The thought of getting up someday's when my alarm goes off at 5 in the morning literally used to make me sick. I just wished that I could work from home, but had no idea how to get started and the thought of giving up a job which pays really well scared the life out of me.
However, earlier last month due to personal reasons I was forced to quit my job as Duty Manager at Lidl. For the first few days all I did was relax, spending most the day on the internet and spending a few days going to visit friends, but it wasn't long before boredom set in and I was itching to do something new. I didn't want to get a new full time job as I had my house up for sale so I thought I would try my hand at Avon to make a bit of extra money.
Avon is the market leader in direct sales for beauty products, with an annual turnover of $8 Billion. It is also reported that there is over 5 million Avon sales representatives who market the products to over 100 countries.
According to Avon, history tells us that in 1886 David McConnell started selling perfumes door to door in New York. At the time McConnell called his company 'The New York Perfume Company' but soon decided to change the name when he started marketing his business ideas to other countries. After visiting Stratford upon Avon in 1939, McConnell decided to change his businesses name to Avon.
Avon have no shops worldwide, and so they rely heavily on their sales representatives to deliver their brochures into homes, social clubs, work places and to their friends and family. To me this business plan sounds far to risky as you are never guarantied to make the sales and at some point it may be that there is an area in any given country that is not being serviced by a representative.
But in this day and age where people are shopping more from the comfort of their own home, Avon seem to have made a respected name for themselves. For me, what makes Avon more appealing as a customer is the fact that they were the first major beauty company to stand against testing products on animals. They actively support research looking for alternatives to animal testing and help fund companies in Europe and the USA that work to develop alternatives to animal testing in all fields.
After talking to friends who are also sales representatives, I decided that I would sign up as a sales representative as the money sounded good and my managerial experience instantly kicked in, planning how I would use my time wisely and make my block of houses have the top sales in the area. My mind almost exploded with all my brilliant, if not totally naive, ideas. My family laughed as they had heard all my life changing plans before, but I was determined to give this a good go.
And so I logged onto the Avon web page www.avon.uk.com and filled in a very simple application form, which asked the basic questions of name, address, age. I was told that I would be contacted by a sales Leader soon. I have never had a good experience of applying for jobs on line and always wondered if they do infact receive your applications; and so I was very shocked when within a few hours I received a call from an area manager asking if she could come and have a chat with me.
The next day I had arranged for the area manager to come to my house. I was unsure about if I should dress as if this is an interview or just go for my usual ripped jeans and casual top. I had visions of this stick thin blonde with loads of make up on, much like a stepford wife, with a cheesy and fake smile which just makes you feel sick. So I decided to dress smart, flash a bit of boobs and slap on the make up.
I sent my boyfriend out for the afternoon and started pacing the room watching the clock. Half an hour late and the doorbell went and oh my god I was glad I decided to dress up. Although all my visions of a stepford wife arriving on my doorstep were shattered, the 30 something woman was well dressed and smart with designer sunglasses on (thank god I am just as shallow and was drowning in Dior). However now I was pissed off due to her being late and I had no explanation other then her sweating all over my new carpet, which gave me the indication she had been busy.
The woman soon got out an induction pack for me and started reading through some boring statement about what Avon do and how I could help them. There was also a very strange section where I had to tick boxes to indicate what I wanted the money for and why I wanted to work for them.
After giving over my bank details and proof of address for a credit check she got out her lap top and started searching for areas and streets that were free in my area. I was expecting to be given my own street as I was never visited by an Avon rep, but apparently my street was taken and I was asked if I was prepared to travel a bit. I didn't mind as the area I was given was the 'posh' bit of Kettering (if there is one!) and I thought I was sure to get quite a few sales.
And so the woman finished her cup of coffee and left saying she would come back in two weeks to see how I was doing. I was shocked to say the least. I had no idea what I was expected to do. OK the obvious is just giving out the catalogues, but all these paying in forms, order forms and other pieces of written information she gave me meant nothing. I just decided that I would do it my way!
Straight away I set about filling in the customer order forms. You are meant to write your name/ address/ phone number/ email, but I decided just to put my name and mobile number, which I prepared on a stamp set to save me writing it over and over again! There is also a small section where you are meant to leave your customers a message to boost your sales. I started to do this, putting something really cheesy like 'Try our gorgeous new fragrance, Aura, on page X'. Well what started off as a good idea, soon started to make my wrist hurt so I just decided to leave it blank. Naughty Lisa!
