Good evening.
Should some of you have been missing Ken the Avon Man, you may be
aware of the fact that I've been busy shaping the last set of posts
into a book entitled BECOMING AN AVON REPRESENTATIVE. Sales have been
brisk, but we still have some that may interest you for the prepaid
fee of $15, postage included -- which is just my cost. I intend to have
them at the convention, but the price will be higher.
Tonight begins a series on the subject of SERVICE. I expect that this
will run 8 to 10 posts, but who knows, for my perspective for this
series is as much the LEADERSHIP OF SERVICE as it is the service to
be provided to the customer by the individual representative. So
let's entitle the series THE LEADERSHIP OF AVON SERVICE.
Item #1, then becomes WHY BOTHER TO SERVE?
Avon has some outstanding products. We revel in them. They work. they
are reasonably priced. They are guaranteed 100%. If it's the product
we're in business to sell, why bother with this thing called service?
Consider this: you may have access to the best products in the world,
but so long as they remain unsold, the company still has them, you've
made no money from them, and the customer has received no benefit
from them. The simple fact, however, is that it is the service that
accompanies the product and not the product itself that will make you
a successful Avon representative. In this series we'll concentrate on
providing service after the sale, of course, but also providing
service BEFORE the sale, because the service before the sale makes
the product sell, which allows you the opportunity to provide service
following the sale. And if you can't do all these three things,
you'll be out of business before you know it.
Just what is service? What does it really mean? Is it something you
are? Is it something you do? Is it something performed? Is it
something received? The simple answer is, of course, "yes." Service
is the perception of you by your customer. It is that value you
provide in association with the product for which you receive money.
Your service can be good; it can be bad; it can be outstanding; it
can be rotten; and all the stations in between. Service, pure and
simple is the customer's expectation based on the products you and
Avon together offer, the price of those products relative to the
competition, and (this is your part) the manner in which you convey
the product and its related services.
What is the motivation for you, an independent Avon sales
representative to provide service to a customer? Is it because you
would like a good relationship with this customer? Perhaps. Is it
because you would like at least for this relationship to have an
absence of grief or difficulty? Certainly. But let's get right down
to it. YOU WISH TO PROVIDE SERVICE TO THIS CUSTOMER BECAUSE YOU WANT HER
TO PURCHASE SOMETHING MORE -- next campaign and all the campaigns which
follow. Admit it to yourself. Think about all the times that you have had
bad service -- did it seem that the person who provided that bad service
was particularly interested to provide any further product or service to
you? Think about all the times that you have
had good or outstanding service. Were you in such a mood that you
might have purchased whatever that person had to sell? These are
human emotions, and we all have them.
If you, the leader, were to hire you, the salesperson, would not you
be interested in that salesperson's willingness to not only sell a
fragrance, but a shower gel, and a body lotion, and perhaps a roll-on
deodorant -- and in fact anything that can be sold to any person who
comes within the scope of your attentions? Of course you would, and
as the leader of you, come to the realization that serving the
customer is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
So let's hang a new definition on service: Service is that thing
which causes a purchase to happen, a sale to be made, and a
reconnection with that customer. It may speed up that sale or totally
instigate a series of recommendations that lead to other sales to
other customers. Customers do not buy Avon in a self-serve capacity.
they need you to help them. Without sales, service cannot exist.
Without service, that customer is a onetime customer only.
It has been said that Avon experiences a 40% turnover in new
representatives. For whatever reason that happens, it became obvious
to me that a bit of training in sales techniques might address that
problem. For that reason, I posted to several Internet loops and
subsequently drew those posts and more into the book referenced
above. In addition to all the things a new Avon rep must learn all at
once, we also don't do a very good job of impressing upon her that
service and sales must go hand-in-hand. Service may create good word
of mouth advertising, but it is the product sale that will keep that
Avon rep in business.
When as the last time your Avon business made you too much money?
Never? There may be such a point, but I've not found it yet. But I've
learned something about service that is worth sharing: Service is
your most invisible product, but it is the most important thing you
have to sell. Good service adds value to the Avon product line and is
ultimately responsible for repeat and referred business. Since Avon
products are "good," and the competition's products are also "good,"
the difference may be price, but I'm betting that service is the one
thing you can do better than the department store, the Mary Kay
representative, or somebody from Jafra. No matter who your
competitors are, you can always do service better.
Why do so many of us panic about the concept of SELLING? We like to
call ourselves "advisors." We're afraid of being "pushy." We want to
"work with" our customers. We tell ourselves and our recruits that
"it will sell itself." Why are we afraid of selling? Could it be that
we are so afraid of being told "no," and therefore will feel
rejected? Nobody likes that feeling. We wonder if it's the product or
the salesperson who's being rejected. In view of my previous efforts,
I must feel that many shy away from selling because they don't know
how to sell. For anyone who has not had any sales training, I implore
you to read about the topic (in my book or another) and to put
yourself in the place where you can observe a "pro."
People are naturally afraid of anything they don't understand.
