Here are some instructions to find the Avon
Transcription
Here are some instructions to find the Avon
AVON Training Manual -1- -2- Contents Topic Page How to find the Avon Representatives' Website. ................................. 5 Terms and Conditions of your agreement with Avon. .......................... 6 First Stationery Order .......................................................................... 8 How to Enter Your Order Online. ......................................................... 9 Checking your delivery from Avon. .................................................... 11 Claiming Gifts. ................................................................................... 13 Paying Avon. ...................................................................................... 14 How do I get paid by Avon? ............................................................... 15 How to Raise Credits Online. ............................................................. 16 Replacements .................................................................................... 17 Order and Delivery Dates. ................................................................. 18 Brochures. ......................................................................................... 19 The two campaign ahead rule ........................................................... 20 Why should you order plenty of books? ............................................. 25 Pink Order forms ................................................................................ 26 How to tempt your customers to buy in each campaign. ................... 27 Do Not miss out on Discount ............................................................. 29 How to pack your customer’s order. .................................................. 30 Presidents Club ................................................................................. 31 Avon Parties. ..................................................................................... 32 How to have a Pink Party for Breakthrough ....................................... 33 Moneymakers in First Look ................................................................ 34 Increasing your Sales ........................................................................ 35 Delivery Bags. .................................................................................... 37 Brochure bags ................................................................................... 37 Back Ordering. ................................................................................... 38 How to split your territory and run two campaigns together. .............. 39 What happens if I don’t want to keep covering my territory? ............. 40 A Summary of Terms Used by Avon ................................................. 41 And Finally ......................................................................................... 42 -3- Please read these notes and keep them in a safe place for future reference. They are designed to help you to achieve success whilst informing you of Avon’s rules & procedures. ‘ The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary’ All Avon Representatives are self-employed. Avon advise you to inform the Tax Office (HMRC). If you are on benefits Avon advise you also to inform the Job Centre or Benefits Office. Maggie Hooker, Advanced Avon Sales Leader 07587 188 950 maggie@maggiesmarvels.co.uk 27 March 2015 -4- How to find the Avon Representatives' Website. To get into the website, go into Google and search for “Avon UK login”. Then select the “register or login” option from the results that come up. Usually it is at the top of the list. On the right hand side of the login screen, enter your account number and password and hit Login. (DO NOT login as a customer). I recommend that you create a shortcut via an icon which will take you into the login screen without going via your search engine. (Click on favourites, click on add to favourites, find it on the favourites list and drag it onto the desktop). I also suggest that you create an icon for http://www.maggiesmarvels.co.uk/ (our team’s website). -5- Terms and Conditions of your agreement with Avon. 1. Avon will not despatch another order to any representative until payment for the previous order has been received a. Don’t ever leave good with a customer without getting the money. b. If your customer cannot pay for her goods the first time you try to deliver, make an arrangement to go back a couple of days later. c. If she still cannot pay you are perfectly entitled to say that you are liable to pay Avon for her goods; you can’t afford to do that if she doesn’t pay you so you are going to have to return them to Avon. Then follow the step by step instructions entitled ‘How to raise credits online’ in this training manual. Or, alternatively, you can Google http://www.maggiesmarvels.co.uk/ to find the same topic with similar instructions. 2. As I explained when I met you, Avon will charge you the joining fee of £16 by adding £10.00 to your first invoice and £6.00 on your second invoice. 3. If you fail to submit an order for 3 consecutive campaigns you will be automatically removed by the computer. Later if you want to come back you will be charged the two instalments of the joining fee again. 4. You are required to give me (your upline Sales Leader) one campaign’s notice if you want to give up. This is to enable Avon to try to find a replacement either from the list of customers in your calling book or by other means. 5. You are required to keep your calling book up to date at all times. They are free of charge but remain the property of Avon. When yours is full just order another one. Take it out with you and update it as you drop and collect your books. (This is really useful when you are canvassing your territory so you can record where you ran out of books so you know where to start again!) I hope you won’t ever want to leave my team but if you do the calling books are what I would want you to return to me so that Avon don’t leave customers without seeing a book. -6- 6. You are expected to submit an order EVERY campaign even if you are unlucky enough not to get enough to earn you any discount. You will still have customers waiting for their goods. There is no minimum order value that you have got to submit to Avon so if you are going on holiday for a whole campaign or have been too ill to work, as long as you order something for yourself and your order is over £15 you will still get your free delivery, you can order your next lot of brochures, you will still receive your free First Look magazine and you will avoid being removed.. 7. You must submit your order on time every campaign, remember the final deadline is always 10 pm on your order date. If you can’t do this for any reason you must phone me so that I can either suggest how to get around your problem or let the Area Manager know why you are not submitting an order this time. 8. To be a self employed Avon representative you must be 18 or over. 9. If you forget to order your next lot of brochures Avon will always send you one so you have something to work with. This is one of the conditions of your contract. They charge you the full price for this and one is not enough! So don’t forget to order books each time. 10. Do not deliver Avon products in anything but an Avon branded bag. Apart from giving a professional image, the bags advertise your business and they help to remind customers to shop with Avon through you. 11. You are only allowed to put books through the letterboxes of people you don’t know in the territory that has been given to you by Avon. You are not allowed to work anywhere else to find customers from strangers because you will be ‘trespassing’ on another rep’s territory but you can do Avon parties and sell to strangers there. You can also give a book to anyone that you know face to face & your friends, family and your work colleagues. 