Day 42 - Ready for the Rush

I've had a few days off - as you can choose your days and choose your hours.

I am fully refreshed and ready for the products to arrive with me tomorrow and of course the Campaign 6 brochures. I feel quite excited as it is my biggest order so far (I'm only on my second campaign). I have a box for returns waiting by the front door ready to give to the delivery driver when he arrives.

All set and READY FOR THE RUSH :)

Day 37 - Double Orders and High Commission

I did about 2 hours work on AVON. But it has paid off considerably putting myself out this week - I have an order total of £349 :) which will give me a cool £80 in profit - very happy lady on her second campaign!!!

I haven't done anything extraordinary, I haven't done anything that anyone else could do. I have grafted a couple of times this week. I have been motivated and enthusiastic. When it was wet and rainy I didn't get put off or give in.. it just got on with it. If you can work hard you will get paid!!!

- Today, I followed up my blitz by picking up the brochures from the last two drops (once for the stragglers and once for the area I had just visited - and on that second area I left a little note through the door if they hadnt left out their brochure (as before)
- I was happy to pick up more orders :);
- I popped in to say HI to a friend I havent seen for ages who is actually on my round, while I was there she ordered too;
- I got back and repacked my books and put them out to the remaining houses;
- I updated my spreadsheet of my customers and their orders;
- I binned the Campaign 4 brochures, (as I will be backdating to 5 and they'll be redundant now;
- I put my order in;
- I ordered brochures;
- I checked my order, by looking at the view subtotals and putting in each product number to check that my customers put in the right price (one didnt - no problem); - I checked my customers totals on their order forms (don't want to collect the wrong money!);
- and I processed the order off to AVON;

Now I will be having a few days off :)

DOUBLE ORDERS & HIGH COMMISSION MAKE ME A HAPPY AVON LADY!

Day 36 - Half Term: Help or Hindrance?

For most of the UK it is the start of HALF-TERM... how do you AVON Ladies with children find this... HELP or HINDRANCE?

Myself, this week I want to take the little one to a few places and visit some friends, so I have planned it that I will not be AVON-ing much until the end of the week.

If we were going to be here at home, I am pretty sure HALF TERM would be a HELP - my daughter (age 10) loves to come about with me picking up books or posting them out - so an extra pair of hands really - she is very helpful bagging up the brochures and really interested in sorting out the product order, so I think I have to vote it in as POSITIVE.

Blog Readers Let me know what you think?

Day 35 - Brochure Blitz brings Orders

FAB Result from the 100 brochure blitz on Tuesday - a great boost to orders and new customers - very happy! Exceeded my top target of £150 of orders by nearly £100...

So it really is true that what you put in you will get out. It didn't take that long to put the brochures round on Tuesday. And when the rain stopped this morning I got out there to pick them up. I got super-organized and took with me:

- my wheeley shopping trolley bag thing so I didnt have to carry too much;
- a pen and paper with list of addresses I had dropped to (as I didnt want my calling book to get soggy);
- a tea-towel (with the intention of drying any wet ones before reposting them);
- new calling slips to change the existing ones and say I would collect Friday (actually I will collect Saturday, but I find if I put Saturday and went at say midday most people would not have put them out by that time, so if I say Friday it works better;
- And some other slips of paper that said "AVON CALLING - I came by to collect your book today, while you were out.... etc etc" (which I put through all the doors of the houses who didnt give the books back);


I had a right result with lots of orders and actually lots of people had put their books out for me. I went back to the car and set myself up leaning into the boot to dry off the books, change the pick up slips, carefully taking out any orders and replacing those with fresh new order forms, repacked the trolley-bag - this took about 10 minutes.
Then, I went off and posted into the rest of the new area with the collected-revamped books. I nearly got round all of those houses before running out.

So I will now go back on Saturday to the original area, then the ones I put out today and hopefully do another car boot repacking and finish the area at the weekend.

Any orders after this Saturday for me will have to be collected the following weekend as I have a few days off planned, no problem though, I can just add them to my next order.

Got back and felt so enthusiastic that I put my order online on the AVON website (without actually sending it), made a spreadsheet of my customers so far and updated another sheet with the houses I need to call back to etc etc.

All that and I was finished sitting down eating my cheese sandwich with my salt and vinegar crisps by 12:45 JOB WELL DONE! :)

Day 33 - Inspiration for 'Wannabe' or New AVON Reps

WOW - I've been hunting around for some great AVON Videos and I came across a lady called Debbie Davis... watch this video for some REAL INSPIRATION.

