The Avon Opportunity - Must Know Information Before Beginning
Avon representatives make a commission on all products sold. The representative who signs you up makes a percentage of what you sell. The women involved in the Avon Scheme can be forceful, and I was unfortunately talked into ordering three hundred dollars worth of products with the assurance , " These are best sellers." I tried a number of sales techniques as recommended by my team to sell these over priced products. I still have some of the best sellers.
Avon sells very cheap make up at premium prices, after two months regardless of the product from the make up line, it will go bad and take on a vinegar smell. Avon's shades never match the catalog, and it costs the representative money to return the products even if it is the fault of the company's poor shade representation. Avon is a multi million dollar company that offers absolutely nothing to its average representatives. You don't even get a toll free number for customer service assistance or bill pay.
Avon also pays very little in commission. You are overly encouraged to be your own best customer and you are paid a mere twenty percent commission on the average order, up to one hundred and fifty dollars. You also pay a charge per customer, sales tax and a fee for order shipment. If your order is a few hours late, be prepared to pay a seven dollar late fee. Also you will pay for any items to be returned. Avon is notorious for not receiving your returns, so normally you are better off to keep the unwanted items. After returning them you will be responsible for paying for them even though they were returned to Avon.
The Avon Opportunity is not all it is cracked up to be. Honestly it is more trouble than it is worth, and it can be very difficult to collect payment and recruit new customers. There are an abundance of representatives all over the world. It takes a special aggressive woman to be successful with an Avon business. If you decide Avon is the business for you, I wish you all the luck in the world, and I hope you have more success than I did.
Published by Johanna Swith
I have a little experience with a lot of things, but not a lot of experience with little things. I'm a thirty-one year old aspiring aspirer from a small town in southeastern Ohio. View profile
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24 Comments
Post a Comment"Lora B7/18/2010
Some people are just not cut out for sales, and should own that fact, rather than blame the company. A smart business person makes choices on how to run their business, not blame others for their failures. I love selling Avon, and see this as my future career. I am a proud stay at home mom, and now making money on my terms. But I was a successful sales person in another career. Life is what you make of it."
I agree with with Lora, I really liked what you wrote. Its either in you or not in you to sell!! I never knew I had it in me....now, I carry a brochure even when walking the dogs lol....you're either a 9 to 5 person or a business minded one, I am the latter.
I dont agree with all the conjectures other ppl made; just because you didnt put enough effort it didnt work! I dont knock at doors(in Toronto/Canada not many friendly people) I just approach ppl in the mall or restaurants. Try going to places where you run into happy people with high endorphine levels, like gym. People are more likely to talk to you If they are in a good mood. I guess in the US people are friendlier. In todays day and age, no one likes to be approched with brochures unless they are exceptionally friendly people (not many around in Toronto anyways). My target audience is seniors, they have the time and patience for both lending a ear and ordering through catalogues. None of my younger friends are interested, ofcourse some are very ignorant, when ppl think youre making comission doing anything, they tend to run away lol. Its just psychology. No one wants you to do better or suceede unless its your own family member.
Its crazy how oblivious people are towards the fact that you actually save so much money buying from AVON. The Shoes are selling like hot cakes, and you just cant beat the prices.
this is in response to the post, Im sorry to hear you had a negative response with your business. one has to be inexperience about starting a business and not know that there will be some expenses. Avon is celebrating its 125th birthday. this company has been empowering women even before time women had a voice to vote. I have tried many different home base business and have blame myself, because I didn't apply myself. there are many fortune 500 home based businesses and Avon is #32. I kept coming back to Avon because it has empowered me to help others and myself. So please, rethink what happen, we all can learn from our mistake and if you are ready to try it again, don't email me, call me at 413-426-6934 and I be happy to work with you. to all my avon sisters reps, thank you for telling it like it is! www.youravon.com/elenaacevedo
Some of my comment was cut off . but I think you get the message. I tell my customers I don't read minds,keep up with pay days, sit by the phone making fifty million random calls, and randomly driving around hopeing to make money.Wasteing time, gas and resources. Dont make it difficult to get what YOU want or need. I have working hours for both businesses 9:00am 6:00pm M- Sat. I have phones,VM, email, 28 free ads and my customers still say they can't get me. Anyway! Host an Avon Online eparty invite "friends and family" earn 10% of each guest purchase. Contact Dorothy
Commited to Excellence!
I am an Avon Representative celebrateing 23 yrs. I'm not here to tell you it's all been a piece of cake and ice cream. But 99% of the negative comments I have read are not True and the other 1% is just opinions.I'm not going try to go into all the comments. I tell my customers that if you ever think that you want to sell Avon, first you need to know how to be a customer and what YOUR responsibilites are.Yes! REPS have most of the responsibility for processing your order. But, with the Avon Online Store open 24/7 that I give my customers access to makes it conveinant for both customer and rep. Use the online brochure at my website, register to get it in your email, there is "NO EXCUSE" for me trying to give out 50-60 brochures then track them down to take their orders. It does not make sense to make getting what you need a difficult process. The customers should know when they need to place an order. I tell my Avon and my Ice Cream cus
Avon also doesn't tell you about any late fees they may charge. If you are late getting your payment in to them, they charge you a $10 late fee every 2 weeks. After searching the information I was given, I was unable to find any information regarding this 2 week late fee. Talk about mis-informing and not informing their representative about things they should know.
Some people are just not cut out for sales, and should own that fact, rather than blame the company. A smart business person makes choices on how to run their business, not blame others for their failures. I love selling Avon, and see this as my future career. I am a proud stay at home mom, and now making money on my terms. But I was a successful sales person in another career. Life is what you make of it.
Avon nickles and dimes you to make passive profits it's like they are running a cab meter! Their web site is a joke. It is just a replica of a very complicated (no doubt mainframe based) computerized accounting system. Line items on statements are cryptic and abbreviations make no sense. You will spend lots of time with their offshore customer service (India, pakistan or singapore).
You will have to build pyramids to really make it work for you.
Avon has been around for what 60 some years they are not a pyramid scheme as one poster has said.
I to started with Avon back in August 09. I must say I have never made any monies of it yet. But still continue with hope. I would much rather spend my money on brochures than be stuck with unwanted inventory. The problem I do have with Avon is that your order has to be 100.00 minimum if it is below this they will not ship it out until your next campaign meets 100.00. So your first order is just 75.00 that order will not be shipped until your next campaign brochure hopefully has an order of another 25.00. So this makes it that much longer for customers to get their orders. I think Avon should bring this level down to 50.00. I have 9 customers so far and every order has been maximum 125.00 and still no comission. Get's frustrating. I am going to share a tip that I am going to try with you. Print out Avon business cards on your computer, get them put on magnets for customers fridges. Just a little idea. :)
I just started. I am working on my third campaign and really enjoying the business. Nothing is accomplished over night. You can only succeed at anything with goal setting and sticking to it. The business plan and training are excellent. The company has always had polite%2C response people on the other end of the phone for anything I called about. I don%27t want to do anything but work for myself with the AVON opportunity of having my own business with the advertising and support they give us. Starting a McDonald franchise is over %24100%2C000. %2410 and you start a career. If you are in Oregon and you want to start a home business give me a call 503 720-4348