12. Remember the motto Anytime Anywhere Always Ask. Aim to speak to three new people every day to harness the power of 3 to increase your customer base and your earnings -7- First Stationery Order Write all these codes and descriptions on a blue order form for yourself and enter them on the screen when you submit your first order to Avon. 87197 x 2 packs of free order forms in every order you send to Avon 92528 medium Carrier bags (essential for the heavy large items e.g. litre bubble baths) order at least 1 pack of 5 bags for 20p. 92478 medium Paper Delivery bags 1 pack of 50 costs 65p 92486 large Paper Delivery bags 1 pack of 50 costs 99p Brochures If you are going to cover a territory you will need to order at least 8 packs of brochures per campaign. (the more you order the cheaper they are) If you are not covering a territory just order as many packs as you think you will need. Prices per pack of 5 brochures 1 pack = £3.58 2 packs = £4.58 3 packs = £5.10 4 packs = £5.67 Additional packs = 50p (10p per brochure) Get double the quantity for only £2 extra Do not forget to order the number of PACKS of 5 NOT the number of individual books. Books cannot be returned for credit -8- How to Enter Your Order Online. Here are easy to follow step by step instructions for saving and sending orders to Avon online. 1. Log into your account as normal & click on ‘Place an Order’ in the drop down menu in the top bar. On the next screen it should have the current campaign number highlighted and it should say Regular. Click on Continue. Also click on continue on the next screen with the message about carriage charges on small or additional orders. 2. The next screen will have a lot of lines on it; this is where you type in the product codes and quantities for each of the products on your first customer's order. 3. Click on The magnifying glass next to the quantity box or on ‘View Descriptions’ at the bottom of the page to check that the code is correct. If a message comes up in red saying “you cannot order this product n this campaign”, it means that the code is wrong, so go back to the page in the brochure and find the right code and change it. Click on the magnifying glass again to check that it is now correct and if all OK scroll half way down the page & click on ‘Save Order’. 4. The items you have entered will disappear off your screen but to look at them again at any time click on View Order at the top of the screen. 5. Repeat steps 1-3 for each order on your pile, turning them face down when you have entered each one (so you know where you got to if the phone or the doorbell rings and you are interrupted)! 6. As a double safeguard do check by clicking on View Order at the end of each session just to make sure you have not entered any orders more than once. 7. You only start an order from the top bar at the beginning of each campaign when you input and save the first ones. The next time you have collected some more orders for the same campaign, log into your account, scroll right down to the bottom of the Home page where you will find a message saying you have a saved order for campaign (number). -9- 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Click on here & it will take you straight into the same order so you can add more items. Keep doing this throughout the campaign so you don't have a huge task on the last day but don't forget to click on save as you put each customer’s order on the screen. When you are ready to submit your order on the last day of the campaign. Log in as usual, click on the message to get back into your saved order then scroll down past the lines on the screen for ordering products to the section for ordering brochures. Order as many packs of brochures as need for the next two campaigns. Remember they come in packs of five so order the number of packs you want not the number of brochures. The more you order the cheaper they are. Click on continue at the bottom of the next two screens to get to the final page of the ordering system. On here the computer won't let you go past the box asking you how many customers you served. Don't forget that you are a customer too so if you ordered anything include yourself in this total. Always also remember to click in the Yes box for opting in for customer leads. (I explained what that is and set you up for it when I showed you around your new account). When you are absolutely sure you have ordered everything, brochures, delivery bags, brochure bags, demo products, samples and your 2 packs of free pink order forms and that all your codes and quantities are correct click on the big Send Order to Avon button at the bottom of the fourth & last screen. A MOST IMPORTANT POINT TO REMEMBER! DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR ORDER UNTIL YOU ARE SURE IT IS COMPLETE. Avon do not add small orders up for discount and will charge you a carriage charge for each small order you send in. So make sure everything goes in one big order by 10pm at the latest on the correct order date for your area. - 10 - Checking your delivery from Avon. 1. When you have submitted your order online, wait for a couple of days and then go into the website. Click on Order Tracking and the screen will show the campaign number and, most important, the number of boxes on their way to you. 2. When your delivery arrives do make sure the number of boxes agrees with the number on the screen and that they all have your name and account number on them. One word of caution, some products come unboxed. They are called offline items and each of these counts as one box. It is impossible to predict which will fall into this category but if you query it with the driver he will explain if there are any. 3. When you sign the dockets do make sure they have your name printed on them and that they agree with the number of boxes you are signing for. 4. This advice comes for two reasons. Firstly because someone who expected 2 boxes and signed for 2 and later found that they were not hers. Secondly someone signed for two deliveries on the same day because she forgot to check how many boxes she should be receiving & the second delivery belonged to someone else. Both problems took me a lot of time and effort to sort out! 5. So be careful! Most of the time the deliveries are perfectly correct. But mistakes do happen sometimes, better to be safe than sorry! 6. Next have a look at the outside of the boxes to find the one marked INVOICE ENCLOSED. 7. Turn this one over first and open it from the bottom. You will find a bundle of paperwork. The first page will be a letter from Avon and down the right hand side is some important information for you. First it will tell you the value of your sales for the year to date and how much more you need to sell to qualify for Presidents Club. Underneath that section it will tell you the schedule of your next order and delivery dates. Behind the letter you will find your Service news, Brochure Amendments followed by your Invoice and your First Look magazine. Don’t do what I do and grab your magazine with a coffee and sit down to have a good old look to see what you fancy from the demo products! You should be starting to check - 11 - your delivery against your invoice by ticking everything back to make sure that everything you ordered is in your boxes!!. 8. If there is anything that is charged for on the invoice but missing from the box go into your account and select the option called Replacements and key in the code of the missing item and the quantity, use the reason code for ‘charged for but missing’ on the screen and click on update then click on the Send order to Avon’ button and the missing item will be sent by Royal Mail within 5 -7 working days. 9. When you have ticked off everything in the boxes against the list on your invoice, go to the second last page and here you will find a list of anything you ordered that is out of stock. 