And so I was ready, with a car full of catalogues and map of Kettering, I set out to my first street. I was really embarrassed at first as it was a small close with only about 6 houses. Really posh houses with Audi's and BMW's parked outside, and I drive up in my rust bucket Ford Ka with jeans trailing on the floor and t-shirt saying something I am sure would raise a few eyebrows!
After almost getting my hand bit off by an over excited dog I returned home. I had only delivered to half of my houses as I was only given enough catalogues to do a certain amount. I had to completely rely on the fact that people would leave the catalogs out for me so I could use them on the other houses. It is up to you how long you leave the catalogues with people, but I decided that two days would be enough as otherwise you start to get stories like 'oh sorry I lost it' or 'my dog ate it'.
So two days later I returned. The first house I went to had left their catalogue out and had put in a order. 'Bingo' I thought! But that is where the excitement truly stopped. Out of 27 houses only 6 left out the catalogue for me and only 2 houses put in an order. I was horrified as I always left out catalogues on the days indicated and always bought from them.
The next day I had a call from the area manager, and boy did I complain to her. I demanded that she came over and gave me some more catalogues as I had hardly none left. She pointed out to me that after you have been given your first load, you have to pay for them, and it works out at about 49p per catalogue. I then informed her that I had only been given half a box and if she didn't give me some more then I refuse to go on any further. Half an hour later and I had a delivery of new catalogues!
And so I set out to finish of the houses I hadn't done yet, bringing my slave, I mean assistant, along with me this time, WormThatTurned. He was a total man but a brilliant help and just put catalogues through the door whilst having a fag hanging out of his mouth! A brilliant representation for the company I am sure you will agree, but by this time I really couldn't care less.
Two days later and we both set out again to get the catalogues; I so hoped this time I would get a better reception. Hardly any houses left out their catalogues again, and I was getting tired of having to knock on peoples doors to ask for them back. Most people were nice about it, but there was one man who just shouted at me not to ever bother him again. I just smiled and said sorry, although I then had an ear bashing from Wormy who wanted me to tell him to get lost, but in not such a polite way!
So all in all out of about 80+ houses I only ended up with 8 orders. Disgusting for the amount of time I put into it. I had to sell over £80 just to get 20% commission but in the end I got over £160 sales; mostly by selling to friends and family and getting a bit carried away myself! There is a catalogue that they hand out to reps that sell back stock goods, but you never earn commission on these items so I tend not to look in them.
A week had passed and I was told that my delivery would come on a Thursday every month. I was given no indication of what time so I had to wait in all day. Finally at 3PM when I was sorting out the cat, making Wormy his tea and chatting to my friend about her problematic life, the doorbell went and a man in a white van pulled up and delivered my stock.
I sorted out my invoice and set out to check that everything had arrived. Straight away I was greeted with a list of items that were out of stock and items they would send me next month. I was dreading telling my customers and thought that they should at least of sent a similar item so I could try and sell that to the customer. What made matters worse is that Avon still wanted to charge me for these items even though they hadn't sent me them yet and more then likely the customer wouldn't want them when they finally arrived.
I was supplied with 4 bags to put the customers orders in; if I wanted anymore then I was told I would have to pay for them, so I just put them in bags I got from another company I work for. (I think some customers may have had a shock when their Avon products arrived in bags that say things like 'fantasy, hard, vibrate and pleasure' on the bag. LOL.) As I started putting things in the bags, I then found out that Avon just hadn't bothered sending me some stock and had not even listed these as out of stock on my bill. By now I was seriously pissed off and seriously held back from screaming down the phone at customer services.
The next day Wormy and I went out to deliver the stock. I had two angry customers because they hadn't received some of their order (due to it being out of stock) and some either didn't have the money or just didn't answer the door, which means me having to keep going to their house until I get hold of them.
All in all my experience of working as a rep has been very bad. I am going to do one more month and if things don't change then I will be quitting as it isn't worth my time and effort for what you get in return.
I also have found that the area managers are very pushy at getting you to become a sales leader or manager. I signed up for becoming a manager and am still undergoing my training but I doubt after this experience I will finish the training. And after speaking to my manager at the other company I work for, apparently they are desperate for managers and are being really pushy with their reps.
I wouldn't recommend Avon to anyone thinking about joining. I have heard that most people that sign up are either students or stay at home mums because they want extra cash and have more time then people who work full-time. I personally do not see how a full time mum or student would be able to find the time to do this as on average I have spent 4-5 hours on just one campaign.
very helpful
very helpful
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