~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 7) ~

Claree__x

I'll just have to keep going then! Got my over-credit-limit thing sorted, they called me last night and asked me to pay £60 so that's all fine.

Going to get it delivered to my oh's work as well because I don't fancy leaving it outsid and I feel bad asking the woman upstairs to take it in every 3 weeks!

Alwaysthebusybee

Hi All,

I have been reading the thread and the previous one this week as I have been thinking about joining Avon. The extra cash would be nice to pay some debts off but I am more looking forward to building my make up collection. I have my ASM coming tomorrow to discuss things and hopefully sign me up.

Can I ask a few questions please ... I know they will have been probably asked before so I hope you don't mind.

I know a lot of you do really well with Avon - my main question is does it take up a lot of time for the money you get back (I know initially it will but once you get into the swing of things does it take ages?) I know it depends on how many customers you have - say if I had 20 customers.

Do you run 2 campaigns at once ... I am slightly worried about overloading people - it is tough times so I don't want to be too pushy

My last question I am thinking of getting some stickers with my name, avon rep, tel number etc for the order forms and books (possibly a t-shirt) does anyone think this is worth the money (possibly another £15 to the start up cost). To show people I am serious about it. We currently don't have one is our street (not that I am aware of and we have been here 4 years!)

TIA
Atbb x

I,_Geek

my main question is does it take up a lot of time for the money you get back (I know initially it will but once you get into the swing of things does it take ages?) I know it depends on how many customers you have - say if I had 20 customers. - like you say initially you'll be covering any streets you're allocated and sifting through the houses - building up a list of people you know are interested and those who say no. You'll also have a third list of people where you're just not sure and with these ones you'll probably set yourself a cut-off: "if they don't order after x campaigns I'll stop for now". Then you'll be in the stage of dealing with regulars. I call them regulars rather than customers because not all of this group of mine have ordered yet, or very often, but I know they're interested and reliable so they're covered every time (or as often as they've asked). I'm more-or-less in the "dealing with regulars" stage so I do one big collection of brochures per campaign and that's about 80 houses to go to. Takes about 2 hours. Prepping them seems to take me ages for some reason even though I set up a production line - it was about 3 hours to do 80.

I have 20-odd orders each campaign it take a couple of hours to put them in and do any creative ordering (getting the best price and any freebies).

If you want to get more uses out of your brochures per campaign it'll take up more of your time. For example, it would take less time to prep 100 brochures in one go and collect them in one go, than it would to have 25 brochures and get them out and in and back out again 4 times. If making the best use of your time is the most important thing, buying more books and doing concentrated bursts of Avon is the best way to go.

Do you run 2 campaigns at once ... I am slightly worried about overloading people - it is tough times so I don't want to be too pushy - customers only ever see 1 book at a time with me (and most other reps as well unless they're on holiday or something). We can order from 2 books at once so I give half my territory the current book (e.g. book 10) and I give the rest the backorder book (book 9). So I have half my territory always a brochure behind.

Were you thinking of giving people 2 books at once, then doing an order once every 6 weeks? If people can see 2 books they'll compare prices if they have the time, doing yourself out of earnings and/or extra cash. 6 weeks is a while to wait for an order. You'd be surprised how many people will order for several campaigns in a row. Most of my regulars see a book every 3 weeks but I stress that there's no obligation to order every time you see one. People just like to see what the offers are.

I am thinking of getting some stickers with my name, avon rep, tel number etc for the order forms and books (possibly a t-shirt) does anyone think this is worth the money (possibly another £15 to the start up cost). - you can order a stamp from VistaPrint for about £5 max including p+p. I think you'd go through the stickers very quickly. I use order forms once then they're in the bin because I also print the delivery day on. There's also a space for circling the brochure collection date (personally don't use this anymore because it's not obvious enough) but if you're using that, again you'll need fresh order forms.

We currently don't have one is our street (not that I am aware of and we have been here 4 years!) - if you're not given your own street at first you could explain to the ASM when they're there that you haven't seen an Avon book. If there's an allocated rep the ASM can see what's going on and possibly give you the street. Or you could leave it a campaign or two, then ask the ASM for more area. They'll be happier to give some out once you've placed an order, paid off your balance, proved you're reliable etc...

SusieWinwood

Morning all

I've finally took the plumge and am due to sign up to Avon this week. :j

I had a regular Avon lady a few years back who was fab, she gave it up and the next person well, was rubbish lol!

I've not had a book through for ages so I 'think' there is no regular person doing it.

I'm slightly apprehensive I won't sell/earn anything but I'll suss that out as and when I start.

I'll be having a squizz on this board getting hints and tips off you lovelies!

Alwaysthebusybee

I,_Geek wrote: »

my main question is does it take up a lot of time for the money you get back (I know initially it will but once you get into the swing of things does it take ages?) I know it depends on how many customers you have - say if I had 20 customers. - like you say initially you'll be covering any streets you're allocated and sifting through the houses - building up a list of people you know are interested and those who say no. You'll also have a third list of people where you're just not sure and with these ones you'll probably set yourself a cut-off: "if they don't order after x campaigns I'll stop for now". Then you'll be in the stage of dealing with regulars. I call them regulars rather than customers because not all of this group of mine have ordered yet, or very often, but I know they're interested and reliable so they're covered every time (or as often as they've asked). I'm more-or-less in the "dealing with regulars" stage so I do one big collection of brochures per campaign and that's about 80 houses to go to. Takes about 2 hours. Prepping them seems to take me ages for some reason even though I set up a production line - it was about 3 hours to do 80.

