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

joyfull

Hi everyone,

I quit Avon and 5 days later at 2am I freaked - I need the money. So I did a u turn and came up with many ways to minimise the energy expenditure in running the business so I can manage it (hopefully) with poor health and little stamina. Basically no more running after customers. They contact ME if they don't leave a brochure out and no more reminder notes for delivery days etc.

Many many customers have been so sweet & concerned & I hope it translates into them doing their bit. Anyway, I'm so glad still to be doing it, I'm hooked on creative selling & love so much of it all.

One thing, has anyone any tips as to how to minimise the chatting on the doorstep during deliveries. It just kills me, my legs feel like they won't hold me up. How does one kindly & firmly keep it just to delivering order, collecting money, being friendly but not having to hear about the last 3 hospital appts etc. They're used to me politely listening to it all & I don't know how to change the pattern. Any ideas?

Pips_Mum

Hi Joyfull

When I was very poorly whilst pregnant with LO I felt exactly the same, standing at their door chatting used to drain everything from me. I asked OH if he would make the deliverys for me, I would text the Customers and let them know I was unavailable, poorly, whatever and that OH would be coming instead. They never chattered with him and he used to get it done in half the time! I still dropped the books off, unpacked delivery and everything else he just did the deliverys. I also used to get them to email me their order so I didnt have to go back out, by this stage I knew who would order in a street and who wouldnt, not the most efficient use of books I know but it always got me orders still.
Hope you can keep going with your Avon x x

joyfull

Thanks for that Pips Mum. So, I'm not alone! It's the single thing with Avon that exhausts me most. My lovely B/F has really helped with deliveries in the last few months & it does solve the problem when he turns up at the door. We even get him to sit outside when I'm delivering in a running car so it's obvious I'm on the move - but not everyone 'gets it'.

lozza1985

Yes it's difficult - I have to say, it's usually when I deliver that people just hand over the money and have a short, polite chat, but with husband he'll talk the hind leg of a donkey so he can actually take longer lol. I'd say the best way is to get your bf to come out with you, even just to sit in the car as you say. When me & husband do the deliveries (depending on our shifts, sometimes he goes by himself), if we're both together and there's a few deliveries near to each other then we'll each go to a couple each, perhaps the customers seeing us holding someone elses order makes them realise we have to get going??

Hope you make it work for you, before christmas I decided to change how we'd been doing it for nearly 3 years - we used to have calling cards from vistaprint for if the book wasn't out, saying we'd return the next day. We would get orders in these outstanding books, but it peed us off no end having to go out again, using our time & fuel. So, now I sticker up calling cards to say if they want to order anything this time, to contact us with their order by monday 6pm & it has our contact info on. (Our order is always due in on a tuesday.) Customers haven't questioned it actually, and have been happy to get in touch with their orders. I've always done it if customers aren't in for their delivery, then they get a calling card asking them to contact me. If they don't, they don't get their order, I find it rude having to chase after them when I told them in the first place when I would be going - no point running round after your customers if you can help it, they'll soon learn and probably be happy to help you if they realise it's been making your health suffer.

I've been working on getting contact info for my customers over the last year so that instead of a delivery note I either email, facebook, or text them the info. You can even text to landlines. I've found that has saved a lot of time & effort. I think it was Ellibee who used to pop a note through when she collected the brochure with a day/time she'd be delivering & wrote on how much their order was for - but only works if you can plan that far ahead (which we never manage.)

Hopefully you can find a way to make it work for you - perhaps some of your customers would want to text/ring/email their order rather than you collect the brochure - you could word it so that you're doing them a favour by letting them have the book for longer, which would save you having to collect some books in.

joyfull

Lozza , thanks for taking the trouble to reply in so much detail. I've just come home from w/e from staying with B/F to a letter from HMRC who were investigating my self employed working tax credit claim (which included Avon) & they've approved everything I submitted!! What a relief. It means I can relax that bit more with Avon & not feel so anxious for business thus running myself ragged for customers.

Thanks again for this wonderful thread everyone. It's incredibly supportive.

lozza1985

It's no trouble I like helping

That's great news! Fingers crossed your customers come up trumps too

allchange

Am a bit worried, had to use my bfs card as mine not working due to pin mess up, he paid, i ignored payment message and put through this months order (trying to stick to sunday orders as out house 7-7 mon- weds with my day job) when finished that checked balance and it says still owe them for first order. Apparently there was a code i should have copied down, but of course i didn't and now can't access it, has this ever happened to anyone else and what should i do? Am going to text my upliner in the morning, but just in a bit of a pickle really.:(

lozza1985

I wouldn't worry too much at the moment, I've found my payments don't show up straight away, but when I check the next day it's fine. I would just jot down the code in future, but I wouldn't stress about it you'll probably find your account is clear in the morning. But if it's not, get in touch with your sl.

I,_Geek

Time-saving - even though I read the suggestion from other reps a while ago, I'd never tried the following until last campaign: writing order confirmation notes on the doorstep while collecting brochures. I know off by heart who doesn't have an e-mail address so I know at those houses that I have to check if there's an order. If there is I just do the confirmation note there-and-then. I was going to wait until lighter and warmer evenings came along but decided to give it a go now. It's saved up to an hour's trip every campaign posting the notes. I thought it would be too fiddly but it wasn't. I use a satchel to keep my hands free and that contains a plastic wallet full of "contact me if you want to order" notes and order confirms (2 separate wallets). I got some A6 Snopake ones on eBay.

Worst case scenario is I miss an order because it's hidden in a book, but going out to post 1 or 2 notes per campaign is still a lot quicker than having to do 10. Last campaign I spotted them all.

I've noticed quite a few of the long-term/top-selling reps on Connects are also strict with their rounds. I'm skeptical that going back and forth for stragglers actually brings in more sales (why I stopped doing it in the first place) and reps seem to be doing fine with this stricter method.

If you have e-mail addresses for people, and leave the books for a long time, you could e-mail a day or two before brochure collection to remind them. Might prompt some people to look through the brochure and they'd have otherwise forgotten.

Mumto2

re above.
I include a small slip with each brochure which includes any highlights, date I need will be collecting & order delivery dates along with my contact details.
These slips are invariably left in the pack when I pick up orders, so I take them out of pack, write 'thanks!' on it, then post back through door.
That way they know their books has been taken by me & also have details of when I'll be back.
Works well for me & avoids too much printing!