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

lozza1985

Have updated the brochure links, have managed to find online versions for sale brochures 8 & 9.

Vicky3blum

Hi everyone. My family and I live in U.S.A. I was an Avon Rep in the past and have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the various tips.
I am an older other witha recently turned 18 year old son. L.J. has a variety of disabilities [some of them horrendously painful] He is eligible for Social Security because of them but he has much larger goals than that. He is unable to work a regular 9 to 5 [or anything even resembling it] and is hoping to build a business with Avon[and my assistance]
our goals may be a bit lofty but we were originally told that my son would never walk or talk and he proved the experts otherwise.
Here in the U.S. there are no longer territories [have not been for many years] and very few people go door to door[ mostr people here resent it because of the quantity of door to door salespeople]
We live in a fairly isolated area in the mountains of Colorado and I would imaginre that b ecause the homes are so widely spread that there are few solicitors, and that my son and I would be more likely to be received cordially than if we were to live in a more populated area.
I will be assisting my son extensively. for one because he will need much help, but also because I am unable to work a to 5 myself. [He is too ill. In addition at the first part of March I underwent a double mastectomy because of breast cancer. The chemo is affecting my physical and emotional being]
I will also be using the American forum as well, but I am super excited to find that in this forum there is so much emphasis on door to door.
One thing is that I don't know If I have the nerve to ask for the people we give books to to please put them out for us to pick up and use again. I'm thinking that you all are alot more thoughtful to other people than here in the states/
Thanks so much for reading this and I so appreciate any tips and especially anyone who helps keep us accountable to working our work in this endeavor.
Thank you again.
Vicky

Vicky3blum

Please excuse all of the grammatical and spelling errors. I even forgot to type in specific words. Chemo brain puts me in a mental fog which makes remembering "big words" [ yeah, like cat or dog lol] extraordinarily difficult.:(

Vicky3blum

;););)a few questions about going doorto door. Do you leave a note in the book asking people to please place them back on the doorstep to be picked up later or do you only ask for that when you speak to the people in person?
If no one is home and you hang a brochure on the doorknob AND they do not put your book on hte porch do you still ring the doorbell and ask if thee was anything in hte catalogue they would like to order?
thanks so much for any tips. My son and I will be utilizing other methods to find customers as well and hope to get into leadership but not until we have a decent ammount of customers. The intensive door to door is a method little used here and my son and I find the idea of making that the bulk of his business both exciting and intriguing.
vicky

lozza1985

Hi and welcome - hopefully Avon will be able to work for you and your son, I certainly hope so, sounds like you need some good news xxx

Here in the UK, we don't hang the brochure on the doorknob, we would either knock and ask if they would like a brochure, or just post it through the letterbox. But yes - I include a note in my brochure saying something like

Please leave the brochure outside for us to collect on THURSDAY, even if you don't want to order anything this time. Thank you, Richard & Laura.

I think from the sounds of it, that in the UK we are much more used to having direct sales brochures through the door, so people are used to leaving them outside for the person to collect, which perhaps isn't as common in the US.
Even after having the same customers for so long, I still have this on my notes, so that they leave the book out for us (or as in my post further up this page, they can also just contact us direct with their order).

If they haven't left the brochure out, I do knock and ask for it back, if it's a new house that hasn't ordered before, I'll ask if they would like to receive future brochures, if they say no, I just politely say thank you, sorry for bothering you. It at least means that you don't waste time going there again, if they wouldn't order anyway. If theres noone in, I just pop a note through saying if they would like to order from this times Avon brochure, please contact me by x date. In the UK we can order things called "calling cards", from our rep magazine, not sure if you have anything similar in the US though. It's easy enough to make the notes on a computer and print them out though.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend you take a look at the first post on this thread, and take a look at the facebook guide. I don't know if you have the same sorts of "for sale, swap, wanted local groups" that we have loads of in the UK, but if you do, I've found them to be a great way to advertise the fact that you sell Avon and gain customers. The link for the facebook guide I've done is here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=50783975&postcount=1740

Hope this helps a bit, it's nice to hear how different things can be in different countries, even though we're all selling pretty much the same products. I believe you sell a larger variety of products in the US?

Vicky3blum

Iozza; Thank you for the tips and words of encouragement. I have no idea whether or not we have more product for sale here but we do have alot.
One I know is different is that we have a different earnings table. There is a minimum ammount that needs to be purchased before therre is ANY discount. We also pay a fee for shipping and for an e-representative account. The discount ranges from 0 to 50 percent [ sales must be over $1500 in a 2 week campaign to receive the 50% discount. A $300 minimum order would entitle one to a 35% discount.
our books start out pretty pricey but the more ordered the more significant the discount. I know there are some reps who order their books in one reps order and then split the books with local reps to save money.[purchasing 100 books at once is about a third as expensive per book than ordering only ten for example]
Because our medical expenses now total 85% of our income we are living in a camper in a resort in the mountains of Colorado. We run the ice cream shop at the resort during the summer and hope that people will order Avon from l.j. during the winter on his representative website.[lower profits for online orders but better than nothing for sure]
As soon as L.J. puts in his first order we will order a couple hundred books and prospect zt the supermarket. We were given [long story] about 200 jars of skin softeners, shower gels, and hand lotions. We intend to put up a FREE AVON sign and allow everyone to choose their gift while handing out brochures and collecting names and numbers.
We also hope to have an open house at the clubhouse here at the resort but I suspect that most of the members here are a little "above" Avon products so I'm not sure how much that'll help. On the positive side though,y son is very much loved up here and members seen to want to support him because they know he has so many challenges.
Anyway, thanks again. I will let you know his sales before he puts in for his first campaign, though the numbers will be in dollars and I have not even a clue the difference between dollars and pounds.
By the way, as soon as he has an established customer base, we intend on recruiting a couple of rreps and then I will sign up as a rep at the same time.
Vicky

lozza1985

Interesting to see the difference between uk & us - our max discount is 25% for sales of £148 and above. We do get free delivery though, providing the order is at least £10, and for one delivery per campaign.

Our books perhaps might be cheaper - we pay £4.86 for the first 15, then 50p for each pack of 5, per campaigns book, sounds like perhaps we might have less charges, which might be why our max discount is less perhaps. Very interesting

Hopefully it will work for you and your son, fingers crossed for you both

MarsdenCuckoo

Hi Vicky3B,

As Lozza says, really good to see how Avon works the other side of 'the pond'. Of course, your fuel is still much cheaper than here and everyone drives rather than walks. (Here in the UK we get new team members because they actually want the exercise to walk from one end of the village to the other....)

We also try to minimise the amount of books we need to buy by splitting our customer base between the current and back campaign books. A book here in the UK lasts for two campaigns/six weeks and it's then suggested that we use expired brochures to find new customers.

Lozza has hit on a way to minimise her fuel costs - very similar to 'one stop selling' i.e. where every customer always has an Avon book at their disposal. Advantages are that they then, hopefully, show it to their friends/family and order more (especially if we offer a free gift for orders £x+ ) but does mean that you need to order more books i.e. one per customer rather than dropping/collecting 2-3 times per campaign.

Look forward to your further input and comparing notes. Good luck with everything.

lozza1985

Have updated the brochure links, have up to brochure 12 now.

MarsdenCuckoo

Thanks, Lozza - unbelievably quiet on here now isn't it? Am off on holiday tomorrow too so that's me gone until the end of the month.