~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 7) ~

lozza1985

Have altered the first post to include the new links

MarsdenCuckoo

cathj wrote: »

Looking for a little input. I have been doing Avon since the beginning of this year and I am 20 weeks pregnant. My sales leader has spoken to me about becoming a sales leader so if I need to ease off a bit when baby is born I will still have my reps. And everything is set up for me to go. In theory I like this idea.

However, I have been registered as self emplyed for about 2 years already due to mystery shopping and paying ni, so my understanding is I will be entitled to claim full maternity allowance. I hadn't even worked out yet if i would be able to work doing regular Avon around this. My sales leader basically said my sales leader money would go straight into my bank account so they wouldn't know. But I am really unsure what to do, I don't want to take this on and then let people down after a few months. But £130 ish a week maternity allowance is more beneficial to me.

First off - Congratulations!

As lozza says, the taxman is notified by Avon when a SL's bonuses/team earnings exceed £1,000 in the current tax year so be prepared for keeping receipts etc. to prove your income/outgoings. Have no idea how that would affect your maternity allowance so check that out first before you even think about going any further.

Am slightly more dubious about your timing.... it may work, all depends on how fit you are and how supportive your upliner is. Qualifying and looking after a new team can be very stressful and time-consuming though. Getting qualified is only half the battle; reps start/stop all the time so whilst you only need 5 reps inputting orders to qualify, realistically, you need at lot more than that - particularly if you are going to 'coast' along for a few months when Junior arrives as reps do tend to 'disappear'.....

What your upliner is suggesting may well work, just depends on the 'quality' of your sign-ups (some SL's sign up anything that walks/talks! :rotfl:)

If you were on my team, I'd be suggesting you work on building up your customer base in the run up to your confinement and mention that you are looking at SL'ship once things have settled down after your baby has arrived. It may be that you can convert some of your customers to reps so the bigger your customer base the more choice/chance you will have. Also you'll know/trust them and vice versa.

Obviously, your baby and family are all-important; personally I don't think it's a good idea to put yourself under the stress of initial SL'ship as you approach your third trimester.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

dean72

thank you Annie-c my next promo is going to be order introduce a friend and if both orders £10 they both receive free gift but I do take on board smaller orders so I will consider how to do promo on small orders. as any order to me is better than none.
and because I have big area there will be routine so customers get brochure for 3 days and I deliver the weekend after delivery all delivery's will be on Saturday and redelivery's Sunday then they have to contact me or order gets sent back.

I also thinking of incentives for next year loyalty scheme were if they purchase every campaign they will be entered into national lottery Xmas draw but still looking into this idea and there will be no minimum order.

MarsdenCuckoo

annie-c wrote: »

Hiya, I am an Avon customer (I shop online and use my mum's Avon lady). I just wanted to say that, as a customer, the most attractive think we find about our Avon lady is that her mantra is 'No order too small", and she is 100% reliable and always delivers and collects at the time she says she will (or contacts us if she is ill). She sometimes gives little gifts but the most important thing to us is that we trust her and feel free to order just a couple of shower gels if that's all we want.

If customers are spending £25 then they can get free delivery, cashback with quidco and free gifts too online, so unfortunately the online service tends to 'outdo' lots of the reps offers. But because we have got to know our rep slowly and have built up a friendship with her we tend to make small orders year round and then out of loyalty to her buy our bigger orders from her too, when we want opresents, or need lots of new make-up. (I should confess, I do shop online too because if I need new foundation etc then I don't want to wait 3 weeks to get it!)

All this to say though that although you obviously need to try to get big orders, pointing out the smaller things on special, eg the 99p shower gels etc, can also be a good way to draw customers in.

Thanks, always good to have customer feedback. Agree with you, a free shower gel for a £10+ spend would be preferable in my book; above that and the website is a hard act to beat but we win out by offering a personal service. Strangely enough I've had three customers this time, who have wanted to try lipsticks, nail varnishes and perfumes. All have entailed lengthy home visits, which actually I enjoy as it makes me feel like a 'proper Avon lady'. LOL

Lots of reps do keep a stock in of their customers favourite products and/or any particularly good deals so always worth asking if they have a certain product in stock i.e. when you run out and want something quickly or even what gifts they have in stock if you need an unexpected present, etc.

annie-c

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Thanks, always good to have customer feedback. Agree with you, a free shower gel for a £10+ spend would be preferable in my book; above that and the website is a hard act to beat but we win out by offering a personal service. Strangely enough I've had three customers this time, who have wanted to try lipsticks, nail varnishes and perfumes. All have entailed lengthy home visits, which actually I enjoy as it makes me feel like a 'proper Avon lady'. LOL

Lots of reps do keep a stock in of their customers favourite products and/or any particularly good deals so always worth asking if they have a certain product in stock i.e. when you run out and want something quickly or even what gifts they have in stock if you need an unexpected present, etc.