Day 33 - 100 Brochure Blitz

YEP, I managed to get some extra brochures today from my Area Sales Leader and a couple of new territories to put them out in... So I went for it.

It took me about 40 minutes to get them ready, writing my details onto the order form, putting that inside the brochure with a slip to say which day I will collect and putting them in sandwich bags (as the weather has been terrible, they would get wet before I pick them up).

Then it took me just under an hour to find the new streets and pop them through the letterboxes. Feels good - now let the orders roll in!

I will be heading back to pick them up on Thursday, then a second round for the people who are a bit late on Saturday.

Day 32 - Orders through my Letterbox!

Great idea, I have had a bit of a cold, hence a couple of days without blogging (sorry!). I put out my brochures, half in my other area and half in my own street, firstly to existing customers (who had previously ordered), then following up with those who actually left the brochure out last time. The response has been good.

As the weather has been quite snowy and wet, what with that and the cold, I though I could try a new thing and put a little personal sticky note on the brochures, saying

"It's me, your neighbour at No.21, please leave the book out on ...... day OR you can pop it through the door with your order when you have finished with it!"

Well, I must say, it has worked a treat! I have had 3 books through the door, two with orders of over £30 each! Thank you neighbours!

Day 28 - Handling Customers with care!

I am still enthusiastic with my AVON and with my customers, but thought I have to blog honestly and say what happens when it happens. This week there have been two slightly tougher, more intricate, challenging customers to deal with.

Customer One,
she bought from the previous Rep, returned the stuff to her before Christmas, having paid for her order in full and had not received a refund. It has taken several weeks (since the first day I started AVON, so 4 weeks) to get this sorted out.

Thankfully, my Area Sales Manager managed to get involved and speak to the previous rep, the customer has got the goods back and now has the product numbers to return the items to AVON with a letter explaining what's happened.

By the sound of it, AVON have been really helpful and from my point of view I have not had to DO too much towards getting it sorted out, only to point my new customer in the direction of AVON and give out a few numbers, be here on the email and offer empathy throughout the process.

I went with the old-school mind-set that the "customer is always right", I apologised on behalf of AVON, I gave the previous rep the benefit of the doubt, without getting involved in any kind of name calling or talking about anyone.. and so it is dealt with!

Customer two,
First of all when she made an order and I went to deliver the products and ask for payment, she had her own idea of how avon worked, as the previous rep had given her the products to try out with a new catalogue and then returned for the order and the payment a few days later. I listened but politely said that on this occasion I could do that, but it isn't how I will be working. I will be bringing the order and taking the payment on delivery. I'm not sure that she really liked that.

So, I called her a couple of days later to see if she had finished with the brochure and would be ready to make payment for the products if I popped by on Friday.

Well! She said that she tried the perfume but didn't really like it, so will be returning that, she had the wrong shade of foundation and will be returning that and isn't sure about the other thing. She said she has ordered something out of the next book to 'try'.

It seems that out of a £26.50 order, she will be returning about £22.50's worth of goods - for which I will now need to do the administration for the return AND will probably lose £5.50 commission.

I am not best pleased by the situation with Customer 2. I will honour this next order, making it clear that payment is upon delivery, which hopefully might put a stop to her 'trying' out the products (on my time and my money). It is a pain to say the least!!!

I know AVON has a 100% money back guarantee, and that is one of the great things, but there is returning something occasionally and then there is taking the ...... HMMM!!!

So - I think I am handling the customers well, but I will not let them cause me a lot of extra work or run rings round me. Customer One needed some help but was very friendly and has taken it upon herself to make most of the effort, just letting me know what's happening and asking me when need be. Customer two, I have been polite and considerate so far, but she is just ONE customer out of around 200 possibles and I cannot afford to spend this much time and effort on her 'trying' stuff out.

Day 27 - Brochures out to a select few

I have only a handful of brochures at the moment, so I have only put them out to the customers who made an order or showed a great deal of interest. I am giving them three days to have a browse and will pick them up on Saturday.

I am a bit concerned that with just a handful of brochures this time, I may have a bit of difficulty achieving my top target of £150 total orders, we shall see....

Day 26 - Question about no Internet

Another potential REP wanted to know if they could join without an Internet connection?