Unfortunately, as I've indicated, Avon doesn't do very much sales
training, though it could be said that they do quite a bit of service
training. And the net result is that many Avon reps become order
takers with a preestablished ceiling in what sales they will
accomplish and what awards they will receive. So you can serve all
you wish, but recognize, as I've said before, that nothing happens
until a sale is made.
Nobody has to be pushy to do this business. For some reason, we
equate sales with being aggressive. Thousands of telemarketers assault
our ear drums with pitches made quickly and often at mealtime.
Service begins not with being aggressive, but instead with a whole
different concept called SUGGESTIVE SELLING. Suggestive selling is
drawing the customer's attention to the specials. It's asking
questions about the customer's interest in colors or skin treatments.
It is nothing more than finding out what the customer's primary
interest is and then recommending extensions to that interest to the
benefit of the customer. If you fail to make such recommendations,
you have of course shorted your sale, but you have cheated your
customer of the benefit of the products which could accompany the
customer's primary purchase interest. Suggesting specific items shows
your customer that she is worth your time and creates the perception
of outstanding service -- and that is before the actual sale.
So you have everything to gain, and nothing to lose, from suggestive
selling. The more you suggest, the less your customer must request.
When the customer expends less effort, she is bound to be impressed
by your product knowledge and your willingness to take the time to teach
her what you know about your products. Don't be surprised but what
your customer remembers that you paid such attention to detail and
recommends you to a friend or acquaintance.
Here's an example of what I call a "vision of sugar plums." Your
customer expresses an interest in a certain lip color. If you sell
that lip color, you have a sale ranging from $2 to $8, depending on
the product and any possible specials Avon may be running. But your
suggestive selling builds the sale with the recommendation of eye
color, lip liners, eye liners, cheek color, etc. If you are doing
that, you are moving your sale into the $20 range or higher.
Word of mouth advertising is good. The customer likes the colors you
got for her and the coordinated look you helped her to achieve. Yes,
her bill was larger than she had anticipated, but if you've done your
job, you have created a respect for the service you have offered. And
because of that respect, your customer goes to work the following
morning looking fresh as a daisy and tells a couple of her coworkers
about the product and the person who worked so well to help her
achieve the look the coworkers are now admiring. You didn't have to
pay for that advertising. It was unsolicited. You didn't have to ask
her to tell her friends. She was geared up to tell at the slightest
provocation. And then, when the friends come to you, you'd better be
heads-up to provide the same kind of service to them, else that
unsolicited word of mouth advertising will have been for nothing.
Suggestive selling is something you can do better than your
competition -- be that competition another Avon lady or a bona fide
product competitor. So consider these points:
When you recommend products, you create a greater impression than if
you were to merely record what the customer orders.
Consistent suggestive selling creates positive advertising for your
Avon business, advertising that you could not possibly purchase.
Inconsistent service creates negative advertising, which is worse
than having none at all.
It has been well established that bad news travels fast. Somewhere in
my literature exposure is a quote that when I do well, nobody
remembers; when I do poorly, nobody forgets. Provide poor service,
and one customer tells ten people -- people who didn't witness the
transaction -- how bad your service is. Those ten will pass it on to
at least another five; those five will pass it on to at least another
two. Do the math: 10*5*2 = 100 people who will get the bad news fast.
The same 100 can get the good news -- not nearly so fast -- but just
as effectively if you have gone out of your way to please that first
customer. If every one of those customers represented a $20 to a $50
sale, you gain or lose $200 to $500 based upon the service you
provide.
It would seem, then, that it would be worth your while to study up on
ways to provide good and positive service -- outstanding service --
and build your business upon that.
In summary:
Service does not exist without sales; selling begets service which in
turn begets additional sales.
Your customer has called you. She wishes to buy, not to merely thumb
through the brochure in your presence. How well she buys, how much
she buys, will depend on how well you prepare the sale and suggest
the expansion of that sale.
You have one of the best product lines in existence. But if you don't
sell it, three of us lose: Avon, you, and your customer.
If you lead other Avon reps, invest time in their training for sales
and services. Teach them that sales and service are synonymous.
Don't throw away the potential for a larger sale merely by taking the
order.
Employ suggestive selling to obtain the benefits for all involved.
Remember that the successful suggested sale increases your profits
and increases that customer's service.
Advertising about good service or bad service affect people in much
the same way -- they tell someone who tells someone who tells
someone. The only difference is the speed at which the news travels.
Next time, we'll evaluate the business we're in -- and you may be
surprised to hear that our business is NOT selling Avon products.
Goodnight
Ken the Avon Man
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Over 50 links from Ken
The Service In The Business
Panning For Gold
Know Your Product
Guiding Your Customers
Managing Service After The Order
Quaking Txt
Selling Versus Order Taking
Getting That Fire In The Belly
History Of Selling
The Seven Sales Steps
Qualifying Your Customer
Questioning Techniques
Handling Objections
Not Farming As Well As I Know How
Closing Is Where The Money Is Part 1
Closing Is Where The Money Is Part 2
Hello, I'm The Customer
Building A Big Business
The Usefulness of Effective Teamwork
Leadership Theories
Leadership and Management
Your Personal Leadership Journey
All It Takes is a Little Courage
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