~Avon Hints and Tips~(Part 5)

Aesop

Well done Mummyof2Girls, and let's hope the Avon party brings in lots more sales.

As women, we are great at multitasking... allegedly... that's how we manage....lol.

furby-2003

am i right in thinking you can order from 12 up to the deadline of 13? if someone orders out of both does it just go into one pot and thats your amount or is it split into 2 so its harder to reach your target? i dont really understand this.

how much are the books as she wizzed passed that bit and we didn't quite catch it.

also im a bit nurvous going to collect my first lot of books back incase i get a mouthful from someone who doesnt want them. does this actually happen?

see becuase i had been given 12 and 13 we have handed out 12 to my estate and 13 to hers.

Aesop

furby-2003, you are not expected to get around all your territory by your order date. Obviously if you can, that is brilliant, but I have never heard of a Rep who has managed to, especially as we are usually only given 20 books for the first campaign.

There are 2 ways you can do this.

MarsdenCuckoo likes to knock on the door and talk to the occupier as to whether they want to have a look at the book or not, and if they wish to in future. You could try this method, and keep a record of all those who say they do not want to see a book again. We do go back, but maybe once every 6 months, it is called a recanvass. This way you are only giving a book to people who actually want to see it.

The other way, is to put a note on the front of your books, asking the customer to notify you if they do not wish to receive any more books, and post through their door. Again same principle as above, if they say no, keep a record, but recanvass in 6 months, or 3 months, with Christmas coming up. I said the dreaded C word.

When you go out to collect your books, have the next set of order forms ready, or if you are using the same ones, mark them up appropriately, ie collection in 2 days time, a new note to say if you do not want any more books, if yours has been used, exchange order forms and get your books out the same day.

You may just get around your whole territory, but I doubt it.

Also, you don't want to be ordering 200 books each campaign, between you. I order 30 and that is after a year of doing it and only because some of my customers like to keep my books, so I know how many I will lose and how many I will get back.

The other thing is, you can reuse your current campaign books on your next campaign. So each campaign, you can be using 2 sets of books. You have half your territory on your current book, and the other half on the previous campaign book. Then, when you move onto the new campaign, you recycle the 1st previous campaign books, and give the 1st current books, to the territory that hasn't seen them. And the brand new campaign books to the territory who got the newer book last time. You keep doing this, you save having to buy too many books unnecessarily and you get more use out of your books.

J_pink

smattie wrote: »

trying not to be disheartened, went back to try and collect the rest of my brochures and only managed to get another 7 with no orders. Have prepped these with sticker asking for house number if do not want to receive avon, and have posted them back out.
Now I will just have to wait until monday and hope for a few more orders. Still to ask family and friends but dont want them to feel pressured to buy anything just for the sake of it so am just going to casually mention that I am now doing avon if they ever want anything.

OK long post...sorry!

Hi Smattie, I'm a newbie too but I've sold cosmetics in a previous job (Jo Malone) with some pretty good sales training.

My bigggest successes in selling were through the right attitiude- i.e being polite and friendly and assuming that your customers will LOVE the products, rather than highlighting any negatives: "if you don't want a brochure" etc. too much.

- Perseverance, great communication and listening/making notes of your customers needs and fave items
- Front of brochure - leave the image/space clear so it's the first thing your customer see's - magazine covers SELL - they look glamorous.

- Marketing literature - find a selling angle EVERY campaign whether it be new make-up looks, 10 years younger tips, diet and health/detox. If your clever there are ways to sell Avon without actually discounting. What about creating a little plastic wallet/folder of make-up looks (especially for occassions like weddings) for your regular customers to browse and get ideas? Maybe it will take an hour to produce on a rainy day. Use a spreadsheet (see below) to track fave products, skin concerns, forthcoming events in your customers diary (e.g a holiday, wedding).

- Using some useful little phrases to gently persuade without the customer realising (the trick to sales is to make them think that you don't mind at all if they don't order, but don't say that!) such as...

"I've had an amazing response to Avon in this area"
" This (choose an expensive one!) product is very popular this month!"
" My new customers absolutly love X product"
" I've had a few ladies chuck out there old makeup bag and buy a whole new look...they get tired of the same old make-up"
" I've just started a new skin-care regime using Anew and it's the best and most affordable I've used"
"I love my hair now I've been using Lotus Shield" etc.

