~Avon Hints and Tips~(Part 5)

Aesop

The previous thread can be found here.

Welcome to the Avon Hints and Tips threads. We are a friendly bunch on here, a mixture of Representatives and Sales Leaders. No question is ever a silly question, we welcome all questions, although you should check out the first few posts as your questions maybe answered here.

What is Avon?

A catalogue with toiletries/makeup/beauty items/some clothes/accessories. A representative orders for customers and earns discount on all items sold.

Representatives buy the catalogues from Avon and canvass friends, family, neighbours, work, local streets/local businesses, baby clubs, gyms, etc for orders.

Abbreviations/Explainations

Reps - Independent Avon Representatives
SL(s) - Independent Avon Sales Leaders
ASM(s) - Area Sales Managers
DSM(s) - Division Sales Manager
Territory - allocated roads that you are ALLOWED to canvass
Canvass(ing) - taking Avon books and showing them to potential customers, family/friends, work colleagues, anyone and everyone!
Brochures - Avon books which need to be ordered for each campaign
Campaign - there are 18 campaigns a year, a campaign is the advertising of an Avon Brochure each month, but campaigns can be shorter over the Christmas period
Length of Campaign - usually 3 weeks but can be 2 weeks over Christmas period
MOV - Minimum Order Value - £78, this is how much you must place in orders before you earn a 20% discount
HOV - High Order Value - £148, this is how much you must place in orders before you earn a 25% discount
Courier - the gentleman who delivers your orders to you
Order - something you place with Avon after collecting orders from customers
Sales Leaflets - these are booklets given free by Avon with brochures ordered, when they choose to have a sale on Avon products or Avon Clearance products.
HT - Hello Tomorrow. A magazine exclusively for Reps and SLs. It provides discounted products to purchase as demos and clearance products from as little as 75p for your personal use

How to Sign Up with Avon

You can contact Avon through their website, http://www.avon.uk.com/PRSuite/yourDreamOpportunity.page

or look in your local newspapers, local shops, Tesco, Sainsbury's, etc for an advert from a Sales Leader looking for Representatives to join their team.

If you contact Avon through their website,you will be allocated an Area Sales Manager or a 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! Some ASMs are great and very supportive.

What costs are involved in starting with Avon?

You pay a £15 sign up fee when joining, you pay this over the first two campaigns and this covers the Administration costs. And your ASM or SL will supply you with at least 20 brochures for each of your first 2 campaigns.

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.

TO REGISTER AS SELF EMPLOYED - CALL THE NUMBER BELOW

they are very helpful and will talk you through the process.

Newly self-employed tax helpline: 0845 915 4515

or use online registration

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm

How do I earn money?

For every order you place over £78 to £145, you will receive a discount of 20%. For orders place over £146, you will earn 25% discount.

When you place an order with Avon, you will see that there is an Avon Price, which is the brochure price, Customer Price, which is what your customer has to pay, and Your Cost Price. Your Cost Price is how much it would cost you to purchase the product, this is not the same as the customer price as it is discounted. Your invoice will show you how much discount you have earned, this is money you get to keep once you have collected the money from your customers and paid avon.

How to distribute and collect your books, VERY IMPORTANT!

Right, before you distribute your books, you need to prep them and make sure you get them back.

First of all you need to buy protective bags for your books, you can buy plastic freezer bags with a ziploc top from Poundland or 99p shop or from Avon direct, they have the Avon logo on, item code 76935. Pack of 50 bags for 80p. These are just large enough to take an Avon book.

First of all you need to prep your book. Get your Order form and put your contact details, usually your name, mobile number and/or email address is sufficient. Make sure you mark on the bottom of the order form when you will be coming back to collect the book, and when you will be delivering the order. If you want to pass on a message to your customers, ie Spend £20 and receive a free gift, there is a space for a message on the order form.

Place the order form in the book.

On the front of the book, place a sticky note or a piece of paper, clearly saying that you will be coming back to collect the book on xx date, if they could please leave outside to save you disturbing them, even if they do not wish to order. Also a message about if they would not like to receive any more avon books, to tick this box and leave their house number, so you know not to leave a book there.

Also, if it is your first time delivering books to new territory, you might like to put a note introducing yourself, ie Hi, I am xx, your Independent Avon Representative and I will be covering your road. I can be contacted on xxxxxxx.

