~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 7) ~

dean72

Hi I have been having a debate with wife about earning with avon I think if you give it full commitment (fulltime hours) you can make a fulltime wage but wife does not think so.
so thought I would ask is there a avon rep on here that is earning full time wage ( ten thousand a year earnings )
I know it will be hard but is it possible.

newbeginning_2

dean72 wrote: »

Hi I have been having a debate with wife about earning with avon I think if you give it full commitment (fulltime hours) you can make a fulltime wage but wife does not think so.
so thought I would ask is there a avon rep on here that is earning full time wage ( ten thousand a year earnings )
I know it will be hard but is it possible.

It is possible, but it would take a lot of hard work and time to be able to build the kind of customer base you would need to earn that kind of money

dean72

Time I have got loads of and not scared of hard work I know surrounding area have no Avon rep so planning on 100 brochures a day so will need 200 as doing rolling 48 hour collection during the week and delivery's on weekends. which means 500 houses should be covered a week not sure what ratio sale's to book is. But I will soon find out.
I have not even signed up yet and got 6 regular customers who used to order 3 years ago but rep left and seen nobody else. so hopfully the area is good one.

I,_Geek

dean72 - at first you'll be given a small territory to cover (much smaller than what you get from Betterware I believe). The average seems to be around 100 houses. If you wanted to canvas other houses you'd need to ask for extra streets and this can be easier said than done. Many ASMs (area sales managers - who dole out territory) would like to see you place a few orders first to check you're not going to do a runner with goods, pay on time, and place reasonable-sized orders. I've got 600 houses allocated but both the size and ease of getting them seems to be an exception. I'm working in an area with very few reps, and the ones who are nearby are working small-scale. This means whenever I've decided I'm ready to expand I've been able to have streets added. Plus I can actually get in contact with my ASM - some are figments of your imagination in other areas.

You have other options to gain customers: approaching local shops and businesses, doing carboots and fetes (hopefully at these you can earn more than 25% profit on sales), handing out brochures in the street (you might need council approval before doing this, and it could give you customers too far away to serve and still make a profit), giving books to everyone and anyone you know.

The area where you live may seem like it doesn't have other active reps, but there could be one just around the corner who doesn't serve your street (or friends) because it's not allocated to them.

Hopefully the area where you live will be as sparsely populated with reps as mine, your ASM is easy to speak to, and you can increase your round.

A few stats (just from my own experience but I like working them out) :

- Avon says 1 in 3 houses will order. It's very optimistic. I've currently got 13% as customers. 6% get Avon from elsewhere.
- 62% of houses told me they didn't want any more books.
- Over the last few campaign my average orders have been £11 - £15 per customer.
- I've had 32, 42, then 31 customers to serve over the last few campaigns.
- When I put books out (to people who've said they're interested) I get 30-odd% coming back with orders. At the same time I'm also putting books out to people I'm not so sure about but they won't be getting books forever so I decided not to include them in working out that 30-odd% stat.

You'll have people wanting the book for longer than you've given them, and deliveries not on your designated days, so there needs to be a bit of give in your routine. You'll also lose a fair amount of books at first. Even once you're dealing with regulars they'll occasionally forget/be on holiday.

If any customers on your Betterware round find out you're a rep and ask you to serve them, that's fine, but if your plan is to actively use the (much bigger) Betterware round to canvas for customers it could cause problems with reps allocated to those streets because Avon reps can only canvas the streets in their name on the mapping system.

MessyMare

dean72 wrote: »

which means 500 houses should be covered a week

To be honest if I wanted to cover this many houses I'd slow it down and give people more time with the books- with three weeks in each camp you're looking at two weeks' down time (one at the least, if you don't put out books in delivery week)...I say this because I've not yet heard of anyone with a territory of 1500 houses... getting a territory of 200 was hard enough for me.

I'd suggest reading this thread and talking to an SL before deciding your strategy...Lozza and I, Geek on here are minefields of information

MarsdenCuckoo

mummykins79 wrote: »

Hi. I have been a lurker on here for a couple of weeks reading through the posts and after asking friends and family if they would be interested in seeing a catalogue have finally decided to join Avon as a rep. However, I noticed some of you mention that it is better to contact a SL directly that apply by the website. I live in Farnworth near Bolton so are there any SL's on here from that area who would want to sign me up?

I work in the local area and am mainly interested in selling to friends and family and customers where I work. I would be interested in canvassing the area round where I live but not too far as I do not have a car and need to fit it in round my current job.

If someone could contact me that would be great.

Thanks

Sarah

Well done, Sarah; sounds like you are doing your research well before dipping your toe in the water. A good SL is worth their weight in gold as they normally have more time than Area Sales Managers and will help you grow your team as it's in their interests too. Unfortunately, am at the other end of the country otherwise I'd gladly sign you up. I did start another thread on MSE though where quite a lot of us 'voted' in a poll to show whereabouts in the UK we were. Long shot but maybe there's a SL, who's participated in that poll?

