Managing Your Avon Territory - Quick Step Guide

As a new Avon representative, the first thing you are trying to do is:

ESTABLISH YOUR AVON CUSTOMER BASE.

Sometimes the sales only come once you have proven to an Avon customer that you are reliable and trust worthy. In some case’s you have been given 150 homes to cover so you really need to know who the people are that you don’t need to go back to, so you can then concentrate on the people who want to see a brochure each campaign. If you read into your Avon territory report you will see that it tells you an estimate of how many customers you should have. What you need to do is find out which homes these customers live at, only then will you start to see the orders.

1. Only work to the Avon territory report that you are given. Read it and understand it. If you have any problems or you are not happy with some roads that you are given then seek advice from your Avon Sales Leader. Please do not deliver brochures to homes that you are not given. This can start to cause complications and problems for other Avon representatives and Area Managers.

2. Write out your order forms, making sure you include some of your contact details, the date you are going to collect the brochure and the date you are going to deliver the goods.

MY IDEAS:

- Write the door numbers and road on the very top of the order forms. Then you know who has exactly made an order or not when you collect the Avon brochures back in. You’ll be surprised how many customers forget, and if you have your hands full when you are collecting brochures and are unable to check and make a note in your book then you may be stuck with an order you will have problems delivering. Some say that it is wasting order forms but you can't really reuse them anyway, as your collection and delivery day are going to be different every time anyway, plus you can always order 1 pack of free order forms with every campaign.

- Make a little flyer for the front of the Avon brochure, introducing yourself and highlighting when you are collecting and delivering. Make tick box questions so you can try and pin point if the customer would like you to return with another Avon brochure.

- Highlight the part of the order form where it say’s “please leave outside on the date given”.

- Highlight that giving their mobile number helps you to keep them up to date with order totals and delivery dates. I include this on the flyer.

1. Deliver your Avon brochures. Make it structured and systematic. So, you could decide to just do the odd side of the road today and the even side in the following days to come.

2. Use the Calling Book to note down every home that you have posted an Avon brochure to so you don’t forget where your brochures are. This makes following up so easy, as you will soon find that follow ups is what is going to get you the bulk of your orders.

MY IDEAS

-Always post Avon brochures to EVERY HOME when you first canvass a territory. I do not advise to knock and ask if they would like a rep. They personally may not, but someone else in the household might. All the household may not want to buy but a visiting family member may.

-Don’t be discouraged by stickers warning off Junk mail and cold callers, etc. You will be surprised how many of these people will become a customer. If they do tell you off as you collect the brochure, then apologise, saying you only saw the sign once the brochure was posted and mark them in your calling book as a home not to return to.

1. Collect the Avon brochures on the date you have stated. The only time you will get away with not doing this is if it is raining. Collecting when you say you will shows the customer you are true to your word, reliable and trustworthy. When you start to do that all the time it will show that you are consistent. If you really can’t collect on the date stated then, if you have saved all the customers mobiles you can send them a blanket text with the alternative date on.

MY IDEAS

- If the Avon brochure is left outside but there is no indication if they would like another one (if you have used the tick box flyer) then knock on. Use a script such as “Hi, I came to collect the Avon brochure. Thank you for leaving it outside for me but you haven’t indicated if you would like another one” This is going to contribute to ESTABLISHING YOUR AVON CUSTOMER BASE.

- If the Avon brochure isn’t outside and they don’t answer the door then you NEED to leave proof that you have been. Avon do supply calling cards or you can make your own. Write on the time you came and details of how to contact you. If the territory is new then tell them another time you will call back. I personally have name, address, mobile, email and store link on all order forms and calling cards to limit me missing an order. Once they are regular customers I blanket text all the customers I wasn’t able to get the Avon brochure from telling them the final deadline they have until I place my order and also include my store link for their convenience.

1. Make notes in your calling book. In the beginning of the book it shows you a great system of how to keep records by using the B O X symbols. Keep to this and you won’t go wrong. You want to be able to look in the book and see, at a glance, who has ordered and who you are giving an Avon brochure to next time. You will also start to see buying trends that will help if you want to do a loyalty card scheme to entice customers to buying more.

WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR BROCHURE BACK FROM A NEW CUSTOMER?

Personally, I try them 3 times. If in that 3 times I have never seen them to ask them, had no contact via mobile/email, they have never filled the tick box flyer in and hardly ever given me my Avon brochures back then I wouldn’t continue to serve them. I would wait 6 months and then try them again (re-canvassing). However, I can afford to do this as my customer base is always very large so this really is your own decision. Some say to keep giving a book until you make contact with them.

BACK ORDERING TO HELP COVER YOUR AVON TERRITORY IN A SHORTER PERIOD.

Back ordering is great if you want to pay as little as possible for your Avon brochures but want to get as much use out of them as you can. To explain my method of how I integrate back ordering into my business I will use a scenario:

Campaign 1: I have been given 150 homes but only have 20 brochures. I deliver those 20 brochures to 1 street. and only receive 15 back. I get 6 orders and 2 said come back next time.

Campaign 2: I am given another 20 brochures from my Sales Leader but I also have 15 Avon brochures from camp 1. That means I have 30 brochures in total. I give my 6 customers, who ordered from camp 1 a camp 2 brochure with their order and post a camp 2 brochure to 2 customers who said come back. I know the others in that street don’t want to see an Avon brochure so I can now move onto the next street. I post the rest of my camp 2 brochures to the odd side and my camp 1 brochures to the even side. I again get orders and some say next time.

Campaign 3: I decided that I still have a long way to go until I have covered all my new territory so this time I order 60 Avon brochures and I still have some camp 2's left. All the customers who have already seen a camp 2 brochure will receive a camp 3. All the left-over brochures will be delivered to another part of my territory I have not yet covered.

It is VERY important that you make it clear on the order forms which campaign brochure you have given out and that you change the campaign box accordingly when inputting the product numbers on your Avon Business Page. If you don’t do this you could find that your invoice total will not add up to the monies you collect. The reason for this because products have the same number in different Avon brochures but the prices are different.

Once you have covered all the territory, and you know the people who want to be your customers, you could then think about ordering that exact same number of brochures for them each time.

MY IDEAS

-I have 120 customers so I buy 120 brochures. I deliver once and collect once. To me, my time is more precious than the cost of brochures. I would rather invest a little more money so I do not need to keep collecting brochures though out the week.

ONCE YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED YOUR AVON CUSTOMER BASE

After around the 5th or 6th campaign, depending on how many Avon brochures you have been able to put out, you should have established that everyone who you are now showing a brochure to want to be your Avon customer. They may not all order from you every campaign but at least half of your customer base should.

MY IDEAS

-Make sure you try to get the mobile numbers of every Avon customer. This is going to be invaluable to you for so many reasons:

1 – You can remind all the customers that you’re coming tomorrow so they can leave the brochure outside.

2- You can contact them if you are unable to collect the brochures on the date stated and tell them the alternative day.

3 – You can contact them as a final reminder if they weren’t in when you tried to collect their brochure.

4 – you can contact that customer if something doesn’t make sense on their order form when you are processing their order.

5 – you can contact them once you have packed their order to confirm total and delivery day.

Getting into a routine with Avon customers makes your life so much easier. If they know you always collect on a Sunday and you like them to leave it outside you will soon see that all your customers will get use to this and collecting brochures will take no time at all. If you offer the facility to customers that they can collect from you then you will find that you can stay at home while the Avon customer comes to you, instead of you always walking the streets. This doesn’t happen overnight. You should be trying to grow your Avon customer base every campaign. Even if your goal is to find 1 new customer per campaign. You can do this by venturing into businesses or asking your friends and family to take an Avon brochure into the businesses that they visit, but that's another blog! If this was helpful to you then please let me know. If you are considering becoming an Avon Representative then once you join my team I also have private Youtube videos that give more hints and tips on all aspects of running your own Avon Business.

If you take away two key phrases from this guide they are:

ESTABLISH YOUR AVON CUSTOMER BASE

&

FOLLOW UP WITH ALL YOUR AVON CUSTOMERS BEFORE AND AFTER COLLECTIONS AND DELIVERIES