This gives people a chance to know who you are and what you are doing and that hopefully you are going to be a regular rep who sticks at it.

Put your book in the plastic bag and away you go. The note on the front is very important for trying to get as many of your books left out for you as possible. MOST people don't realise that with Avon, we have to pay for our own books and so won't leave them out. If you don't tell them, they don't know

Some people like to door knock and introduce themselves. You should still put your books in a plastic bag, so they have the option of leaving the book out for you, although some people don't like to, so you may need to knock for these books.

Others, like me, like to stuff and run. By this we mean, put in the letterbox, and go. Then we come back a few days later to collect the book. If your book hasn't been left outside on your confirmed day, knock on the door and ask for it back. If no one is at home, put a note through their door, saying you called for their order, sorry you missed them, if they would like to contact you, give your details, or if they could just leave the book outside for you to collect.

This is very important, especially when you are first starting out, especially if you only have 20 books, you cannot afford to lose them all.

Good luck!

Aesop

If you click on these links, they will give you information on how to host an Avon Party, games to play, useful information, etc.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=30481287&postcount=20301

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=29400789&postcount=11622

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=29400161&postcount=1160

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=32671767&postcount=1744

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=34019181&postcount=2826

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=36162349&postcount=2019

Aesop

Elliebee has some VERY useful advice on a good way to run your business.

 When packing up your orders, put each Avon paper bag, new brochure, and any samples or gifts into its own carrier bag (recycle supermarket ones or buy cheap ones on the market). Write the name, door number and cost on the outside. This makes it easy to handle several at one time, as you can loop them on your arm, leaving your hands free to handle the money, and also keeps them dry in wet weather. Of course, for the bigger orders, you can use an Avon carrier bag!

 Each campaign, do a simple spreadsheet showing door number, name, and amount to pay, with a column to tick when delivered. Makes it easy to see what is delivered and what not. I also do totals showing the amount to collect and the amount to pay Avon, the difference being your profit (easier when it comes to the tax return!).

 At Christmas (although you could do it any time of year), I gave everyone who’d ordered, a sachet of hot chocolate and a mini Kit-Kat as an encouragement sit down and relax while looking at their brochure. I plan to repeat the idea for the occasional campaign, by just buying some fun size choc bars to pop in the bag with the order. Word of warning though – do warn people that it’s in there in case of kids or dogs who might get to it first! For the same reason, NEVER put them through the door.

 When I give mystery gifts, I wrap them in cheap coloured tissue paper (Poundland do a pack which lasts ages) and seal with a small foil sticker – makes them seem more special and lets people know that you didn’t just put in an extra item by mistake!

 On the bottom of the ticket showing which day you will collect the brochure, put a section for people to keep if they are ordering, saying something like ‘your Avon order will be delivered on ***** ‘ Then do ‘amount due £………’ so that they can write in the value of the order. Most people won’t remember to keep them, but at least there is no excuse for not having the money ready ;-)

 When there are sale brochures, open the bags carefully as they are ideal to re-use for delivering books to under-cover areas such as flats.

 Use pencil rather than ball-point to fill in your calling book. It writes in any weather and doesn’t have an issue with greasy or wet pages! Always carry a spare though – you’re bound to drop it at some stage!

 Send a group email or text to remind customers a day or two before placing an order.

 Write the expiry date on each brochure (or print labels). If a customer finds an old brochure, then she’ll know whether or not she can order from it. I don’t put my name on books as the expired ones end up at the tip, and I’m concerned they may be viewed as ‘commercial waste’, so would rather they are not traceable.

 Slip your orders for each campaign back to back into a display book (the sort with clear plastic pockets inside). It makes them much easier to deal with when you come to sort out your delivery.

 When packing orders, start with the smallest or most obvious and work up to the larger ones. By the time you get to the very complicated ones, you will have less to sort through! Don’t spend ages looking for an item you can’t find, but put the order aside – you’ll come across the item by accident eventually. Always have the relevant books to hand so that you can check what you are looking for; I’ve wasted many an hour looking for the wrong thing!!

lozza1985 has this check list which she sends to her new Reps with lots of GREAT advice.