I have 20-odd orders each campaign it take a couple of hours to put them in and do any creative ordering (getting the best price and any freebies).

If you want to get more uses out of your brochures per campaign it'll take up more of your time. For example, it would take less time to prep 100 brochures in one go and collect them in one go, than it would to have 25 brochures and get them out and in and back out again 4 times. If making the best use of your time is the most important thing, buying more books and doing concentrated bursts of Avon is the best way to go.

Do you run 2 campaigns at once ... I am slightly worried about overloading people - it is tough times so I don't want to be too pushy - customers only ever see 1 book at a time with me (and most other reps as well unless they're on holiday or something). We can order from 2 books at once so I give half my territory the current book (e.g. book 10) and I give the rest the backorder book (book 9). So I have half my territory always a brochure behind.

Were you thinking of giving people 2 books at once, then doing an order once every 6 weeks? If people can see 2 books they'll compare prices if they have the time, doing yourself out of earnings and/or extra cash. 6 weeks is a while to wait for an order. You'd be surprised how many people will order for several campaigns in a row. Most of my regulars see a book every 3 weeks but I stress that there's no obligation to order every time you see one. People just like to see what the offers are.

I am thinking of getting some stickers with my name, avon rep, tel number etc for the order forms and books (possibly a t-shirt) does anyone think this is worth the money (possibly another £15 to the start up cost). - you can order a stamp from VistaPrint for about £5 max including p+p. I think you'd go through the stickers very quickly. I use order forms once then they're in the bin because I also print the delivery day on. There's also a space for circling the brochure collection date (personally don't use this anymore because it's not obvious enough) but if you're using that, again you'll need fresh order forms.

We currently don't have one is our street (not that I am aware of and we have been here 4 years!) - if you're not given your own street at first you could explain to the ASM when they're there that you haven't seen an Avon book. If there's an allocated rep the ASM can see what's going on and possibly give you the street. Or you could leave it a campaign or two, then ask the ASM for more area. They'll be happier to give some out once you've placed an order, paid off your balance, proved you're reliable etc...

Thank you for your response - I will hopefully once up and running do half my customers one brochure and half the newer one .... It's the feed back I am before I commit and get started

Thanks for the info regarding times etc - I am working with some figures to see which would best suit - I think more books would be the better option and doing a bulk drop

I,_Geek

Your ASM will give you 20 current books when they come over to sign you up, but you could ask if they have any backorder ones going spare (my understanding is that ASMs generally do and are happy to offload some when they can). 20 isn't a huge amount if you're given some territory - the average seems to be around 100 houses when you first sign up - so if you can get some freebies go for it! Otherwise you can wait and order some books for your second campaign to arrive with your first delivery. You'll still get 20 books for your second campaign free from the ASM, but again if you want to take the "more books/be efficient with your time" route it's worth ordering some extra ones.

I've put reliable people on the current brochure and unreliable/unknowns/new streets on backorder. It means on one street I've got a mixture of current and backorder but it's not a problem as long as you keep track in Excel or on paper. I got some new streets back in January and had them all on backorder, now I know who's reliable I've moved those ones up to current. When I do a re-canvas I use backorder books as well.

You sound a bit like me - liking to plan everything out before starting. I find I'm still tweaking things as I go along, but like to be prepared and not just dive in. Hopefully your upliner will be more forthcoming with some extra brochures/extra streets if they can see you're serious about it.

DON79

Hi all, still getting some orders delivered! but do you ever feel like some people are just deliberately messing you about as regards when to deliver? One customer asked me to deliver yesterday. So I sent her a text in the morning asking her to let me know what time, she replied saying it would be much later in the day. I got to half seven at night and she had not text so I text her to say I was popping out with deliveries for others which I had to do and did she want me to bring her order over. No reply. Have decided now am not going to text her again.

But now I am in two minds about whether to try deliver her order tomorrow without any warning as I have another order to deliver in the same street (next door).... would you try anyway or just wait on them texting?

Chazolate

Did you try at half 7? Or did you leave it? I would just pop round and see if she's in and say you were passing.

I'm so glad I came on here before I left to deliver my c9 books! As I didn't check the front of the "beat the high street" brochures, I just assumed they were to go in with the C10s they were delivered with! Thanks for pointing it out!

DON79

i just left it. will try tomorrow. when she does text it is phrased like a royal command almost lol. not the first time this has happened with her order either.

chalkswindon

Hi Guys,

If I could possibly draw on your knowledge.

The items in Hello Tomorrow do they count towards your MOV.

Iam looking at HT10 and some items to order with our camp8 order and wondered if things in there count,

ie samples, brochures, bumber box's clearance items etc

Hope you can help and thanks again