Was a while ago now so to be honest I can't even remember the title but if you search 'Avon' on the forums here hopefully you'll find it. Am dashing out now but if you can't find it, repost and I'll gladly search it out for you.

I,_Geek

ColleenPamela wrote: »

Lozza and I, Geek on here are minefields of information

Thank you. I'm only going off my own experience, though, which as I've said has been an easy ride compared to some.

My post probably sounded a bit negative, but it's true that if you want to do territory you're pretty restricted at the start and there are still limits no matter how much you've expanded on your initial allocation.

If you've got the means (time, no health issues, transport) there are other options to bring in sales.

I,_Geek

Going back to houses that said NO

These aren't houses where I've guessed they're not interested, it's people who ticked to not get any more brochures or told me at the door. Well, I'm re-canvassing them in a few week's time when my postcards arrive from Vistaprint. I thought postcards would be better than flyers because they don't crumple in the letterbox. I currently need 350, plus there's about 40 people getting Avon from elsewhere and the wording still works for them. It was only £7 more to get 1000 than it was to get 500 so I got the 1000 and will save the rest for re-canvassing again before Christmas. After that there'll still be some left but I made sure the wording wouldn't date. I'd put "I've been a rep for a year" but changed it to "since August 2010" for that reason. It came to £57 after VAT was added on (whopping £9-odd).

I realise using books would probably cost about the same, but even though I'm strongly in favour of not expecting people to contact you in the first instance, it's different going back to people who've said "no more books". Even an expired book is a book and they probably won't notice (even if I say "this is an expired book"). I see the postcards as fulfilling my re-canvassing obligation, but not going against what people have asked for or asking them to do anything (leave the book out, for example). My ASM suggested expired books so even she was happy with the "contact me..." route rather than insisting it has to be a backorder or current book to count as "keeping on top of your territory". She agreed that once every 6 months would be fine.

So here's the wording on the front:

Victoria's Avon

Then a picture showing some of their nicer-looking products. A Planet Spa tub of cream, an Anew serum, In Bloom, a Planet Spa tube, a lipstick. Focusing on the traditional bath/beauty items but they're the most popular items for me and I find the quality of the jewellery and other ranges a bit dubious at times. But I'm happy to push the rest as being as good as anything else out there.

I don’t deliver an Avon brochure to this address because I’ve been told not to in the past.

If circumstances have changed and you would like to start seeing a brochure, please get in touch and I will add you to my round.

Sorry to have bothered you if you’re not interested. I will continue to miss out your house unless I hear otherwise.

Phone
E-mail

Independent Avon Representative

And the back:

Personal Service
Using an Avon Rep means you get a personalised service. You’ll see the same person, every time. I’ve been a Rep since August 2010 and have a customer base who know I’m reliable and won’t let them down.

The Avon Guarantee
You can buy Avon products, open them, try them and return them within 90 days if you’re not happy. I’ll collect any items you want to return and give you a full refund.

Quality
Avon is an established brand, celebrating its 125th Anniversary in the beauty industry this year. They have the biggest Research & Development centre in the industry, and sell their formulas on to their competitors. All this without testing on animals. PETA recommends them as a cruelty-free company.

Sensitive Skin?
Avon produces a day cream, night cream, eye gel, and cleanser that are fragrance and dye-free.

It’s Not Just Make-Up
Avon offers toiletries, fragrances, haircare products, and jewellery - to name a few ranges - in addition to their make-up items.

The idea with the back side was to not have any pics (greyscale printing is free), and focus on the things people give as reasons for not wanting Avon - unreliable reps, returns, quality, animal testing, allergic reactions, and "I don't wear make-up" .

I realise this will never be as much of a persuasion as a brochure or speaking in person, but these people have all decided (mostly after having a brochure in the house) it's not for them so I don't want to be seen to be pushing it. If they're not interested all they have to do is put the card in the bin.

EDIT: There are also some houses I have down as "NO - Absolute". There are places where people were rude (only 3), or it was a widower. I think it would be insensitive to say "if circumstances have changed" when they've lost their wife/partner.

Claree__x

C12 Isn't looking so great for me. It's took me 4 campaigns to actually organise a calling book so life may be easier now. Picked up a lot of new customers during my last campaign but quite a few haven't ordered this time. Think I'm sitting around MOV at the moment with another pick up on Monday. Hoping f&f pick up the slack so I don't have to!

Chazolate

Hi,
I have decided to stop being a SL and return to being a Rep. I am finding it far too stressful and despite hours of hard work I have still got nothing to show for it!:(
I signed an old friend up a couple of campaigns ago and she wants this to be her last campaign of being a Rep. She works for a well known retail store in town and have had some big orders from colleagues there. I’m thinking about asking her if she would still take a book in for me, any ideas what I should offer in return?
Last time the delivery driver left her items in the porch and she wasn’t very happy that he left the door open. She has asked if I will take in the last delivery at mine. We logged in on her account and put in a request to change the delivery address. When we clicked submit it didn’t come up with any messages or change the delivery address on her profile page. Has anyone had any experience of changing the address? The order has to be sent by 10pm today, so I’m not sure whether to submit it or not!