You may want to try running your own loyalty scheme, I run one for my customers where they will receive a free gift with every 6th order with me. The value of the gift depends upon how much the customer has spent with me in that time. I try to give them something I feel that they would use, but that they haven’t bought before – that way after they have tried it, they may decide to purchase it in the future! For example, if a customer buys dry skin SOS body moisturisers I may give them a Skin So Soft Body moisturiser. They will try it, and if they decide to purchase it for themselves, then they would be spending a little more on their regular items. This way you are increasing your order amounts as well as making your customers feel valued. It helps to keep your customers loyal to you as well – you never know when someone at their workplace might start to sell Avon themselves, but if they aren’t giving out “freebies” you are likely to keep your customers.

Every so many campaigns I also run a “spend £x amount and receive a free gift”. You can adjust the amount to suit your customers. I use £20 for some customers that spend around £10 and so are likely to spend that little bit more in order to receive a free gift. Other customers who only spend a few pounds, I make it spend £10 or more and receive a free gift. Alter the amount to suit your customers! Buy items that are on special offer, and with your discount you will still be making more money than normal – as your customers have spent considerably more than they usually would. Again, if the customers like the free gift they may buy it or similar items in the future.

For the last 2 campaigns I have offered a free product from the brochure.

In C4/3 I gained : 5 new customers - free product - Naturals Room Spray @ 99p
In C5/4 I gained : 1 new customers plus got 11 regulars who haven't spent in ages to spend between £2.99 and £37 - free product - Senses Shower Gel 250ml @ 99p.

I usually choose something at 99p from the current brochure or through back order, this will help my sales target as well.

As the Senses Shower Gel is still 99p in C5 I can back order in C6 and still tempt people in.

Tried and tested, it actually works. I put a sticker on the front of the book saying - for example :

*FREE*
AVON CARE HANDCREAM 125ml
CHOOSE FROM PAGE 112
ONE PER CUSTOMER ONLY (USUALLY £3.50)

I also put a flyer inside the book saying the same.
Canvass and re-canvass! Re-canvass periodically throughout the year as circumstances can change i.e. people move, have babies so are at home more, etc. Your peak time of the year will be Christmas so it is a good idea to begin re-canvassing around October/ November depending on the size of your territory. Keep an eye out for houses up for sale as new customers could be moving in shortly!

If you have a Face book or My space account – make sure you let everyone know that you are an Avon Representative, they may have been looking for an “Avon Lady” or know someone who wants to order. You could also try advertising in local shops, or buy yourself a window sticker (Vistaprint is good for these) to put in your car! You can also create yourself a facebook group – I have on “avon in and around Swadlincote” – I’d suggest if you make a group to ensure it has the word “avon” along with your town in the title, to make it easier for people to find. I use my group to post reviews of new products, and to offer exclusive discounts - sometimes selling items I’ve gotten free from creative ordering!

It’s worth asking the people working in local businesses if they would like a book. If you are friendly with your Hairdresser ask them too, they may even leave it out for their customers to browse!

Ask all your family & friends if they will take a book into their workplaces for you, show their neighbours & friends – this way you are gaining new customers from people you might have never met! In time, as you get to know your territory customers, you could ask them if they would take a book into their workplaces – as a “Thank You” give them a percentage off their own order, or a free gift – after all they have gained you more sales!

Give samples out – when people try they are more likely to buy! The amount you spend on samples will be easily made back in just a few sales of the full sized items.

Always have your books out with potential customers – they won’t earn you anything sitting at home!

Keep track of what is popular with each of your customers, that way when their favourite item/range is on offer you will able to point it out to them – they may have been planning on cutting back to save some money but knowing that it is on offer will make them want to spend, we all love a bargain!

Wear Avon jewellery, fragrance, make-up, handbags etc where you can – people may ask where you got them from, and you will be able to say Avon and ask if they have seen a book recently, gaining you a new customer!

Always keep a book with you – you never know when you might bump
into a potential new customer.

Look out for school fairs/fetes and have a stand there.

Stock up on items like 5 for £5, 10 for £10 or the current 99p goodies, shove them in an empty Avon box. Give them to the customers who like a bargain, or people who could take it to work and have a POUND BOX. Some Rep’s sell about £100-£150 every brochure doing this and the increase in customers is amazing.

Also every few campaigns you could give a customer who is spending less and less £5.00 off when they spend over £20.00. This may seem a lot but you will notice that their sales go back up!

