Avon Hints and Tips (Part 3)

u751904

I used to do avon when I was 15 ( I know that is against the rules ) it was in my moms name. That was ahem 21 years ago. I loved it. Actually If I had known these hints and tips I would have done very well. I did pretty well as it was.

I am thinking about getting into avon again.... seriously. I've contacted avon a few days ago via their website requesting information on being a rep and an area sales manager. I've not heard anything.

I've got a couple of queries - It seems that to make the most you need to run a team and recruit reps to work with you / for you? From a rep perspective why would they want to do this what benefit is there?

If you ask Avon would they give you stats on what is the best selling lines by customer 'type or group' like the best selling lipstick for the 30 - 40 year old customer is X, people in the south are buying y?

Zoe

sophisoph

lozza1985 wrote: »

How creative ordering works is that you can always order from the current and previous brochure

So currently I am still on book 4, and so can still order from brochure 3 as well. Say you get an order for a lipstick from brochure 4, if it is cheaper in brochure 3, you can order it at the cheaper price and pocket the price difference yourself. Sometimes items are the same prices, but it could be that you get something free. For my family I give them the cheapest prices, but for my territory customers I keep the difference myself - but I give them all a free gift with every 6 orders, so in the long run they get their money back anyway they just don't realise it lol.

just to add on to this....remember that by ordering the cheaper one you are lowering your total sales and making it harder to reach MOV/HOV but obviously if youre doing well then its not an issue. Only saying that because one of my reps couldnt work out why she had x amount but hadnt hit target lol.

The second thing would be to make sure you do check the WHOLE order from both the book they ordered from AND the other as they may be on a BOGOF offer or something so by ordering from a different book you could be invalidating it and paying out extra or making them miss out etc x

bexr

Quick question for you experienced folk....

My 1st campaign is C4. I was given both my C4 and C5 brochures, plus Hello Tomorrow mag 6, from my ASM.

Should my ASM have given me the Hello Tomorrow 7 mag, or will I get that automatically from Avon with my C4 delivery?

Cheers me dears! :beer:

Bex

sophisoph

I think you get it with your next order. Though if your 1st camp is 4 you should have been given books 3 and 4 as you cant use 5 yet x

mswan

Thanks for the advice, this is brilliant, gives you a little bit of confidence in what you are doing, I will let you know how I get on

sophisoph

Oh yeah so heres a story for you...

signed up my 5 reps. the last 3 were saturday, mon and tues evenings. One of them is my OH and therefore on the same camp as me. He had some orders from friends so i split a few of my orders so we both hit target.

HOWEVER. we had to submit our online orders on tuesday night so although i had registered him online avon still didnt have his contract when he submitted the order.

I had a call from avon asking to email a copy, which i did immediately AND I sent all 3 contracts together by recorded delivery which were delivered AND SIGNED FOR on thursday morning.

The two other reps are now on my system but my OH isnt and i cant view his invoice when logged in on my account OR when he is on his.

I emailed AVON on thursday to ask about this as our deliveries are due this monday...they replied this afternoon saying that because they havent received his contract his order has been rejected!

I then called avon and explained everything but was told to call back on monday!

so basically im assuming he is not getting his order.

do i need to re-order or what? I mean they HAVE got his contract. If the others are on my system then his should be there too. they were all in the same envelope. SophiSoph is stuck

MarsdenCuckoo

amandaj67 wrote: »

Hi all

Looking for some advice as im really confused, lol

I use to sell avon years ago but gave it up. Anyway, i started again last week & have been given a territory which i have canvassed & done really well with for my 1st camp. I have £350 worth of orders. My area manager said something about a credit limit on your 1st campaign & she was going to get back to me to let me know what it was. As lovely as she is she is useless, lol & has hasnt. So today i phoned avon & was told my limit is £300. I dont really know what to do now, If i put £300 in on my regular order & then place an additional order will that work, or will i have to pay off the £300 first. Plus will the additional order have to be above the HOV to recieve the 25% commission.

I wouldnt mind but i use to be in presidents club years ago so they should know i will pay up on time! This is just making things really complicated.

Any advice would be welcomed

ty xx

Nothing in Avon is ever 100% certain (as you probably know from your past experience) but..... as already mentioned, if your orders total £350 then your nett invoice amount will be below £300 so no probs. Equally, I was in a similar situation but didn't bother asking Avon whether I'd got a credit limit or not. My first invoice from Avon was over £400 but went through without a hitch. As you were formerly in PC then I'd suggest you drop an email to Avon via the website 'contact us' tag to show them that you're on top of things and ask for their assurance that they will not hold up your order. (Seems to me that they should be pleased to get you back and that you're so on top of things!)

MarsdenCuckoo

lozza1985 wrote: »

Unfortunately with territory used to being dealt with exclusively by Asms, and now us SL being able to allocate as well, there are some problems.

For example, when I got access to the new system, I double checked that mine & all my reps territory was correct. One of my reps hadn't got ANY of her territory allocated to her, and 2 of my streets that I'd been doing for nearly a year weren't allocated to me. For this new system to work, all SL/asms need to double check the territory allocated to existing reps is up to date as otherwise new reps could get given streets which appear to be vacant, but have been covered for a while. Hope your asm can sort this out for you.