10. A message saying the item is ‘temporarily unavailable’ means that it will almost always be sent in your next delivery. (Occasionally it takes a little longer due to high demand but items in this category will always come to you without having to re-order). 11. If you see anything that says it has ‘sold out do not re-order’ it will not be sent because it is no longer available. Usually these are items from the sale books which are always offered on a ‘while stocks last basis’. All you can do is apologise and reduce your customer’s bill accordingly. 12. Anything temporarily out of stock needs a note to your customer to tell her the item will come later and it is your choice and hers whether she pays for it now or waits till it arrives. 13. Make out another order form to keep in your file with the product code and description plus the customer’s name so that when it arrives, you know who it is for, (don’t forget to write on the form whether she has paid for it or not). 14. Once you have checked everything put all the individual customer orders in bags with the top folded down and staple the pink order form on to seal the bag. Then you are ready to go out to start your deliveries. 15. Keep a separate purse for your Avon money with some change in it and as soon as you have collected enough to pay Avon what you owe them take it to the post office and pay it in. (See section on Paying Avon) - 12 - Claiming Gifts. All representatives need to be very aware of the following1. All gifts have to be claimed on your order using a specific code. If you don’t order it the customer won’t get it. 2. Buy one get one free offers; you will always get the lower priced item free. 3. 2 for £5 etc. offers. The goods will come automatically with the offer price shown by the description on your invoice. You don’t need to do anything; the computer works it all out for you! 4. Money off vouchers are for reps to give out to customers in preparation for an offer in the following book. When you get an order you don't have to return the voucher to Avon, instead you must quote the code when ordering the product available with the voucher. (This will be printed in the brochure or on the voucher or both). If you don’t enter the voucher code on your order you will be charged the full brochure price for the product. Vouchers are not open-ended and can only be used in specific campaigns. Usually they are for a specific product; occasionally they are for customers who spend a certain amount on specific pages in the brochure. (We don’t get these very often nowadays because they introduced the beauty bonus bags instead). The most important thing to remember is to check all your pink order forms against the relevant pages in the brochure and try to 'educate' your customers to claim free gifts by writing them on the form just in case you miss any. This makes sure you order everything. If you forget to order a gift the customer certainly won't! If they haven't written it on the order form I always put it on for them. This makes it so much easier to identify the recipients when you get everything bagged up ready to deliver. It also means that if you have 2 customers neither of whom qualifies for a gift or offer by putting them 'together' you get the freebie for your stock. Use these to give away as a thank you to a regular customer or perhaps to someone who gives you a particularly large order. Or give them away as a prize (see section on increasing your sales) to increase goodwill, customers like to feel that they are appreciated and it adds to their enjoyment of shopping with Avon. But it need not cost you a fortune! - 13 - Paying Avon. Here are some notes about how to pay Avon & the various options. You have to pay Avon as soon as you have collected the money from your customers when you deliver their goods. Full instructions are always on the final page of your invoice, which will come in with your delivery. Remember I said you could pay over the counter at any Post Office either by cheque or cash. Do please be aware that Avon does not accept cheques and since the banks abolished cheque Guarantee cards most representatives only accept cash. However if you are wish to accept cheques from customers they have to be made payable to you not Avon. You will then have to draw the cash out of your bank to pay your von account at nay branch of the Post Office with the paying in slip attached to the lsummary page of your invoice There are 2 other ways for you to pay your Avon account. You can pay with your bank debit card online. To do this select the 'Make a Payment option on your Avon account and follow the instructions on screen. You can also pay by credit card over the phone on 0333 234 5000. You cannot pay by credit card unless you phone this number.. Remember to pay Avon within 13 days of the date on each invoice. The date payment is due is always printed on the last page of your invoice just above the paying in slip Never send cheques or cash direct to Avon. Their system is not set up for postal payments from representatives. If you do your money will get lost. - 14 - How do I get paid by Avon? Avon don't send you any money, you pay yourself. Here is how it works. At the end of your invoice on the last page you will find a summary with three columns of figures with totals at the bottom of each. Avon Price= the total value of everything they have sent you including anything you ordered yourself e.g. brochures, bags, demonstration products, samples or products out of the brochure. Your cost = how much you owe Avon You earn = the amount of money you keep. Further down on the same sheet you will see in big letters Please Pay Avon and the figure that you owe. Take this amount to the Post Office to pay in with the Bar Coded Giro Slip at the bottom of the sheet. The bar code is unique to your account and contains all the details of your account number and how much you owe Avon so all you need to do is fill in the amount. The Post Office Counter Clerk will give you a receipt. Keep this in a safe place along with your invoice and your copies of the customer’s order forms plus one book and one copy of First Look from each campaign. If you cannot pay over the counter at the Post Office, you can pay over the phone with a Credit Card by ringing 0333 234 5000. You can also pay online with a Bank Debit Card in the option called Make a Payment. You cannot send payment direct to Avon; their systems are not set up to accept payments through the post. Remember too that Avon doesn’t accept cheques from customers. If you want to accept a cheque it must be made payable to you. It is much easier if your customers pay by cash but a cheque is better than not getting the money and having to return the goods to Avon! I don't recommend using any branch of HSBC bank to pay Avon although the paperwork tells you this is an option. However the bank’s system is very slow and in the past I have had reps that paid at the bank but the money didn't reach Avon quickly enough so their next order was held up and their customers were kept waiting for their goods. The Post Office is fast and reliable as long as you allow 3 working days before your next order date, at the latest, to allow time for the balance on your account to clear. Always keep a separate purse when you are collecting Avon’s money from your customers and pay it in as soon as you have collected what you owe to clear your account. Then after that you know that any other money is yours to keep. N.B All Avon Representatives are self-employed. Avon advises you to inform the Tax Office (HMRC). If you are on benefits Avon also advises you to inform the Job Centre or Benefits Office. . - 15 - How to Raise Credits Online. 1. As I already explained, everything in the brochure is covered by a 28-day guarantee. If a customer wants to return something, you need to do the following2. Go into Credits on your account.. 3. Search by product number or description to find the entry on the invoice when you received it. 4. Enter the quantity and the reason for the credit and click on Save credits. 5. Do this for each product that you want to return. 6. When you have entered all the items to be credited click on Submit Order. Then go into ‘Order Tracking’ and you will see the words Returns Form next to the one where you raised the credit. 7. Click on the words and your returns note will come up on your screen. 8. Fill in the quantity of goods in the parcel and last 4 digits from the barcode number from the returns label on the returns bag. You will always receive a sheet of returns labels with the paperwork that comes attached to every invoice from Avon. 9. Print out both copies of the form and put Avon’s copy inside the box with the goods, seal this up and keep your copy ready for signature by the driver. (This is the one with the box on it below the descriptions marked drivers signature). 10. Give the box to the driver when he brings your next delivery and make sure he signs your copy of the returns note. 11. You must return any goods within 28 days of when you were invoiced for them. 12. If a customer wants to return something after the 28 day period i.e. a faulty product, please ring Avon for further instructions because under the Sale of Goods Act if something is faulty the guarantee is longer. Avon’s 28 days is for people who have just changed their minds and decided they just don’t like something. 13. Once you have raised credits you must return the goods via your delivery driver when he brings your order for the following campaign. If you fail to return them Avon will cancel the credit and re- charge your account at a later date. . - 16 - Replacements If a customer wants to exchange something for a different size or colour etc, as long as there is no price difference you do not need to raise a credit for the item you are returning. However you can only use this method if it is within 2 campaigns after it was delivered to you. (If it was longer ago you have to credit and re-order) 1. 2. 3. 4. Click on Place an Order Click on Replacements Enter product code of item to be returned Enter quantity and the appropriate reason code (from the list on your screen) 5. Click on save order 6. Add all the rest of your order in the usual way and submit to Avon on your order date as usual. 7. Click on ‘Order tracking’ 8. Click on the latest order you have just submitted on Returns Form. 9. Complete the date, quantities and the returns label number on screen and print. 10. Seal one copy in the Avon returns bag. 11. Cellotape the returns label on the outside of the parcel. This is most important; the drivers are not allowed to accept parcels unless there is a proper returns label attached. 12. When your delivery driver brings your next order ask him/her to sign the other copy for your records and take the parcel away. 13. All returns must be securely sealed in an Avon returns bag. Once you have raised this paperwork you must return the goods via your delivery driver when he brings your order for the following campaign. If you fail to return them Avon will cancel the credit and re- charge your account at a later date. - 17 - Order and Delivery Dates. 1. Every time you get your paperwork with your delivery the top sheet is always a letter, on the bottom right hand corner you will find the schedule of the next 3 or 4 campaign dates. 2. If you go into your website click on Order and delivery dates and you will find similar information. Remember the final deadline on order dates is always 10pm. It is most important that you always submit your order on the Internet order dates given and remember to order you brochures every time. Please keep a note in your diary of the dates for each campaign and do make sure you submit your orders on time. Missing your deadlines and putting them in late is not acceptable. Not only do I get into hot water from the area managers and you get in a muddle, it really does cause problems right across the board if representatives don't follow the correct procedure. Customers are kept waiting, it also causes problems for the despatch department, not to mention messing up the reporting systems. If there is a good reason any time for your order being late or for not sending one in at all, please let me know so that I have some answers ready for Avon. A quick call or email is all I need. If you have any questions or problems on anything affecting your Avon business I should always be your first port of call for answers & I will always do my best to help you. - 18 - Brochures. Don’t skimp! Do order plenty because they are the biggest asset for your Avon business so DO NOT FORGET to include them in every order. I know the conditions in your contract states that if you do forget, Avon will send you a single one but one brochure is not nearly enough to work with successfully. The more times you show your brochures the more orders you will get! They are designed to be your best asset for success. The cost of brochures is heavily subsidised by Avon. What we pay is a fraction of the real cost. The company makes a huge loss on books every campaign. Do remember the two day rule and keep those books turning round all through the campaign so they are out there working for you and earning you money. - 19 - The two campaign ahead rule 1. We should all be ordering our brochures for two campaigns ahead every time we submit an order to Avon. 2. We should be ordering products for our customers from the brochures for the current campaign. 3. Our brochures for the next campaign should be in our houses in the bags with the sales flyer ready to take to the customers who did not order this time. 4. We should be ordering our books for the third campaign. Use the time between submitting your order and receiving your delivery to put your new books out to all the customers who are not waiting for goods this time. 5. When your delivery arrives, carry on giving the brochures to all the customers who did order and then in the final week of the campaign use them again for all the homes where you haven’t got a customer. 6. The most successful representatives in our team always give every home in their territory a brochure for every campaign whether they order or not and they all pick up new customers every time so it really is worth doing. Always remember – More books =more customers=more sales=more earnings. Your most valuable and important sales tool is your brochure, you can order all the demo products and samples you like but you cannot get sales if you don’t have enough brochures. They are the best investment you can put into your business. - 20 - - 21 - PLEASE DO NOT THROW THIS BOOK AWAY Dear Customer I hope you will enjoy looking through the enclosed Avon brochure. I shall be collecting it in two days time to pass it on to somebody else. To avoid being disturbed, please leave it on your Doorstep, with or without an order.. My name is ………………………………………. and I have just become the Avon representative for this road. I don't know whether you have seen any Avon brochures recently but if you haven’t you are in for a big surprise! Not only do Avon do a fantastic selection of skincare & cosmetics, lovely bath and beauty products but also gorgeous jewellery, lingerie, handbags plus men’s & childrens’ toiletries not to mention lovely gifts for the home. Shopping from the comfort of your armchair couldn’t be easier! You also have the added comfort of Avon's famous 28 day no quibble, exchange or money back guarantee, even if you have opened it and tried it. Something our competitors in the High Street cannot offer. Please leave this brochure & your order on your doorstep on the day shown on the enclosed order form: together with a note telling me the best time of day or evening to bring your delivery. You will also find the delivery date on the order form so you will know when to expect your goodies If you don't want to order anything this time please just leave the brochure out. If you have any queries please don't hesitate to phone me and I shall be happy to help. I will be back in 2 Days from Today Thank You - 22 - PLEASE DO NOT THROW THIS BOOK AWAY Dear Customer I hope you will enjoy looking through the enclosed Avon brochure. I shall be collecting it in two days time to pass it on to somebody else. To avoid being disturbed, please leave it on your Doorstep, with or without an order.. My name is ………………………………………. and I have just become the Avon representative for this road. I don't know whether you have seen any Avon brochures recently but if you haven’t you are in for a big surprise! Not only do Avon do a fantastic selection of skincare & cosmetics, lovely bath and beauty products but also gorgeous jewellery, lingerie, handbags plus men’s & childrens’ toiletries not to mention lovely gifts for the home. Shopping from the comfort of your armchair couldn’t be easier! You also have the added comfort of Avon's famous 28 day no quibble, exchange or money back guarantee, even if you have opened it and tried it. Something our competitors in the High Street cannot offer. Please leave this brochure & your order on your doorstep on the day shown on the enclosed order form: together with a note telling me the best time of day or evening to bring your delivery. You will also find the delivery date on the order form so you will know when to expect your goodies If you don't want to order anything this time please just leave the brochure out. If you have any queries please don't hesitate to phone me and I shall be happy to help. I will be back in 2 Days from Today Thank You - 23 - - 24 - Why should you order plenty of books? Every campaign your Area Manager and I have reports that show us how many customers you are serving and how many books you are ordering for each campaign. All the successful people whose names regularly appear for recognition when I publish our results at the end of each campaign are all ordering a minimum of 40 books per campaign. Most of them are ordering a lot more. So why not follow their example to increase your sales to get you one step further towards President's Club and to have your name mentioned for recognition on the Results board on the forum in http://www.maggiesmarvels.co.uk:/ Personally Ian and I order at least 140 books per campaign for our territories and this is reflected in our high sales. All of our customers get a book every three weeks regardless of whether we have an order to deliver or not. Don’t forget that the price drops to 50p per pack after the first three packs, and if you are already ordering 20 books, for a lot less than double the price you can get double the quantity. Do keep re-canvassing your territory and take full advantage of the recession because more and more people are switching to buying Avon instead of the expensive cosmetics in the High Street. Did you know that Clinique actually buy Avon's research and development results from our centre in America and most of their skin care products are based on Avon's formulae? Use this as a powerful tip to illustrate the advantages of shopping with Avon. Why would you pay Clinique's prices when you can order from Avon at a fraction of the price? Follow Avon's two campaigns ahead rule so you can immediately start putting your new books out as soon as you have submitted your current order. - 25 - Pink Order forms How do I fill in my pink order forms to ensure that my customers have all the important information? Always put at least one order form with every book you give to a customer filled in as follows-. 1. At the top of each one write your name and your phone number. If you wish to add your address and your email then please do. But the most important details are your name, so they know who their representative is, and your phone number so they can phone you with their order if they forgot to put the book out for you to collect - you don’t want to miss out on a nice big order! 2. At the bottom of the form are two more very important sections. 3. The first part is where you are going to tell her when you are going to collect your book. The Avon rule is that we leave the books with the customers for two days then we collect them and give the books to the next houses on the territory. So you must write in the date for 2 days later and highlight the day, and morning or afternoon in the boxes below. 4. Underneath that section is where you are going to tell her when she will get her delivery. Always highlight the words cash on delivery so she knows to have the money ready. Next to this, in the delivery date box, put “from” and the date of the day after you are getting your delivery from Avon (to give yourself time to prepare your orders before delivery). Alternatively, use a week beginning or week ending date. These two suggestions are to build in some flexibility. If you put in a firm date for the delivery and on that day one of your kids is unwell, or it is snowing or pouring with rain, perhaps your partner wants to take you out or maybe you are just too tired after a hard day at work or looking after the children, and you don’t go to deliver on that date the customer is going to think you are not reliable and won’t feel confident to order from you again. If you leave it flexible you will avoid these problems and in any case as your customers get to know you they will all know that within a few days of whatever date you have put on the order form, they will all have their goods because you have only got 13 days from the date on your invoice to deliver the goods, collect the money, pay Avon and carry on putting your next campaign’s books out following the 2 day rule again. - 26 - How to tempt your customers to buy in each campaign. The most successful representatives not only order lots of brochures in advance to make sure they have always got plenty for re-canvassing their territories, They also put a flier in with their books every campaign to help their customers to choose more products. I create a flier every campaign for you to use. You will find it in the News section in the Forum on my website. http://www.maggiesmarvels.co.uk:/ All you need to do is copy and paste it into your Word Processing Software and print out as many copies as you need. If you don’t have a printer you can take it to any copy shop, it will be money well spent. Or if you would like to create your own flier use mine as a template and if you keep it down to 2,500 characters then it will fit legibly on half an A4 sheet so that you can format it to two per page - the same size as the brochure (A5). It is a good idea to print it on pastel coloured copy paper from The Works or Ryman’s and use a different colour for each campaign to make it stand out, but if you are on a slim budget white is OK. Re-arrange the pages featured to encourage the customers to jump about in the book to make them to look at every page. Maybe start at the back of the book then put something near the middle then something near the front, then back towards the end, then at the front and so on. This really does work and you will find that even if customers don’t order something featured in your flier, they usually order something on the page before or the page after. It is definitely worth investing a little time and packet of paper to increase your sales and earn you more money. When you pack your books put the flier in the bag in front of the brochure so it catches the customer’s eye when it falls through the letterbox. Also on every order form there is a message box under where you have to write your name, phone number & email address. Go through the brochure making a - 27 - list of all the page numbers where there is a new product being launched or a good special offer or a free gift then jumble up the numbers. In the message box write something like ‘Don’t miss the following pages’ followed by the jumbled up list of numbers. The customers will be looking for the pages you have mentioned but they are actually looking through the whole book without realizing and be tempted to give you a nice big order. - 28 - Do Not miss out on Discount Here’s how to make sure you always get either 20% or 25% earnings every campaign. If your total order value is just below either £85 or £155 there is no need to miss out on your 20% or 25% earnings. Choose something for the difference in price from the brochure and order it for yourself. Not only will you get discount on what you ordered but you will also get discount on everything your customers have ordered too. For example, if you have collected £80 orders the cost to you will be £80 as you are £5 below the discount target of £85. But if you top up your total to £85 by ordering something for yourself from the book for £5 you will earn approx £17 and have a free product worth £5! If you are just under the £155 level,top up in exactly the same way to earn your full 25%. - 29 - How to pack your customer’s order. Either take a suitable sized Avon branded paper bag and put the products inside then fold top down neatly with a smart crisp crease. Staple a copy of the customer's order form to the top of the bag to seal it so the products don't fall out. Or, put the products in a medium Avon branded carrier bag and attach a copy of the customer's order form to the top of the carrier bag on the outside to the left or right hand side next to the handles. Always deliver Avon products in an Avon branded bag. Not only does this look much more professional, it is extra advertising for you to keep Avon in the customer's mind for next time! - 30 - Presidents Club This should be the goal of every representative and the cherry on top of the icing on the top of the cake! The target is to sell £6,500 in 18 campaigns. This breaks down to £350 sales per campaign. I already told you about the fabulous President’s Club dinner every year and all the lovely gifts and recognition on the night plus all the other advantages of being a member so naturally you will want to know how you are getting on. You can monitor your progress in two ways. On the right hand side of your letter which comes with your paperwork when you get your delivery you will find the figures which tell you how much you have sold so far and how much more you need to hit your target. Also If you go into the Representative Website and select Presidents Club from the drop down menu along the top bar you will find similar information but in addition it will tell you how many campaigns are remaining and how much you need to sell per campaign to give you a realistic goal to aim for and suddenly £6,500 does not seem so daunting! As soon as I see that my latest order has been invoiced on my screen I can’t resist going in to have a look at my figures! Once you have hit £6,500 sales you will be able to take advantage of the special PC members prices for demonstration products in First Look. And it gets even better because if you sell more than your target before the end of the 18 campaigns you will be eligible to qualify for Love to Shop vouchers. - 31 - Avon Parties. An Avon Party is the perfect opportunity to have a girlie night in with your friends and neighbours. When you have decided on a date send invitations to at least 20 people and ask each one to bring a friend. (This sounds a lot but they won't all turn up so you need to ask lots). Invite your friends and your customers. On the night you need to provide some refreshments, either biscuits and coffee or tea or wine and nibbles, whatever you like. Put out plenty of brochures and order forms. Have a sales table of your spare stock with prices cheaper than in the current brochure. If you have not got enough stock to do a sales table have a raffle instead with some Avon products for prizes. If you would like details of easy games to break the ice and get your party going do look on my website http://www.maggiesmarvels.co.uk:/. If you are unsure how to do a party let me know and I will come to your house and do it for you. - 32 - How to have a Pink Party for Breakthrough See the notes on Breast Cancer Crusade in the useful downloads on our team’s website and send off for your Pink Party Pack. Invite as many people as possible but at least 20 and ask each one to bring a friend. Send the invitations out 2 weeks before the party and tell them they need to RSVP one week beforehand. You will find Avon party invitations in First Look on the stationery list. Do invite lots of people because by the law of averages a lot won't turn up. (When I had my last pink party I invited 150 and 20 came) this is similar to the experiences of other reps who have had parties so don't expect everyone you invited to come. Just don't build your hopes up too high so you are not disappointed. Set up a display of the latest demonstration products from first Look and if you haven't already got some stock to sell, order one of the bumper mystery boxes for £25 or £50 so you can do a sales table with everything at £2 each. Have a raffle prize and a couple of small prizes for the winners of the party games (find these in the useful downloads section on our website). Put up the posters and balloons that come with the Crusade kit and put the Pink Crusade collecting tin out in a prominent place (I put mine in the hall to catch people for a donation either when they arrive or when they leave. Have a pile of the latest brochures and order forms to give to each of your guests make sure that your name and phone number are in the box on the back of your books and on your order forms in case people take them home. Also it is a good idea to put your business card or a note with your name address and phone number with the prizes and the products you sell on the night so people know how to re-order. It is also a good idea to hand everyone an Avon carrier bag as they walk in so they don't have to hold on to products they want to buy while trying to have a drink and some nibbles. Then when they leave it is easy to tot up how much they owe you. Keep your prices as simple as possible. I use different coloured stars from Poundland for each value and then made a sign showing the prices e.g. Silver = £1 Blue=£2 Gold= £6 etc. or you could use different coloured dots. Keep it as simple and easy for yourself as possible and enjoy making shopping with Avon and raising money for a great charity lots of FUN. Use the paying in slip in your Pink Party Pack to donate to Breakthrough Breast Cancer. - 33 - Moneymakers in First Look These are a brilliant way of making extra money. The deal is that you must order a minimum quantity of three. But if you order them when they first appear in First Look you will not be invoiced for them for 2 campaigns to give you a chance to sell them. If you don’t manage to sell all of them then you just return any that you haven’t sold. A win/win situation! Moneymakers are always offered at a lower price than the usual discounted demonstration price so you can make a nice bit of extra money on them. But it gets even better because you can also backorder these, the only difference is that you will be charged on the invoice when you receive them because the 2 campaigns have expired but it is still a good deal. If I am not sure whether something offered as a Moneymaker is going to sell I either give my customers a sneak preview and the opportunity to get something before it appears in the brochure, or I wait until it comes out in the brochure to see how many orders I have got and then I backorder from First Look. Obviously if I think it is something that will go really well, I order some when it first appears in First Look which gives me the 2 campaigns to sell the product at a profit or return any unsold items. However I usually only order 3 to start and then backorder another 3 or more if I get extra orders. If this all looks too complicated, when you want to give it a try just give me a ring and I will talk it through with you, it took me ages to get my head round it until I realised how easy it is! - 34 - Increasing your Sales Why not try something else that successful representatives are doing to increase sales and keep customers interested? Every campaign put a raffle ticket in all your books.. Everyone who places an order has his or her name put in a draw and the winner gets a prize. Usually something either from our special rep's clearance or from an offer. Put a slip in every book for the next campaign telling everyone who won (first name and road name only to preserve privacy) and also telling everybody which products he or she has won. The raffle tickets are re-used time and time again so one book costing £1.49 from Partners lasts for ages. It is surprising how many customers who previously ordered occasionally are now ordering every campaign. The raffle ticket is really only there to keep reminding them that they have to be 'in it to win it'. It actually costs very little, just a roll of cellophane and a huge £1.99 reel of florists narrow ribbon from Hobbycraft plus a couple of pounds for the products from the Rep’s Clearance section of First Look, but it earns a lot in future sales and goodwill. Always try to make sure the prize is something that the customer is not already buying to encourage them to try something different and you will find that 9 times out of 10 they carry on buying from the same range afterwards. Later on after you have been a rep. for a while and have had a chance to build up some stock for prizes ( see Topic 4 near the beginning of this manual) why don’t you introduce your own Loyalty Card Scheme to your customers? You will find the templates for the cards in the Downloads section of http://www.maggiesmarvels.co.uk:/ Every time a customer gives you an order of £10 or more, stamp one box and put the date and the campaign number across the box and sign it. Use stamps or mini stickers from the stationers or Asda. Use a different picture or colour for each box and don’t forget to record the value of the order in your Calling Book (to avoid any chance of cheating)! When all six boxes on the card are full, give the customer a nice mystery gift. Choose something from your stock of products (see section 5) or order something from Clearance. But do refer to your Calling - 35 - Book to make sure you don’t give a product she is already buying. This will lead to increased orders later on. Only stamp the card if the order is £10 or more - a £9.50 order does not qualify. However if part of the order is from the sale book and the item has sold out still give them the stamp - it isn't the customer's fault that her total has changed because of Avon. If the order is £20 or £30 etc. She still only gets one box filled in per campaign. When it comes to the prize, this is based on how much the customer has actually spent over the six campaigns and do be careful you don’t give something that cost you more than the 25% commission you earned on her orders. The draw encourages customers to order every campaign. The loyalty card encourages them to spend more money which means better earnings for you! - 36 - Delivery Bags. Paper bags come in packs usually of 50. You will find the prices for these and others near the back of your First Look magazine. Carrier bags come in packs of 5 so do make sure you order plenty.. Especially for when the Litre Bubble baths and the Avon Senses range are on Special offer not to mention all the heavier Fitness products! Do not deliver Avon goods in anything but Avon bags. If the order is too big to fit in a carrier bag use the box that came from Avon. Brochure bags These are essential to keep your books dry clean and professional looking to pass on to the next customer. They will also ensure that you will be able to read the customer’s order without the ink running all over the order form after it has been left out in the rain! The Avon brochures look really professional and they are your most valuable sales tool so don’t waste them by presenting them to customers torn or dirty. You will find brochure bags on the stationery list in any copy of First Look magazine.. They look very smart with the word Avon on them and a pack of 50 only costs 80p so they won’t break the bank! The code for brochure bags is 76935. Don’t forget to include these in your first order - 37 - Back Ordering. Or what to do if a customer wants to order something from the previous campaign. The best way to do this is to include it in your next regular order. This always ensures that everything gets added together to earn you the maximum discount. If you choose the previous campaign option after you have clicked on ‘Place an Order’ you won’t earn anything unless you have got at least £85 or £155 worth of products to back-order. So the best way to do it is as followsGo into your account and click on ‘Place an order’. 1. Click on the square for the current campaign. 2. On the order screen at the far left hand side of each line you will see the current campaign number, click on this and you will get a mini drop down menu showing the current and the previous campaign numbers. 3. Click on the previous number and then enter the product code for the first item you want to order. 4. Repeat this for all the products on the customer’s order(s) for the previous campaign. 5. Do not submit until your next order date after you have added all your orders from the current campaign Then you will earn discount on everything including the late one. 6. Explain to your customer that she has missed your order deadline but you can still get her goods. Also explain that it will take longer because you can’t get them until your next delivery date. If you submit an additional late order Avon will always charge you for carriage and you won’t earn any discount. To avoid late orders you should always tell your customers that your order date is the day before the real one and always pick up your books for the last time the day before your order date. - 38 - How to split your territory and run two campaigns together. If you have a large territory and a slim budget here is an excellent idea to make your books earn money for you over two campaigns instead of putting them out for re-cycling after just one. You can do this by dividing your territory into two halves. Do the first half of your territory with brochures for the new campaign and give the previous brochure to the other half. When you collect your orders all you have to do is follow the instructions on the previous page in this booklet for backordering. Do it this way and everything will go through as one big order to earn you maximum discount. You do have to be very organised and keep accurate records to make sure you don’t give any customers the same book twice but it does mean that you can get the maximum use out of your books. But you must only re-use those that are in perfect condition of course. Don’t ever re-use torn, damaged or wet books a second time but if you are using Avon brochure bags to protect them this is rarely a problem. Always re-use your books when you are re-canvassing your territory to find new customers too. Avon say we must re-canvas every home where you haven’t got a customer, at least every 6 or 7 campaigns, but there is an easier way. If you just do one road or part of a road every campaign till you have covered the whole lot and then start again it only takes a few minutes once every 3 weeks. and you will be increasing your customer list all the time. None of this is means that you can skimp on how many packs of books you order for each campaign but it is designed to help you get maximum value for money out of them. Please don’t stop following the three campaign rule and order books for two campaigns in advance each time; otherwise I shall have the Area Managers wanting to know why not. - 39 - What happens if I don’t want to keep covering my territory? The first thing to do is to email or phone me to tell me please. This is most important. If you have a customer who you think would like to take it over then please send me their name address and phone number so I can arrange to interview and train them. You cannot just pass it over to somebody else without letting me know because I have to inform Avon so they can update their records correctly. In the absence of anyone wanting to take it over, You still need to inform me so that I can de-allocate the territory. I have to make sure that all the addresses revert back to vacant on Avon’s Mapping System. If you are getting sales from your own personal network you will then become a Friends and Family representative. Nothing else changes and all the same rules that are part of your contract still apply. And if you started as a Friends and Family rep and decide at any time that you would like to increase your business by having a territory, all you need to do is let me know and I will request a vacant territory on your behalf. Also if your circumstances change and you don’t have time to sell to other people, there is no need to close the door to Avon completely. I don't want to lose anyone from my team and this could be a nice easy way to stay. After all you bought your Avon business for £16 so don’t you think it would make a lot of sense to carry on gaining some benefits from it? You can stay in my team as a personal shopper until you decide that you have the time to cover a new territory. As long as you never go for more than one campaign without ordering, and each order is over £15 you can carry on using your account to order anything you want for yourself and your family. You will still get free delivery, a free copy of First Look, to keep you up to date with beauty trends, and Avon will send you one book each time which will cost you less than a weekly magazine. If you keep your account going like this and later on, you find you have more spare time to restart your business, all you need to do is email me to ask for another territory and away we go. However if you do want to resume building your business after being a personal shopper you cannot just assume that your old territory is still available so please come back to me and I will find out for you. - 40 - A Summary of Terms Used by Avon Territory – The geographical area (streets, homes etc) allocated to a representative by Avon. The representative to whom the territory is allocated is the only person allowed by Avon to “Cold Canvas” those homes to find customers. F&F – Stands for “Friends and Family”. That is customers from your family and personal, work and social networks (rather than allocated Territory). Returns – Goods being returned to Avon, covered by the guarantee which are either faulty or, in some way, not wanted by the customer. Upline is the next person up on the Sales Leader structure. Downline is the next person down in the Sales Leader structure. Sales Leader – A commission based representative with a team of at least five people, who recruits, trains & manages a growing number of representatives. Advanced Sales Leader is a Sales Leader (commission based) with a team of at least 15 representatives and 2 downline Sales Leaders reporting to him/her. Whilst having a territory and customers of his/her own. Executive sales Leader – A Sales Leader (commission based) with a team of at least 25 representatives with at least 6 Sales Leaders reporting to him/her including one Advanced Sales Leader whilst having a territory and customers of his/her own. Area Sales Manager – (ASM) A manager permanently employed by Avon. They are responsible for the success of a geographical region - typically with tens of thousands of homes. Representatives always work within one area whilst Sales Leaders often span several areas Divisional Manager – The Manager who is responsible for all the regions and areas in a large chunk of the country. All the ASM’s in her region report to him or her. Customer Order forms – the blue forms that you put with every brochure every time you show them to anybody. Always keep your copy of these in a safe place after you have delivered the orders to your customers Invoice –you will receive one of these very useful lists with every delivery. This shows you everything that has been sent to you. It will also tell you if something is temporarily out of stock and will follow next time. It will also tell you when Avon have sold out of a particular product so it is no longer available. Always - 41 - keep these in a safe place for future reference. On the final page of each invoice there is the paying in slip to take to the Post office with the cash plus the date when your payment is due. Service news – The list of amendments for each brochure that comes with your invoice. Brochures are printed so far ahead that there are usually some changes that we all need to be aware of in case of queries from our customers. Mailplan – At the last count there were about 170,000 Avon representatives in this country. If we all put our orders in on the same day each campaign, not only would the computer blow a gasket, there would be lots of people having a nervous breakdown! So the whole country is divided into mail plans. All this means is that the dates for representatives to submit their orders is staggered. You just need to worry about putting your order in on the correct date – Avon does the rest! Campaign – The year is divided into 18 periods. These are called Sales Campaigns. Most of these last three weeks but to fit in all eighteen the ones at the beginning of the year only last for two weeks. Do be aware of this and keep an eye on your order dates to make sure you don’t miss any. Cold Canvassing - When you first joined Maggie’s Marvels, as part of your training I asked you to cover your whole territory by putting your brochures through every front door & collect them two days later to find your customers. Once you had done this you would have carried on leaving a book with those customers every campaign afterwards. Avon expects us all to ‘cold canvas’ to try to find new customers every 5 or 6 campaigns. You do not have to buy extra books. Save the ones you have given to your regular customers and put them out again to find new ones. You can always order one campaign behind (see Section on Back-ordering). Of course if you see a house has changed hands don’t wait until it is time to do your big cold canvas, put a book through the door as soon as the new people move in! - 42 - - 43 - And Finally Most important, please don’t forget to make the most of every opportunity to spread the word to all your friends and family so they can join Avon and turn spare time into CASH too! They could be the first members of your own team to qualify you as a sales leader like me! Use the power of 3. Anytime, Anywhere, Always Ask I have shared as much information as I possibly can in this booklet. It is designed to help you to become successful in building your Avon business. I do hope you will like some of the hints and tips for increasing your sales and feel tempted to try them. I am always on the end of the telephone or an email if you need help or support at any time. Never forget that while you are in partnership with Avon – You are in business for yourself but you are not by yourself’’ Good Luck & welcome to the team ! - 44 -