It's a shame for hard working reps that the internet offers are so difficult to beat. Shows how much money goes to the tiers of upliners that they can afford to give stuff away so cheaply when you take all that away.

lozza1985

It's also a shame about waiting for delivery - had a customer order from me once, then say they'd be ordering online so they get their stuff sooner. I can't beat that, even an additional order as a rep usually takes a week. The only consolation was that she struggled leaving her book out for me, so at least it's saved me some hassle, but even though my customers get exclusive offers from me, and a free gift for every 6 orders (regardless of how much they spend), she's still gone to ordering online as it's quicker.

[Deleted User]

Not been here in a bit as been busy with my full time job. I was tagged as a sales leader a week last Tuesday and have signed up 2 reps. My goal is to have 100 by this time next year! I am handing in my notice at my full time job on Friday as I am going back to uni in Sept to do an MA in Social Work. so as of the end of August I will be free to dedicate a bit more time to avon and will be getting a territory again (moved house in March so will be getting a territory near to my new home) Any tips on prospecting for reps will be greatly received!

MarsdenCuckoo

drinkupretty wrote: »

Not been here in a bit as been busy with my full time job. I was tagged as a sales leader a week last Tuesday and have signed up 2 reps. My goal is to have 100 by this time next year! I am handing in my notice at my full time job on Friday as I am going back to uni in Sept to do an MA in Social Work. so as of the end of August I will be free to dedicate a bit more time to avon and will be getting a territory again (moved house in March so will be getting a territory near to my new home) Any tips on prospecting for reps will be greatly received!

Well done you and good luck with your plans going forward.

Your upliner should actually be helping you get your first handful of sign-ups i.e. supplying the books, sign-up packs, etc. ideally until you qualify within 2-3 campaigns.... Is that happening?

As for tips, a lot of SL's go swooping/'buggy bashing' i.e. stop people on the streets (especially mums with buggies as they're considered a good lead i.e. at home and possibly looking for a bit of extra income) and ask if they've got a rep and/or would like to be one. To be honest, I've had loads of leads that way and not actually signed a single one up.... My ASM says it's my technique (or maybe lack of! :rotfl:)....

Check out your customer base, you may also find some potential reps there.

[Deleted User]

MarsdenCuckoo wrote: »

Well done you and good luck with your plans going forward.

Your upliner should actually be helping you get your first handful of sign-ups i.e. supplying the books, sign-up packs, etc. ideally until you qualify within 2-3 campaigns.... Is that happening?

As for tips, a lot of SL's go swooping/'buggy bashing' i.e. stop people on the streets (especially mums with buggies as they're considered a good lead i.e. at home and possibly looking for a bit of extra income) and ask if they've got a rep and/or would like to be one. To be honest, I've had loads of leads that way and not actually signed a single one up.... My ASM says it's my technique (or maybe lack of! :rotfl:)....

Check out your customer base, you may also find some potential reps there.

My first rep sign up was a lead given by my asm she showed me the ins and outs of the SL website and to conduct the sign up meeting with the new rep to be. She sat in on my first sign up too. She has said that we will go out again but not sure when as she has been off sick and I have not had many rest days off from work. I am mainly asking for tips so I can get started myself. I have Friday off from work and would like to go out recruiting. I did make some flyers and put them through doors in my street, I have advertised on facebook, made my own website, posted on twitter and put an add on gumtree but so far nothing.

Mumto2

My story so far.....

I'm working on my 4th campaign - results so far
C9 - £225
C10 - £235
C11 - £82 :eek: (just heard from a customer they want to return £20 of underwear!)
I've got approx. 210 houses in territory, by the end of this campaign, all houses will have had at least 3 catalogues.

I've picked up 22 customers
28 said no more
rest just keep putting catalogues back out

I've decided for the next 2 campaigns (during schools hols) I am just going to give catalogues to customers. Then I'll start canvassing again from Sept onwards.

Houses in my territory range from £80k flats through to £750k houses. Customers are spread evenly throughout although I have 3 roads which haven't managed to get any orders from.

People in territory are generally really good about leaving out books on time, definately the next day with a reminder card. I'm losing very few books.

When I start canvassing again in Sept, am going to get a bit clever with having some streets on back order so I can buy less books & use more effectively.

Overall, I'm enjoying it - although was hoping for more than 10% customer take up. Although when I realised that my efforts this campaign had earned me £1.30 I wasn't so pleased. Also, it's making me smile more when I'm out & about - thinking that a (potential) customer might be driving past me while I'm on the school run so I should cheer up :rotfl: