipstylo in gold and bronze .
extreme volume mascara , the best mascara i have ever used
avon technics blonde brightening shampoo , my mum always used to ask me if i got my hair done again after id used it and the conditioner

gone are those days

they should have a retro relauch lol :j


and on the subject of this sl wanting you to do 50 friends and 20 books twice to 20 house , so she want you to have the 20 books seen by 90 people on your first time when youve only got a £200 limit seems alot of work , even which if you could possible do you wouldnt be allowed that order volume anyhow ...no wonder its off putting

just start out and with each order add 5 books , youll soon know when you need to add 10 , and then youll find your scope as in how many houses you can cover and it will settle to a regular ammout of sales as books will then tend to go people that want them and order ...not dummy calls

not everyone orders first time , maybe a slip with a tick option is better , like please tick if you would like to recieve a book regularly , or if you dont , save alot of timewasting ,

hope this helps ,

lozza1985

denise38 wrote: »

Hi I am just starting out and have been lucky enough to take over an established area. Been let down recently by someone who took over for a few months from the lady that did it for years. Anyway I have handed out about 100 books and am taking them in next week to hand out next campaign as I will be away on holiday when it is due. 100 not all from previous manage to find about 15 of my own without canvassing for any more. I will do this after my holiday with the books from the previous campaign.
Anyway manager coming on Tuesday again to go over stuff and bring next campaign books. Will she be able to give me the books I require. I couldn't do with any less than 90. With you joining with an area manager from the sounds of things, then possibly - though normally they only give out up to 40 on your first campaign, and 40 on your second campaign - could be worth asking but not guaranteed I live rural so I am not prepared to be continually going around collecting books. I also have 3 children who have various activities and a husband that works shifts so won't be at home to look after kids or pick up or collect them.
Am sure I will have loads of questions. Do most of you fill in order as you get them or as you go along. I do it when I get chance - so sometimes as I get them but other times I just sit and enter them all in one go lol!I have gathered in friends and those that are going away on holiday. Also can you get carrier bags as I have a few big orders that prob wouldn't fit in bags like slipper boots.
Thanks everyone have loved looking at all your hints and tips.

And yes they do sell carrier bags, there is two sizes...though never ordered them myself so couldn't tell you the exact sizes!

sophisoph

bassibabes...thats just the way avon works when youre starting out. remember you should have 2 different campaigns which you run at the same time. knock on all doors and ask if they are interested. saves time.

put 'would you like to receive the next avon brochure? yes/no' in the messages bit on the order form for any hoouses where noone answers and check if they have circled yes/no when you collect it so you can mark it in your calling book (otherwise youll get home with loads of yes' and nos and think...oops...i dont know whos who)

leave books for 2 or 3 days, when you go to collect them take a ready written set of new order forms to replace the old ones, then you can move the collected books along to the next set of houses on the same trip.

if books arent out knock and ask for them...they may want more time...offer it!

if theres no answer post a note through asking them to leave it out another day (downloadable on avon website)

from that first campaign you will establish who to post to next time etc. just cause they dont order the first time doesnt mean they wont...but you'll know who NOT to post to. you will gather how many you need each camp and it depends on how much you are willing to do repeat trips etc.

as for friends/family eventually you will get to a point where all books are colelcted and you have no more houses to go to for like a week. give friends the newest book at this point and write the next 2 order dates at the bottom ...as you will be able to order from the newest campaign twice.... so they can either call you or email you if they dont see you in time.

it gets easier. you just need to establish customers and numbers etc x

Bassibabes

Ok I can see how it might be a problem to give every rep 100 books when they sign up for "free". However, I wouldn't have minded paying up front for more books when I signed up or even paying for some books from my SL as she has spare ones as she's already told me. Some of my customers will have to wait for weeks anyway if I give the book out tomorrow and they order items when I pick the books up on Monday! I don't see why it matters if this is five customers or 50 - I've used Avon products for years and know that sometimes you have to wait a few weeks for the products, or it can be a few days.

Like I said. my point is that the existing system, as I've been shown it, makes it very difficult for new reps to work out when it might be easier for the SL to sit the new rep down and explain how it would work for three campaigns when you only have 20 books between 150 people OR you can choose to pay up front for more books which may make it easier if you want to deliver to ALL of your houses and family and friends for a few campaigns.

I'm now gonna just have to muddle through my first campaign (15) and try to change my order that I put in last night and get 50 books for C16 which means I'll have 70 books which will make it easier...

It's all about giving people the options to make the most out of sales which I don't think I've got at all. My Sl's manager is back on Tuesday so I'm going to give her a call and try and sort it out with her and tell her my concerns.

Having three children makes it very difficult to get out of the house for two or three hours every other day on my own, while doing maybe six hours over a weekend might be much more manageble. If I'd have known that I wouldn' be able to manage the campaigns how I wanted then I may have reconsidered my decision to join Avon.

