~Avon Hints & Tips (Part 8) ~ Please read first post :)

Mumto2

Congrats MC - well deserved if you are as good with your reps as you are on here

Just got back from hols, delivery came on Thurs. All bagged up & ready to go out tomorrow. Was happy with C13 considering in middle of school hols.

Hope everyone is doing well

Mumto2

Anyone ordered the 'toning' slippers out of HT16?

Fancy them as live in my Fitflops, but was just wondering on quality & fit.

Thanks

missminx

Mumto2 wrote: »

Anyone ordered the 'toning' slippers out of HT16?

Fancy them as live in my Fitflops, but was just wondering on quality & fit.

Thanks

Are they the grey ones? If so, I had them and they are soooo comfy! They are fab, and they do feel like they work. HTH

I,_Geek

Re-canvassing houses that said no - update

Well I bought some re-canvassing cards to target houses who said they didn't want any more brochures. These houses were last approached anywhere between August 2010 and March 2011.

Cards posted - 216
Potential new customer - 1 She called to me from the window after I posted the card. I gave her a book but she didn't return it. Since I know she's interested I'll give her more than the usual 2 chances for non-returners. I'll treat her like anyone else who hasn't ordered yet. I didn't get any phonecalls or e-mails.

There are another 5 houses who would have got cards, who said they got Avon from someone else. I decided to knock and ask and it's a good job I did because I found out the other rep had stopped on the first house. So instead of posting cards I decided to introduce myself to the rest. Who knows, maybe the cards would still have worked since these are already Avon customers?

The re-canvas also got me some new customers from houses that are no longer empty/for sale/to let (they got a brochure, not a card). It's well worth making a list of all houses in that group in your area and keeping an eye on Rightmove to see whether they're about to get new occupants. I've got 4 who should definitely be in within the next couple of months.

I'm not too sure what to do about the houses who said no now. I've got plenty more cards and the idea was to go back once every 6 months. They make up a large chunk of my area (62%).

melvis

missminx wrote: »

Are they the grey ones? If so, I had them and they are soooo comfy! They are fab, and they do feel like they work. HTH

They are chocolate brown ones but look like the grey ones from last year, which come highly recommended from me and several of my customers xxx

joyfull

I Geek - thanks for your detailed postings. I find them useful to get a really objective factual picture on the REAL 'take up' of customers. Rather than Avon's extremely optimistic expectations of what us, as reps, 'should' be achieving.

My customers are mainly on the Park Home site where I live and I just about know everyone who lives on the site. I'm always aware of when people move (or die) and I simply cannot and will not pressure people to take a catalogue if they have said no.

Anyway, well done for getting some new customers, you deserve them.

Money_maker

Aesop wrote: »

Hi Money Maker, how are you? Hope Avon is treating you well.

Slight loss of enthusiasm at the mo, hoping it returns soon

Bestest customer died this week although she hasn't ordered for a few brochures. Need more customers, planning a recanvass once school starts again.

Too much to do, too little time. Off to do some listing on ebay now - one of my least favourite jobs.

missminx

melvis wrote: »

They are chocolate brown ones but look like the grey ones from last year, which come highly recommended from me and several of my customers xxx

Oh Dear... I suppose I should try them then! lol Will have to let my MIL know too as she loved them and wears her grey ones ALL the time.

I,_Geek

joyfull wrote: »

I Geek - thanks for your detailed postings. I find them useful to get a really objective factual picture on the REAL 'take up' of customers. Rather than Avon's extremely optimistic expectations of what us, as reps, 'should' be achieving.

My customers are mainly on the Park Home site where I live and I just about know everyone who lives on the site. I'm always aware of when people move (or die) and I simply cannot and will not pressure people to take a catalogue if they have said no.

Anyway, well done for getting some new customers, you deserve them.

Thank you.

I've said on Connects many times (and I even said recently on there, "I've said this many times..." ) that Avon's projections are very optimistic. There was a Guardian article recently and it said in there that Avon calls 1 in 3 women in the country customers. :eek: I notice on SMA they use that 1 in 3 to work out how many houses out of a postcode will become customers - which doesn't take into account that not every house has a woman living in it. Even so, when you think of all the competition out there 1 in 3 is extremely high. Of course we all know Avon's just as good or better than its competitors, but some houses just don't want to know. They either have a snobbish attitude and won't touch Anew let alone anything else, or don't like the idea of buying from a catalogue (even if they've met you at the door), or had an allergic reaction one time, or say an automatic "no" to someone at the door because they don't know/won't let you get to the point of saying Avon's no-obligation-to-buy.

I've had a Betterware and Kleeneze book over the last couple of weeks. I had a flick through both before deciding to ask not to get any more. I can see some of my houses have done this, but in others they've just ticked "no" and not had a look.

I'm thinking that now I'm more confident about the products, and have answers ready for people's objections, I'll try knocking on doors when I re-canvas in the summer of next year. That way they're not getting a brochure if they don't want one, but I might be able to overcome some objections. I won't do the hard sell, though, like the cold-callers who ring up and ask you again and again after you've said no. I'll just say, "Is there anything in particular that puts you off Avon?" while making it look as if I'm crossing them off the list already. Maybe that way people will think my "sell" is over, but if they've had a bad experience in the past they'll mention it.

There's one workplace I go to where one person buys and she said she'd raved about an Anew cream from the mini kit. I asked a co-worker if she'd be interested in a separate book for herself to take home but she said she wasn't keen on Avon. This is a small workplace so she must have heard the good reviews. Some people just don't want to give it a go.

In addition to my "no" group (who got cards this time), there's an "absolute no" group. This is widowers, frail old people, and a couple of people who were rude - no way I'm going back to those houses, even with a card.

Like you I live in an area where there's not a lot of people moving in and out and I can check Rightmove to be sure.

Something I noticed on Connects was that there's another poster who had 16% customers. He takes the approach of not including a yes/no form. I do, and I'm at 15%. Our rounds are a similar size (his might be a bit bigger). I thought it was quite telling that no matter the approach (one of which takes up more of the rep's time and money) we've ended up with the same number of customers. He'd have been going to more houses repeatedly, but they still weren't buying.

Another random thought... just to add to the list this post has turned into - even though I've mentioned the money-back guarantee to most of my customers in person, and all new customers have it written in my intro note (very clearly), I was still getting surprised looks from customers when I happen to mention it in person for the first time (or the first time in a while). When packing up some re-canvassing books I forgot the intro notes but then thought, "It doesn't really matter since I don't think anyone read them last time..."

Mumto2

melvis wrote: »

They are chocolate brown ones but look like the grey ones from last year, which come highly recommended from me and several of my customers xxx

Fab, can't wait to order them. Thanks!