Simply YES, though you will need an email address (which I could help you set up if need be)
Some internet is required to sign on though the sales leader can do this sign up on their own device, asking the new REP to click SUBMIT at the appropriate moment.

As for putting through orders, it is fine for REPS to phone their orders through directly to AVON.

The one thing a REP could miss out on if they don't go on the Internet is all the fantastic advice, training and marketting materials that are available on AVON Connects. Though I would advise a new rep to log on at a friend's house or go to their locally library at some point to have a look around this section.

Day 26 - Question about no bank account

Another REP who wanted to join my team asked if it would matter if they do not have a bank account?

It does not matter. Your AVON Account (Orders) can be paid for in the Post Office or in HSBC.

Day 26 - Question about Jobseekers Allowance etc

I was approached by someone wanting to join my team as a rep, two different people actually, who were concerned about how working for AVON would affect their Jobseeker's Allowances.

The official answer is this, that you should declare all of your earnings that you have - it is NOT the responsibility of AVON to deal with your Tax or Jobseekers affairs.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- WOW - I've had such a good response to this question I thought I should post some of the answers from other AVON members and reps who participate in AVON Connects so that you can read all of their advice for yourself...

"You are allowed to earn up to £90/ week whilst on job support. They need to check for themselves."

"- that is wrong its only £5. A week max. Probably best to check yourself. "

"I have a rep who works 1 hour x 5 per week. So if thats minimum wage = £25-30 a week - still needs to be declared though. "

"You do need to declare it to hrmc not matter how much is earned per year"

"I asked someone at the job center as i was asked this question and the lady i spoke to said it very much depends on their curcumastances as many people on JSA have other benifits too. She did say that some people will be entitled to continue claiming JSA or another benifit but my loose out on their other benifits. Her advice to me was ask anyone interested to ask their contact at the job center or tax office and they will assess them on an individual basis. "

"Every person's situation is different and it is up to the applying rep to find out what theirs is. You cannot do it for them. xx "

"i found this out for myself when i first started - direct from the Job Center who guided me in the right direction to get the answer, back then i did 16 hours work with avon and still claimed jsa, which i got the full amount. but after being hassled into going to pertemps every week to help me find work i decided enough was enough and upped my hours to 30 so i was classed as full time and now i get working tax credit. "

""It is £20 per week maximum - though you should check yourself. I have had a rep declare hers however she is getting more than her job seekers so she is sticking to avon!
Depending on their age though there are other benefits that reps may be entitled to so I always advise my reps to go to the CAB after 3 campaigns as the benefits agency allow a grace period. (I re started avon in october and was given a grace period until december however I am on a different benefit!)
But yeah the CAB is better to go to because you can go annonymously (sorry if spelt wrong) and they will give you partial advice.
They will also have to declare it with tax but again they won't have to send out any forms etc until the reach a certain threshold which is again different for peple depenging on how much they get on benefits.
Aslong as your reps do it within first 3 months (information is on direct gov website) they are absolutly fine :) "

"...your income from Avon must be declared to HMRC regardless of which benefits you are on or any thresholds. xx "

Day 25 - Another Day another Dollar

Collected my brochures and although only around 50% had left them out on this occasion (so I will need to pop back and do a bit of door knocking perhaps), I got I nice order for £26.50 from a new customer - someone who didn'd make an order last time :)

I also put in about 10 minutes work tonight making a couple of phone calls as a Sales Leader - you can read how that went on my other blog - CLICK HERE

Day 24 - Appointed a new REP whilst having a day off!

It was a lovely day off, friend over for dinner, kids playing etc etc

Then my friend and I got talking about what we have been up to and...

She decided she would like to join AVON too!

So I have signed her up as a REP in my team...

Read about it here in my SALES LEADER Blog

Day 23 - Meet the Customers

Got out this afternoon for half an hour and collected most of the money for the products that had been ordered on Campaign 4.

I just went around to the people in my own street (which was 8 out of my 10 orders) and everyone except one was in and paid me.

Easy process, knock on the door, they know who you are, they are expecting you, they get their money and pay you. Had a little chat with a couple of them about this and that - nice to get to meet the customers face to face.

I took a float with me (a bag of smaller change, so that it was easy to give the customers the right change and there was no faffing about).

I also put in a nice sample perfume card in each order. The one thing that I could have and will do better next time, is have the orders in AVON carrier bags (which I hadn't realised that we need to order ourselves, but that I will make sure I have in future.