Thanks for your posts and I think it's difficult seeing it from other people's views when you've been doing it for sometime and I have the same trouble when I'm new.

xx

goingtodoit_2

Bassibabes, did you not realise that with avon the more you put into it, the more you get out of it? I don't mean to be rude, but you can't expect a SL to be available 100% of the time. You can run your campaigns however you want, most people do find that leaving a book for 2-3 days is best for them, but others leave the book for longer. I don't have children, but many reps take their children delivering and collecting books.

lozza1985

For your sl being hard to get hold off - it could well be that she works full-time too along with family etc and so responded as quickly as she could. If a rep asked me for more books and would pay for them then I would sell to them....if I had any spare - unfortunately we have to guess how many people we might sign-up, and order that amount of books when we put through our orders which is obviously weeks before we actually even know we have anyone to sign up lol (same a rep ordering their own books) we can get more inbetween but have to pay extra for fast delivery which would be why your sl doesn't any spare....yes it is a rubbish system but unfortunately that is how it is...once you are ordering your own books (so once you are into your third campaign you will have as many books you want as you will have ordered them in your first campaign) then you will be able to order more - I had a nightmare with my asm when I started, took her 10 days to give me territory even though she is the only person to allocate it so it isn't like she had to wait for anyone lol, and she left me without books for quite a while too!!! ignoring my emails/phonecalls/complaints to avon (which you would have thought they'd be bothered about being as they pay her a salary!!!) - but I stuck with it, knowing that once I wasn't having to rely on anyone that I would be fine, it is very frustrating having to rely on others, but it isn't for much longer! - but ordering 100 books will obviously cost you a lot more than ordering say 20 - so if you didn't get many orders you wouldn't make any profit due to the amount spent on books...it's all a juggling act, working out how many is the minimum you can get away with after a few campaigns it gets easier - yes you probably think we sound patronising but we all started out just the same, and we are doing alright as otherwise we wouldn't still be doing avon. Why not take the kids out with you depending on how old they are? Or just deliver as many as you have this campaign, collect them and then wait till next campaign if you want to only do it in one trip? I left quite a bit of my territory out for the first few campaigns due to lack of books, you do as much as you want to.

denise38

Ok so I told you I would have questions.
I was going to open another bank account completely seperate from my own and house accounts. Do people do this or do you just manage with the one account.
Did you tell your house insurance you were running a business from home.
I pay tax due to a private pension . Am a bit scard by this filling in tax online business how do you get on. Also what other things can I claim as an expense. Have had to buy a new printer as the other one broke will I be able to offset printer and cartridge costs . Also what about demo products I buy and any free gifts can I do he same with these.
Sorry to ask so many questions I guess I like to know what I am doing I hate to be disorganised.

lozza1985

denise38 wrote: »

Ok so I told you I would have questions.
I was going to open another bank account completely seperate from my own and house accounts. Do people do this or do you just manage with the one account.
Did you tell your house insurance you were running a business from home.
I pay tax due to a private pension . Am a bit scard by this filling in tax online business how do you get on. Also what other things can I claim as an expense. Have had to buy a new printer as the other one broke will I be able to offset printer and cartridge costs . Also what about demo products I buy and any free gifts can I do he same with these.
Sorry to ask so many questions I guess I like to know what I am doing I hate to be disorganised.

I do use a separate account - but only because OH had an old one he didn't use anymore, otherwise I would have just used my own. Yes I suppose you probably do need to tell your home insurance I guess - though I haven't!!! I haven't had to fill in a tax form yet...got a copy though, but when I registered the tax people were really helpful so I imagine if you get stuck you could just ring up and they'd help. Yes I'd put a printer & cartridge costs down - but I'm not a tax advisor lol that's just what I'm doing personally...along with paper, bags, any samples, obviously book costs, and yes demo products & free gifts can be costs - anything you spend money on in order to run your avon business is a cost!

Bassibabes

Hiya,

yes, i know that the more I put in then the more I get out. I am prepared to put in ten hours a week, but unfortunatley this has to be fully flexible and from Friday to Sunday and around my family life. I cannot do any Avon work outside the house from Monday to a Thursday. So should I try to deliver all 20 books on Friday and then try to pick them up on Sunday and not do anything all week until the next weekend. To that end I will possibly get around about half of my area in both campaigns, if I'm lucky. Is that the only way to do it then? I don't know how I'm supposed to meet my targets that way and that's not going to make me any money.

I'm prepared to pay for more books for the first two campaigns, out of my own pocket and upfront, and then go door-to-door in my own time and try to build up a good customer base. Then I will know how many books I need for the rest of the campaigns and this will work much better with the time I'm able to dedicate to Avon. What I'm aggreaved about is that this was not explained to me when I signed up and now it's too late to pay for any more books for another two campaigns which means that I won't be able to start properly until October so that's a waste of time when I could have been selling for Avon and making money sooner.

I'm sorry if that's the way it works and that's that but surely things have to change and options need to be given to fit around more people, especially if they're prepared to make an investment and put in their own time.

Thanks xx

katchambers

melvis wrote: »

Just got my delivery and got a year in service anniversary gift ... a gentle sounds bath light :rolleyes: xx

Thats so cool! My 1 year anniversary is this campaign too! I'll let you know if I get anything on monday!!

Can you believe we have been on here for a year!

Kat x x