Personally, think you're being kind to ASMs - my territory, allocated to me by my ASM, was re-allocated - by my ASM - to another rep recently!!! I lodged an official complaint, which probably went nowhere other than for my ASM to ring me - days after I'd sorted the matter out myself!

MarsdenCuckoo

bexr wrote: »

Thanks for your replies! :T

The other Rep in question is also managed by my ASM (no SLs involved), so I can't see how the 'error' has occurred?

My ASM had allocated the roads we are battling about to me on the mapping systems (or so she has told me). She told me a week ago that she told the other Rep that they are not her roads. But now our ASM is back-peddling and has said that the other Rep is allowed to give the ASM a list of her customers from 'my' roads and keep them! Blooming ridiculous, as I've spoken to a couple of 'her' customers who have told me they haven't been 'her' customers in years and are happy to order from me.

Surely it should just be a case of saying to this other Rep .. x roads are allocated to me and that she mustn't canvass them? After all, I'm not allowed to canvass 'her' roads.

I'm beginning to think I have an ASM who is trying to keep everyone happy. She has told me that I'm not allowed to speak to the other Rep, and that everything must go through her. However, the other Rep called me and told me that the ASM said we had to share the roads?

It's very baffling!! Is there a 'higher' person I can speak to about all this?

All I want to do is canvass, collect orders, deliver them, and run the occasional Avon Party - not much!! LOL!

Hugs, Bex

Unfortunately, because we can all do 'Friends and Family' (which includes referrals from anyone on our given territory and F&F) customer bases naturally overlap. Seems to me that this encourages us to 'be better reps' in that I have gained new customers because of the way I look after my lot. (Only yesterday I gained a potential new customer, who was visiting one of my customers when I delivered their order. My customer, as ever, was chuffed at the freebie I gave her - trial size shampoo this time - and her friend was very curious as to why she'd got a freebie. By the time my customer had told her friend how well she was looked after, I was asked if I covered ........... St and asked to drop a book in - which I did later that day :j.)

Reverting to your problem, seems logical to me that anyone can order from whichever rep they prefer so in your shoes I'd go back to the customers you've had so far - wherever they are - and confirm that if they're happy with you then you'd be delighted to look after them. Half of the battle re. Avon is developing a relationship with your customers. Chances are that the other rep may not care as much as you so view it as looking after your ladies.

As for sorting out territory issues via your ASM, I'd recommend you try and sort it out direct with the other rep. Again, seems logical to me, that you probably live fairly close to each other so could even cover for each other for short periods e.g. holidays, etc.? Much better in my book to liaise and help each other than see all other Avon reps as competition.... (but each to their own! )

bexr

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Personally, think you're being kind to ASMs - my territory, allocated to me by my ASM, was re-alloacted - by my ASM - to another rep recently!!! I lodged an official complaint, which probably went nowhere other than for my ASM to ring me - days after I'd sorted the matter out myself!

I'm on the 'other side' of your situation. I'm a new rep, and my ASM has allocated me 'vacant' roads, which almost 3 weeks after signing up, another local rep is saying are hers.

I certainly don't want to take roads away from anyone! Problem for me is I don't know who to believe - kwim? I don't 'know' my ASM or this other local rep, so who's telling the truth?

If I was on the other side, I'd be extremely p**sed off if my ASM decided to re-allocate 'my' roads without talking to me. BUT...I signed on thinking that I was able to canvass my local roads, which I went ahead and did for C4. I have £200 worth of orders (I'm pleased with this for my 1st go).

I'm concerned that this other rep is now upset with me for 'poaching' her customers. But my ASM told me that it's up to the customer to decide who they want to order from. I innocently canvassed the roads I was given. I was the one who discovered the problem, as I picked up my last lot of drops this week, took them home, only to find one order form addressed to a different rep (which included her phone number)! I telephoned the Rep to explain what had happened and phone through the order to her (see, I didn't keep it for myself!) and that's when it all kicked off and I found out all 'my' roads are in fact 'hers' (accordingly to her). Although she admitted that she only has x number of customers and hasn't re-canvassed in a while (whatever that means).

I definitely would have thought twice about signing the contract if I couldn't have the local roads, or was told that another rep had x amount of customers in each road. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to believe the rep. ASM are sales people after all and I'm sure they get commission for signing people.

One thing that did irk me was that my ASM told me not to speak to this other Rep (and she said she'd told the other rep the same thing). Plus, when I was talking to her during business hours on Friday (albeit at the end of the working day) she told me that she'd had a trying week and it was Friday and she wanted to get home and that she would deal with it on Monday. I don't think that's very fair or professional, considering the mistake is probably all down to her!

Even though I've been told not to, do you think I should ring the other rep and have a chat about things??

How did you sort things out yourself MarsdenCuckoo?

I really want to be a rep, and I've already got some customers who are keen to order again (plus some others who want the next brochure), so I really don't want to give them away, especially as I have done all the hard work and canvassed these roads.