Honestly, if YOU believe it, THEY will believe it. I used to sell £38 body creams using these positive comments. Women WILL pay to look and feel good no matter what their age.

- Family: I've just mentioned casually the products I love, ordered one or two samples as "gifts" and said they will get a book every campaign and "whenever" they want to order just to say the word! Take the pressure off but let them try and feel the products and also let them see you looking good - new hair, new make-up, nice jewellery...they will want some too!

Finally, To help me I have put together a useful spreadsheet to track customers fave products, orders and any interest shown in products so I can get them a sample for next orders. Listening and remembering your customers will build really strong customer relationships...then they will start recommending you to friends and family, and so your business grows...

:A Good luck to all newbies:A

Aesop

furby-2003 wrote: »

am i right in thinking you can order from 12 up to the deadline of 13? if someone orders out of both does it just go into one pot and thats your amount or is it split into 2 so its harder to reach your target? i dont really understand this.

Yes, you can use both current campaign and previous campaign books to order, it is called back ordering. On your order menu, there is a drop down triangle next to your current campaign number, it will show the previous brochure number.

You can then order from the previous campaign on the current campaign. Back ordering means you can use you books twice, do creative ordering, so not harder to reach your target.

All sales whether C12 or C13 on one order form count towards your MoV or HoV but on your invoice, they will split the sales into two, to show you how much you have earnt on each.

how much are the books as she wizzed passed that bit and we didn't quite catch it.

Brochure pricing
Order in Packs of 5. Buy more and save more! Take advantage of discounted quantity pricing. Order more than 3 packs and additional packs are just 48p each.
Pack(s) No. of brochures Cost each Total
1 5 brochures 63p £3.15
2 10 brochures 42.2p £4.22
3 15 brochures 32.4p £4.86



All Presidents Club members still qualify for a special price on brochures in 2010. You can now buy 20 packs of brochures for just £11.00, with any additional packs at just 48p each. Please note Brochures may not be returned for credit.


also im a bit nurvous going to collect my first lot of books back incase i get a mouthful from someone who doesnt want them. does this actually happen?

extremely rarely! And if you have asked people to leave the book outside, the only time you may need to speak to someone is to knock to get your book back, because they haven't left it outside.



see becuase i had been given 12 and 13 we have handed out 12 to my estate and 13 to hers.

oh dear. Ok, you were given books for your first 2 campaigns, and you have given them out to both areas. Or did your ASM say she was giving you books from a previous campaign too?

Actually, can you PM me your postcode and I can check.

Aesop

Great advice J-Pink!

furby-2003

aureol212 from what i could make out we were given the old book 12 and the new one but she didn't say how to do them, so to get as many out as possible we gave out 12 and 13 seperatly figuring that anywhere we gave 12 to when we order 14 we can give them 13 and 14 together so they dont miss it.

MarsdenCuckoo

libby1984 wrote: »

Of course I'd share if anyone wants to PM me their email address I could forward them to you. If that's ok with MarsdenCuckoo. They are a mix of ones that I've just tweeked a bit and ones I've totally changed. It's nothing earth-shattering, just makes it looks more professional than hand written cards.

Basically:
cream - called to collect your book
blue - will be delivering your order on/will be delivering your order but there has been a change
yellow - called to deliver your order
pink - thank you for your order/thank you, you had missed some offers so I amended your order/name cards to staple to the bags, with the cost of their order too
green - old catalogues (prospecting)

and then I put a card on the front of the brochure with 2 points, one is an offer from me, one is an offer in the book, and space for the day I will come to collect.

Well done, libby, :T sounds much better than mine and definitely 10 x better than the bog standard notes provided by Avon. Can you email a set back to me please? Oh, and of course, I have no problems with you circulating anything that originated from me.

Aesop

This is what is so nice about this Forum , everyone has such useful ideas and tips and so happy to share them, to help all of us with our businesses.

gettingthereslowly

Need a kick up the back side to get more proactive with Avon and posting more here I think will help with that

Right plan for this campaign is to recanvass one of my streets amd promote freebie for all orders over £10! Fingers crossed. Going to start promoting xmas too. Loads of people starting to buy now ready for it.

Thinking of putting a flyer together advising how to create a xmas hamper treat as a gift. May hightlight a few cheap deals and offers over the next campaign to poss stir the imagination of buyers and get a few more orders in.