If you are a Mum, or know someone who is: if they have a buggy then they can strategically place an Avon brochure on the hood of the buggy when out and about - people will ask where they got it from! Keep some under the buggy to give out with an order form too.
You could buy one of the Avon T-shirts or Umbrellas, or even make yourself a badge to wear – this way people may ask you if they could have an Avon book as they will know you are a Rep.

The most important thing to remember is to be reliable – always collect the books on the day you stated, keep going back, provide a good customer service – this way you will keep, and gain, new customers.

Fold pages in the book to highlight different products each campaign. I recently folded a fragrance page and sold lots of fragrances which I don’t normally. Highlighting different products can make your customers look more closely at the book, and try something that they wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

Buy samples when they are on offer, and give them out with orders – they will earn your more in extra sales than the samples cost you.

Get a personalised stamp (Vistaprint is good for these, they are usually free you just pay for P&P) or print your details onto stickers. This way you can put your details onto the order forms much quicker.

Put your books into re-sealable bags, this way people will leave them outside even in bad weather. I use ebay seller jwspackaging, who have an ebay shop under the name of JWS Merchandising. Avon also sell their own now, you can find them in the Hello Tomorrow Magazine in the stationery section.

Always use your books for as long as possible, it means you will be making more profit as you will be spending less on books.

Keep a note of your customers phone numbers/email addresses, as very often they won’t fill them in every time as they will assume that you have kept a record. This way you will be able to contact them about any problems with their order or delivery.

Try putting an extra order form in with the books and write for a friend on it – you never know who your customers might show for you!

A good idea is to give each customer a teabag and the following poem with their brochure:

Here's a little gift for you.
A tea bag for a soothing brew.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy your tea,
And see how simple shopping can be.
Pick lovely gifts to show you care,
& never leave your easy chair

It gives customers a laugh but it works they will use the teabag and sit down with the brochure, and of course place an order!

Feature a special product each campaign. Either use your discount to lower the brochure price (say 10% off), or see if you can get it cheaper from the back brochure. Print off flyers with all the products details on, and the special price you are offering it at. Demonstrate the product if you can. Money maker products are ideal for this.

Recruit your customers as Avon angels. Encourage them to show their brochure to friends and family and then stamp their loyalty card for their friends’ orders. (Only give direct customers loyalty cards).

Demonstrate products. Take the latest perfume out when doing your deliveries.

Offer a free gift to your existing customers for referring a friend/family to you who places an order – needn’t be anything expensive, maybe a 500ml bottle of shower gel, it encourages your customers to pass on details to you increasing your customer base with little effort on your part!

lozza1985

Wow another new thread!!!

the links don't work for me...could be by phone though, can others get them to work?

Sugarhunny1

lozza1985 wrote: »

Wow another new thread!!!

the links don't work for me...could be by phone though, can others get them to work?

I'm on my laptop and I they won't work for me either.

Sugar xxx

Aesop

My internet crashed last night so I didn't get a chance to finish and check links. Will update later today.

Bear with me people.

sylvergrunge_2

Yay, shiny new thread, thanks aureol :T

It's just the party hint links that aren't working for me. x

Elliebee_2

Well fancy seeing you lot here

Just a word of caution for Nadine (i think) who posted on the old thread that she'd been burgled and her Avon money taken :grouphug:

Someone mentioned insurance, but just be careful of mentioning the Avon money if your insurance company didn't know you do Avon, as they could say you were using the house for business purposes, and not pay up for anything else. I hope I'm being over cautious here, but you know what insurance companies are like

Elliebee_2

:mad: Just popped into my hairdressers to collect a bottle of Lotus Shield I left them 'on sale or return' with a reduced price if they kept it.

No, they don't want to order at the moment (but no useful feedback as no-one seemed to know who had tried it).......they seem to have used the whole bottle though

That will be returned to Avon under the 'quality etc. disappointing' code since I have to assume it was (insert 'dunno' smiley here as it seems to have disappeared!). You can be sure they won't get anything else without paying first!

suzy180

Hi Eliebee can't believe they used the whole bottle and gave no feed back! I know someone on here suggested getting little bottles and putting some in for customers to try so might give that a go.

mswan

Hi all, I have sold my first bottle of the Lotus Sheild, I gave out a samples and this customer was really impressed, she said she had seen the advert on the tv so wanted a bottle NOW, luckily I have 3 hoping to sell alot more, I tried it myself and was really impressed you just need to adjust how much to use for you personaly.