I Like to Buy, but Don't Sell Me.

Before the Women's Expo opened yesterday, I had a few minutes to travel to other booths. I stopped at several entrepreneurs and took photos of their displays; some ideas are worth adapting! I bought a few things from different vendors and felt great that I was helping them out and I was getting a good "insider's vendor price."

I went back to my booth happy with my purchases.

A 50-something male vendor came to my booth. It was pretty evident that he singled me out because I was wearing a suit and because I was male. He bypassed all of the female vendors and anyone who was dressed in jeans. Immediately my guard was up.

After about 10 minutes of pointless small talk, I started giving him verbal clues that this conversation was over. Sensing that I had nothing else to share with him, he immediately said, "Do you have a financial adviser?" and then handed me his card and launched into his spchiel.

Had I approached his booth, that might have been one thing. If he was actual able to approach me without me knowing that I was being singled out because of the way I dressed, I might have been caught unaware.  Over and over I remembered this piece of advice:

Customers love to buy. Customers hate being sold.

Hire A Street Walker

No. Not THAT kind of street walker.

My buddy, Jeff, is looking to make ends meet right now. He doesn't want to sell Avon but he's happy doing manual labor. I've recently hired him to pass out catalogs in my neighborhood and I've had some good results from his work.

Three days ago, Jeff passed out my C8 books with only 1 day before the campaign closed. From the 70 books he passed out, I had 3 orders.  That might not seem like much, but I now have 3 new customers and 70 people in my neighborhood now know me as their local Avon Representative. My profits from those three sales more than covered Jeff's wage.

I'm going to have a ton of left over catalogs from the Expo show. I'm having my mom bag them up and Jeff is going to walk and hang them. He appreciates the exercise and getting paid to do the work, and I reap the benefits of his actions.

Do you have any friends who are looking for a minimum wage job? Hire them to help you!

Women's Expo Round Up - Day One

The attendance to the Women's Expo was far lower than expected, and the show was smaller than the participants expected. So, what do you do when life gives you lemons? Girl, since everyone is expecting lemonade, you make lemon chiffon pie instead!

The smaller show meant that women were moving at a much slower pace; they weren't in a rush to see everything. Since there were fewer customers, I had the chance to talk to a lot more people and to share more information.

I greeted everyone with a smile and said, "Hi! I'm Nick. Can I be your Avon Lady?" 95% of the time I got a smile and was easily able to give them a catalog. From there,  I used the "Would you like to win some fabulous Avon Products?" line.  More than 60% of the people who stopped gave me their contact information. Of those, 4 indicated that they would be interested in becoming a Representative or doing a fundraiser. More than half of the participants gave me an email address which allows me to do immediate marketing.

Today is the final day of the event. I'm going to kick my recruiting game into high gear and aim for spectacular results.

"Hi, Would You Like to Win Some Free Avon Products?"

I sat in on a sales conference call a few weeks ago with the delightful Deb Bixler.  Deb is the creator of "Create a Cash Flow Show" and I love her because I completely believe in her gospel of how sales parties are the way to generate cash flow for your business.

Deb was talking about working a trade show, something that caught my ear since I knew that I would be working the Women & Food Expo in just a few weeks.

She gave this great piece of advice when trying to get people to hand over their contact information. She suggested we ask, "Would you like to win some free products?" instead of the ususally heard, "Do you want to enter a drawing?"

"Would you like to win some free products?"  Sure! Who doesn't want free products? It's inviting. It's innocent. It's non-threatening.

"Do you want to enter a drawing?"  Uh, no. I'm busy. You're going to take my information and call me, aren't you?

I'll give it a shot today while I'm at the Women & Food Expo!

Great Name Badge from Delux Trophies

I ordered myself a name badge to celebrate becoming a Unit Leader. After a quick search, I found a badge at www.deluxtrophies.com. The online image looked serviceable, but nothing spectacular. I was in a rush to get it before I went to convention, so I just ordered it.

About a week later, my badge arrived. STUNNING! The quality of the badge is certainly not reflected by the only picture. The actual badge is shiny, heavy metal and has a 2-magnet closure so that it won't poke a hole through my clothing. Rock on.

Totally worth the $10.

What Does Your Voice Mail Say About You?

Do you use your cell phone as your Avon business phone? I do.

What do your customers hear when they call your number? I recently called one of my downline and after several rings, I was transferred to her voicemail. A baby was crying in the background. "Hey, you know who this is and you know what to do. Dig?"  I was horrified.

There was no way to tell if this woman was the party I called let alone if she sold Avon. All I could tell from her voicemail is that I didn't want to talk to her.Your voicemail should reflect your business. If you called an investment firm and you heard a baby crying, or someone saying "you know what to do," how would you react?

"Hi. This is Nick, The Avon Man. If you would like to leave me a message that includes your order, please do so along with your phone number. I'll call you back shortly. If this is a friend of mine, I'm looking forward to speaking with you soon."

What does your message say about you?

Brand Your Books

There's plenty of talk over the last few years about branding. Your Avon business should be no different; you should be branding your business. Yes, you're selling Avon products, but the reason people keep coming back is because of you.  I'll talk about branding your business in upcoming posts, but let's talk about one of the essential business tools: your brochure.

Most reps hand write or stick a label on their Avon brochures and end there. I put a label on the back of the book that includes the closing date, my phone number and how to order online. However, on the front of the book, I place another label with a small picture of myself (real or animated), my contact info and a tag line, "Nick The Avon Man".

I toss a lot of books and many of my customers don't initially meet me face to face. However, when they pick up my book, they immediately see who the seller is, they see what sets me apart from the other reps (The Avon Man), and they get an idea of what I look like from the picture. That brochure now no longer sells just Avon -- it sells the person who is selling Avon.

Why should your customers buy from you instead of from another Rep? Who are you? What makes your stand out? And do your customers (both current and potential customers) know that?